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Traditional schools create need for alternative

Tuesday, February 27 at 12:01 AM

This Speakout has not been edited

By Richard Becker, Broomfield

In regard to the Rocky Mountain News article “FRUSTRATED PARENTS: Hope Co-Op’s burgeoning growth credited to failures of traditional public schools” is quite correct. Closer oversight as Sen. Sue Windels proposes is no solution to a real problem. The real problem is the K-12 schools themselves that created the need for alternatives because the regular schools were not doing the job.

Rhonda Mays-Wallin is quoted as sayidng: “To me, when I was in school, the teachers really focused on kids that were more into their learning.......They really didn’t have the patience or the tolerance to deal with any kid that wasn’t willing to learn.”

Basically, they were just not motivated, and were “promoted from grade to grade” and kept students moving despite not learning.

The problem is in teacher education and training in the colleges. Prospective teachers major in “education” with a minor in some other subject (like Tennis), graduate, and are hired by a school district when they graduate and are assigned teaching duties in which they lack expertise required to be a good teacher. The lack the ability to motivate the students into learning. Many have become nothing but administrators of “literacy programs” written by some PhD and purchased at great cost. Either due to copyright that prohibits the teacher from rewriting that materials for better understanding by the students, or, the teacher are lacking the education and training required to rewrite the material fir better understanding by the student.

As a former high school teacher ‘66-’73 in college for the BS degree in Industrial Education ‘60-’65, it was the time when all prospective teachers were required to declare a major and a minor, or a double major, in chosen instructional fields by the end of their sophomore year in college. In addition to intensive instruction in the chosen majors and minors to create expertise, they were required to take a teaching methods course concerning effective means of presenting the material. Also required was a course in writing instructional materials and rewriting them when testing indicated students were not learning the material. This also meant the possibility of changing the teacher’s presentation to ensure learning.

With a general education course (now the “major in education”) in Education testing, measurement and evaluation course as a prerequisite, the majors and minors included testing and measurement. Without testing, there is no way to know whether or not the course material is being learned, or to determine whether the teacher presentation is effectively presenting the material to ensure learning.

Spending increased money on K-12 schools is no solution, either. Spending K-12 was $484 per student in 1965 (U.S. News & World Report 9-1-65 “Crisis in the schools” p44) which adjusted for inflation is $3,117.57 in 2006 dollars using the CPI inflation calculator (http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl) when the schools are now spending $7,000 - $10,000 amid the need for high school remedial work as college freshmen and vocational students alike. There was no need for high school remedial work because students were properly taught in the first place.

The key is a return to the education concepts that existed in the past, especially teacher education, when spending per student was liess. It is obvious that teachers are not properly trained because of their reaction against the CSAP tests required to see what, if anything, students are learning.

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