Year after year, dollar after dollar, education reform is still needed as much as ever. Today an article came out titled: “Two-Thirds of Wisconsin Public-School 8th Graders Can’t Read Proficiently—Despite Highest Per Pupil Spending in Midwest.” Oh, so the billions of dollars on education reform and the hundreds of different initiatives aren’t helping even the school district with the highest spending per student? 2/3’s of their 8th graders can’t even read proficiently? Good to know.
Focus Please
Not only is it extremely evident that the money that is being poured into education isn’t reaping results, but it has also become evident that those in control of education reform are completely lacking a focus. Yesterday an article came out saying President Obama wants to work on improving science and math education. That sounds wonderful, but is that really what the focus should be? Remember how 2/3’s of the 8th grade students in the most sufficiently funded school district can’t read proficiently? That might take priority over advanced math and science education. Yes, it would be great if we could improve math and science education to become more globally competitive. Love it. But how are we going to become more globally competitive if our 8th graders can’t even read proficiently? Focusing on improving reading instruction so students actually learn how to read might be a good place to start.
First Things First
If we are really going to improve education we have to take it one step at a time. We have to solve the most basic problems first. You can’t build a house without first building a foundation. You have to be able to run a mile before you can run a marathon. You can’t do Calculus until you know basic math skills. It can be difficult to complete even basic math without first being able to read. In fact, a recent research study found that by improving the language skills of students that struggled with math, the students were able to improve their math skills.
If students have effective reading skills they can use those skills to answer any of their questions and learn even more about those subjects. If students can read and want to gain more advanced science and math skills, they can teach themselves through reading. But, if students that can’t read want to gain more advanced science and math skills: what do they do? Being able to read lets you learn anything and thus makes it’s the most important skill for every student to learn.
If you have several problems are you going to have the most success by trying to solve them all at once? Or… if you take the first problem, focus on it, solve it, then work on the next problem? Why is focus a quality that is so revered? Because it’s effective. So, let’s focus on solving the most basic problem facing education first: improving reading instruction.
What do you think?
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