Reform of Education

Earlham and the Reform of Education

Doug Bennett, President, and Ellen Bennett, Director, Earlham Lilly Indiana Initiative

Convocation, Earlham College
September 1, 1999

The Gulf Between K-12 and College

"Indifference punctuated by mistrust, marred by antagonism." This is one recent characterization of the relationship between higher education and K-12 schools. An enormous gulf separates the two worlds- and has separated these two worlds for most of this century.

Today we want to talk across this divide. We want to talk about current reform efforts in K-12 education to improve education for students in schools. We want to talk about why these efforts should matter to us at Earlham. We want to talk about what we can learn from these efforts, and we want to talk about what we can contribute to these efforts.

We first met as participants in an effort to improve science education -- to make sure we are providing quality education for science for all students. Doug was coming at the question from the standpoint of college students and Ellen was approaching it from the standpoint of K-12 education. We both realized that the issues were fundamentally the same. (Later we realized we should make common cause in other ways.)

Our shared commitment is to quality education for all students. We believe we are more likely as a nation to achieve quality education for all students if colleges and schools work together towards that goal.

Relative to most other colleges and universities, Earlham is unusually alert to issues of K-12 education. And Earlham students, faculty and staff are unusually ready to contribute to educational efforts in this community.

Why Earlham/Higher Education Should Care About K-12 Education

Why should Earlham care about K-12 education? Why should students, faculty or staff at any college or university care about what happens in the schools? We can think of many reasons.

— We have expectations about what students should know and about what capabilities they should have mastered before they arrive in college. Sometimes as teachers we can find ourselves discouraged or annoyed if we find students in our classes who do not seem quite ready. Every teacher at Earlham takes great care in preparing the syllabi for their courses. Those syllabi contain expectations about what students are ready to do.
We have to acknowledge that we aren't now doing much to help the schools understand our expectations. Here is what our curriculum guide says about our admissions expectations. And we're not special here: this is what most colleges catalogs say about admissions expectations.

We expect applicants to have completed at least 15 academic high school units or the equivalent, four of which are in English, three in mathematics, and two or more in a second language, in science, and in history or social studies. Accomplishment in the area of studio or performing arts is very desirable.

Don't we have more to say than this? If we at Earlham have these expectations (and we believe we should) don't we have an obligation to communicate them clearly to those responsible for K-12 schools? And doesn't our obligation go beyond that? We shouldn't be just setting and communicating our high expectations, we should be helping the schools be fully prepared to help students meet those expectations?

Imagine a pair of brothers who share a farm. One works the farm during the months of plowing and planting. The other takes over in the middle and works the farm through the harvest. Can you imagine the second brother saying he doesn't care about the plowing and the planting? Can you imagine him saying he'll make everything fine in the second half of the growing season, whatever the crops look like when he arrives in mid-season? Not a chance. The two brothers have to work together.

— A second reason we should care what happens in the schools: students' expectations about their own learning are largely set through their experiences in K-12 schools.

A young woman who comes to believe in 9th grade algebra class that 'she's just no good at math' is unlikely to take math in college. And if we require her to take math when she arrives at Earlham, she's likely to approach the course with a defeatist attitude.

Students who come to think that education is something you do strictly on your own are going to have a bumpy adjustment to Earlham. So are students who come to think that working with others is a kind of cheating, or that education is a form of competition with others to see who can dominate who.

— A third reason. We prepare the teachers for the K-12 schools. We at Earlham and Indiana University and Ball State teach the teachers. If K 12 teachers are not well educated, if teachers are not well grounded in their subject, whose fault is that? If teachers do not understand how to motivate young people, if they do not understand how to provide both challenge and support, is it not higher education that has failed students in the schools?

— Another reason: we have a great deal to learn from one another. Opportunities for teachers in schools to work together with teachers in college are regrettably rare. And if college teachers approach such encounters with an air of superiority, they can be a frustrating experience for all concerned. But we have see many workshops and seminars where teachers in college and teachers in high school approach each other with mutual respect and gain tremendously from what each shows the other.

K-12 teachers are often starved for opportunities to refresh their understanding of the subjects they teach. And college teachers are often surprised to find that teachers in the schools have many thoughtful ideas about how to teach different students in different ways

— Finally, we should care about K-12 education because education is so very important to the life chances of every child. Who doesn't remember their teachers? Don't you remember the names and faces of teachers and coaches you liked? (Or didn't?) The ones who opened up a whole new world for you, caused you to really like math for the first time, or biology, or that reading a text or a poem touched deep inside that you didn't know was there?

If we care about the quality of what we do here at Earlham, we should care about the quality of education in our home community, across the nation, even around the world.

The Reform Movement in K-12 Education

The phrase "Education Reform" refers to local, state, and federal government initiatives to improve the system for all students. Education Reform is based on the premise right or wrong that the current state of K-12 Education is not meeting our needs.

We can go back to 1983 and the publication of "A Nation At Risk" to pinpoint when the Education Reform movement started. Here are some excerpts from that report:

"Our society and its educational institutions seem to have lost sight of the basic purposes of schooling, and of the high expectations and disciplined effort needed to attain them. This report, the result of 18 months of study, seeks to generate reform of our educational system in fundamental waysŠ.The educational risks before us have been amply documented in testimony received by the Commission. For example:

International comparisons of student achievement, completed a decade ago, reveal that on 19 academic tests American students were never first or second and, in comparison with other industrialized nations, were last seven times.

Some 23 million American adults are functionally illiterate by the simplest tests of everyday reading, writing, and comprehension.

Between 1975 and 1980, remedial mathematics courses in public 4-year colleges increased by 72 percent and now constitute one-quarter of all mathematics courses taught in those institutions."

It is both interesting and important to note that not since the Soviets launched Sputnik has so much sustained attention been paid to education in this country. The current education reform movement is now over 15 years old.

The focus on education, in both these instances, was born out of fear that we, as a nation, would not be competitive in the global marketplace. We were afraid that we were falling behind the former Soviet Union technologically. They were the first country to launch a satellite into orbit around the Earth. The year was 1955. In 1983, our fear was that we were falling behind the other industrialized nations; that we would not be economically competitive.

Is this why education reform is important to us? Are we concerned about maintaining the U.S. position as a superpower? I think it comes down to something much more fundamental.

For those of us at Earlham, we know that education provides a foundation for social understanding, and that understanding fosters tolerance, and peaceful resolution to differences. It provides an entrée into the world of work, to personal economic health. To personal physical and spiritual health. Where many children do not have the kind of adult role models ideally we might want for them at home, school is often the only place where other adult role models exist where children come in contact with caring adults on a day-to-day basis. More than any other system in this country, education touches the life of every child.

Regardless of how divergent our motives, for economic good or social good, with education reform, we travel convergent paths toward the same goal: access to high quality education for all students.

But, why do we need to change anything about education in this country? Isn't the educational system that was good enough for your parents and grandparents good enough for students today? Is who we are today similar to who we were 10, 15, or 20 years ago? Consider the impact of information technology on the world at large. Consider the fact that the greatest number of immigrants to this country arrived not in the 1880s and 1890s, but in the 1980s and 1990s, and not from western Europe as in the late 19th century, but from eastern Europe, SE Asia, and Latin America. The result is that in many urban school districts, teachers are working with student populations where the majority of students speak languages other than English in the home. In the Los Angeles Unified School District, over 100 different languages and dialects are represented in the student population. Add to this the fact that the number of children living in poverty in the 1990's is twice that of the 1970s.

I'm reminded of Einstein's definition of insanity: That's when someone does the same thing over and over and over again, and expects different resultsŠ

So, where have over 15 years of attention to education gotten us? We are changing the way we do things, but student achievement remains unacceptably low. And equal access to quality education for underrepresented and underserved children throughout this country is far from realized. Here are just a few of the many disturbing facts we could offer about education in the U.S. today:

— 29% of college freshmen must take remedial courses in reading, writing or math.

— Reading and math scores for White students have scarcely increased over the 15 years

since A Nation at Risk was issued. (National Assessment of Educational Progress)

— Reading and math scores for African American and Latino scores improved relative
to scores for White students between 1975 and 1988, but the gap has been
widening again for the past decade. (NAEP)

— Classes in high poverty high schools are much more likely to be taught by
underqualified teachers.

— A significant gap remains between high school graduation rates for White students and
high school graduation rates for African American and Latino students.

— A significant gap remains between college going rates for White students and
college going rates for African American and Latino students.

However, reform efforts in elementary and secondary education have progressed. Kati Haycock from The Education Trust described our initial efforts as "tinkering around the edges, looking for a silver bullet to ensure 'excellence' that was never defined." "Now, she says, "education reform means standards-based, system-wide reform."

There are four basic elements of current school reform initiatives: outcomes-based standards, assessments, site-based management, and the preparation and continuing education of teachers. I want to describe these elements to you with the pitfalls alongside the pluses of each.

First, start with the premise that it's more important to look at what students know and are able to do at the end of their schooling outputs or results than how much time students spend in specific classes and the processes of schooling, or the inputs. For years, we have been evaluating educational progress based on some educational unit, hours of seat-time in a particular class, or Carnegie Units. We need to remember that Carnegie Units are a result of one of the last conversations higher education had with elementary and secondary education -- at the start of the 20th century. Now, we want to measure the outcomes of learning; can a student really do math, write a paper, draw conclusions from a science experiment. This is called Outcomes Based Education.

Outcomes Based Education is not, as one woman in northwest Pennsylvania believed, a plot to teach her children about out-of-body experiences. It means asking students to demonstrate their achievements before moving on to the next topic or level. You don't give a student their lifeguard certification for attending class. They need to demonstrate they can actually swim a certain number of lengths of the pool, tread water, and assist someone who's in trouble. Those are outcomes.

Desired outcomes for students in different academic disciplines form the basis of discipline standards statements that embody what students should know and be able to do in core subject areas at different levels in their schooling. The standards movement really began with the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics in 1989. A large and inclusive group of mathematicians from basic and higher education, business, and elsewhere worked together to articulate just what students should know and be able to do mathematically at different grade levels. They defined what a mathematically or quantitatively literate person should know and be able to do upon graduation from high school.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science did the same: benchmarks for Science literacy. The National Academy of Science developed the National Science Education Standards. Professional associations in history, English and foreign languages and others have worked on developing standards in their fields as well.

Over the course of the past 15 years, we have moved from these national efforts to develop discipline standards to state development of standards. The Indiana State Test of Educational Progress assesses student ability in two areas: mathematics and English. Students take ISTEP Examinations in grades 3, 6, 8 and 10. In grade 10, the ISTEP examination is the graduation qualifying examination, which students must pass or complete in another manner before they graduate. The English (or Language Arts) Examination consists of items testing students on 19 standards grouped into "Language Arts Fundamentals" and "Language Arts Applications." Among the specific standards on which students are asked to show competence are items such as these:

10.6aUse the writing process--prewriting, drafting and revising
10.9Edit and proofread for spelling
10.15Understand how language is used to influence and persuade
10.19Develop criteria for judging the quality of literary works including
literary genres, literary conventions, and story structures

In mathematics, the ISTEP graduation qualifying examination includes standards such as these:

10.3use inductive and deductive reasoning to solve problems
10.5develop an understanding of elementary functions, their graphs, and their
applications to the real world
10.8develop an understanding of probability

Similar standards are not available here in Indiana for science, history, or fine arts. Student ability in those subjects is not evaluated through ISTEP. The National Science Education Standards are wonderful. We are both strong advocates for them. We encourage that they be used. The national effort to produce standards in history was fraught with so much controversy that historians, politicians, or educators never embraced one set of standards. National standards in civics and fine arts exist, but appear to have little influence on state-backed reform efforts. We advocate support for a broad curriculum like our liberal arts curriculum here at Earlham and would encourage states to embrace standards in more than reading, writing, and arithmetic.

All the rhetoric around the scope and sequence of standards won't amount to much if the following two issues are not addressed: First, standards must not be viewed as a series of simple bars to pass over; they must represent a multi-dimensional picture of a student's ability. Second, the picture must be a challenging one. Standards must set high expectations for all students.

Linked strongly to standards are reform initiatives focused on modes of assessment. If educators and students are working toward standards, we need to be able to assess student achievement of those standards. To do this, reformers are moving away from paper and pencil tests. Many teachers are using student portfolios and exhibitions as modes of evaluation, as well as authentic assessments, which involve student demonstrations of ability and understanding.

Reformers also recognize the power of tests to drive curriculum. Many teachers teach to the test to the ISTEP, SAT, Achievement Tests, and Advanced Placement exams because their performance is evaluated by these instruments. Students understand this when they ask the ever popular question "is this going to be on the test?" So many educators are looking at the kinds of tests we build. Perhaps asking the right kind of questions will drive a better curriculum. Among the groups working on alternative assessment strategies are The New Standards Project, based at the University of Pittsburgh, and the Center on Learning Assessment and School Structure out of Geneseo, New York.

The third facet of education reform is site-based governance. It is based on the premise that communities parents, businesses, and social service organizations must be committed to and work alongside educators for school-wide and system-wide excellence. To work well, site-based governance must exist within a framework of accountability. We have to hold schools accountable to demonstrate that students are meeting standards, achieving outcomes at the expected level. And what do we do if they don't? Nobody has a good answer to this. In some places, the city of Chicago, the states of New York and New Jersey for example, school districts have been taken over by city and state governments. This is an extreme measure. What we do know is that we don't want children to bear the brunt of "punishing" schools.

We can seek alternatives. Charter schools, for example, present another avenue toward accountability. Charter schools provide a way for teachers and parents who are interested in education to seek out and establish better education for their children by forming their own school. Charter schools give students and parents an alternative and also send a message.

In the end, the wider community must both accept and help to frame changes for school improvement that may result in an educational system that looks different than the system we went through. But the system must look different. The demographic changes alone dictate that, as do the increasing responsibilities laid on the shoulders of educators, to find — or even be the cure for societal ills: violence, substance abuse, child abuse and neglect. Getting all of these key stakeholders parents, businesses, not-for-profits, local government, and teachers unions to support reform initiatives is a constant challenge.

A fourth aspect of education reform centers on standards for and assessment of teachers both current teachers as well as in teacher preparation. If we expect teachers to help students meet standards of excellence in core subjects, we need to make sure that the teachers themselves can meet those standards, and that they have the capacity support, infrastructure to assist their students. Here's a telling quote from Larry Cuban, an education professor at Stanford:

"High school teachers are expected to know their subjects inside and out; they are expected to maintain order in their classrooms; they are expected to report instances of abuse and spot signs of behavioral problems; they are expected to be both friendly and demanding of each and every student; and, with district and state mandates for students to meet higher academic standards and take tests that can spell the difference between graduating or staying in school longer, teachers are expected to prod students on homework and other assignments and to be personally accountable for how well the students do on tests. So teaching high school, in addition to knowing one's subject matter thoroughly and being able to convey it to others, requires the grit of a long-distance runner, the stamina of a boxer going 15 rounds, the temperament of a juggler, and the street smarts of a three-card monte dealer."

Preparing teachers for today's schools is a challenge. Education reform initiatives for teacher education have embraced an increased focus on subject matter preparation. More colleges and universities are requiring students to major in a discipline and minor in education. Weak or cursory understanding of subject matter leads to poor teaching a reliance on textbooks and worksheets. The worst case is reflected in the comment an elementary teacher made to the child of a friend of mine when she said: I don't like science so I don't teach it in my class.

Another focus of teacher preparation reform is found in five-year as opposed to four-year programs for certification. A significant portion of the five-year program often involves school internships whole immersion into the life of a school. A student does this under what I see as ideal conditions while being mentored and having an opportunity to discuss school experiences with others in their own classes.

We want to note that we will soon be facing a shortage of teachers. Quality teacher preparation is going to be particularly important and a tremendous challenge as we head into an era when we are going to have to replace a large percentage of our elementary and secondary-school faculty. Here are some eye-opening facts about the coming shortage of teachers right here in Richmond, Indiana:

-- Richmond schools may need to replace 70% of their 480 teachers over the next decade.

-- This year, 42% of Richmond teachers are age 50 or older.

-- At least 38% of Richmond teachers now satisfy the requirements for retirement.
(To retire, Richmond teachers must be age 55 or older with 30 years of teaching).

Earlham's Contributions to K-12 Education

Earlham has a unusual, even stellar, record of involvement with K-12 schools. We have, for example, the activities of the Joseph Moore Museum, the "Learning and Teaching About Japan" program run by our Institute for Education on Japan, our annual Model U.N. Conference and the bi-annual High School Choral Festival. Both the Hughes program and Explore-a-College draw students to Earlham in the summer while they are still in high school. We provide opportunities for students in the Richmond area to take courses at Earlham while they are still in high school, especially in subjects where we have unusual strength. Through EVE, the Bonner Scholars Program and America Reads, we provide a great deal of tutoring and literacy work for students in the schools. Conner Prairie provides an extraordinary array of opportunities for working with schools both on-site and now via distance education. I am sure there are other Earlham involvements with the schools we are failing to mention (and I hope you will remind us) but this gives you some sense of the range and vitality of what we do.

At Earlham, we are now fortunate to be involved in two new large projects that engage us with the neighboring schools here in Indiana. Both are funded by generous grants from the Lilly Endowment. One is called the Earlham Lilly Indiana Initiative (or ELII). It is directed by Ellen Bennett. The other is called REACH -- Raising Educational Attainments for College and Higher — and is directed by Ann and Hal Hanes. Each embodies some of the healthy principles of the current reform movement.

With ELII, Earlham is working with 8th, 9th and 10th graders who will be the first person in their family to go on to college. That is, they will be the first if they actually do complete high school and go on to college — at Earlham or any other college of their choosing. We are trying to increase the likelihood of their success.

Through activities during the school year and in institutes held over the summer, we are working to lift the aspirations of these students. We want to boost their self-confidence, to help them envision what it will take to succeed in their career and life goals, and to have them experience the joy of learning. That is, we are working with these students to help them meet high standards.

To be successful in working with 8th, 9th and 10th graders, we have to work closely with their teachers and with their schools. Consequently, we are developing partnerships with dozens of schools in the counties in this part of Indiana. A key to the success of this program will be bridging the very wide chasm that normally separates K-12 schools from colleges and universities.

In the REACH Project we are also working in partnership with K 12 schools, in this case the five school districts here in Wayne County. Our focus is on helping students meet two key educational standards. Our shared commitment is to have all students in the county reading at grade level by the end of grade 2, and to have a significantly increased number of students who have completed algebra by the end of grade 9. These are crucial goals for all students, whether they want to go into the workforce after highschool or whether they want to go on to college. Reading by the end of grade two and algebra by the end of grade 9 are foundational skills: gateways to success in all future endeavors.

Each school district has designed its own program of activities to achieve these goals, but each will be held accountable to make progress towards these goals. Earlham will oversee the assessment of progress, and we will help teachers in one school district know what is working well in other districts.

Beyond ELII and REACH: Earlham's Relationship to Reform

Beyond ELII and REACH, how might Earlham contribute to the reform of K-12 education? Let's look at the four facets of reform mentioned earlier, and begin with standards and assessments as a combined enterprise. Traditionally, colleges and universities in this country have defined the standards that schools have used to measure success: college entrance examinations; advanced placement tests; literature from admissions offices which most often reinforce the inputs rather than the outputs of the K-12 system. As we noted earlier, one way we can relate to and support education reform is to review our admissions expectations and make certain that they build on outcomes that reflect the best of the standards movement.

Many of us at Earlham are already involved in local education initiatives as individuals by serving on the school board or as tutors or mentors. Participation in site-based management discussions is one way we relate to this element of reform. Our involvement and support of site based management is also expressed through our two collaborative programs currently underway with area schools: REACH and ELII. These projects foster conversations between and among school faculty and administrators about curriculum and student learning. And, we can work to facilitate education/business discussions.

Enriching and strengthening the professionalism of teachers takes place through the implementation of professional development programs for current faculty members at the elementary, secondary and post secondary levels. We serve as a catalyst for conversations among educators at all levels, nurturing and supporting conversations about substantive educational issues. We have done this in the past, and through ELII and REACH, will continue to strengthen and broaden those efforts.

With the preparation of new teachers, we need to continue our focus on student preparation in the core disciplines. In most colleges and universities, those planning on entering teaching are identified as non majors in the academic departments and not accorded the same respect as majors by their peers and teachers. I believe that the work they are about to embark upon is as important, or more so, than that of many departmental majors.

We need to continue to look at our own teaching strategies. As we said earlier, teachers will teach the way they were taught. Teachers will rely on textbooks and worksheets if they are unsure of their grasp of the discipline.

There is abundant research to show us what works. The national focus on education reform has directed a lot of dollars into this research. We know much more about how the brain works. We talk about different kinds of intelligences. We understand that we are not blank slates; that we construct our knowledge by weaving it into and building on the information we've processed before (correctly or incorrectly). But it doesn't do us much good if the results of the research are buried in professional journals and not in the popular press; if we are not effectively disseminating the results or if we don't have the time or resources to put the research into practice. If we continue to lecture on active learning and group activities, we will never be able to break the cycle and get what we know about effective instructional strategies into the classroom.

In the end, education comes down to a teacher with students in a classroom. We need to nurture both a love of a student's academic discipline as well as a love of children and education, and exact a promise that our students will set high goals for themselves and for the students they teach.

Where Do We Go From Here?

What is the reform of education? It isn't something out there that will magically improve our schools. We believe that both in K-12 schools and here at Earlham, the reform of education consists of four main commitments:

(1) That we have high expectations and standards for all students.

(2) That as students progress, we assess their progress towards meeting those standards.

(3) That all of us commit ourselves to the success of each and every student.

(4) And that we build fruitful community partnerships that allow our individual commitments efforts to join together as effectively as possible for the success of each student.

Each of these are commitments we have already made within Earlham, and that we need to sustain. But we are urging that we extend those commitments by engaging our surrounding community to improve education.

A commit to high standards means our having increased awareness of established standards in K-12 education, and our participating in local, state and national discussions about the adequacy of those standards. It also means our being more effective in our marketing work about communicating our high standards here at Earlham to potential students, their parents and teachers.

A commitment to assessing student learning means that we contribute to thoughtful local, state and national discussion about how we measure student progress. In K-12 schools that must mean going beyond English and math to include other subject areas such as science, history and the arts. At Earlham, it means carrying through with our commitment to assess student learning in all majors. We have a particular challenge at the college level to find honest and constructive ways to assess higher and more sophisticated forms of student learning. How do we assess the capacity to do research? to make judgements? to know oneself? And if our ultimate goal for students here at Earlham is transformation, how do we assess that?

A commitment to the success of each and every student is a commitment we need to remake every day, to ourselves and to those with whom we learn and teach. This is the commitment that makes Earlham a learning community. As citizens, we can help see that this commitment to every student's learning radiates throughout Wayne County.

One particular way we can contribute to the success of every single student is by making sure that Earlham continues to be a place that prepares teachers. We want prospective students to see Earlham as the best possible place, bar none, for college if they want to become teachers.

Another particular way Earlham can contribute to making a commitment to the learning success of every student is by helping to present research on best practices and successful approaches. Almost two years ago, Earlham participated with the Parents Coalition for Literacy and others in Wayne County to bring Dr. Reid Lyon to this area. He talked passionately about research that shows we know how to teach virtually every child to read. (The only remaining question is: do we have the will to do that?) This year, we will again be working with the Parent's Coalition for Literacy to bring Dr. Marilyn Adams to Richmond. She will talk about..

Through ELII and REACH we can contribute to the ongoing professional development of teachers, helping to see that teachers in the schools together with teachers here at Earlham stay abreast of our best current understanding of what contributes to successful student learning.

Finally, there is the commitment to building fruitful partnerships to join together our individual efforts. Within Earlham this means recommitting to the partnership between the teaching faculty and Student Development that we talked about last year. It means all of us working together. beyond Earlham, it means sustaining ELII and REACH. It means recommitting ourselves to seeing education as a lifelong process, and working constructively with those responsible for other stages in the process. It means not just seeing but doing education as a K-16 whole.

In closing today, we have two invitations we would like to extend.

First, we want to mention a special opportunity that will come next June. Earlham will host a joint meeting of the Friends Council on Education and the Friends Association for Higher Education. Friends Council is an organization for K-12 Quaker schools and teachers. The Friends Association for Higher Education is a Quaker organization for Quaker colleges and college teachers. Mostly these two organizations meet separately, replicating the gulf between schools and colleges. This year, as they do every few years, they will meet together. We will have an opportunity, as Quaker educators and as educators in Quaker schools, to bridge the gulf. You are all invited. We would especially love to have some Earlham students participate.

Our second invitation is to share some punch and cookies with us on the lawn in front of Carpenter. We thank you for your attention today.

END