What Works In Education: Scientific Evidence Gets Ignored 440
nbauman writes "According to Gina Kolata in the New York Times, The Institute of Education Sciences in the Department of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, has supported 175 randomized controlled studies, like the studies used in medicine, to find out what works and doesn't work, which are reported in the What Works Clearinghouse. Surprisingly, the choice of instructional materials — textbooks, curriculum guides, homework, quizzes — can affect achievement as much as teachers; poor materials have as much effect as a bad teacher, and good materials can offset a bad teacher's deficiencies. One popular math textbook was superior to 3 competitors. A popular computer-assisted math program had no benefit. Most educators, including principals and superintendents, don't know the data exists. 42% of school districts had never heard of the clearinghouse. Up to 90% of programs that seemed promising in small studies had no effect or made achievement scores worse. For example a program to increase 7th-grade math teachers' understanding of math increased their understanding but had no effect on student achievement. Upward Bound had no effect."
Creation (Score:1, Insightful)
Educators in some parts of the country are too busy trying to get "Creation Science" into real science textbooks. They don't have time to figure out what is actually best for the students!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/06/creationists-textbooks-texas_n_3689154.html [huffingtonpost.com]
Teacher do not know Mathematics. (Score:5, Insightful)
The problem is most education professionals are not so good at understanding Math, and many really do not trust is.
You go to any college and talk to education majors, and ask them why they didn't major in other majors, after they repeat the normal BS, about wanting to help children yadda yadda, It comes down to the fact that many of the other majors that has a clear career path requires much more Math study, and they don't like Math.
Sure we have a few educators like Math and Science teachers who get it, but they are the minority, and the ones who seems to get promoted to positions where they can make decisions, are usually History and English teachers. So they don't know about this research is because they are not looking for it, and they really don't want to find it, because the numbers may contradict what you opinion is, and no one likes that.
We have the State and Unions fighting over these details and little focus on what works.
This is sad (Score:5, Insightful)
I had horrible teachers growing up, when I say horrible, all but one of them was even worth her paycheck . An elementary school teacher should be an expert in all areas that they teach.
In my elementary school ( 1992 - 2000 ) we had one teacher for the entire day, that teacher did math, history, english and etc.... For the school system to effectively work what you need is for that teacher to be an expert in all of those subjects, an expert to the point that they don't require a textbook. The textbook is for the students to assist and supplement the information from the teacher, NOT for the teacher to use as a coverup for not knowing the subject.
So often we as students were told to close the textbooks and just understand the material well a lazy teacher sat at the front of the room and simply just read from it. A big secret to good education is that the teacher should never be doing the students job, reading from a textbook simple means that the teacher is only as qualified as the student and not really doing his / her job.
This post talks about the materials that the students can use to assist in there education. Well in my school we had the resources but the teachers and support staff just weren't trained on how to deploy and use the materials. The computer lab was off limits because ALL of the teachers had no clue how to really use them, the science lab was closed because the teachers and staff didn't know how to setup or use the equipment.
This is my problem with the school system, it's setup to protect the teachers and it leaves the students on the side of the road. I pointed this out in my school several times when I was there and every time I was given an excuse, "The teachers work very hard and it's not there job" or "The government wants us to teach this way so we are". It's sad and horrible, the school system ( in Canada ) is in the shitter. I have little cousins right now and from what they tell me the system hasn't changed.
So what's my point? Well here is the big secret to making the education system work, HIRE QUALIFIED TEACHERS AND GET THE RIGHT MATERIAL IN PLACE!!!!!! That's it, it hasn't happened yet at least from what I've seen and been through. Simple answer to a not complicated question.
To any teacher that doesn't fit into what I just explained I don't want to bash you. I know good teachers and good school exist, they do and they are great, just the majority of the system is broke and that shouldn't make the good few look bad.
Re:D.A.R.E has no benefit (Score:5, Insightful)
"Scarce dollars"? There has been literally trillions of dollars poured into public education over the past 50 years, An absolutely insane amount of money is still being spent - but the quality continues to decline. Anyone who cares about education needs to get this through their head - *money does not solve this problem*. The issue is lack of standards, lack of quality teachers, and endless ivory-tower meddling in the educational process. None of those are solved by money.
Re:D.A.R.E has no benefit (Score:5, Insightful)
"Scarce dollars"? There has been literally trillions of dollars poured into public education over the past 50 years, An absolutely insane amount of money is still being spent - but the quality continues to decline. Anyone who cares about education needs to get this through their head - *money does not solve this problem*. The issue is lack of standards, lack of quality teachers, and endless ivory-tower meddling in the educational process. None of those are solved by money.
Yes, scarce, but that's rather beside the point of TFA. So are "quality teachers" and 'ivory-tower meddling" (whatever the fuck that is). TFA seems to make a case for spending more wisely, like buying teaching materials that actually work, or more fundamentally, becoming aware that the data to guide such purchases even exists. Such lack of awareness is inexcusable, but clearly, it is pervasive. How's about we work on that problem instead of parroting the same tired shit you hear on Faux News?
Re:Creation (Score:5, Insightful)
If you mean climate control then there are overwhelming boatloads of scientific evidence if you look for it. Years of data compiled and analyzed.
And what do you mean "supports the Bible"? I mean the bible doesn't even support itself with all the endless contradictions. There is no science in that. Not sure what SD is.
Re:Creation (Score:5, Insightful)
The problem in Texas is that they ARE trying to influence the textbook companies and since they are one of the largest purchasers of textbooks they actually could potentially have some success. Except for the whole separation of church and state thing that keeps kicking their ass in court.
Re:So much does not work (Score:5, Insightful)
But there is a wonderfully effective way to use computers in education. You look at student's marks. You then look at the pattern of the marks as the student's pass through various teachers.
What?!!! That would allow you to actually truly measure teacher performance and effectiveness. It would make bad teachers absolutely impossible to miss.
WE CAN'T HAVE THAT NOW CAN WE???
Re:D.A.R.E has no benefit (Score:3, Insightful)
I don’t want to get into a huge tangent on this topic, but rest assured there are plenty of school districts in the US that don’t have enough money. While I agree that throwing money at these districts indiscriminately won’t solve anything, it’s pretty hard to build a quality educational systems without sufficient funding. This is especially true in districts where the educational system has to contend children who have difficult home lives and parents who are themselves undereducated. Money certainly can't solve the problem, but it is a significant part of the equation.
We live in a society where those who sell children toys make exponentially more than the people who educate children. That a very simplistic statement, but it touches on the matter of our shared social value system. This gets into a lot of issues concerning market based vs universal public education, but, again, that’s a tangent. The major point is simply that when we move beyond lip-service and rhetoric, education isn’t a core value for our society.
Re:D.A.R.E has no benefit (Score:5, Insightful)
Maybe.
There was a study about 10 years ago that showed zero correlation between teacher pay, teacher effectiveness, and academic results between states.
Probably what is more important is teacher requirement, training, and management. If you increased teacher pay today without changing the above you would increasing pay to those who are already teachers or are likely to become teachers.
I have issues with how teacher’s pay is structured. The initial pay is low and most of the benefits are at the backend so it encourages marginal teachers to become entrenched and discourages middle aged people from making a career switch into the profession. (I think there is a rich vein of potential people who hold masters in math, science, or engineering who would make great teachers but don’t want to deal with the initial low pay and would not qualify for some of the bigger retirement packages.)
Re:No shocker there (Score:5, Insightful)
Obligatory XKCD:
http://xkcd.com/1201/ [xkcd.com]
For those not sure why this is appropriate: the hypothetical teacher explains the rule, but not how to apply the rule or what use it is. We have all had professors like this. It is why teaching is a whole separate skill from the trade itself.
Re:Moral of the story.... (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes, if you want your kids to be both ignorant and socially retarded, then please homeschool them.
While I will agree some home schooled kids receive a good level education, considering that it also requires significant discipline from the parents usually home schooled children come from families of highly opinionated and socially maladjusted adults that are simply pushing their own narrow minded views of life on their children.
For instance a religious parent is going to skip over the bits of "science" that don't align with the Bible, or a vegan parent is going to force their children to be vegan. And then on top of that the parent controls every aspect of social interaction of the child with other children, they are going to pick and choose only children from other families with a similar narrow-minded outlook on life. If you want to hide your children from being able to make their own decisions in life when they become an adult, then clone their minds to your exact POV through home school. The role of a parent is to guide their child to adulthood, not to make carbon copies of themselves.
And yes, social interaction is a lot more important in the long run than IQ. IQ is nothing, its a measure of how well you can retain information. Having a high IQ but then being socially awkward means you probably won't have a lot of success in life. It might not be fair, but applying for a job is a social experience, your resume can be full of glowing recommendations from your, um, parents, but you ain't getting that job if you can't demonstrate compatibility with the culture of the company you are applying for.
Hiding your child from social interaction just to selectively shove information into their brains, does that sound like a great idea? I mean homeschooling is pretty much just a step away from being a cult with a lot fewer members.
Re:Creation (Score:2, Insightful)
Are you in one of those countries throwing bananas at black people? Or one of the ones that bans parapets on mosques? Or maybe you live in a country with a blanket ban on genetic engineering in crops? We all have our embarrassing vices.
Re:No shocker there (Score:4, Insightful)
No it's fucking not. We don't pay thousands upon thousands of dollars for an infrequently consulted FAQ. A professor's job is to teach undergraduates a significant and deep understanding of the material, and a graduate professor's job is to expand on that to the point that their students become *producers* of knowledge rather than consumers.