The Chronicle needs an education expert
Yesterday's Chronicle story about parents who are upset that HISD is closing some schools with low-enrollment numbers, and today's Chronicle editorial applauding HISD superintendent Abe Saavedra's plan to reduce testing, highlight a big problem with old media, especially newspapers: a lack of expertise -- in this case, expertise in public education. (blogHOUSTON has mentioned this problem of expertise before.)
Yesterday Jason Spencer missed an opportunity to explore, in greater depth, how the school closings will be handled. Instead, he found a few parents and highlighted their complaints. Here's my favorite:
"It's ridiculous," said 74-year-old Vera Sharp, who lives less than a block from the school her granddaughter attends. "It's ridiculous for poor folks, especially working women."
Even though the school Douglass students would attend, Dodson Elementary, is just a mile away, it is on the other side of Interstate 45, said Geraldine Stafford, who has four grandchildren at Douglass.
"That means I would have to walk them across the freeway," she said.
Please. Even the most clueless school district isn't going to expect students to walk across a freeway! Buses would obviously be provided in that case. It's elementary school children we are talking about here.
And what does Spencer provide to balance that?
HISD officials said they will consider other ways to get students to Dodson.
Spencer should have encouraged HISD officials to explain their gameplan for the transition. Or he could have looked at what other school districts have done when faced with school closures. There's nothing wrong with highlighting community concerns, but why not explore the answers, too?
And then there's today's editorial. The editors praise Saavedra for trying to lessen the time spent teaching standardized testing (as we did), but they don't offer much in the way of how it can be accomplished, except for this:
As one teacher noted, a teacher can take a class lagging far behind and bring it up a full grade level or two in one term, but the students still will not test at grade level. Hardworking, talented teachers such as that deserve recognition and reward that might not be indicated by their students' standardized test scores.
The plan for education success is not a mystery and I've said it repeatedly here (so repeatedly that readers are probably tired of reading it): a school needs well-trained teachers, teaching a solid curriculum, who have good classroom discipline and who are backed by strong support staff. That combination will generally produce students who can pass standardized tests, without wasted time trying to "teach to the test." Cut out the excess fluff, increase the time spent actually teaching, and make that teaching focus on basics.
The fact that this is left unexpressed by the editors leads me to believe they are not well-versed in what successful education requires.
My point here is this: Chronicle reporters and Chronicle editors are not education experts, and that's okay, IF they have access to an education expert who can help guide them in answering questions and understanding the ins and outs of education. I write often about public education because I am passionate about good public education. However, I am far from an education expert. What I do have is access to someone I trust, who IS an education expert, and readers can decide for themselves if the opinions I offer reflect an education expertise worth considering. The Chronicle needs to find at least one education expert (NOT a theorist!) who has experience successfully teaching students, who is familiar with school and school district administrations (and their politics), and who understands the particulars of school funding; and use that person to produce better information for readers. As the one major daily newspaper in town, I think the Chronicle has that responsibility.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/06/05 11:46 AM | Print |
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