| Read a Post for It Takes More than Pressure to Help Struggling Schools | | | | Reply to this Post | | | Mindless in Miami--(and elsewhere) | | Posted By: Dick Schutz on September 26, 2005 | | | Noguera describes the situation accurately, and his bottom line has it right. Schools do need help. But the "help" he offers is lame, to say the least. Noguera says, "What is particularly disturbing about this approach is that it ignores so many of the obvious things that we know are essential to raising achievement and creating better schools – recruiting skilled teachers, reducing class size, providing students with academic support through tutoring during and after school."
What is particularly disturbing about that statement is that it's a set of beliefs that don't deliver achievement even in fundamental human matters such as handling written language and handling the number system. The listed items may be worthy in and of their own right, but they're collectively too weak to produce the aspired enablements. And the dirty little secret (which Noguera hints but then blinks) is: the top of the ed chain currently don't know how to produce the aspired enablements either.
"Help" requires putting in teachers' and administrators' hands the product/protocols to get the job done--just as in every other sector of life. That's a very tractable matter. Psst. It's the D in R&D.
Dick Schutz
3RsPlus@usinter.net
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