November 5, 2006
YOU'D THINK THEY'D HAVE NOTICED EDUCATION WAS BETTER WHEN CLASASES USED TO BE BIGGER:
Foundation's small-schools experiment has yet to yield big results (Linda Shaw, 11/05/06, Seattle Times)
Tyee High School essentially ceased to exist last year.Its building still stands a few blocks east of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, but three new, smaller schools now share its old space, each with its own principal, its own classes, its own theme. The three still cheer for one, combined football team — sports is the one place the old Tyee remains. But each school will probably have its own graduation this spring.
Tyee, however, is one of the few Washington high schools to come close to what the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation first envisioned when it started giving grants to help big schools carve themselves into smaller units — ideally, with no more than 400 students.
The experiment — an attempt to downsize the American high school — has proven less successful than hoped.
The changes were often so divisive — and the academic results so mixed — that the Gates Foundation has stopped always pushing small as a first step in improving big high schools.
The point of smaller classes never was to improve the education of the kids, just to hire more teachers. Posted by Orrin Judd at November 5, 2006 2:38 PM
You'd think a smart person like Bill Gates would have realized that.
Posted by: erp at November 5, 2006 6:22 PMThe issue
isn't small classes, per se, but smaller schools, which give each
student some individual identity and a feeling of having some stake in
the enterprise. At my urging you have posted favorable articles about Steve Barr and his Project Green Dot in Los Angeles, which is founded on the pricipal of small campuses...in 6 years Green Dot has opened 10 small-campus high schools in underserved, lower-class neighborhoods, and the schools are outperforming not only the public schools in their neighborhoods, but schools in more affluent areas as well. Gates' foundation is among many that have helped fund Green Dot. (Disclaimer: I'm a Director of Green Dot.)
Foos, it sounds like you are doing good work. Our kids really need to be educated and whatever works is fine. The problem is people like Gates will believe the experts and not take the time to find out the truth for themselves.
Posted by: erp at November 5, 2006 9:43 PMThe notion that it matters whether those classes have 18 or 25 kids in them is specious though. They'd outperform the others regardless.
Posted by: oj at November 5, 2006 9:47 PMOf course, numbers mean nothing.
We had 90 kids in the class for months, I think it was 5th or 6th grade, because one of the nuns got sick and we all got squeezed into one room. Absolutely no problems. We sat two to a seat and the kids on the left took one test and those on right took a different one.
Cheating?? No one lifted their eyes. We prayed for our sick teacher instead. I've said it before, if there are such a thing as saints, these Sisters of Charity are certainly among them.
Then why were so many supposedly smart yuppies willing to pony up the dollars?
It will never be about the size of the school, or the class, or the absurdly useless contruct called a "district."
It is about the curricullum. Put in the right curricullum and allow enough time for the kids to be kids, and a trained monkey could teach school in a class of 100.
As for whining about parenting, if the parent doesn't support the teacher/school, kick the kid out. The next parent will learn the limits.
This isn't rocket science, and it never was.
Posted by: Bruno at November 6, 2006 12:32 AMThe notion that it matters whether those classes have 18 or 25 kids in them is specious though.
Quite right, but please understand that the point is the Gates small schools initiative is not, and never has been, about small class sizes. Thus, your postscript is simply off the point.
Posted by: Kirk Parker at November 6, 2006 1:22 AM"You'd think a smart person like Bill Gates would have realized that." At least Bill is paying for it. In our school district (District 63, Darien, IL),there is only one junior high school. They are proposing a tax increase in this election, for a property valued at $500,000, annual increase is $650, on top of the $8500 that we are already paying. The school was renovated 2 years ago, the school is small, less than 400 kids. The school is so rich that it issues a Note-pad to each student. The district is aging, meaning less kids are going to the school. Yet they want a 6 million dollars tax hike.
I believe something fishy is going on. The Note-pads are useless, are unsellable. Somebody must know somebody to unload hundreds of worthless computers to the school. Now they complain not having enough money. Besides, what are teachers for, to expect kids to learn from the computers instead of from them. They are often whinning for more bucks. The kids are well-behaved affluent suburban kids with serious supportive parents. The teachers don't have to risk lives and limbs to teach them.
Uh-huh, making kids pay the price of bad parenting will fix everything.
Posted by: oj at November 6, 2006 8:54 AM