SHOCKING! A harsh dose of reality AND common sense - from CALIFORNIA!
The Governor’s Advisory Committee on Education Excellence has released its report called “Students First, Renewing Hope for California’s Future”. Governor Schwarzenegger “asked 18 of California’s top minds in education to examine our system see what we’re doing right, what we’re doing wrong and to make recommendations for the future.”
I was stunned by the report. It shines an all too rare (especially in California’s educational system) harsh spotlight on the institutional failure of California’s school system:
California’s current system turns common sense on its head. Too often, students are an afterthought. How else to explain a 100,000-section Education Code in which the words “student achievement” rarely appear? How else to explain how such a system can survive and, in fact, grow when less than one-quarter of students statewide are mastering reading, math, and other subjects? How else to explain our tolerating some high schools where, year after year, less than half of 9th-graders ultimately earn a diploma, and even fewer actually are prepared to succeed in college or on the job?
…It is said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. It is time to say “enough” and to fundamentally rethink how we have organized ourselves to educate the 6.3 million children whose future depends on our effectiveness. It is time to replace a system that gets in the way of effective teaching and successful learning with one that supports our best educators and their students. Specifically, the Committee recommends action on four inter-related priorities and a fifth key foundation. (See Four Inter-Related Priorities on next page.) Taken together, this systemic overhaul will reduce the achievement gap and create a constantly escalating cycle of continuous improvement in our education system. Therefore, it is essential that our proposed reforms be considered as a coherent, comprehensive package. Cherry-picking proposals could make the current intolerable situation even worse. For instance, simply spending more money on ineffective programs without measuring results and rewarding success will exacerbate inefficiencies. Giving principals and teachers more authority without first ensuring they are well-prepared to wield it effectively would be irresponsible. This is where our political leaders will have to demonstrate uncommon courage. Everyone professes to put students first. But collectively, the results suggest otherwise.
