Excellence in Education
Remember when the main point of public education was to equip students with skill in reading, writing, math and science in order to prepare them to be capable, resourceful and productive citizens? Remember when actual learning and achieving excellence, instead of just getting by and getting out, was the objective?
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Unfortunately, when you look at rankings by state, Oregon is failing. We languish near the bottom of the list. Approximately 60% of our 4th and 8th graders don’t meet minimum standards in math and reading. To make things worse, the United States is not even ranked in the top ten countries in the world in terms of our education system. Translation: Oregon’s education system is failing. And it’s not the teacher’s fault. It’s the State legislature and the Department of Education. Even the Oregon Secretary of State’s recent audit of the Oregon Education System paints a grim picture.
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Oregon’s education system is failing. And it’s not the teacher’s fault. It’s the State legislature and the Department of Education. |
To boost graduation “results,” the state lowered graduation requirements. The curriculum priorities mandated by the Oregon state legislature and the Department of Education, you’ll see the focus has shifted to producing social activists. Students are being guided to look at course materials through a “lens of equity.”
I don’t buy it. I’ll take excellence every day over some nebulous “equity” standard. Just consider this the next time you drive over a bridge. What’s most important to you, that the bridge does not fail because it was built with excellence by the best workers available, or that a “lens of equity” was used in selecting workers to construct the bridge you are entrusting your family’s life to?
Sadly, revamping our failing education system is such a massive undertaking that we need to seriously look at implementing school choice. We need local control and tons of parental involvement in order to bring accountability to the classrooms. Change needs to be driven from the bottom up, since the state-driven, top down approach has failed us so badly. Here are some further thoughts on the educational topic.
Excellence:
- Average or good enough is not good enough.
- Excellence and mastery are the core of a world class system.
- The purpose of education is to build knowledge, skill, resourcefulness and the ability to think.
- The purpose of education is to teach children how to think critically and effectively, not what to think.
- The purpose of education is not to indoctrinate children in social and political positions.
- The purpose of education is to grow productive members of society, not to produce social activists.
- We should build up, encourage and empower our children, not to tear them down or enable a victim/oppressor mindset.
Local Control - Centralized, top-down directives, mandates and bureaucracy does not serve schools, teachers, parents or kids.
- Education is the responsibility of the parent.
- Government’s role, and the public education system's role is to serve as agents of the parents and support the parent in executing their responsibility.
- One key to local control and parental involvement is transparency and parental inclusion.
- Another key is parental choice.
Challenges - We are NOT operating in excellence:
-NO Oregon public school is on the US Dept of Education Blue Ribbon Schools, since 1997 (2)
-Oregon is NOT significantly closing the achievement gap (3)
- Oregon is ranked 42 overall in the US (1)
- NO Central Oregon school is in the top 30 of high schools in Oregon (4)
- Oregon does not support parent choice of schooling (5)
Proposals:
- Ensure that all geographical areas (by county or Educational Service District) are included in all Oregon Department of Education committees: Restoring voice to local communities.
- Create an Incentive Program for secondary innovative school model options: Local development of excellence.
- Statewide participation in nationally standardized college ready testing: ACT, SAT, or 12th Grade NAEP.
- Create a voucher system for students of poverty to access alternative education options: Parent choice.
- Require full curriculum transparency, posted online.
- Assure parents have the full right to opt their children out of curriculum they find inappropriate, without punitive consequences.
- Create locally run alternative education opportunities for marginalized students in outdoor adventure, music and the arts.
Resources
1. States with the Best and Worst School Systems: https://wallethub.com/edu/e/states-with-the-best-schools/5335
2. Blue Ribbon Schools 2021: https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/us-department-education-announces-2021-national-blue-ribbon-schools
3. Oregon State Report Cards: https://www.oregon.gov/ode/schools-and-districts/reportcards/Pages/Statewide-Annual-Report-Card.aspx
4. US News HS Rankings: https://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools
5. Education Commission of the States: https://www.ecs.org/50-state-comparison-private-school-choice/
I don’t buy it. I’ll take excellence every day over some nebulous “equity” standard. Just consider this the next time you drive over a bridge. What’s most important to you, that the bridge does not fail because it was built with excellence by the best workers available, or that a “lens of equity” was used in selecting workers to construct the bridge you are entrusting your family’s life to?
Sadly, revamping our failing education system is such a massive undertaking that we need to seriously look at implementing school choice. We need local control and tons of parental involvement in order to bring accountability to the classrooms. Change needs to be driven from the bottom up, since the state-driven, top down approach has failed us so badly. Here are some further thoughts on the educational topic.
Excellence:
- Average or good enough is not good enough.
- Excellence and mastery are the core of a world class system.
- The purpose of education is to build knowledge, skill, resourcefulness and the ability to think.
- The purpose of education is to teach children how to think critically and effectively, not what to think.
- The purpose of education is not to indoctrinate children in social and political positions.
- The purpose of education is to grow productive members of society, not to produce social activists.
- We should build up, encourage and empower our children, not to tear them down or enable a victim/oppressor mindset.
Local Control - Centralized, top-down directives, mandates and bureaucracy does not serve schools, teachers, parents or kids.
- Education is the responsibility of the parent.
- Government’s role, and the public education system's role is to serve as agents of the parents and support the parent in executing their responsibility.
- One key to local control and parental involvement is transparency and parental inclusion.
- Another key is parental choice.
Challenges - We are NOT operating in excellence:
-NO Oregon public school is on the US Dept of Education Blue Ribbon Schools, since 1997 (2)
-Oregon is NOT significantly closing the achievement gap (3)
- Oregon is ranked 42 overall in the US (1)
- NO Central Oregon school is in the top 30 of high schools in Oregon (4)
- Oregon does not support parent choice of schooling (5)
Proposals:
- Ensure that all geographical areas (by county or Educational Service District) are included in all Oregon Department of Education committees: Restoring voice to local communities.
- Create an Incentive Program for secondary innovative school model options: Local development of excellence.
- Statewide participation in nationally standardized college ready testing: ACT, SAT, or 12th Grade NAEP.
- Create a voucher system for students of poverty to access alternative education options: Parent choice.
- Require full curriculum transparency, posted online.
- Assure parents have the full right to opt their children out of curriculum they find inappropriate, without punitive consequences.
- Create locally run alternative education opportunities for marginalized students in outdoor adventure, music and the arts.
Resources
1. States with the Best and Worst School Systems: https://wallethub.com/edu/e/states-with-the-best-schools/5335
2. Blue Ribbon Schools 2021: https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/us-department-education-announces-2021-national-blue-ribbon-schools
3. Oregon State Report Cards: https://www.oregon.gov/ode/schools-and-districts/reportcards/Pages/Statewide-Annual-Report-Card.aspx
4. US News HS Rankings: https://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools
5. Education Commission of the States: https://www.ecs.org/50-state-comparison-private-school-choice/
(to help elect Michael Sipe, Republican Candidate for Oregon House District 53)
