Ignore 'reformers,' U.S. schools doing just fine

Al Churchill of Livonia is a retiree of United Auto Workers Local 182.

Early in colonial history, our forefathers recognized just how important education would be to America’s future. During the 1780’s a series of land ordinances were passed by the Continental Congress, finally culminating in the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. Those stated that “Religion, morality and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.”

Today, however, we are being told that our schools are failing.

We are not doing well on international tests, it is said. We need charter schools, vouchers, standardized tests. Punish educators and unions. Create online courses. Grade our schools A-F. Unfortunately, for those making that case, our schools are, largely, not failing. They are doing pretty darn good as a matter of fact. Schools that are not doing well, generally, exist in the midst of poverty.

For decades it has been accepted dogma in educational circles that poverty and socioeconomic factors play a huge role in determining proficiency in school. Commissioned by the U.S. Office of Education in 1966, James Coleman of Johns Hopkins University studied 600,000 students and teachers. He concluded that academic achievement in school is less related to the quality of the school than it is to the social composition of the school, the verbal skills of the teacher and the students’ family background. The gist of the Coleman Report suggested that one-third of student success is determined by the quality of the school, while two-thirds of student proficiency is to be found in factors outside of the school.

Ditto Stanford University in 2011. Sean Reardon of that university released a study that concluded family income is, by far, the most significant factor in determining and predicting student success in school. It is simply a fact that parental income and education, parental involvement in student school activities, neighborhood environment, health care, home stability and so on provide the underpinning of student school proficiency.

Indeed, according to former Assistant Secretary of Education Diane Ravitch, “…American schools, in which fewer than 10 percent of the students were poor, outperformed the schools of Finland, Japan and Korea” on the latest Program of International Student Assessment (PISA). Finland, Japan and Korea are top performers. Call it whatever you like: poverty, demographics or socioeconomic circumstance. It matters and American schools do well when demographics are considered.

But you’d never know it when people passing as “reformers” compare American schools to countries that do well on international tests. Frantically, they howl that we’re losing the race. Our schools are failing. Let’s do something, anything!

Again, American schools are doing pretty darn good. Don’t hear that much these days do you. Well, what do the other guys want, the “reformers?”

Neglecting that vouchers have been used in Milwaukee for nearly 23 years and are a dismal failure, they chant, “Give us a voucher.” Ditto for corporate charter schools. All you have to do is look at the nation’s report card, the NAEP. When tested, voucher schools have never outperformed public schools in Milwaukee. Additionally, the U.S. Department of Education ranks Milwaukee as among the lowest-performing urban school systems in the country. So much for choice, privatization and corporate schools.

That aside, Finland, a perennial top performer on PISA, provides a good example of what can be done to achieve educational merit. The Finns have no charters, no vouchers. They do not have a testing obsession like we do. Finnish children are exposed to high-stakes testing a grand total of one time during the entirety of their school experience. They do not evaluate teachers and schools, based upon one high-stakes test given annually. They do not grade their schools A-F. They have strong unions. In a word, they do absolutely nothing that “reformers” in this country endorse.

Finland’s teachers are trusted to do whatever it takes to educate their kids. Teachers in Finland are treated like professionals, like doctors and lawyers. They are supported by nurses, social workers and psychologists. They spend much more of their school day planning and collaborating with other teachers than we do. Their schools are smaller than ours. They put a premium on recess time. There is much to be learned from Finnish schools.

There is much to be learned from Swedish schools as well. The Swedes have had privatization and corporate schools for thirty years. They do not do well on PISA. They are a depressing poster child for what passes as reform in this country.

Can American schools be improved? You bet! For a start, we might focus on teacher training and development. We might also focus more on thinking skills: creativity and problem solving, critical thinking generally.

But American schools are pretty good to begin with. Yep, American schools are pretty darn good. Jefferson would be proud.