An interesting perspective: Do you have a hand in this?

 by Olga LaPlante

I am a dy/dan blog reader, and recently there has been a post about bloggers – especially the successful ones – who unknowingly become part of a game to improve money flow to certain institutions. If you are a blogger and don't want to improve the third party's bottom line in this way, you may be interested in learning more: http://blog.mrmeyer.com/?p=9672.
I would love to hear other people's thoughts about this one!

John Dewey's Democracy and Education

Assignment for Business Round Table, Governors, Obama Administration and State Education Officers: Read John Dewey's Democracy and Education and then compare and contrast with the goals of RttT and the Common Core State Standards.


Democracy and Education WikiSource
Amazon: Democracy and Education
World Wide School: D & E
Creating a National Culture of Learning: Education & Democracy
Wikipedia: D & E

Nine Myths About Public Education

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Why Ending Effective Educational Programs Makes Terrible Economic Sense

by Nicole Ouellette

Recently, a local school district has closed off a computer technology program open to high school students. Their reasons cited were low enrollment. My old boss Chris wrote an excellent letter about his experience with the program in the local paper. It got me thinking, beyond the impact of one individual student, how do these programs effect the world beyond the classroom?

Schools exist to make productive members of society. And when you look into the data, a lot of these technical programs end up being pretty effective. They increase graduation rates and beyond that, students who go through these programs earn more money, have lower unemployment, and lower rates of substance abuse.

So subjectively, these programs are fantastic. But what is their actual return on investment, beyond preventing bad things from happening to teenagers?

Let's take my old boss Chris, a former student in a technological program. Chris is the IT Manager of a company that employs 60 people. Let's say he makes $50,000 a year (I have no idea if this is the case but it's a nice round number to work with.)

Money Invested In Chris:
Computer, used over 4 years: $2000
Misc. tech equiptment in addition to computer: $2000
Additional supplies (books, etc.): $1000
Teacher, 4 years salary: $160,000 (assuming $40,000/year)
Computer Tech Support (additional instructor, part time, four years salary): $60,000 (assuming $15,000/year)
Administrative costs (part time, four years salary): $60,000
Total Cost: $285,000 , Cost per Year: $71,250 (After four years, investment is zero)

Money Returned From Chris:
Taxes to Chris' salary (assuming $50,000 salary): $12,500/year
Money spent by Chris of his salary (assuming 25% of his salary goes into savings, 25% to taxes): $25,000/year
Volunteer hours (including Rotary, assuming 2 hours/week at value of $25/hour): $2,600
Total Money Back Into Economy Each Year: $40,100
Years To Pay Off Education Costs (Breaking Even): 7.09 years

So the technical program has not only paid himself off but made a 'profit' in eight years. Also, I assumed that Chris was using resources (including his teacher) exclusively when in actuality, costs would be shared by several students. I also assumed in my calculations a relatively high salary for teachers and a relatively low salary for Chris. I am also not counting how much it costs to treat some of the problems that are created when people do not have access to educational opportunities.

To be fair, maybe not all of Chris' classmates are equally productive. That said, looking at the graph, after an additional 7 years, Chris has put enough resources back into the economy for two people.

The point is technical education programs, from a purely objective standpoint, contribute to our economy, in addition to improving the lives of individual students.

So if your school is considering cutting back programs to save costs, I encourage you to fight it, especially if you are out of the educational community. Because as you can see, the cost of putting a productive member into society is relatively little compared to what society will get back.

Nicole, formerly in education, runs her own technology-related business and writes her blog at www.breakingeveninc.com/blog.

Jack IN the box or Jack OUT of the box?

by Dave Burke

Greetings. A disclaimer before I start. This is Jim's brother Dave. While I have a great deal of interest in education, my experience is limited to providing corporate training, and adjunct faculty instruction at Andover College. I have a B.A. degree in Economics and an M.B.A. I've worked for a major corporate concern for the past twenty years. Thus, you won't read many educational acronyms in this article.

But, I have opinions, and Jim offered me the opportunity to post here after I feared for his safety following his lack of posts to this blog since last Thursday. He's fine, but busy doing things off the Borg, so to speak.

I'm not entirely sure what the demographics of his readership are, but I'm guessing it consists of educators that are interested in the integration of technology into education, and perhaps some who are interested in shaking things up.

The advent of the internet is a wonderful thing. But this non-educator (at least in the primary and secondary fields) is of the opinion that public schools have been slow to adapt any substantial change in the way things are done.

Let's step back for a minute and pretend that the new super collider created some black holes and sucked the earth inside out and then, by a freak of nature, brought us back without scars. Except that the black hole wiped out all government institutions, and institutional memory concerning how our children are to be educated.

Given a blank sheet of paper, how would YOU proceed?

Myself, I see today's education system as an archaic dinosaur. Frankly, I don't see a big difference in the schools than when I was in them. (I graduated from Mexico High School in 1980. )

We still try to force students to learn in the classroom. Perhaps some computer stuff is thrown in for variety, but it's still the same old drill. And you know what, we're still not doing the best we could to develop children with substantial work skills. As a previous post stated, a lot of students still don't feel worthy.

Let me step out on a limb and throw out a few ideas.

1. Dump the concept of school grades. (meaning 1st grade, 2nd grade, etc.) Instead, develop a list of core competencies that must be met prior to "graduating". Why continue to stick to such an archaic system? It either pushes some ahead too early, and/or bores others. Some students may be ready for "College" by the age of fourteen, others may need until they are in their 20's. It really doesn't matter in the long run, does it?
   
2. Have teachers become knowledge managers. Integrate self-paced technology and tutoring from staff to teach competencies.
   
3. Completely revamp and reduce teacher certifications. The present system makes it difficult, if not impossible for others to enter the profession if they don't choose the "education" major in college when they're in their 20's. Instead of fully staffing a school with education majors, instead have them organize the teaching of competencies, then hire "adjunct" elementary and secondary teachers to teach mini-classes. These "adjunct" faculty need not have Education degrees. Frankly, they need not even have degrees period, just be able to teach a subject. This would encourage people with broad experiences in all types of employment to share their skills and knowledge. The core staff of educators could still assist in designing curriculums, providing guidance, etc. Encourage home schooling, and work with parents in instructional methods and resources. This core staff need not even be located in the same town, or state, or country.
   
4. Quit buying textbooks. Develop "open-source" books. (they already exist, I"m sure), and collaboratively improve computer based learning programs.
5. Re-think what "core competencies" are. Introduce new ones, like being knowledgable about the use of e-mail, instant messenging, and other communication skills, including etiquette . Place more emphasis on "life skills", like managing a family budget, credit considerations, health, and so on. Start internships when students are in their teens. Give them a feel for what working is all about.
   
6. Quit being so worried about structure. Learning is about discovery. Let students discover, explore, follow their own path.
   

There's already others who have thought about this, including a site on New Education Paradigm, Holistic Education, and A new Paridigm for Undergraduate Education.

Society is changing. Shouldn't our Educational Paradigm? If you think it should, HOW will this ever happen without a blackhole sucking the earth inside-out and erasing institutional memory?

I'm sure most of you have thought about this too. What do YOU think? Am I totally off my rocker?