Wow…tough question! The educational system is in such a deep rut, the damage done seems nearly irrevocable. As someone with very little credited education in the way of education, I suppose all I have to rely on is my own personal experiences. I am also answering this question with the assumption that there are ample funds and resources available:
1. Get rid of standardized testing altogether. No good comes from them; they are the antithesis to creativity and innovation, and attempt to conform students inside an intellectual box. Abolishing standardized tests would allow teachers to teach their students actual useful information that they could utilize in real life, as opposed to teaching them useless, mind-numbing material just for the sake of passing a test.
2. Combine the boards and eliminate the conflicting codes. There are thousands and thousands of school boards throughout the country that remain stubborn in their so-called brave attempts to right the school system. However with so many school boards competing, each of them convinced that THEY have the best ideas, we aren’t getting anywhere. Two heads are better than one, right? I say we work together and create a single board with a few satellite boards to implement the communally created ideas that might actually work. We need to all be on the same page for anything substantial and long-lasting to get done.
3. No more tenure!!! Tenure allows teachers to practically sleep through class, because after just two years of teaching, teachers are granted immunity. They get paid whether their students learn or not, and that means most teachers take the easy road, grabbing the paycheck and leaving their students to fend for themselves. Tenure is the most FRUSTRATING, SENSELESS, HARMFUL invention. Ever.
4. Make free tutors available after-hours. Often, teachers flee the school as soon as the clock strikes 3:00 (or whenever school gets out) and high-tail it home, making it nearly impossible for struggling students to get the individual attention they need. Tutors cost money, and private tutoring is not an option for most families. Perhaps if we put a bit of funding towards supplying free tutors for struggling students as opposed to using funds to buy more vending machines filled with candy, students might be doing a bit better.
5. Raise the bar. We cannot allow our students to be scraping by with C’s, D’s, and F’s. We need to set the bar a bit higher and implement serious consequences for falling grades. If the students have good teachers, tutors, and specialized/individualized education available to them, there is no reason for them to be failing. We need to get not only students, but parents and teachers as well, to understand that students will rise to expectations, so what is the harm in setting them higher?
Great ideas--as you're refining them, you're well on your way to paper #3!
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