School cruelty

For some, August can seem the cruelest month because it means it
will be “back to school” time very soon. It’s not so much that
young students really hate their book learning and class bell
schedules. Nor is it that teachers and principals are not all that
keen to open the campus doors on yet another 10-month school year.
It’s all more about the symbolic end of summer, the suspension of
some daily freedoms and bidding a sad goodbye to vacation beaches,
lazy mornings and other uncompulsory things.
Going back to school this year, however, does present some real
cruelties and unkindness. An historic state budget deficit and
uncertain local school funding is forcing most school districts to
shorten their instructional year by 5 days, cut staff and be
resigned to larger class sizes while their budgets grow smaller
over this and coming years.
Already — before all these cuts in classroom resources, teaching
time and weakened morales — we have been told how only one in four
high school graduates in Sonoma County is eligible to apply to
California’s state college systems. Worse, local employers continue
to complain that too many students are not “prepared” for the
workplace. And, administrators of colleges, including at Santa Rosa
Junior College, report that their remedial programs are being
overwhelmed by too many students who failed to learn basic language
and math skills during high school.
In other words, instructional standards and graduation
requirements are either being woefully unmet or are out of synch
with the “real world” of life after K-12 schooling.
Adding to the fiscal cruelty now comes a new proposal to alter
these academic standards. After a decision this week by the
California State Board of Education, all schools will be ordered to
toss out large parts of their current basic English and math
curriculum. New text books will be ordered and all California
students will now be measured against national academic standards
called Common Core State Standards.
The Common Core initiative is part of the Obama Administration’s
educational reforms called “Race to the Top,” where improving and
higher performing schools are eligible for billions in federal
grants, as much as $700 million in California.
Obama’s “Race to the Top” is being called “Race to the Middle”
by many educational critics just as President Bush’s “No Child Left
Behind” was ridiculed as “No Child Left.”
We agree that teachers, students, parents and their schools must
have clear and consistent performance standards, be they local,
state or federal. Expectations must be set for all classroom and
learning experiences. “Real world” requirements must be set for
academic achievement, high school graduation, college preparedness
and vocational readiness.
But first and foremost must come the financial commitment to
properly support our schools. We need more teachers, not fewer. We
need more mentoring and extended training for our teachers.
That’s not what “Race to the Top” or setting a national Common
Core Standards is all about. Local schools do not need another
mandate to implement new standardized testing, whole sets of new
textbooks and adopted curriculums. Yet, the state school board this
week is mandating all these changes be put in place by the 2013-14
school year.
How much will all this cost? California has 6.3 million K-12
students. When will we find the time for all this new teacher
training? What about the $19 billion state deficit? Can $700
million in promised federal school funds really make a
difference?
With only one-quarter of high school graduates eligible for
California’s colleges, it might appear that massive education
reforms are once again needed.
Or, it could be that our school’s current academic standards
simply need to be reaffirmed and supported. This could be done by
increasing instructional time, not cutting it. Provide teachers
with more resources, job security and career development instead of
another set of federally-coded standards.
Taking days away from the school year and sending teachers on
yet another carousel of curriculum reforms is, well, cruel.
— Rollie Atkinson