Article #1
Public
Education in Minnesota Shortchanges All Students
Among the letters written to editors of the
Star Tribune and published in the
Wednesday, February 4, 2021, edition, are two in which the writers take issue
with staffer Patrick Condon’s opening an article (Star Tribune, “A solution to educational equity?,” February 2,
2021) with the words, “Minnesota’s long and well-documented history of
shortchanging students of color...” Both
Nat Robbins and Todd Otis suggest that factors outside the control of public
school teachers and staff may be responsible for the low academic proficiency
rates recorded by students from numerous demographic groups, so that use of the
word “shortchanging” is biased and unfair to hardworking teachers.
This is an old argument of the education
establishment and its apologists that would never be used in analogous
situations for attorneys and physicians:
Imagine an attorney telling a client, “You
have a legal problem, so I cannot help you.”
Consider the inanity of a physician telling
a patient, “You are ill, so I cannot offer you any medical care.”
These replies would be the equivalent of a
teacher and other school staffers saying to a student, “You come to me for an
education, but I cannot provide it to you.”
The reality is that the public schools of
Minnesota shortchange all students.
Teachers
have low knowledge bases and little ability to stimulate student interest via
subject-focused class discussion. They
hand out too many boring worksheets, assign too many group and individual
projects for which students have little informational background, show too many
videos for unexplained purposes, and give too many “free days,” even in schools
at which most students academically lag many years below level of school
enrollment.
Students from grade 2 forward lack knowledge
that they should possess in mathematics, natural science, history, government,
economics, literature, English usage, and the fine arts. They have poor vocabulary development and
slim grasp of fractions, decimals, percentages, ratios, proportions, and
probability necessary to succeed in algebra, geometry, pre-calculus, and
calculus courses. Because of the
knowledge-deficient, skill-deplete approach to curriculum and mediocre
teaching, students do not gain the necessary knowledge and skill base to
achieve at a high level on the ACT college readiness exam; few students show college readiness for all
categories tested, and students from families facing dilemmas of finance and
functionality tend to record a score in the 9-14 range, not even reflecting
middle school capability.
Students do not read broadly and deeply across
a full liberal arts curriculum. Students
move forward from grade 5 having little knowledge of any subject area. Curriculum and teaching is not much better in
middle school and high school; only
students who take Advanced Placement (AP) courses learn anything of substance,
and then only in the off-chance of getting a teacher qualified to impart
college preparatory curriculum.
The legal profession declares that all clients
wronged or charged with crimes deserve representation. Physicians make herculean efforts to save
gravely ill patients. Teachers and other
public school staff make no analogous effort.
Curriculum in Minnesota is weak for all
students. Teaching quality at the median
is poor to mediocre. Despite claims
otherwise, little effort is made to provide skill remediation. Few staff members are available to reach out
to families of students struggling with dilemmas of life at the urban
core. Funds are wasted in abundance on
offices and departments created in the pretense that if they bear hopeful
names, they will solve vexing problems.
Middle class students and those from families
who have college degrees make up some public education deficiencies in
conversationally rich environments or with private tutoring. But no student receives sufficient factual
information. Every student is
shortchanged. Those who must depend
entirely for their information and academic prospects on the public schools are
shortchanged most of all.
We must confront the public education
establishment and its apologists by specifying the deficiencies and identifying
those culpable, while working to overhaul the system for knowledge-intensity,
quality teaching, aggressive skill remediation, family outreach, and thorough
restructuring of the education bureaucracy.
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