SchwartzBlog

Hi all!

So for those of you who have not heard, I was recently accepted into Carnegie Mellon University for Information Systems. I am going to end that there because honestly, it deserves its own post. As a matter of fact it deserves more than one post. This college process was huge and I have a lot to say about it, later.

Until I start my internship in may (not sure where yet, once again that is for another post) I basically have a few months to kill. And so I figured, I have this high school, why not try to leave it in a better place than I found it.

So lets get into some statistics about high school education. And since someone asked for some references on my last post, Ill start with that. These stats come from the National Center for Education Statistics, a government organization.

On average, around 74% of high school students graduate. In New York State, that goes down to 68%. And in New York City, 53%

But in my high school, the graduation rate is more in the 98-99% range. So why do I bring this up? Because if there is anything we can do to improve this education system, my high school would probably be a good place to be a test case.

Test what exactly? Well I am glad you asked. Because I have been talking to a lot of people about it, and what I have come up with, is that I think if we were able to improve one thing, it would be staff development.

This year, New York State passed down new laws requiring a more in-depth evaluation of teachers. Now they didn’t say exactly how to do so, just to do so. So I thought, why not take that as an opportunity to get input from those who really know the most about these teachers.

Because lets be honest. When an administrator walks into a classroom to observe a teacher, that teacher is going to act just a little differently than if it was just an ordinary class.

So why not just ask the students? those people who have not only sat in that classroom all year, but have also sat in classrooms with probably 60 other teachers throughout their life.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is currently doing a study to figure out the correlation between student input and student test scores. Currently they say there is a pretty substantial one, but they haven’t concluded it yet.

So what is my plan? Well, I am not exactly sure yet. I guess the first thing I would do is take a look at the current rubric for teacher evaluations. Then I would create a survey for each teacher, and go to alumni of the school, current students, parents, and maybe even other teachers. But the first thing I am going to do is contact the Gates foundation and see what they tell me. Who knows, maybe I can get them to come do a study at greeley…

Now the point of this is not to get anyone fired or anything like that. The point of this exercise is to get an idea from the students as to what some teachers do extremely well and what some teachers need to work on.

The information we get will not be public. all information submitted will be anonymous, but only people who have had a specific teacher will be able to evaluate them. And the results will only go to the teachers. Because this is not about exposing teachers, its about helping them

A la Tom Krieglstein…

“It’s not about you, it’s about them connecting, learning, and growing from each other…you should be able to walk away from the dance and it will continue on without you.“

This cannot just be about me. What I want at the end of this is a system that continues when I leave. A system that not only keeps teachers accountable, but also shows the administration who the bright lights are right out of the gate.

This is about making a difference in a school that I owe so much to.

If you want some more information, check out these sites:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/11/education/11education.html

http://www.gatesfoundation.org/highschools/Documents/met-framing-paper.pdf