Category: Education

Education costs trending towards zero

There’s a lot of talk about how the cost of education is decreasing year over year because of the advances in technology. Free courses, free text

image from freebeer.org
image from freebeer.org

books, free content available from the most prestigious universities in the world, all online, accessible all the time to anyone anywhere.

Josh Catone of Mashable wrote a quick article about how those three forces (free text books, free courses, free course ware) are trending the cost of “education” in the traditional sense towards zero. It makes some sense.  But I don’t fully buy it.

There are major advantages to the University structure that contribute to many areas of society other than the preparation of individuals for jobs or civic involvement: economic development, organization of dissenting views/opinions, creation of new technology, centers for investment in research, maintaining thriving university-centered communities, etc. etc.

But mostly I don’t buy it because education has been “free” (as in free speech, not free beer) forever.  Honestly, probably the best invention to make learning free was the book (because you didn’t need a storyteller to educate you anymore); then the library made the books freely available to those who wanted them (not that the industrious didn’t find ways to borrow them prior to that).  The Mashable article was basically saying that the internet was bring the cost to zero.  Um, no.  The internet is changing education, but only in efficiency and reach (not necessarily in accessibility).

The fact of the matter is that for advanced nations, the content is reaching new people, while not-as-advanced countries are struggling to get internet (accessibility is still hampered).  Not only that but near 100% of the content is in English (another barrier for the least “educated”).  It’d be nice to have totally free education and even free college degrees for those that want to pursue them.  In some sense that’s already happening and has been happening for 100s of years.  Before there were standards and accreditation, men were self-made and educated for free.

Ben Franklin did it as an indentured servant to his brother, reading in his spare moments and writing and practicing using borrowed books.  He didn’t go to college but turned out pretty highly regarded.  And if you’re thinking, “but that’s just Benjamin Franklin…” then I say this, other less well known men have done the same for generations and made their mark in history with FREE educations (and many more because we so often enforce a price on traditional educational systems, barring them from entry to their own benefit).

Now, I do believe education is much too expensive and increasing unjustly in price year after year.  But if you truly want to learn, the options and content are, and always have been, available to you.

Related: if you’re interested in Benjamin Franklin and his life, check out the free ebook from Dailylit.com.

Malcolm Gladwell Does NECC

One of my favorite writers, Malcolm Gladwell (The Outliers, Blink, and The Tipping Point) gave one of the keynote addresses at NECC in Washington DC this year.  It’s a great talk that ambles along to touch on the 10,000 hour rule (read Outliers for his complete piece about that), Fleetwood Mac and what it really means to learn and to construct a learning community.

Gladwell is savvy enough to touch on the most poignant aspects of the current education debate, specifically that small classes don’t mean jack.  The recording is pretty good quality and more information can be found at this site.

Even if you’re not into education, this is a great listen about what it takes to be successful and how we often forget about/discount/downplay the hard work that our greatest and brightest put in before they become ‘stars’.  Gladwell starts at about 54 minutes and closes out the recording.

gladwell

How do you measure "Teacher Performance"?

From Open Education today…

In a major speech to the members of the National Education Association today, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan insisted it was time to not only rethink teacher seniority and tenure, it was time to tie those elements and pay to teacher performance.

Whether you’re on this side or not.  We can all agree that the move is bold, but all the pieces have not been created yet.  Most importantly, in my opinion, is that lack of a clear definition or method for measuring “teacher performance”.  It’s ironic, because the legislation we’re moving away from had a clear objective (student performance) as measured by the standardized testing through NCLB.  Unfortunately, after the hoopla of small class size, rural vs. urban schools, placement programs, magnets, etc. etc. we’re down from a meta analysis of data to 1 metric: Great teachers means students learn and succeed.  John Dewey probably could have told you that.  Looking back at my own education I could probably tell you which teachers were great and which were not, but that’s not very much use now (except for the fact that many of my teachers are still employed at the same schools I went to…so maybe I’m actually on to something…).

We (the USA) need to really buckle down on what teacher perfomance is, how it’s measured and what level of performance should our current and future teachers be working to achieve?  One of the only details to date is that teacher bonuses are offered for teachers that have a National

www.nbpts.org
www.nbpts.org

Board Certification.

This is an interesting piece of information which plays well into the overall goal (if I’ve read the news correctly) of aligning the teacher performance question with that of a unified teacher certification for all states.  As a short sighted solution, this could very quickly improve teachers in many of the lower performing states over the next 5 years.  However in the long term significant research will be needed to address what teacher performance really means (or even the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards might struggle to answer).

CA ditches bound books for their digital counterparts…hell freezes over.

Honestly?  I’m shocked.  I think this is fantastic, revolutionary, crazy, awesome…and sad.  But I didn’t see it happening this soon.  You can read about textbooks anywhere to find out how ridiculous the authoring process and business really is (this is one of my favorite articles “Textbook Example of What’s Wrong with Education“).

I think it’s great because digital textbooks are the future (I might have thought further in the future).  With ebook technology coming from major consumer electronic manufacturers at an increasing rate (just check out the Kindle DX) and the ability to store the books and ‘mark them up’ for extended periods of time is growing ever closer. Plus, they are cheap (no printing costs, immediate delivery, etc).  And Gov. Schwarzenegger likes them, “The governor of California wants state students to ditch bulky books in favour of up-to-the-minute digital texts on the internet” (DailyMail online).

What saddens and worries me though, is that this revolutionary change is brought on by a vast budget crisis.  According to the DailyMail article the CA State textbook budget is over 200 million a year.  This plan is to simply slash that and take advantage of the text books available at sites like

But in most cases you have to pay for quality, so there will still be an expense.  This is not to mention that students will HAVE to have some device (computer, ebook reading, netbook, ipod, or otherwise) to access the material.  This will cost MUCH more than the original textbook budget allocation (as these devices are 4-5 X the cost of a textbook, or more).

Sure there is some overlap with 1-1 computer policies (which CA has not opted for) so other states like Maine would be easily transitioned down the same road as California.  But the education budget is hurting in ALL ASPECTS in the golden state, which means less computers, fewer devices and MORE burden on students and their families to ensure that their students have the tools they need to do their school work.

Before students needed just a backpack to carry them home and a little more initiative just to open the books.  No need for a backpack anymore, but they will need something much more sophisticated just to crack the cover.

Brigid Schulte — The Case for Year-Round School – washingtonpost.com

WaPo: <Brigid Schulte — The Case for Year-Round School – washingtonpost.com

I think year round school is a great idea.  I did what I would consider year round school starting in fifth grade or so.  First it was working and participating in a summer hot lunch program that my mom organized, then I worked the kitchen there doing all sorts of services (I still love to cook).  Later, in high school it was a more organized and official program sponsored by the federal government.  The program was called Upward Bound (A TRIO organization, which is a federal program for 1st generation college students who are also low income).

I engaged advanced calc, SAT Prep, dissected a pig fetus (I did nothing of the sort at regular high school) and learned computer skills and other cool stuff (this is paired frequently with job training and placement, a residential program, college visits and other extracurricular activities).

I’m not convinced that summer break is all that helpful (it was for me ONLY when I needed to work through college…not that I loved construction that much).  Certainly I support the year-round schooling.  In fact, make the days longer too!  As long as the content and teachers are good, the difference will only be better prepared and enthusiastic students.

If school’s not a place to learn “CPR, calligraphy, Japanese, rollerblading and how to make art like Andy Warhol and Jackson Pollock,” where is that place?

Rejected, bummed, but resolved

It’s a real bummer to work towards something so hard, to stack the chips in one’s favor and to practice and prepare and then get rejected (for the 2nd time).

I was keen on joining Teach For America because I believe I can make a difference in education given the opportunity.  It’s a hard reality to face that I just might not be good enough.  I feel somewhat a failure, cause 1000s of students and graduates did get it.  More so, I feel like I’m missing out on a huge opportunity to pay one forward to students around the country that are missing out on a higher quality education.

So, I’m a little bummed.  It’s like not getting that job that you were in the final round of interviews for.  Then finding out that all of the other candidates were ivy leaguers (which, apparently is the case for T4A).

I’m also resolved though, that we are on the right track (and yes, I include myself in the “we”).  It’s great that such educated graduates and students are filling the gaps that otherwise were filled with full-time substitutes and under qualified staff members.  T4A is an important stop-gap for our educational crisis, which is best, I think summed up by Friedman in a new Op-Ed in the Times:

In the 1950s and 1960s, the U.S. dominated the world in K-12 education. We also dominated economically. In the 1970s and 1980s, we still had a lead, albeit smaller, in educating our population through secondary school, and America continued to lead the world economically, albeit with other big economies, like China, closing in. Today, we have fallen behind in both per capita high school graduates and their quality. Consequences to follow.

According to Wendy Kopp, same article by Tom Friedman:

Our total applications are up 40 percent. Eleven percent of all Ivy League seniors applied, 16 percent of Yale’s senior class, 15 percent of Princeton’s, 25 percent of Spellman’s and 35 percent of the African-American seniors at Harvard. In 130 colleges, between 5 and 15 percent of the senior class applied.

At least I can say I made it to the final round.  Now if I can only figure out how to get Wendy Kopp to call me…

I may have missed this opportunity, but there will be more.  Now I have plenty of time on my hands to figure out what’s next.  I still have a job, I still have a wonderful life ahead of me.  Someday I’ll help tackle the issues in education a little bit more directly than just spouting nonsense on a blog, followed by no one, subscribed to by yours truly.  It is what it is.

Credit Cards and Classes

Students charged an average of $2,200 in direct eduction expenses — such as tuition — on their high-interest-rate credit cards last year, according to the study from Sallie Mae, the student loan giant.

Hell, most students would probably pay their rent with a CC if they could.  It’s no wonder…who really is to blame though?

  • The students and their poorly developed saving skills and financial knowledge….
  • or the college that charges 45,000 a year for tuition and room and board (and then add’s books on top)?

Obama like Bush on Education

“Obama is, in effect, giving George W. Bush a third term in education” (edweek: “Obama Echoes Bush on Education Ideas”)–here’s a link to a copied, published version on gdocs.

So says Diane Ravich, a writer for edweek.org.  She says this because Obama is carrying the torch for teacher quality, standardized assessment and charter schools.  Where he differs, according to the document, is private school vouchers.

The real place where he differs is funding.  Unfunded mandates are now getting some of the support that they’ve needed for years.

In the past, I would have classified myself as anti-standarized assessments (the term widely popularized by NCLB).  I’ve done a 180 though, not because I now like them, but because I understand how successful assessments for learning (not to measure learning) can help students and teachers both take the reigns  to promote better learning.

The difference between these types of assessment (for learning and to gauge learning) is how they are implemented in a classroom.  A pretest and post pretest review are assessments for learning.  The final test gauges learning.  More of the former better prepares the student for the final assessment (but only when the teacher and student take an active role in deciphering the strengths and weaknesses of a student and work to reward the strengths and fix the weaknesses).  Some might call it adaptive assessment or ongoing assessment, but really it’s a mind set.

I think this goes right along with merit-based pay as well.  Good and great teachers will be experts at this type of assessment, paving the way for student success throughout daily lessons.  Actively engaging students in their own learning.

Personally I’m excited by Obama’s education agenda so far, especially if he chooses to learn from the local challenges and triumphs that Michelle Rhee is seeing in DC’s schools.

Time will tell.

The Golden Age of Education

In a recent “Open Education” post, the concept of TMI “too much information” was discussed in context of our ability to make sense of the news in front of us, buffetting us, surrounding us.  The article is a great read about how lots and lots of information has changed the game (for good or bad, well, that seems to be in the eye of the beholder).

The article ends with this, a discussion of “A Golden Age”:

A Golden Age

If knowledge is truly power, then we should be entering a golden age, one where everyone has unlimited access to the authority once held only by the elite in society.

The fact that we seem to be far from such a place does beg several questions.

And the biggest one befalls education – many have written that the next phase of schooling must move towards a focus that places the information age at its core for the next generation of learners. In fact, it would seem that the words of Postman are most prescient – twenty years ago he noted the volume of information that was being produced and the issues that it would present.

But education changed little over those 20 years. So we now have a large group of citizens unable to emotionally and intellectually handle the breadth of information available to them.

The answer is certainly not to limit information. The answer is in creating an educational system that helps individuals understand how to best make use of the knowledge.

The power that today’s information-rich society has available is truly unprecedented. As always, education is the great equalizer, but now we must turn our attention towards helping our young people learn how to filter, reduce and use the knowledge that is accessible to them.

I’m good with that.  The issue I see though (and I see this everyday) is that the realm of education by default, places itself outside the information.  It’s a walled castle with limited access and filtered news.  If you were to make a little venn diagram of “Information” and “Education’s Information” (which represents what students and teachers have at their disposal on any given day) then just their edges would be touching.

Early in the Open Education post it talked about the Davinci Institute’s stats on blogs, books, and videos.  At best, few schools provide their students access the complete library of information available through video and blog posts (blogger and youtube are often blocked completely).

I agree with the need to have education refocus on the information available.  But if it’s filtered what’s the point?