Final: K-12 Curriculum Change

Kristie Bertelmann

Sonia Begert

English 101

22 March 2013

K-12 Curriculum Change

            Ken Robinson mentions that "...it is education that's meant to take us to the future we can't grasp." Education has become a critically important asset in every person's life. Society has evolved to the stage where education is required to achieve success. To better prepare K-12 students for the unpredictable future, a more capable teaching staff, achieved by producing more good teachers and eliminating bad teachers, is essential.

From the readings and documentaries I've studied, it is very evident that K-12 students are not getting the proper education needed to achieve success. Some students take education for granted and some look at education as "a way out." Irrespective of students' feelings, teachers are obligated to help guide their students to as bright of a future as possible. Unfortunately, in the movie, Waiting for Superman, various interviewed students shared their experiences of an unsuccessful educational system. The No Child Left Behind Act, signed by President Bush in 2002, required states to test students annually in reading and mathematics. These results showed that students scored between the 20%-40% proficiency level in both math and reading comprehension. All across the nation, there is "a pattern of students failing to succeed and dropping out of high school" (Waiting for Superman). A number of students drop out of school because their level of education was not on par with the state requirements. This is primarily due to teachers' inability to engage with students and their ineffectiveness to meet students' needs.

To better address the students' educational career requirements, teaching staffs must be improved. This improvement should include better teacher training programs in order to train better teachers and a method of eliminating poor teachers from the classroom. It is critical that any new training program have various methods that train and reward quality teachers and penalize poorly rated teachers.  Examples of new training methods and programs would include teacher mentoring programs, student-teaching programs and merit based pay programs. 

An improved teacher mentoring program is an essential component to any upgraded training program curriculum. There were a number of scenes from the movie Chalk, which highlighted this method. Mentoring can be performed in various manners but they all require some variation of pairing up an experienced teacher with a new teacher. This combination is very important because it allows experienced teachers to share their experiences and provide insight and advice to new teachers. In Chalk, Mr. Lowrey, a first year history teacher, had difficulty in gaining control over his students and classroom. Whenever he was in front of the class, he seemed nervous and unprepared. As a result, his student took advantage of this and were rebellious. However, during lunch breaks, Mr. Lowrey and a number of the staff ate together. This short period of time enabled Mr. Lowrey to share his problems and learn from the experienced staff. He was able to query more experienced colleagues and gain insights into student behaviors and learn different teaching methods. As the school year progressed, Mr. Lowrey steadily improved and became a better teacher due in large part to the mentoring he received during his lunch period.

An improved and expanded student-teaching program is a critical component to any proposed upgraded teacher training program curriculum. Student-teaching is a well-known, well-practiced method of training new teachers that has existed for many years. In order to strengthen this training program, student-teaching program duration should be extended. This extension is required to better prepare new teachers to handle the everyday challenges of the classroom while developing new teacher confidence and increased skill level.  It is by spending supervised time in the classroom setting that a student-teacher gets the first-hand experience of working in the education profession. Not only does student-teaching offer exposure to real-life academic situations, it also provides insights into what a teaching career choice really means. Teaching is a demanding and challenging career choice and, as such, it is not to be made lightly and is not for everyone. Mr. Lowrey writes, "Being a teacher is a gift." Early exposure to the profession can help determine if one is equipped to pursue teaching as a career. Uncovering misgivings and apprehensions can help avoid the problem of raising bad teachers. 

Moving from a seniority based pay system to a merit based pay system could improve the overall performance of the teaching profession dramatically.  Merit based pay is controversial and poses many questions and issues, it essentially rewards good teacher performance and discourages poor teacher performance. Hard-working and dedicated teachers should be rewarded. Poor teacher performance should be penalized. Teachers are not equal and neither should their pay be equal. Without some type of financial penalty for poor teacher performance the system is allowing bad traits like laziness, apathy and ineffectiveness to remain within the profession. Changing the compensation system could help move the system away from continually creating more bad teachers.  

Lastly, teacher unions are obstacles that keep school reform from occurring. It is ironic that the very things that were first created to help the educational system are the things that keep improvement from happening. Tenure is a prime example. Tenure was first established to protect college professors from getting fired due to reasons unrelated to education such as political choices and political activities. Currently, tenure is automatically granted to public school teachers after a certain amount of service and carries with it the guarantee of lifetime employment in the education profession. This system contains a number of obvious flaws that allow poor performance teachers to remain in the industry and their poor performance to remain unchecked.  Laziness, indifference and ineffectiveness continue to remain in the professional ranks.

A prime example of teacher unions stopping change from occurring was the rejection of Michelle Rhee's proposal regarding tenure. In Waiting for Superman, Michelle Rhee, the superintendent of Washington D.C.’s schools, understood that tenure was a big obstacle against school reforms because it protected and secured jobs for bad educators. " ...in Illinois, 1 in 57 doctors loses his or her medical license, and 1 in 97 attorneys loses his or her law license, but only 1 teacher in 2500 has ever lost his or her credentials" (Waiting for Superman). Wanting to change the school system, Michelle Rhee took a big step and proposed a merit-based payroll. The proposal offered double merit pay for teachers in exchange for tenure. The union saw this proposal as a big threat and refused to vote on it. Something similar to this type of proposal should definitely be re-evaluated because tenure continues to pose a big challenge to improving the quality of teacher performance. Tenure should not be something that is guaranteed automatically. It should be something that a good teacher is granted as a reward for a lifetime of service. If a teacher's performance fails to meet students’ needs, even after working in the teaching industry for a number of years, tenure should be taken away. Over time, tenure bred a number of bad teachers in the educational system. Because of this continuous cycle, bad teachers are protected from job termination and continue to grow like a contagious disease. As a result, the students are the victims of this unfortunate reality.

The students in the education system are the future. Why must they become the victims of a system that allows unqualified staff to continue to teach? Dan Brown poses excellent questions, “What makes a great teacher?” and “Are great teachers born or made?” Great teachers are teachers who put the students’ needs first. They are teachers who understand and engage with their students. Mr. Escalante from the movie, Stand and Deliver, and Ms. Watson from the movie, Mona Lisa Smile, are great examples of what the educational system needs. Both teachers were placed in very difficult positions under extreme conditions and they both managed to gain the respect of their students. Mr. Escalante and Ms. Watson both possessed the determination to make a difference in their students' lives. In addition to teaching the subject they were assigned to teach, they taught lessons that had real life implications. Through their hard work, both instructors successfully made a positive impact on their students' lives.

            Education has become a necessary and critical component in every person’s life. It has become so essential that it is almost impossible to achieve any type of success without at least understanding the basics. It is the education system that is supposed to help students achieve success in the unpredictable future. However, the educational system is not achieving its primary goal of preparing students to lead a productive, successful life. It is clearly evident that the educational system needs to implement and enhance proper teacher-training programs like mentoring and student-teaching. Changing compensation rules and re-evaluating the power of teacher unions could be part of an integrated solution that leads to a better teaching staff. “Great educators are cultivated… Since every child deserves a great teacher and only moves through school once, we need to invest now in developing more excellent teachers” (Dan Brown – 2).

Works Cited

Brown, Dan. "What Makes a Great Teacher?" (2012): n. pag. Web.

Chalk. Dir. Mike Akel. Perf. Shannon Haragan, Troy Schremmer, Jeff Guerrero, Kaytea Brock, Janelle Schremmer, Chris Mass, Jacqueline Seaborn. 2007. DVD.

Mona Lisa Smile. Dir. Mike Newell. Perf. Julia Roberts, Kirsten Dunst, Julia Stiles. 2003. DVD.

Perf. Ken Robinson. Ken Robinson Says School Kills Creativity. TED, June 2006. Web. 20 Mar. 2013.

Stand and Deliver. Dir. Ramón Menéndez. Perf. Edward James Olmos, Estelle Harris, Lou Diamond Phillips. 1988. DVD.

Waiting for Superman. Dir. Davis Guggenheim. Perf. Geoffrey Canada, Michelle Rhee, Bill Strickland, Randi Weingarten. 2011. DVD.

"The Banking Concept of Education"

In the essay, Paolo Freire mentions that the banking concept of education is where "...the scope of action allowed to students extends only as far as receiving, filling and storing the deposits" (Freire- 1). In this case, deposits refers to education or information given by the teacher. Freire says that education "becomes an act of depositing" (Freire - 1). Students sit in the classroom and just patiently memorize the things the teachers say. At times, the deposits the students receive are things that they, themselves, don't even understand or don't see the significance of the concept. An example of this is Mike Rose's essay. In the vocational education, teachers just talked to "fill" up the time. Even though the banking concept gives an extreme scenario of an unsuccessful educational system, I believe that this is frequently happening in some schools. I was very fortunate not to have experienced an educational system like this. I believe that for a successful educational system, both the student and teacher must work together to form some sort of understanding. A good teacher would be someone who understood and engaged with the students. A good student would be a student who understood and learned the lesson. I do know systems like this exist in some places. Mike Rose, for example, experienced this himself. The vocational education had a lot of teachers that did not have the creativity or determination to teach the students in that program. They just did things to pass time. Mike Rose, himself, admitted to not trying in class. I am just fortunate not to have had experiences in this "banking concept."

Rough Draft: K-12 Curriculum Change

 K-12 Curriculum Change

            Ken Robinson mentioned that "...it is education that's meant to take us to the future we can't gasp." Education has become a very important asset in every person's life. Society evolved to this stage where education is required to achieve success. To best prepare K-12 students for the unpredictable future, a better teaching staff, done by raising more good teachers and extracting bad teachers, is essential.

From the past readings and documentaries I've encountered, it is clearly evident that K-12 students are not getting the proper education needed to achieve success. Some students take education for granted and some look at education as "a way out." No matter the circumstance, teachers are obligated to help guide their students to a brighter future. Unfortunately, in the movie, Waiting for Superman, various students from interviews shared their experiences of an unsuccessfully educational system. The No Child Left Behind Act, signed by President Bush in 2002, required states to test students annually in reading and mathematics. Based on the results, students scored between a 20%-40% proficiency level in both math and reading comprehension. All over the nation, there is "a pattern of students failing to succeed and dropping out of high school" (Waiting for Superman). A number of students drop out of school because their level of education was not on par with the state requirements. This is primarily due to the teacher's ineffectiveness in engaging with the students' needs.

To better address the students' needs in their educational career, the teaching staff must be improved. This would include a better teacher training program to raise good teachers and a method of extracting bad teachers from the system. Starting with a better training program, it is crucial to explore different methods that will help raise good teachers. Examples of different methods include mentoring, student-teaching and changing salaries. 

Mentoring is one method of a better training program. There were a number of scenes from the movie Chalk, which used this method. Mentoring could be done in different ways however; it involves some variation of pairing up an experienced teacher with a new teacher. This combination is very important because this allows experienced teachers to share their experiences and provide advice to new teachers. In Chalk, Mr. Lowrey a first year history teacher, had difficulty in gaining control over his students and classroom. Whenever he was in front of the class, he seemed nervous and unprepared. As a result, his student took advantage of this and was rebellious in return. However, during lunch breaks, Mr. Lowrey and a number of the staff ate together. This short period of time enabled Mr. Lowrey to share his problems and learn from the experienced staff. He was able to question and learn student behaviors and different teaching methods. Over the course of the year, Mr. Lowrey slowly improved and became a better teacher compared to the beginning of the year.

Another method that would improve the training program is student-teaching. Student-teaching is not a new method in the least bit. It is well-known, well-practiced method of creating teachers today. To improve this training program, student-teaching should be prolonged. This is entirely because student-teaching is the best way to expose new teachers to real-life scenarios. In a classroom setting, a student-teacher gets the benefit of getting first-hand experience in the teaching industry. Not only does student-teaching offer exposure to real-life applications, it also offers a time a reflection. It is understandable that teaching is not for everyone. Mr. Lowrey quotes, "Being a teacher is a gift." Early exposure can help determine if one would like to pursue the career as a teacher. Uncovering misgivings and apprehension can avoid the problem of raising bad teachers. 

Changing the salary of teachers can improve the teaching staff dramatically. Offering a merit-based payroll would be the best example. Although it poses many questions and problems, a merit-based payroll would reward the good instructors and discourage the bad instructors. Incentives should be rewarded to hard-working and dedicated teachers. For bad teachers, there should be a penalty. Bad teachers should not get the same type of payroll as good teachers because it is unfair and it further encourages bad traits like laziness and ineffectiveness. Changing salaries could help shift the system away from continually creating more bad teachers.  

Beginning Rough Draft #3: K-12 Curriculum Change

K-12 Curriculum Change

Ken Robinson mentioned that “…it is education that’s meant to take us to the future we can’t grasp.” Education has become a very important asset in every person’s life. Society evolved to this stage where education is required to achieve success. To best prepare K-12 students for the unpredictable future, a better teaching staff is essential.

From the past readings and documentaries I’ve encountered, it is clearly evident that K-12 students are not getting the proper education needed to achieve success. Some students take education for granted and some look at education as “a way out.” No matter the circumstance, teachers are obligated to help guide their students to a brighter future. Unfortunately, in the movie Waiting for Superman, various students from interviews shared their experiences of an unsuccessful educational system. The No Child Left Behind Act, signed by President Bush in 2002, required states to test students annually in reading and mathematics. From the first wave of results, students scored in between a 20%-40% proficiency level in both math and reading comprehension. All over the nation, there is “a pattern of students failing to succeed and dropping out of high school” (Waiting for Superman). A number of students drop out of school because their level of education was not on par with the state requirements. This is primarily due to the teacher’s ineffectiveness in engaging with the students’ needs.

To better address the students’ needs in their educational career, the teaching staff must be improved. This would include a better teacher training program and a change in salaries. Starting with a better teacher training program, it is crucial to explore different methods that will help raise good teachers. Examples of the different methods include mentoring and student-teaching.

Mentoring is one method of a better teaching training program. There were a number of scenes from the movie Chalk, which used this method. Mentoring could be done in different ways however; it involves some variation of pairing up an experienced teacher with a new teacher. This combination is very important because this allows experienced teachers to share their experiences and provide advice to new teachers. In the movie Chalk, Mr. Lowrey, a first year history teacher, had difficulty in gaining control over his students and classroom. Whenever he was in front of the class, he always seemed nervous and unprepared. However, during lunch breaks, Mr. Lowrey and a number of the staff ate lunch together. This short period of time allowed Mr. Lowrey to learn from the other experienced teachers. He was able to question and learn student behaviors and different teaching methods. Over the course of the school year, Mr. Lowrey slowly improved and became a better teacher compared to the beginning of the year.

Another method of a better teaching training program was student-teaching. Student-teaching is not a new method. It is a well-known, well-practiced method of creating teachers today. To improve the training program, student-teaching should be prolonged. This is entirely because student-teaching is the best way to expose new teachers to real-life scenarios. In a classroom setting, a student-teacher gets the benefit of getting first-hand experience in the teaching industry. Not only does student-teaching offer exposure to real-life applications, it also offers a time of reflection. It is understandable that teaching is not for everyone. Mr. Lowrey quotes, “Being a teacher is a gift.” Early exposure can help determine if one would like to pursue the career as a teacher. Uncovering misgivings and apprehension can avoid the problem of raising bad teachers.

The educational system, as of now, is not working as effectively as it should. The second way of improving the teaching staff is changing the salaries of the instructors by offering a merit-based payroll. Under this main idea, two major changes would occur. The first change would be incentives for good teachers. The second change would be re-evaluating tenure.

Offering a merit-based payroll would improve the teaching staff. The first change under this idea is incentives. It is a fact that good teachers are being underpaid. Good teachers do more work than what they earn. A complete change in salary may be unrealistic in modern society however, offering incentives are a good alternative. Incentives could be in any shape or form. Good teachers deserve to be rewarded for their hard work.

The second change under the change in payroll is re-evaluating tenure. Tenure was first established to protect college professors from getting fired due to unreasonable cause like political reasons. Now, tenure is a guarantee of lifetime employment in an academic career and it is offered to public school instructors automatically. This poses a number of problems because it could encourage laziness and ineffectiveness. Over time, this bred a number of bad teachers. Because of tenure, bad teachers are protected from job termination and continue to grow like a contagious disease. The proposed change would be to re-evaluate tenure. Instead of being a lifetime guarantee, tenure should be something that can be gained or lost. Rewarding tenure should be based on teaching ability and success. It is unfair for bad instructors to be guaranteed security. Tenure should only be given to teachers that deserve it.

Dan Brown poses the question, “What makes a great teacher?” 

How is Gilyard's Essay and the NEA article important to Unit #3?

In Gilyard's essay, he talked about an after-school creative arts program that was closed down due to lack of funds. During this time, the after-school program was closed because of fiscal cuts. Most of the time, humanities classes are sacrificed for STEM initiatives. In this after-school arts program, elementary school students share their experiences and talents involving different forms of art such as poetry, lyrics, oral interpretation, song, drawing, story writing and dance. It is unfortunate that practices of such activities are becoming less and less during school hours. 

The Mexican American Studies (MAS) program, in the NEA article, was banned because it "promoted resentment of mainstream culture" (MAS - pg.21). This was a very unfortunate event because MAS was well-known for academic achievement. "Ninety-seven percent of students participating  in the program graduated from high school, compared to 44 percent nationally, and 70 percent entered college, compared to 24 percent nationally" (MAS - pg.21). MAS was established in 1998 to improve retention and graduation rates among Mexican Americans. The reason why this program was successful was because MAS's curriculum presented content from Chicanos and other ethnic group's perspective. Teachers and students from the program strongly opposed the close down of MAS. The reason for this is the unfair treatment towards Mexican American students and because of the people involved in the school board and Superintendent of Public Instruction. That is because the members of the school bored and Superintendent of Public Instruction are not educators. They do not understand the hardships and responsibilities teachers face. It is unfair how these people in power, with no educational experience whatsoever, make regulations and policies about education.

These two readings helped with the third assignment because it addressed more problems regarding the educational system. It provided more perspectives and examples of which direction we want to go through in our paper. It also provided another source that could be used to enhance details in our paper.

What is the most important changes that K-12 education needs?

Based on all the movies and essays I watched and read, I believe that the answer, in regards to the K-12 educational issue, is a better teaching staff. Being a teacher is a very complicated job because teachers are expected to help guide their students to the path of success. What the K-12 educational system needs is a better way of producing good teachers and finding a way to eliminate bad teachers. This could be done in a couple different ways.

Mentoring could be an option. I think it is important for experienced teachers to be able share their stories and advice to new teachers. I also think it is important for new teachers to have access to experienced teachers because it gives them a sense of security, in a way.

Student-teaching should be encouraged and prolonged. This is a great way of getting exposed to teaching students in a real life scenario. It is best to put student-teachers in a classroom and observe how they interact and engage with the students. This could also be an opportunity for student-teachers to realize if teaching is what they really want to do. If an unwilling teacher can learn that he/she does not want to teach, it is best to have them realize sooner rather than later. This is to avoid producing bad teachers in the future.

Teaching is definitely not for everyone. I believe that schools should not hire anyone readily. Teachers may have an impressive resume however, it won't mean a thing if they fail to take control of students and the classroom. I believe teacher training periods should be longer and more carefully looked at. Scores and resumes should not be viewed when judging teachers. How they perform in a classroom should be a big factor. Preparing students for the future is a very big responsibility. We want to improve the teaching staff and eliminate bad teachers to fulfill this responsibility.

Waiting for Superman

Children were being interviewed about how they like school and their teachers. Most of them said they liked school however, they were struggling in class. Parents were unable to go school because of financial reasons. Some parents can't afford the school tuition. A lot of students drop out of high school because their grade level is behind the state's standard. No Child Left Behind allowed states to hold standardized tests for students to test their reading comprehension level and math. The United States fell behind in standardized scores compared to the other countries. The students scored around a 20-40 percent proficiency level. However they scored highest in confidence level compared to any other country. 

A number of students drop out of high school because their grade level is behind. Many students that end up in prison are high school dropouts. It costs more to maintain a prisoner's lifestyle than to send them to years in a private school. In prison, meals, recreational time and housing must be supplied. 

Teacher unions are an obstacle in reforming schools. It's ironic how the things that were made to protect the educational system are the very things that keep schools from improving and changing. An example of this was Michelle Rhee's proposal regarding tenure. She proposed double-merit pay in exchange for tenure. The union found this threatening and did not even vote on this proposal. Michelle Rhee is the superintendent of Washington D.C.'s schools. In attempt to better the educational system, she fired a number of staff and closed down 23 schools. Many were unhappy with this decision. She continues to try and improve the system however it's is difficult because she keeps running into the system.

Tenure was first made to protect college professors from being fired due to unreasonable cause like political reasons. However now, public educators get tenure automatically after working a number of years. This keep them from getting fired. This poses a problem because bad teachers cannot get fired. Instead, schools do "dance of the lemons" where they exchange teachers between schools.