EdAction
Maple River Education Coalition PAC
105 Peavey Rd, St 116
Chaska, MN
55318
952-361-4931
http://www.EdAction.org
E-mail
April 1, 2001
by Jean Swenson
Community columnist, St. Paul Pioneer Press
Everybody's talkin' about education. Parents, teachers, legislators -- we all want the best for our children.
A well-rounded academic foundation prepares future citizens and leaders to live responsibly in a free society within a changing world. However, Minnesota's system, despite good intentions, may actually hinder students from reaching that goal. My concern is the education system itself, not the dedicated educators who work hard within it.
For years, Minnesota students scored among the nation's highest on ACT and SAT tests. Recently, however, nearly one-third of our 1999 graduates attending college needed remedial education.
Why the dismal results? Perhaps because our education system has been de-emphasizing academic achievement and focusing on work force preparation.
Currently at various stages in implementation, all districts and schools eventually will come under the same federal and state mandates.
Part of Minnesota's system, the Profile of Learning, is outcome-based education (OBE) which aims at minimums and equalizes outcomes for all. Under various names, OBE has been in Minnesota for years. Rather than teaching for individual academic excellence, OBE overlooks many students, while trying to bring the lowest students "up'' to the minimum standards.
A minimum-competency system inherently lowers high school graduation requirements to ensure everyone "passes,'' regardless of academic achievement. There are now only two requirements for graduation: passing a sixth-grade-level "safety-net'' reading and math test, and scoring the minimum mark on up to 24 of the state-mandated Profile of Learning projects. These are Minnesota's new "High Standards.''
The Profile of Learning projects, called "performance packages,'' are time-consuming and require excessive teacher paperwork. Some projects are menial, such as a math project counting cars at an intersection. Some projects focus on changing students' values and beliefs.
Unfortunately, these mandated projects are replacing other teaching methods and knowledge-based curricula. Some districts no longer teach multiplication tables, and students learn to estimate rather than find correct answers. U.S. history, classical literature, science and the arts also take a back-seat to busy work.
Proponents argue that critical-thinking skills are more important than academic knowledge. However, one cannot develop such skills without a foundation of knowledge from which to draw. This leads to superficial reasoning, based on emotion or assumption, not logic and fact.
Another part of Minnesota's system, School-to-Work (STW), being implemented in every state, transforms education, pre-kindergarten through college, into vocational training and tracking. Many government documents call students "human resources,'' and curricula teach children to see themselves as such. (For insight and links to these documents, see www.mredcopac.org.)
The Minnesota Department of Children, Families and Learning states in its "School-to-Work Resource Guide'' that the mission of School-to-Work is: "To create a seamless system of education and work force preparation for all learners, tied to the needs of a competitive economic marketplace.''
In 1992, the U.S. Labor (not Education) Department listed occupational skills needed by entry-level employees. At a recent Senate hearing I attended, a DCFL representative testified that these federal work skills are included in the Profile of Learning. A high school friend occasionally fills out worksheets to see how well he is developing these skills.
When fully implemented, students beginning in kindergarten explore various career options and begin developing their "lifework plan.'' Minnesota's School-to-Work contract with the federal government states: "All Minnesota learners will develop a lifework plan which will be included as one component of the stated Profile of Learning.''
By eighth grade, as this system is implemented, students select a "career cluster'' (such as health services) that will be the focus of their education thereafter. A March 7 Pioneer Press article states that St. Paul students "will enroll in 'career clusters' in secondary schools,'' and lists the six clusters to be offered.
Students will be guided into a particular "career cluster'' based on their lifework plan and recommendations by a government-appointed work force board that determines the labor needs of the region. Minnesota currently has 53 work force centers that eventually will coordinate the system.
Students spend time at job sites, further reducing academic learning. All students at my friend's high school work 180 hours at a "service learning'' project for no pay, and then do a 400-hour internship. Good vocational training is needed for high school students choosing this track, but this option should build upon a solid academic foundation.
A rural public school superintendent I interviewed said some elements of the Profile of Learning/School-to-Work system have created positive opportunities for their students. However, he said it's difficult to take a national or state mandate and make it valuable to a local community, and that successful programs are best developed and owned locally.
Minnesota's system of federal and state mandates makes it difficult for districts, schools and teachers to help students fulfill their highest potential as individuals and as free citizens. Our children are not "human resources'' whose purpose is to meet the needs of the economy. We must open our eyes to the truth about this system and return academic excellence and freedom to our schools.
Jean Swenson of St. Paul is one of nine Pioneer Press Community Columnists for 2001. A quadriplegic because of a 1980 car accident, she is assistant director of the Spinal Cord Society, Twin Cities chapter. She has degrees in elementary education and counseling psychology