Education Reform- Salt Water Fish in Fresh Water Tanks

Why our Educational System is Hurting Some Children

I cannot understand why our school system consistenly fails our African-American students and families. I know this is a complex issue and not one that will be answered with a simplistic approach. Like the field of medicine, there are problems in education that will take research. I want to be part of this community.

I lived through a reverse situation. As a 3rd grade student in Long Beach, California the system failed me. Hudson Elementary School left me behind. As a minority there I was dealing with all sorts of pressures and emotions. It was only the wisdom of my mother and a small, poor private school that saved my educational life. First Baptist Christian School had a lot of weird and legalistic systems that I would never recommend to another school but it had something that no other school had. It had a self-paced system. This system plus the love of a teacher pushed me to catch up.

The difference? Environment A was killing me, Environment B inspired me. I was the salt water fish in that fresh water tank.

Now I believe there are populations like me out there dying in our educational systems. If we don't develop more sophisticated designs for schools we will see generations of potential leaders fail.

Joseph Renzulli at the University of Connecticut says the answer is engagement. Geoffrey Canada's work in Harlem is an example of how the achievement gap can be closed through school design, through high expectations, and through a strong community.

I believe achievement is not dependent on curriculum. There are numerous examples of students who perform well and they experienced a variety of curricula. I believe it comes down to engagement.

An old proverb says, "Son if you encline thine ear... if you turn your head to listen- then you will gain wisdom." It is a teacher placing the ownership of learning on their students. They have to be engaged- they have to choose to want to learn- to be hungry.

Peter Senge writes about Personal Mastery. It is the quest to grow, to learn, to improve oneself. He also writes about Mental Models. This is one's picture of something- why does it exist- what is my place in it.

Stephen Covey writes about Seeking First to Understand.

Pull all that together and you get some answers to our achievement gap. We need to seek to understand the mental models of our student populations that are failing in our schools. Here are some questions:
What inspires them?
When do they feel successful?
How does this generation/individual like to learn?
What do they think of schools and why they exist
Where do they see themselves within this system?

I am not quite sure how to turn this into a dissertation yet. However I really want to help eliminate this achievement gap by creating sophisticated schools that will close our "Engagement Gap".

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Data notebooks: Can they help close the achievement gap? Can they increase student engagement?

I was thinking about my experience as a third grader in the self-paced school. The structure was set up so I had my space, I had a daily goal chart, I had a yearly performance chart. These pieces helped me clue into what school was about. I took responsibility for my work.

Then I was part of a school in North Carolina that used the Baldrige system. Classrooms had dashboards and we made action plans together. We also designed student data notebooks where the students were able to set goals and monitor their progress. Some students achieved more than they ever had because of these.

What if I could research what effect these data notebooks could have on students? What if these notebooks are a practical tool that educators can use to increase student engagement and enthusiasm.

There is so much involved in getting students to think differently about school- but for the dissertation perhaps we might need to focus on one thing... then build the other pieces.