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Matthew Lynch published in Ask An Expert, Matthew Lynch, Teachers

Ask An Expert: Should Teachers Give Spelling Tests?

Question: Should students be given weekly spelling tests? Rebecca S.

Answer:  First of all, thank you for your question. Weekly spelling tests are a time-honored tradition in American elementary schools. For quite some time now, however, schools across the U.S. have elected to cut them out of their curriculum. Why? Because many education experts, like me, believe that they only test student’s short-term memory and do not assist students in gaining spelling mastery.

Over the last decade or so, many districts have elected to use a method called “word study,” which focuses on patterns instead of rote memorization. Word study is based on phonics, spelling and vocabulary and teaches students to examine, recognize and comprehend the patterns in words. An understanding of these patterns helps students master spelling more effectively.

During word study instruction, students engage in challenging and motivational activities instead of simply memorizing a set of words. In order to become literate, students need hands-on practice with dissecting and rearranging word elements in a manner that permits them to generalize learning from remote, individual examples to entire clusters of words that are spelled the same way. In itself, word study is not a panacea, as there are exceptions to every rule. Students can, however, learn invaluable strategies that teach them how to read, write and spell words.

Word study also teaches students how to examine words so they can construct a deep understanding of how written words function.

Even though many educators and parents are totally against abandoning weekly spelling tests, it is my professional opinion that alternative methods of spelling instruction, such as word study, are more viable. If you are an educator who is still giving traditional spelling tests, I strongly urge you to give word study a try — not because I said so, but because it will provide your students with balanced literacy instruction and exponentially increase their ability to read, write and spell.

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Matthew Lynch published in Higher Education

Report: Nearly 90% of college freshmen receive a tuition discount

It’s no secret that college tuition is expensive and that rising student debt is a real economic problem. Not everyone is paying full price for a college education, though. In fact, a vast majority are paying below the advertised price.

By way of NPR.org, the National Association of College and University Business Officers conducted a study “of tuition discounts at private, nonprofit, four-year colleges and universities.”

The information released in the survey suggests that all colleges that were surveyed offered some sort of discounts to its students.

“They estimate 89 percent of first-time, full-year freshmen received some kind of discount in 2014-2015. Of those students, the average grant they received is estimated to cover 54.3 percent of tuition and fees.”

That’s at least half off of student fees and maybe tuition.

Still–even with the steep discounts, it’s not enough to curb the rising rate of students who carry too much debt. At least this survey doesn’t go into detail as to how these discounts may offset the full cost of college or how it impacts the load of debt that students carry post graduation.

While the study is a brief overture into how some schools attend to the full cost of college, it also shows just how expensive some schools are if nearly 90 percent of freshmen are able to utilize discounts. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a college system that was just plain affordable for all students, without the trappings of all these discounts and needing to spend so much time tracking down the money to attend?

 

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Matthew Lynch published in Diversity, EdTech & Innovation

STEM projects help ESOL students build skills and shine

Middle school can be challenging as students make the transition from elementary school and adjust to the many physical and emotional changes they’re undergoing. For English language learners the challenges are even greater. Not only do these students have to learn how to speak, read and write a new language, they have to adjust to a new culture. At Hunter’s Creek Middle School in Orlando, FL the school’s 165 ESOL students speak 32 different languages and are gaining confidence and language skills using STEM and project-based learning (PBL).

According to Hunter’s Creek ESOL teacher Yvette Ramirez, “Project based learning is a good fit with ESOL because it gives students an opportunity to dive deep into a topic and really spend time with it. They also get to practice their language skills in a variety of ways from listening to and watching videos to reading articles and writing their own content.”

As an Orange County Public Schools Digital Curriculum Pilot School all of Hunter’s Creek’s students work exclusively on iPads. On the rare occasions when Ms. Ramirez asks her the kids to take out a piece of paper “they look at me strange because they want to use the iPads. We’re not just using digitized work. We are digital.”

Ms. Ramirez is using one of the digital curriculum programs that came pre-loaded on the school’s iPads to implement PBL in her STEM lessons. Defined STEM is an online program that provides educators with resources to create engaging, relevant, cross-curricular PBL lessons. “One of the great things about Defined STEM is that the students are able to access the lesson directions and rubric in many different languages,” said Ms. Ramirez. “But, all of the articles, videos and other supporting content are in English. So students can feel comfortable that they understand the directions by reading them in their own languages but must use their English skills to actually complete the assignments.”

A cultural and a STEM learning experience

During the 2014-15 school year Ms. Ramirez’s ESOL students worked on several STEM projects. The project that generated the most excitement and engagement was Defined STEM’s Culinary Artist: Sustainability performance task. The Developmental Language Arts class, which is for students who speak very little English, worked on the project.

The goal of the project was for students create their own farm to table restaurant, including deciding where to locate the restaurant geographically, what to farm, how to farm, and ultimately what the menu would be. “Defined STEM had a lot of articles and videos within students’ Lexile levels that helped them get started but then they had to go find additional resources outside of Defined STEM,” shared Ms. Ramirez. “Students researched healthy recipes and figured out what kind of gardens they needed and where in the country they needed their gardens to grow.”

The Culinary Artist project culminated in students presenting the commercials and TV interviews they created that showcased their unique farm-to-table concepts. “These students have influences from around the world which they got to show in their menu and food choices,” said Ms. Ramirez. “So even though the project really helped them build their English skills and gain knowledge about American culture and geography, the students still were able to incorporate a bit of home.”

Technology makes effective STEM and PBL instruction easier

Ms. Ramirez has a strong background in teaching ESOL students and believes that a digital PBL STEM curriculum is a highly effective method to teach students both language and curricular skills. A common approach to teaching ESOL students is to pair a student with stronger language skills with a struggling student. This helps them both build their skills. PBL facilitates this kind of collaborative learning. “Without Defined STEM it would have been much harder to do these types of complex, lengthy STEM projects. All of the resources are there and designed to support English language learners. Plus, Defined STEM makes the performance tasks so interesting and intriguing that even when the work gets tough, the students persevere because they’re totally engaged.”

“The Culinary Artist projects were amazing,” shared Ms. Ramirez. “The students worked so hard and really deepened their understanding not only of English but of technology, geography, math, and so much more. They were so proud of themselves and that is exactly how I want my students to feel when they walk out of my class.”

Read all of our posts about EdTech and Innovation by clicking here. 

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Matthew Lynch published in Parental Involvement, Teachers

Listening, not testing, will improve children’s vocabulary

James Law, Newcastle University

Every few months a story appears about the declining speech and language skills of children arriving in primary school. The epithet “the daily grunt” was invented by one newspaper to capture the lack of communication between parent and child, implying it caused poor communication skills and a lack of “school readiness”.

Now a new report by the UK school regulator Ofsted – its first on the early years – has called for children to start school at two years old, in part to help those from lower-income backgrounds who arrive at primary school with poor reading and speech.

While we may actively teach our children to read, oral language skills (the ability to learn words, form sentences and to communicate abstract ideas) is a defining human characteristic and, of these, it is vocabulary which is the pivotal skill. Children grow up acquiring these skills driven by, in Canadian telly-don Stephen Pinker’s words an “instinct” for language.

Recent evidence from twin studies suggests that language skills become increasingly heritable as the child moves through middle school, stressing the import role that the environment plays in the early years.

Yet there has been an abiding concern that some children are simply not speaking enough to access the national curriculum, the inference being that they are not being talked to enough.
But how would we really know there was a problem?

When vocabulary develops

To start addressing this question we have to look at the whole population rather than focusing on the most extreme cases. Fortunately the UK’s Millennium Cohort Study allows us to do just this. The graph below compares the vocabulary skills of thousands of five year olds, across five different social groups, measured by what is known as the index of multiple deprivation.

The vocabulary of five-year-old children in England. Save the Children

The graph tells us two things. First, vocabulary skills do differ markedly from one social group to another. Children from more disadvantaged groups recognise and name fewer pictures than those from higher groups. Second, and perhaps more importantly, there are lots of children in each group who have difficulties learning vocabulary. Unfortunately, we can’t say whether this pattern has changed over the decades without repeating the same assessment on different cohorts of children across time.

But how important is vocabulary at school entry? Parents often say that if they ask their GP whether they should be worried about how much their child is talking they are told that he or she will “grow out of it”.

In another study we followed 18,000 children born in 1970 until they were in their early thirties. Rather to our surprise we found that children with restricted vocabulary at five years old were more likely to be poor readers as adults, have more mental health problems and have lower employment rates.

This does not mean that everyone who had poor vocabulary aged five had difficulties later on, just that their risk was higher. There were all sorts of variables that contributed to this prediction but social factors were always in the mix. What is more, there is plenty of data to suggest that the difference between children from higher and lower social groups widens over time.

Creating the right environment

It is tempting to jump to conclusions and say poor speech in young children is simply a matter of parents not talking to their children in a way that encourages language. This is the position taken in the often-quoted 1995 book by Hart and Risley in which they studied 42 children. Their solution is essentially paternalistic – intensive daycare from very early on for the most disadvantaged groups.

A more positive approach is to support both children and parents through awareness, careful observation and the fostering of these early language skills – both in terms of expression and comprehension – from birth. This creates the right environment for language learning rather than simply providing instruction.

Sure Start and Children’s Centres in the UK have played a critical role in doing this. And there will be more opportunities for schools as the pupil premium in the UK – extra money schools get for disadvantaged children – starts to be paid in early years settings. It is important that this type of work should begin long before children reach compulsory schooling.

Clearly children who do not communicate well are vulnerable for all sorts of reasons. There are risks associated with relatively weak early oral language skills but children are immensely resilient and there are many things that can be done to promote these early skills.

But we need to be careful that our expectations are not driven by the pressure to formalise the child’s educational experience. We know that early years settings and primary schools are immensely variable as to how well they support communication. The solution is less about structure than following relatively simple guidance and improving the interaction in class.

It is certainly not about doing more testing – something the government is determined to introduce for younger children. If we demand conformity from young children, immaturities can be seen as “problems” – as with behaviour so as with oral language.

Oral language skills are important in their own right but also because they are critical precursors to inclusion in school and elsewhere. We know that children are active learners. This is not just about the instruction they receive but the environment they are in at home and in school. This means encouraging oral language skills in young children is everyone’s job.

The Conversation

James Law, Professor of Speech & Language Sciences, Newcastle University

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

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Matthew Lynch published in Equity, list, Matthew Lynch, Policy & Reform

4 Reasons We Should Stop “Waiting for Superman”

Recently I viewed the documentary, Waiting for Superman, for the umpteenth time, and I noted that almost 5 years after the film’s September 24, 2010 U. S. premiere, the American educational system is still not living up to its potential. Sure, education reform was the phrase on the tip of everyone’s tongue, but after a year most of the fervor and commitment to educational change that was initially exhibited has all but subsided.

It’s time to recommit to the change that the documentary called for. Here are four reasons we should all stop “waiting for Superman”—and, together, make positive steps toward a better educational system in America.

  1. We are falling behind academically, despite spending lots of money on our pupils.

The comparisons with other developed countries show that the strongest nation in the world is still falling behind academically. The cost per pupil in the U.S. has soared to five times the level in the 1950s, after adjusting for inflation. With this kind of money being pumped into the system, why are many our school systems of such a low caliber, and further falling behind?

  1. Everyone in the United States could benefit from an improved educational system—not just students from low-income backgrounds.

Statistics and common sense born of observation tell us that the biggest crisis in our schools is finding ways to educate students in low-income areas. However, as Waiting for Superman illustrates, our educational problems are not limited to poverty-stricken areas alone. As Lesley Chilcott, producer of the Waiting for Superman put it, “the dirty little secret… is that middle- and upper-class communities are suffering as well. When we talk about U.S. students ranking twenty-fifth in math, we’re not just talking about underserved communities, we’re talking overall.” Yet, despite decades of knowing that these problems exist, little improvement is being made to the system itself.

Of course everyone wants to improve America’s education system. They just do not seem to know how, or they can’t agree on how to do it.

  1. Education is not viewed as a top priority in the United States.

The American public must believe that educational reform is a top priority issue in these times of severe economic troubles. It is understandable that, in today’s economy, people are primarily concerned about their jobs and putting food on the table. Upgrading education, although important to most, can hold a low priority in the mind of the average American, who is mostly concerned with keeping a roof over their head. The paradox here is that this is precisely the time to make that investment into education. When times are tough in an economy such as ours, workers need to improve their skills to compete effectively in the local (and global) marketplace. The education system is where people turn to acquire these skills.

  1. The demand for highly skilled workers is growing.

Furthermore, enhanced skills and technological talents are going to be desperately needed in the future as America continues to struggle towards sustaining a dynamic 21st century labor force. Production is not getting easier and simpler — in fact, it is just the opposite. Along the same lines, workers down the road will need to be able to adapt to technologies that are just now being developed. If American students and workers find themselves in an educational system that cannot fulfill these necessary, required functions because it is sub-par, not only will these individuals and their families find little success in an economy that has left them behind; it will cripple America’s competitiveness.

How do we fix this?

Waiting for Superman has been criticized as being against teacher’s unions, placing the blame too squarely on the shoulders of educators, and misrepresenting educational statistics. Nevertheless, the film shined a bright spotlight on the harsh reality of our educational system, showing the exodus of middle and upper class children from our public schools; the sadness of the lottery system; and the general hopelessness that some express about our educational system and its future.

One segment of Waiting for Superman illustrates American self-confidence through an image of kids doing daredevil bike stunts, and then crashing. This scene shows, in a metaphorical sense, that while our students seem to have confidence, many do not have the skills to actually succeed.

A year later, Waiting for Superman still serves as a stark reminder of just how bad our educational system has become, and just how ineffective most of our efforts at improving it have been. The American educational system has reached a turning point, a time when things seem at their most dire, and yet many appear to simply sit idly by “Waiting for Superman.”

America needs to view this film as a public call to action, where each of us is summoned to be a Superman (or Superwoman, as the case may be), or at least to lend a hand in saving our educational system, perhaps without the flashy heroics and cape. Rather than waiting, we should strive towards getting every educator, educational leader, government official, parent, and citizen to educate themselves about the problems that exist in our educational system, and to work together to fix them.

What is most important is that we understand the deficiencies in our educational system, and strictly forbid placing blame — which rarely serves to encourage cooperation. Rather, we must demonstrate accountability for our situation and fulfill our responsibility to our children. Collectively, we must come together with an understanding that “Superman” is not coming to save our children, and it is up to us to work together to find innovative ways to rise to the challenge of fixing our education system.

The future must be planned for; now. It certainly will not be an overnight process. However, by taking positive, productive steps, one at a time, an enormous amount of ground can be covered in the coming years. If we simply work together, we can restore the U.S. educational system to its former preeminence, and give our children the bright futures they deserve in our great country and aboard. We must become the Super-citizens that we have been waiting for.

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Matthew Lynch published in Parental Involvement, Secondary Education, Teachers

Parents can’t answer everything children ask about science – and that’s OK

Carol Davenport, Northumbria University, Newcastle

If a child asked you how close an astronaut can get to the sun, the chances are you’d need a moment – or perhaps a search engine – to figure it out. Anyone who has spent some time with young children know that they ask “why?” – a lot. Children have a curiosity about the world that leads them to question almost everything around them.

Unfortunately their parents typically don’t. A recent survey of 1,000 parents found that 83% of them couldn’t answer simple school science questions. While this may seem concerning, what’s more worrying is that 63% admitted to making up answers so that they didn’t have to admit to not knowing. So what should you do if you don’t know the answer?

The Institution of Engineering and Technology, which carried out the survey, and parenting website Mumsnet recently held a Twitter party with the hashtag #AskTheEngineers. Parents were asked to tweet questions that their children had asked, and then a team of engineers would tweet back answers. You can have a look at some of the questions below. Could you answer them?

  • How does gravity work? And what would happen without it?
  • Why do beavers build dams?
  • Why can’t we hear dog whistles?
  • How do stars stay in the sky?
  • How do onions make your eyes water?
  • Why do power stations have so much smoke coming out of them?
  • If light comes from the sun, where does dark come from?

Many primary schools put on after-school sessions for parents explaining how they can support their children with English and Maths. Parental support is known to be an important factor in how well a child does in school, so by equipping parents with the confidence to help their children, schools are aiming to improve the achievement of their pupils.

However, very few primary schools provide similar support in science. And, as the survey shows, this is an area that many parents feel unable to answer when their asked by their child.

Science isn’t about right and wrong

But do parents need to know all the answers? The questions posed to #AskTheEngineers cover a huge range of science and engineering topics – some not even taught at school. They also include questions that science doesn’t yet fully know the answer to (how does gravity work?) as well as questions that are more philosophical in nature (what is dark?). For that reason, I don’t think it makes sense to expect parents to know it all.

Parent and child thinking about science together.
Think Physics, Author provided

In fact, it’s far more important that parents feel confident in saying “I don’t know, let’s see if we can find out”. Many people who finished their science education at the age of 16 have gained the impression that science is about knowing the right answers because this is how they experienced science up to that point.

However, successful science involves not knowing the answer, but being willing to ask questions, just like children do. By admitting that they don’t know the answer and then searching for the answer, parents are modelling good practice to their children – supporting them in their educational development. There are many great websites that aim to communicate science to a general audience, including BBC iWonder, The Naked Scientists, or the Royal Institution ExpeRImental films.

I’m involved in the Think Physics project at Northumbria University, which is currently working with parents to increase their confidence in talking about science with their children. We have developed a five-week after-school club called “Science for Families”, which we are running with partner local authorities. Children, and their parents, come along to each session and together learn about different topics in science through hands on experiments using everyday objects.

The key aim of the sessions is to show parents that science is all about asking questions and exploring phenomena to find the answers. We aren’t aiming to “teach” parents the science topics that their children will be learning about, rather we are aiming to give them confidence to have conversations with their children about science.

Recent research has emphasised the importance of parents in children’s career choices, showing that parents who are comfortable talking about science are more likely to encourage their children into careers which involve science. So if you’re stuck with an inquisitive child or two at home, just embrace their curiosity and learn with them.

So how close is it possible for astronauts to get to the sun? The engineers at the Twitter party replied that satellites can get even closer than Mercury, which is the closest planet, but they get very hot. However, it takes years and years to get there, so we haven’t sent any astronauts yet. You can view more of the engineers’ answers here.

The Conversation

Carol Davenport, Director, Think Physics, Faculty of Engineering and Environment, Northumbria University, Newcastle

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

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Matthew Lynch published in Ask An Expert, Matthew Lynch, Teachers

How Mentorship Can Help Teachers Succeed

Just like having good mentors is important to student teaching, as newly hired educator, having a mentor at your school is incredibly important, too. Mentor teachers can provide invaluable help to new teachers. Mentors are experienced, patient, knowledgeable veteran teachers who are selected and trained to guide new teachers. These mentors assist new teachers to adapt to the school culture and norms, which include official and nonofficial norms, and school or district-specific norms. They will also guide the new teachers with curriculum, teaching strategies, successful scheduling, and communication skills. They can supervise you and provide you with suggestions on improvements that you can make. New teachers can turn to their mentors for support when times are tough and seek advice. In many programs, mentors are responsible for new teacher assessments, and mentors can suggest training for teachers to improve performance. Successful mentorship programs don’t end there and also guide new teachers in choosing professional workshop opportunities.

Mentors Know The Ropes
Mentors can help you with recognizing which files from the principal get the highest priority and which administrator has the most power in evaluation, and they may offer you helpful inside information (e.g., the room where the best projector is located).

Mentors Help Keep You On Track
Not all schools have such programs, and in those schools, new teachers may have “tele-mentor” and “e-mentor” support programs over the Internet. If those options aren’t available, and you’d like to have a mentor teacher, you can always look for an unofficial one, or find support from several other teachers in the school. Research shows that first-year teachers who’ve had the support of a mentor develop better classroom management skills, stay in the teaching profession longer, and maintain their initial enthusiasm longer.

Mentors Know What You’re Talking About
True mentors are patient listeners and good guides. They provide thoughtful advice based on their years of experience. They can help prepare new teachers for formal evaluations. They understand how to provide support to new teachers learning the expectations of the field. You’ll find that as a new teacher, you’ll benefit from soliciting feedback from your mentor as a way to improve your teaching. When you receive feedback:

  • Focus on what is being said rather than how it is said.
  • Focus on feedback as information rather than as criticism.
  • Concentrate on receiving the new information rather than defending the old.
  • Probe for specifics rather than accept generalities.
  • Focus on clarifying what has been said by summarizing the main points to the satisfaction of all 
parties.

Be proactive about seeking out your mentor and engaging yourself in the professional relationship. Be thoughtful, be respectful, and be sure to remember to express your thanks!

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Matthew Lynch published in Education Leadership

Applied Behavioral Analysis and Autism

**The Edvocate is pleased to publish guest posts as way to fuel important conversations surrounding P-20 education in America. The opinions contained within guest posts are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of The Edvocate or Dr. Matthew Lynch.**

A guest column by Dr. Domonique Randall

As parents, there seems to be an endless list of things to worry about when it comes to our children. Those concerns start the day a baby is born, with parents constantly tracking their child’s developmental path, concerned whether or not they are hitting their age-appropriate milestones.

A major developmental concern amongst parents is autism spectrum disorder (ASD), which is a range of complex neurodevelopment disorders characterized by social impairment, communication difficulties and restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) 2014 Community Report on Autism, the new estimate of autism prevalence is 1 in 68 children.

That can be a scary statistic for parents, but there is hope through early detection and proven evidence-based approaches, including applied behavior analysis (ABA).

ABA, which is the recommended treatment for ASD by several federal and state agencies, including the U.S. Surgeon General, is an evidence-based treatment approach. ABA is focused on understanding how behavior is affected by the environment. The scientific principles of learning are applied to behavioral deficiencies and excesses associated with ASD.  

The sooner a parent or physician can identify the signs of ASD, the better!  Some research has identified risk factors for ASD as early as a child’s first birthday.  Early intervention yields the best outcomes as far as developmental gains are concerned and increased IQ.  Studies show early intensive intervention, such as ABA, improves learning, communication and social skills.

The following early detection signs may indicate that your child is at risk for ASD. If your child exhibits any of these signs, please do not hesitate to contact your pediatrician.  Appropriate screening can determine whether a child is at risk for autism.

  • No big smiles or other warm, joyful expressions by six months or thereafter
  • No back-and-forth sharing of sounds, smiles or other facial expressions by nine months
  • No babbling by 12 months
  • No back-and-forth gestures such as pointing, reaching or waving by 12 months
  • No words by 16 months
  • No meaningful, two-word phrases (not including imitating or repeating) by 24 months
  • Any loss of speech, babbling or social skills at any age

Once a parent is faced with an autism diagnosis, so many questions run through their head – one of them being, “What do we do now?” While there is currently no single known cause or cure for autism, there is a way to improve the everyday struggles, but time is of the essence. Choosing the best treatment and getting started early is critical.

First, make a commitment to choose only evidence-based treatments, such as ABA. It can be overwhelming when you search the Internet, so a good starting place is the First 100 Day Kit available on www.AustimSpeaks.org.

Next, be sure you have a support system in place with family and friends that will support you in your efforts to start and maintain ABA treatment. Often times the focus of ABA treatment will require that you, family and friends change your responses to the child’s behavior to support his or her learning.

Third, find quality ABA treatment programs that will focus on your child’s needs as well as your family’s needs.

Here are some key components of quality programs:

  1. Qualified Professionals – this includes Board Certified Behavior Analyst and Behavior Technicians
  2. Data-driven treatment decisions
  3. Individualized assessment and treatment based on your child’s strengths and weaknesses
  4. Several forms of teaching to promote acquisition and generalization of skills- naturalist training, structured teaching, and social learning opportunities
  5. Parent training and support in ABA principles and techniques
  6. Teaches replacement behavior through the use of positive reinforcement

Finally, consider the commitment in terms of resources and time. Intensive ABA often consists of 30 plus hours per week for multiple years. A total of 38 states now require some coverage for diagnosis and treatment for autism. To learn more about this mandate, visit. www.AutismSpeaks.org.

Being your child’s advocate is important. Just remember, early detection and intervention is key. The sooner the signs of autism are identified and evidence-based treatment, such as ABA can begin, the better the outcome for your child.

_____________

Dr. Domonique Randall, BCBA-D, is the founder and CEO of The Shape of Behavior, an ABA clinic for individuals with ASD and other disabilities. She has over 17 years of experience in autism treatment. To learn more about The Shape of Behavior and its services, visit www.shapeofbehavior.com.

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Matthew Lynch published in Policy & Reform, Teachers

Top 4 Group Influences in Public Education Part III: Businesses

There are many external influences that impact public education. In this series the top four will be reviewed including the influence of professional education organizations, the involvement of parents, the businesses, and the federal government and court systems. For this part the influence of businesses will be discussed to reveal their direct impact on public education.

Since the 1980s, large corporations have formed the vanguard in improving public education, a movement stemming ostensibly from a concern that schools are not graduating students with the skills and knowledge necessary to be effective members of the workforce. This has led to the formation of more than 100,000 business/educational partnerships since 1983, with companies becoming both the strongest supporters and the greatest critics of the educational system. The CEOs of several large corporations, including the giants IBM, Apple, and Coca-Cola, have advocated for educational improvement at the highest levels of government and since the early 1980s have donated millions of dollars to revamp public education.

The Business Roundtable is one example of the corporate world’s attempts to reform education. The Roundtable is an association of CEOs from several major companies who advocate improvements in education that will raise the standards, skills, and knowledge of basic education, to ensure that education will meet the requirements of the burgeoning workforce.

Some have criticized businesses’ intrusion into education, fearing that schools and students may be intentionally molded to meet certain business requirements, while being subjected to the unbridled influence of corporate advertising. Business leaders refute these claims, stating that they are compelled to spend billions of dollars annually on remedial education for their workers, in order to bring their workforce up to standard and to maintain their competitive edge in the world’s markets. They argue that channeling funds into the education system may lessen the need for corrective education later in life. Some opponents of businesses’ involvement in schools point out that the purchasing power of school-age children, estimated to be in the range of $500 billion per year, is the incentive that drives businesses to approach schools by offering gifts of products or services to teachers and students. Others are opposed to the exclusive contracts that some companies, such as Pepsi or Coca-Cola, impose on schools. To receive extra funds from the business provider, schools agree to sell the businesses’ product exclusively, which in effect promotes brand loyalty in young consumers.

Businesses have also influenced education by promoting the privatization of public schools, whereby certain schools are no longer administered by the local school board but are under the management of private enterprise. Some school districts have hired companies, such as Edison Schools or Sylvan Learning, Inc., to administer schools, with the expectation that student grades will improve on assessment measures. Some claim that private corporations can more efficiently and effectively manage school administration, at a lower cost. Opponents of this design, most notably teacher’s associations, claim that the welfare of students, often evidenced by the hiring of inexperienced or nonlicensed teachers, may be secondary to the company’s desire to make a profit. In reality, the privatization movement has led to smaller teacher–student ratios and to greater access to various materials and devices, although definitive results about improvement in academic achievement remain unproven.
Businesses influence what occurs in the classroom, in ways that are, at times, less than subtle. The role of businesses in education should never be underestimated. Just as education is important to the local community, businesses near the school district are also beneficial to the success of students and community. Businesses are only one type of influence, hence continue to read about the top four influences on public education.

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Matthew Lynch published in Policy & Reform, Teachers

Top 4 Group Influences in Public Education Part IV: Federal Government & Federal Courts

There are many external influences that impact public education. In this series the top four groups will be reviewed including the influence of professional education organizations, the involvement of parents, the businesses, and the federal government and court systems. For this part the influence of the federal government and federal courts will be discussed to reveal their impact on public education.

Even though the federal government has no direct control over education, federal authority does have a far-reaching influence over educational matters. Laws passed at the federal level impact schools and their administration. Also, federal courts make rulings that necessitate change in education on multiple levels, while the U.S. Department of Education leaves an indelible mark on the educational system.

The federal government’s interest in education shifts depending on the politics of the political party in power. Traditionally, Republican administrations seek to withdraw federal influence from education, leaving education as a matter for individual states to address. Democrats, on the other hand, generally tend to be more interested in improving the state of education across the country.

Many court decisions have shaped education nationwide, affecting the responsibilities and accountability of school officers in areas as diverse as desegregation, school finance, prayer in the schools, and the rights of individual students. Some oppose the federal court’s involvement in what they consider to be a state matter, whereas others feel that the involvement in education at the federal level ensures that education is brought into alignment with the principles of democracy, guaranteeing that education is truly accessible to everyone.

The influence of the federal government and federal courts are beneficial to understand when reviewing external groups that impact public education. Make sure you are aware of the changes in these groups because they can impact your school district. Remember this is only one type of influence, therefore continue to read about the top four influences on public education.

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