Our Public Education System - Part I

Recently, I attended three education-related events/workshops reinforcing my firm belief that our quest for a quality 21st century education for "all students" will be a journey of possibility littered with misconceptions, assumptions, data comparisons, and myriad of reform strategies. The three events and their dates were the Arizona School Board Association/Arizona School Administrator Annual Conference (12/15-16), Lexile Reading Standards and the Common Core Standards (12/12) and the Morrison's Institute "State of the State" Conference (11/30). These events neither fully judged our current public school education system as failing our students, nor honored it as the best in the world. What these events did point out is that as Americans we "own" and created our current system of education; we "control" the future of the system that our students will compete within the global, Information Age; and we can "restructure" the system as needed for all students. Below is the first of three blogs.
System Factor #1 - "System Ownership"

Our system is one of independence, societal lag (failure to adapt/change), activities, and growing choice contradicting itself at every turn. As Americans we still offer and created one of the best environments for an education. This is despite the system originally created and still systemically structured as a student "sorting" system and not a system created for 21st century "success for all." It is a system that has seen its lexile levels for national textbooks drop dramatically from the 1960s and now has a system lacking strong K-12 informational text and strong core, literacy practices. It is a system envied by many, but now seen falling behind to a world community.  A world community changing through technology and communication that now provides a lifestyle opportunity never seen before through education.

We currently have and own the most children in poverty for any industrialized nation in the world and know that our so-called "achievement gap" is created from many of our children spending time in literacy poor homes. Driven by low socio-economic factors, the long school summer break based on a long ago outdated agrarian calendar, further complicates and deprives many from overcoming their lack of core literacy skills. The State of Arizona has 50% of their one million school age children eligible for federal freed and reduced school lunch programs. 25% of all Arizona children live at or under the current federal poverty level. It is a system that has taken over the past 4 years over $1 billion away from its K-20 school systems and will further reduce educational funds by not replacing the previously supplanted state education dollars for federal K-12 EduJobs dollars ($35 million) ending this school year.

On the other hand we own this system with students that create, experiment, innovate and think independently for themselves due to a society that generates education through various school and societal platforms anchored by a national public school system. It is all ours with other nations sending their students here to live in the success of our country's university and college system that builds upon academia with social skills and emotional intelligence that cannot occur through standardized or criterion-referenced international assessments. Its success is measured and is developed through many factors (music, art, athletics, community activities, diversity) that cannot be seen in its entirely through international comparisons.