The Normalcy of Public Schools, Part III

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan gave a speech titled "The New Normal: Doing More with Less" at the American Enterprise Institute. His comments have made a stir in the public school blogging world, as essentially the nation's authority for all educators provided advice in this speech. This is part two of a three part series analyzing aspects of his remarks, in italics. Part one focused on budgeting teacher pay better; part two covered wasteful spending in public schools; part three covers conserving money by increasing class sizes.

In our blueprint for reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, we support shifting away from class-sized based reduction that is not evidence-based. It might be that districts would vary class sizes by the subject matter or the skill of the teacher, or that part-time staff could be leveraged to lower class size during critical reading blocks.

Like so many of Secretary Dunan's comments, this change is possible and beneficial, but the current system and reluctance toward change may block such implementation. Teachers see separating 'subject matters' in schools as a fight. Teachers of core subjects believe their jobs are harder than teachers of elective classes. Standardized tests cover core subject material, not elective material such as shop or cooking classes. While discretionary classes are enormously beneficial and worthwhile to certain students, they are electives with reason. The 'success' that Secretary Duncan wants as the nation's goal is for college ready students. Unless electives cover writing and mathematics in the disciplined way core subjects present them, teacher pay should differ according to the subject taught.
Aside from the upheaval in the pay schedule, teachers would need an adjustment period. Walking next to someone who makes more money due to a different job is standard in the business world, but a large change for teachers.

Plus, teachers argue that the skills and ability-through education levels-already separates them. In a world of education, it is difficult to convince teachers that their levels of education does not influence their teaching methods and student outcome. In a perfect situation, better teachers would earn more money. The way of discovering such teachers is the hole in this road.

In fact, teachers in Asia sometimes request larger class sizes because they think a broad distribution of students and skill levels can accelerate learning.

Competition and learning from other styles often works with students. An assortment of ability levels housed in one class is an argument against tracking. If secondary schools created larger classes, the ideas behind homework and teacher responsibility for grading all papers must change. In fact, some administrators believe that if a student plagiarizes part of a paper as a rough draft and the teacher does not catch the cheat, the student can include the plagiarized portion for credit in his final paper. Teachers desire small classes partially so they can control paperwork and documentation for defense of themselves. Public school employees would need to implement common sense approaches that would not cover every possible scenario.