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Elephant in the Classroom
The formula:
This formula explains all we need to know about identifying the causes underlying the crisis in American schools today.
If SC ≥ 50%
Then NSC = (BC+ HT+ MA) – (AC + AA) = CCAS
Let’s take a look at the causes underlying our educational problems before returning to this formula.
Creaming:
Most of us believe that all children ages 4 through 18 are in neighborhood public schools or schools reachable by bus. They see this school as a neat and tidy box where children are taught the 3Rs plus lots of content, material such as history, foreign languages, and social studies. But believe me, that’s not the way it is.
A true analysis of our public schools, according to the elephant, shows us that students in the top 30% on achievement tests, who are also motivated, are excellent candidates for rigorous college-prep courses, but are instead taking some advanced courses along with many non-challenging courses. Why?
Blended classes:
Students are taking pretty much the same vanilla courses because of the myth that everyone is the same and the parents’ desire to have their children attend college, even if their kids are not motivated and do not have the academic ability and/or willpower to succeed in college. As a result, this frustrates students whose best fit is college. It also frustrates students who are not going to complete college and will benefit most from performance-based career training that results in skills leading to employment and a successful career.
Students in the top 30% on academic achievement tests have also lost a number of their fellow academic achievers to other private and public school programs. In a school with a hypothetical 1000 students, we would have expected approximately 250 students who are both capable of, and motivated for, college-prep work. But of those 250 students, I would estimate that 70% (175) of this academically select group have enrolled in schools of choice inside or outside the public system. This leaves us with 75 students with high academic potential or 9 % of that school’s refigured population of 825.
Where did they go?
Where are these choice schools? Some 10% percent of school-aged students are not in the neighborhood school because they are in private-religious, private-secular, or home-based schools. These students may not all be above average in academic ability, but they often have at least three of the elephant’s legs: ability to focus, motivation, and self-control.
Another 8% of all students are not in this school because they are in private voucher-supported schools or charter schools. A voucher program gives vouchers to parents to use to pay for private school tuition. Charter schools are part of the public system, but are operated privately. (A charter school is much like one large voucher, but that voucher goes to an entire school rather than to individual parents). Attendance at these private-voucher and private-public charter schools requires vigilance on the part of parents. They need to know which schools are available and need to be motivated to find the best programs for their children. This leads to selected students and typically more cooperative parents.
Public schools oppose these programs and even oppose their own public charter schools because they suspect these programs cream off the “best” parents and kids. (Local public schools are less opposed to learning-disabled students finding their way to charters or private schools, however, because these children are poor test-takers who lower public school test scores).
Another 7% are not in their neighborhood school because they are in public, magnet schools. These schools were developed in part to compete with private schools and offer specialty programs such as the arts and technology. Included in this group are the highly structured, so-called fundamental schools that require parents to sign a contract agreeing to a standard dress uniform and compliance with explicit rules.
General open enrollment that includes Advanced International Certificates (AICE), virtual instruction, International Baccalaureate, Lab Schools, etc., make up another 13%.
Meanwhile, as pointed out in my school reform book, The Elephant in the Classroom, something extraordinary is happening. We should have as many as 80% of our neighborhood school students in career and technical training. What do you think that percentage is in the state of Florida? Five percent! Yep, this group makes up only 161,000 students (State of Florida figures) or less than 5% of the 3.5 million students in Florida in 2012-13!
While some public schools and teachers’ unions decry voucher and charter schools, their own increasing use of fundamental schools and magnet schools could be subject to the same criticism. Similar to a magnet, these schools attract high achieving kids and families from higher socio-economic levels, leaving the “regular,” neighborhood school with fewer academically capable kids and fewer motivated parents. (These are the killing fields).
Now let’s return to the formula I presented earlier.
If SC ≥ 50%
Then NSC = (BC+ HT+ MA) – (AC + AA) = CCAS
Where:
SC = selective creaming of 50% of students
NSC = neighborhood school captives
BC = blended classrooms
HT = high stakes testing
MA = midlevel academics
AC = advanced career studies
AA = advanced academic studies
CCAS = Causes of the crisis in American schools
