Conundrums, Bureaucracy, and Killing Education

Over the decades, education has been becoming more centralized. As centralization increases so does bureaucracy. Creating national standards which we, as a nation, are looking to, to 'save' our education system, requires further centralization. I contend that increasing bureaucracy, will continue to put more control into the hands of people farther removed from the classroom, and take more control from teachers and local administrators who know first hand what is happening at their schools.

So much of the talk today is focused on how to improve standardized scores by altering teacher pay models, that I have to think that people have lost track of what education really is. I'm distressed by those who suggest we would be doing our children a favor by paying teachers whose students get good scores will earn bonuses. Walk into a home electronics store where the salesperson's pay is based on sales, and I'll show you you high pressure sales. That salesperson is much more likely to sell you what you can afford than what you are really looking for. Walk into the same kind of store where everyone is payed based on experience, knowledge of products, and customer satisfaction, and I'll show you a store where you are most likely going to be assisted in finding the product mix best suited to you home, taste, and budget. Do you want you children's teachers to teach for better scores, or do you want a teacher who will teach your children to think critically, to be able to write and speak persuasively, and to encourage creativity and original thought?

With the state of technology today, there is no reason that every student could not have an education portfolio. Access to this portfolio would be accessible by parents, current teacher(s), appropriate administrators, and any other staff involved in the student's education. Access would be decided upon with parent/guardian involvement along with the site administrator. Parents would always be able to access the entire portfolio, and to see who had access to various parts of the portfolio. This way progress could be monitored throughout the year, and not just at 'testing' times. The student could even have a say in what goes into their body of work.

As an aside, standardized testing only focuses on a few aspects of student knowledge. Creativity has no place in standardized testing. With all of the talk about 21st century skills, I have to wonder why were still talking about measuring factoid knowledge, when the ability to process information is so much more important.

We need to allow teachers and administrators who know their communities, and can best serve them, to make decisions on how to meet local needs. While complaining about continuing the 20th century production model of education (what I call schooling), we are heading ever faster down that path with the increased emphasis on standardized testing.