Why Is It So Difficult to Take Responsibility
D-Ed Reckoning blog
In today's Charlotte Observer we learn that West Charlotte High, a perenially failing school, decided to finally do something about its low test scores.
With a projector propped on a stack of textbooks, [the principal] began flashing 2005 End of Course test results onto a rippled screen.
At the top: Providence High, with 86.6 percent passing.
As Modest reached the middle, chuckles and comments rumbled from the freshmen.
When he got to dead last, the noise was a dull roar, much of it laughter.
West Charlotte: 37.1 percent.
"I don't think this is funny, folks," the new principal said.
"This is the last time we're going to be at the bottom of the list."
...
Year after year, West Charlotte's scores have been among the state's lowest. Four principals in the past decade have tried to change that. Each failed.
So what's the problem?
[The principal] didn't know hundreds would arrive without having mastered eighth-grade math and reading.
Where did they get this guy? Mars? What educator doesn't know that kids in low-SES high schools come in lacking many skills they should have mastered in elementary and middle school? And, did you notice the skillful use of passive voice to obfuscate the cause of this failure, the lower schools these kids came from.
So what did they try to do? First, they tried to high better teachers, but ...
Not a single qualified teacher has signed up for West Charlotte. "That's heavy right there," Modest said, sounding stunned.
Such is the price you pay when you fail to properly educate at least the past two generations of students from these areas.
Then they switched to plan B:
As the school year draws to a close, the principal is still pushing a two-pronged mission: Get students to take responsibility for their own success. And get teachers to believe in students.
So, the students have to take responsibility for learning while the teachers don't quite have to take responsibility for teaching. They just have to "believe in students." I suppose believing is better than nothing.
I'm wondering how a student is supposed to take responsibility for learning if the teaching isn't any good. Isn't good teaching, which starts with teachers taking responsibility for teaching well, a prerequisite to any student learning?
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