

Hacking Public Education - jaf12duke
http://humbledmba.com/hacking-public-education

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secstate
I fail to see how this is a hack. A hack suggests some sort of unexpectedly
clever solution, often simple, that solves a specific problem.

The failure of the American educational system is not a specific problem.

Having worked for a newspaper on the education beat for a number of years and
covered an uncountable number of asinine school board meetings, I can honestly
tell you that what works in Colorado may not work in other states in the
union.

Now for the HN cop-out. I'm not against increasing funding for education, nor
increased accountability and power for teachers. These are all great things.
But there's a rotten core to our philosophy of education in this country that
will never be solved by the government or any legal requirements for anything.

Small, focused charter schools or aggressive home schooling are the only real
ways I can see to truly revolutionize the state of education. But those two
are so amazing unpalatable or unpractical for the vast majority of cases that
personally I'm stumped.

Really, if we're all going to be honest, what's going to change this is
parental involvement. Daisy is not the majority of kids (referenced in the
OP), she is an amazing exception and I hope the school system doesn't fail
her. But the bigger issue is the teacher-student apathy to learning cycle. And
that starts with parents who WANT their children to succeed and who understand
how to help their children learn and achieve their goals. In the absence of
that, no money in the world will produce successful children.

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dsk139
Data? You mean small focused charter schools that are opt-in so inherently all
the students at least have an advocate to fight for them are doing better than
the regular classroom where there are students with and without advocates?
There is huge bias in small, focused charter schools because you're dealing
with kids who all have someone who cares enough for them to switch schools and
their success is not an indication of anything.

There is a wide range of charter schools but just like the public education
system a ton of them are terrible and even have huge scandals. There are a few
bright spots, but it's overshadowed by the biases they hold, the excessive
focus on useless tests, and financial corruption found in some schools.

Did not mean to be condescending I have a lot of friends at charter schools
(teaching) and I just don't see this as any type of real solution.

~~~
secstate
A fair point, and not condescending at all :)

That is a major issue. Though I would argue that like many things in America,
we have a false image of ourselves. Our school system is setup to be
socialist, where everyone gets exactly 1 unit of education and then are
released into a supposedly free-market world. That doesn't work, and the flaws
in charter schools you are pointing out are actually exposing the faults in
believing it's possible to deliver exactly 1 unit of education to all
citizens.

I think a lot of folks worried about education reform are running around with
some sort of utopian dream for how the world could be, while not realizing
that there are philosophical arguments that have to be made almost
simultaneously around the notion that not everyone is capable of being
educated the same level, nor do they want to be.

What happened to the pride of voc-ed schools where kids learned specific
skills that would help them earn an income and hopefully provide a high
quality of life for their future families? Put more bluntly: What is the goal
of education?

If we can't answer that, we have no business trying to legislate betters
schools.

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dsk139
As a former middle school science teacher in a low income school I believe the
author has this wrong. The education system has so many complex issues that
throwing more money at it or "adjusting a teacher-tenure framework" is not
revolutionary and should not be praised. There are many districts who have
taken these steps already including the one I previously worked at.

IMHO, there is no silver bullet, but there needs to focus on welfare, poverty,
and long-term investments in our society. Better welfare support, pre-natal
support, etc. In terms of teaching there needs to be a dramatic cultural shift
in how we view teachers which can happen only through increased barrier to
entry and more autonomy.

I was shocked as to how terrible teachers were treated and viewed and how so
many people have it so wrong when it comes to education, which is why I left
the profession to become a software engineer. It is one of the few professions
where everyone seems to be an expert on and knows solutions for the industry
as a whole without ever being a part of it from the side of a teacher or
administrator.

~~~
secstate
Hear, hear.

I believe your comment suggests some of the societal issues that I was at a
loss for how to correct.

Thank you, and I wish people like you were not squeezed out of public
education.

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mdorazio
The number one factor affecting education outcomes isn't teacher salaries,
tenure, or education budgets. It's parent involvement (see
[http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED375968](http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED375968) for an
overview of some of the many studies showing this). Simply put, children whose
parents take an active role on their education easily outperform children
whose parents treat public education as free daycare. Thus, throwing more
money at schools and teachers will at best solve only a few of the challenges
public education faces. It would be better if some of that money and effort
was redirected toward promoting more parental involvement in each child's
education.

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guylhem
How exactly is throwing more gasoline on a fire ($1 billion is a lot of
gasoline) a magical fix for the education problem??

What about trying something different, like deregulation? (ex: less
administrative oversight, less union power, let teachers do their things their
own way, make it easier to fire them if they don't perform)

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wehadfun
>You can’t address public education unless you address the fundamental
problems with how we hire, pay, promote, and fire the teacher

The problem with all these reform policies is that they are focused on the
teacher. Teachers are at the bottom of the barrel in the education world. They
can't choose the books, schedules, punishment, or much of anything in the
class room. They are even told what to teach regardless of the abilities of
there students.

How about the principals, directors of curriculum, various specialist, and all
the rest of the "other" people in education.

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novalis78
"Florida students have demonstrated the strongest gains on the NAEP in the
nation since 2003, when all 50 states began taking NAEP exams. Moreover,
between 1998 and 2008, the average score for black students increased by 12
points in reading from 192 to 204. In Florida, it increased by 25 points—twice
the gains of the national average. If African American students nationwide had
made the same amount of progress as African American students in Florida, the
fourth-grade reading gap between black and white would be approximately half
the size it is today."

[http://educationnext.org/florida-defeats-the-
skeptics/](http://educationnext.org/florida-defeats-the-skeptics/)
[http://blog.heritage.org/2011/04/02/florida-education-
reform...](http://blog.heritage.org/2011/04/02/florida-education-reforms-
succeed-spread-to-other-states/)

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cafard
I don't know how is is now, but in 1970, Colorado had one school system per
county, with the schools within a system having the same level of funding.
Even within a system, there could be a dramatic difference between high
schools. In Denver, TJ seemed to be the best school, followed probably by
South; Manual had not escaped the legacy of being the vocational school. In
Jefferson County, I think that the hierarchy ran something like Wheatridge,
Bear Creek, Golden, Arvada. And kids at the same school could get very
different educations based on family background and even individual
motivation.

But I wish them luck.

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krrishd
As a Coloradan student, I've discussed Amendment 66 with some teachers, and
there are a lot more underlying effects of it that harm the system. Take pay-
for-performance for example. What if the teacher teaches a subject where the
student inherently lacks motivation? Another less obvious issue is that if too
many teachers are reported to perform well, they get audited whether or not
the performance review is accurate. In such a scenario, you're job and salary
is safer if you perform average and not get audited at all rather than perform
excellent and risk suspicion and auditing.

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orr94
Here's why this needs to pass: we need bold changes, and we won't know what
works until we try it. So here's a bold plan, which seems to work on paper. I
wish Pennsylvania would try something like this, or at least something better
than the "slash public education funding" plan.

~~~
sfbsfbsfb
Can you provide some details on the "bold" changes and how they improve
education from the students perspective?

~~~
orr94
[http://coloradocommits.com/66-explained/](http://coloradocommits.com/66-explained/)

~~~
sfbsfbsfb
I think the definition of bold may be what is causing the disconnect. The two
things I saw on the website that stood out were reduced class sizes and the
reinstatement of cancelled programs. I can see how this benefits teachers, but
am not sure how this improves reading, math and reasoning skills and increases
the number of kids that are job/college ready.

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sfbsfbsfb
All three "hacks" mentioned appear to involve spending more money. Unless the
money is spent differently than it currently is, I don't see how this changes
anything from the students perspective.

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pseudometa
I don't see this as hacking anything.

