Changes I would like to see in public education

I have always wondered why politicians and policy makers are the ones who make important decisions about education. Just because they have been through an educational program does not mean that they understand how to administer one. Why are educators and educational professionals not more involved in the decisions that impact students? Part of the reason is that teachers are kept so busy that they don't have time to get involved in these decisions.

If anyone asked me, here are some of the changes that I would like to see in public education.

1. Shorten summer vacation

The first change that I would like to see is a shorter summer vacation. Two and a half months is so long that many students forget things they spent nine months to learn. This can happen in one of two ways, we can treat public education more like year-round schools and have more days off during the school year or we can simply add more academic days to the school calendar. I want summer vacation to be no longer than six weeks.

This is also when the educational gap happens between the low and high socioeconomic students. Generally speaking middle and high socioeconomic parents provide educational experiences for their students during the summer (for example reading programs at the library) but low socioeconomic parents may not. If we want to be serious about closing the educational gap, then we need to shorten summer vacation.

In Japan their summer vacation is six weeks long (mid-July until the end of August), but their school year does not start in August. It starts in April. I never realized the pedagogical implications of this until recently. Imagine completing the first semester at school, leaving for summer vacation and coming back to the same teachers. Those teachers know what you learned and how you learned it and would be the best ones to remind you of what you learned during the previous semester. Teachers would also be more aware of the importance of teaching for long term memory.

2. Start school later

Research shows that adolescents aren't fully awake until later in the morning. My school starts at 7:40, which was an improvement from a few years ago when we started at 7:20. My school goes from 7:40 until 2:15. I wonder why we couldn't go from 8:40 until 3:15. One extra hour of sleep would help my students. I also think that more students would eat breakfast if they had a little more time in the morning.

The only reason that I have heard for not starting later is that it would cut into practice time for sports and other extra-curricular activities. If this is true, I wish that we would value education over sports.

3. Pay teachers more by cutting spending in other places

When I was in college I had very intelligent friends who were studying engineering who told me that they would go into education if they would be paid more. We need great teachers for our students and many potential great teachers go into other fields because of how poorly teachers are paid. I also know that about 50% of teachers leave within the first five years of teaching. The teachers who drop out of teaching are frequently the ones who have the right heart. They do everything they can to help their students but they get burned out and the appeal of getting paid more to do less makes them leave. I would not be in favor of increasing taxes to pay teachers more. I see potential in three places, but there may be more.

First is textbooks. I listened to a podcast where an administrator explained that they paid teachers to work through the summer to develop a curriculum to use the next school year. The administrator used the money that they would have spent on textbooks to pay the teachers. There are many reasons why I love this idea. One reason is that the teachers at the school better understand their demographic of student than the textbook writers. It is true that teacher preparation programs would need to include a class or more on curriculum development, but this would be a great thing for every teacher to understand. If throwing out the textbook is too extreme, I would at least like to see schools purchase only the student edition of the textbooks. I don't know any great teachers who heavily use the supplementary materials with the exception of a test generator software. Teachers don't need the teacher's edition or the workbooks of the other things that commonly come with the textbook. I don't know if I am a great teacher, but these materials just sit on my shelf and accumulate dust. Great teachers pull from other sources.

A second place that schools can cut back is their spending on educational technology. In every school that I have taught in I have seen tens of thousands of dollars (even hundreds of thousands in a 1 to 1 program) of educational products rolled out to teachers with minimal professional development. The honest truth is if you simply give an experienced teacher a new device they will continue teaching as they always have. The interactive white board will replace the white board and marker with little change. The 1 to 1 laptop will replace the computer at home. This money is being pored into education and no one is talking about the fact that educational outcomes, like standardized test scores don't change. I wouldn't be opposed to teachers getting new technology when they ask for it, but I am opposed to dumping technology into a school without the professional development to make teacher's practice better than it was before. I know that this money is usually earmarked for technology, but why?

A third place that I think that schools can cut back is on janitorial services. In Japanese schools they don't have janitors. About once a week the entire school stops and cleans the school. All students and teachers clean desks, bathrooms, pull weeds on their dirt fields, etc. I think students would treat the facilities better if they helped clean them. Also, this would teach students important skills in cleaning that they could use at home, when they are at college or have a family of their own.

4. More professional development and collaboration

If teachers are being paid more, then more can be expected from them. For example teachers could work through the month long summer break. Also as the academic school year is lengthened, teachers could frequently come into work when there are no students. Here is a list of things they can do:

1. Receive and give professional development. This could be as simple as teachers holding classes on things they feel experienced with that other teachers could attend.
2. Work in a PLN to develop a new lesson and then have that lesson taught. This idea is sometimes called Lesson Study. This practice has been used in Japan and over time has improved their level of pedagogy.
3. Prepare lesson plans and then have administrators visit classrooms more frequently.

I would also like to see more collaboration between teachers. I don't mean a forced PLN, but something that happens naturally with teachers who are willing. At the very least I wish that teachers were encouraged to visit other teacher's classrooms to watch them teach and then discuss the lesson with that teacher. 

This happens formally in some schools in Japan. They are called Research Lessons. The teacher prepares a lesson that focuses on a skill that they are developing as a teacher. Then when they teach that lesson anyone is invited to attend: administrators, other teachers, university students studying education, even parents I have heard. Then following that lesson they hold a formal discussion where they answer questions about pedagogical choices that they made. I would love to see something like this develop in American schools.

5. Standardized Tests should measure students, not teachers

This list would not complete if I didn't say something about standardized tests. I am blessed to teach for the Department of Defense and have avoided many of the stresses of standardized tests. My students take at most two standardized tests per year, the PSAT (9th - 11th graders) and the Terra Nova (only 9th graders). What I think my school system does very well is how the schools use the data. It gives the teachers and administrators information about where we are weak as a school. The data is not paired to individual teachers and no teacher would get fired if their students don't do well. This also means that we don't dedicate any test prep time out of our time to teach content.

If the standardized test should affect anyone, it should affect the students. Right now there is nothing to motive the students besides something external like a pizza party if everyone does well. In Japan the only equivalent to standardized tests that I know about are Entrance Exams. Students have to take an entrance exam to get into college, high school, and sometimes even junior high school and elementary school. Some schools are better than others and everyone knows it. Students want to get into the best schools to prepare them for a better future. I don't think a school system like this would work in America, but I do believe that Japanese students do their best on these exams because it has a direct impact on them.

Final Thoughts

I know that I don't have plans for all of these ideas, but I believe that plans could be developed with collaboration with many educational professional. I also know that many of these ideas would not be supported by most teachers. For example most teachers wouldn't be in favor of losing their summer vacation, losing their afternoons, and having other teachers visit their class. I believe that these changes would be better for students and that is why I would like to see them.

If you agree or disagree with some of these changes or if I missed a change that you want to see in education please leave a comment below.

Differences between Japanese Education and American Education

I am continually fascinated by Japanese education. It is just interesting to see another education system, especially a successful one, and look at the similarities and differences. The more I talk about my experiences and things that I am learning, people want to know "Why is Japanese Education better?" and my answer is "I don't know." Anyone who is involved in education understand that it is very complex and connected to the students that we serve, so it would be impossible to research and find the that make Japanese education work that American education is missing. That is the wrong question to ask. But I do want to point out some differences:

1. Children are left behind

The responsibility of learning information is set squarely on the student's shoulders. Teachers come to class, they lecture, the students take notes, and speak only when invited to by their teacher. In fact, Japanese high school is more like American college than American high School. The students know that if they don't study well, they won't pass their next entrance exam and therefore won't be on a track to get into a good university. But it is their choice to learn or not. I have seen multiple students with their head on their desks sleeping during class. The teacher doesn't make any comments about it, as long as they aren't disturbing the class, it is fine.

2. No Differentiating

Differentiated Instruction is a hot topic and a discussion among American teachers, but not Japanese teachers. American teachers strive to adapt their teaching to meet their kinesthetic, auditory, and visual learners as well as meeting Garners Intelligences. Japanese teachers stand at the front of the room and lecture and draw diagrams on the chalk board. From what I can tell, they may not even know their student's names, let alone their learning styles. When they call on a student they are usually looking at a class list.

3. Not Standards, Curriculum

I have limited working knowledge of Japanese curriculum, but it is an area of interest. There are national education standards approved by the Ministry of Education. But in talking with Japanese teachers, I have never heard them say anything about standards, but they do talk a lot about textbooks. There are only a few textbooks that are used in Japan and they are all approved by the Ministry of Education and therefore you don't deviate from them. The examples that the teacher gives are the examples that are printed in the textbooks. Very little is done that isn't directly from the textbook.

4. Teacher Observations

American teachers are not used to being observed. In my entire teaching career of about four years, I have only been observed about three or four times. I have only had two individuals come into my class and watch me teach. This is very different from Japanese teachers. During a few months of the year, there are open lessons where anyone can come and observe a teacher. So each teacher may have one open lesson a year where the principal, other teachers, or parents are welcome to come and watch them teach. I have also heard that the first full year of teaching is done with an experienced teacher assisting them. Usually in the back, but providing feedback.

Conclusion

I don't know what will fix the problems that we are seeing in American Education. It is my opinion that the American Education system is too complex for simple solutions. Slow and gradual progress is the only way that we will improve our schools. I have highlighted some areas that are very different between Japanese Education and American Education. I find them interesting, I hope you do too.

Test Them Before They Forget

I am still reflecting on my visit to Kanagawa Sohgoh High School last week. As I have reflected I am impressed at how the Japanese education system encourages students to retain and remember what they learn. I feel that in many ways the American education system indirectly encourages students to forget. We have a “Test them before they forget” mentality. First, we have frequent quizzes because we are afraid that they will forget. Second, we review the content before tests because we have assumed that they have already forgotten the material and we need to remind them before they take their test. Third, the curriculum that students are being exposed to is disjointed enough that they really can forget what they learned after the test. Finally, our summer is two and a half months long and students will forget much of what they learn if they don't use it for this long of a time period.

How the Japanese Education System Encourages Retention 

1. Integrated Curriculum: I mentioned in my last post about how integrated the Japanese curriculum is. If you are constantly pulling in previous ideas, you will not only remind students of these ideas, but through more connections the ideas will be deeper and be seen as more important to remember.

2. The teacher that I talked to only gives one test per semester (they have three semesters per year). Therefore the students are expected to remember and retain what they learn for many months instead of a few days.

3. The summer break is a few weeks long, not a few months. I don't know what the exact length is. But when I mentioned to a fellow Japanese Science teacher that we have two and a half months off in the summer his jaw dropped.

My Reflection

From the first point, I am going to find ways to integrate my curriculum. Not only within units, but also within the curriculum and past year's curriculum. This probably means that I will need to pull away from my textbook because it doesn't provide enough of this kind of integration.

This second point is really interesting. I don’t know if I am ready to adopt this assessment practice. I am embarrassed to say that I spend almost as much time reviewing and assessing as I do teaching. If I tested less often then I would be requiring students to retain and remember the material longer and I would also have more time in class to not feel rushed through the curriculum and time to make connections.

Preparing Students for Tests

My years of tutoring have taught me how to prepare students for tests. The process I use is a repeatable three step process. This method works for any test in any content area. I usually use this in the math classes I teach and I used this method in my Japanese classes in college.

1) Do something that is as similar to the test as possible in conditions that are as similar to those experienced on the test. For example on the TAKS test, there are released TAKS tests online that I would give to my students and have them work on the problems. For chapter tests I give them a review that is similar to the test. I encourage them to do as much as they can on their own, and then ask me for help when they are stuck or confused.

2) Correct the assignment.

3) Go back and help the students understand the questions they missed. I also asked my students to do "corrections" meaning, they worked out the problems that they missed. If they missed a problem twice, I would talk to them about it and help them understand what the question is asking.

I then repeat the process with another test or something similar to the test.

Through repetition, the students should improve each time and this increased preparation will often lower test anxiety because the students feel that they have seen similar questions. This also helps me as a teacher know which students are still struggling with enough time to help them improve their scores.

This isn't the only way that I prepare my students for tests. Students will get tired of doing the same thing every day. I switch back and forth between this process and review games that again use questions like those they will see on the test. My students enjoy the games because they are fun. I feel like using this process will help them improve their weaknesses, so we use both.

If you have other ideas on how to help students prepare for exams, I am interested to hear.