A recent CNN poll reported that seven in ten Americans think Iran already has nuclear weapons. This lack of even a basic grasp of the facts by 70 percent of Americans on a controversial topic that has been at the top of the news here for nearly a decade is, I’m afraid, all too symptomatic of the poor quality of this country’s educational system, the undue influence of its entertainment and sensationalist right-wing media exacerbated by the pervasiveness of niche television as a result of the cable revolution, combined with an unwillingness – or inability - of too many Americans to read – or even listen - beyond the often blaring but misleading headlines.
When I taught undergraduate classes in international and comparative politics at the University of New Mexico several years ago, I was appalled at the weak educational backgrounds exhibited by far too many of the students I encountered in my lower division classes. Too many lacked basic writing skills, not to mention the ability to engage in analysis and critical thought.
Sadly, the least qualified of them were too often education majors: one sure way to perpetuate the problem from one generation to the next. One semester, my international politics class followed a class by a professor who taught remedial reading. Remedial reading? At the state’s largest and most prestigious university?
Upper division a different story
By the time UNM students reached the upper division, however, wheat and chaff had separated. Almost all of the students I had in my upper division Islam and Politics courses were of a much higher quality. Included were some of the better students I had taught previously. A few were graduate students. Even a few sophomores were in the course too. They were usually political science or history majors – although there were a few religion and literature majors tossed in and even a few in the hard sciences. The overall comprehension and skills gaps between the lower and upper division classes were elephantine.
Basically, too many students were inadequately prepared for college in the first place. Regardless, the university’s all too easy – open – admissions policy let them in anyway. This did no one any favors. It was difficult on and demoralizing to the faculty, heart-rending for the ill-prepared students who simply could not handle the materials and totally unfair to those who were well prepared – but had to attend classes with those who were not. From a budgetary standpoint, it was a waste of the taxpayers’ hard earned money.
A couple of years later university’s Board of Regents finally agreed to raise entrance standards – albeit phased in over several years. Still not to the level that should be accorded a state’s top university, but better than nothing. The most significant part of this all too controversial decision was the requirement that high school graduates unprepared for university level work needed to fill the learning gap through successfully completing requisite community college courses. Why this decision was even controversial beats me, but it was.
Business and industry needs educated workers
It should have happened years ago. But this is not all. It’s pretty clear that this state under Governor Bill Richardson realizes that to raise people’s living standards – New Mexico is one of the economically poorest in the nation - it needs to attract business and industry from elsewhere: to do so means wholesale improvement of the quality of public education. Senator Jeff Bingaman has been working for years to encourage more New Mexico public schools to offer AP courses as a part of his efforts to improve the lot of New Mexicans but this carrot is only one small step in the right direction.
The problem is particularly acute in the heavily Hispanic and poorer schools in the state.
There are some pretty nasty administrative problems at the University of New Mexico that hamper it from being all it could be, but by and large, the real instructional deficits are concentrated at K-12. Various approaches have been tried.
Rio Grande High School - beginning to learn from mistakes?
A feature report in the Sunday February 21, 2010 Albuquerque Journal (subscription only) describes the problems encountered at the city’s Rio Grande High School, a school that is heavily Hispanic, poor and whose students are well below grade level before they enter the doors. The school has been on the list of the city's most troubled schools since 1987.
Since then, its derelict physical infrastructure has been upgraded, various academic configurations have been tried, federal funds (Title 1) have been applied for, received and spent, the principal’s office (8 principals in 15 years) has been a revolving door, the school is offering more AP classes, the city school system invests far more financially in the school than most others and “No Child Left Behind” has provided standardized achievement measurements.
Beginning fall 2009 teachers have been offered a $5,000 a year bonus for agreeing to improvement their teaching quality, the school day has been extended to 5 p.m., and security has been increased.
First green shoots
Student attendance, accountability and grades are, for the first time, beginning to show green shoots. But it may be too soon to tell and the school still needs to involve parents and the community more than it has.
Whether Rio Grande High School will be one of the 10-20 New Mexico public high schools chosen to participate in a new federally sponsored program to begin in 2011 that will permit students who pass a battery of internationally recognized standardized tests in five subject areas (not just two) to graduate in two years and then proceed to community college, I don’t know. This program should, for the first time however, provide at least students with a clear outline of what they need to study to succeed.
New Mexico will, according to Sam Dillon in The New York Times on February 18, 2010 be one of eight states to participate in this pilot program. This program is “being organized by the National Center on Education and the Economy” which has received a $1.5 million planning grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Its goals “include insuring that students have mastered a set of basic requirements and reducing the numbers of high school graduates who need remedial courses when they enroll in college.” The program is modeled on those operating in countries with high performing educational systems that include Denmark, England, Finland, France and Singapore.