In a pretty stunning story October 7, 2009 reporter Joseph Dits summarized presentations made by state education officials and their consultants at a Chamber of Conference of St. Joseph County summit.
I call it stunning because, though Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tony Bennett, revealed he had some quibbles with state policy, he chiefly laid the blame for poor results at the feet of local schools and their boards. And this exchange reported by Mr. Dits was very troubling.
Businessman Perry Watson III told the leaders they failed to speak of the importance of preschool and primary education. He also said he believed they need to talk about educating parents, saying, "There's a disproportionate burden on the system, and parents always get a pass."
Bennett said he is a proponent of preschool but doesn't think it's a cure for what's ailing education in kindergarten through 12th grade.
If Bennett really believes that, then he needs to be introduced to the vast number of studies which will pretty much unanimously confirm he has no idea what he's talking about. He can start with the National Institute of Early Education at Rutgers University. They routinely cover the results of state sponsored universal pre-kindergarten programs, which invariably provide measurably improved outcomes. The states of Oklahoma, New Mexico and others have had such programs in place for years. And Indiana....?
This state won't even fund universal full-day Kindergarten. Heck, Kindergarten attendance in Indiana is optional. Don't feel like enrolling your kid? No problem.
Additionally, Indiana cuts off admittance to grade level (by birthdate) earlier than any other state. This means children in Indiana begin their state provided education later than in anywhere else in the country. Add this all up, and it’s clear that one of the hardest jobs in the world is being a First Grade teacher in Indiana. In your classroom you'll find children with two years of pre-school - plus Kindergarten - under their belts, and possibly children who are in a school setting for the first time in their lives. There will be at least twenty of them altogether.
I wonder how Mr. Bennett figures these children who start late will make up these deficits. Does he think that it’s the job of these valiant First Grade Teachers to even the odds by the years end? Does he think these kids need to pull themselves up by their book straps? Neither will happen.
And this wisdom comes from a man who proposes that it isn't that important to know how to teach in order to teach. His claim is that people who major in the subject area they plan to teach, will learn more about the subject than an education major will. (I guess he thinks folks will figure out that teaching stuff on the job). This was neatly refuted by the Dean of the School of Education of Indiana University who pointed out that it is often the case that education majors are required to take more hours on the given subject than is required of students majoring in the subject.
And of course Mr. Bennett has tried to be helpful in so many other ways. Like insisting that school corporations can no longer have any half days in lieu of full days. This effectively eliminated the twice a year parent teacher conferences, because it would have required renegotiating teacher contracts in order to add days to the school calendar. As my daughter's first grade teacher pointed out, if what he wanted was to make sure children received a minimum time period in classes in a given year, he could have instituted an hour requirement - as Michigan uses. All a school system would need to do is lengthen the school day by a few minutes - not subject to contract amendment.
And you'd think if Mr. Bennett was looking for success for students, he'd advocate that all school systems utilize programs with proven track records - and admonish the legislature to fund such programs. Wouldn't you?
The Wilson/LiPS reading program, which focuses on the decoding and encoding of English words and stimulating phonemic awareness, has a stunning record of success. Introduced to the South Bend School Corporation by Hay Primary Center Principal Craig Haenes, through private donations it has become available in three other schools - but the School Corporation has no money to take it system wide. On the other hand, Wilson LiPS might be useful to our High Schoolers if we ignore early education.
In short, Mr. Bennett inspires little confidence he’s up to the task of improving our schools.
