Funding Education

Over the last couple weeks I wrote about a couple of ideas that I had for introducing Raspberry Pi into the classroom, including a vision to update the great Gingerbread Man escape game. One of the obvious and important questions that arose from this was: "How much will it cost?" My answer; Relatively? Not much...But admittedly more than a lot of schools might have to spare.

Funding for education is left mostly as a responsibility for each individual state, according to the U.S. Department of Education. Maybe I am projecting, but it seems to me that this would imply that education funding, at least in the opinion of our federal government, isn't a federal issue. This seems to be echoed by the fact that education funding wasn't even mentioned in the first two Republican Presidential debates, and was barely mentioned in the Democratic debate. On the brighter side, the president's 2016 education proposal is focused on increasing equity and opportunity for all students; expanding high-quality early learning programs; supporting teachers and school leaders; and improving access, affordability and student outcomes in post-secondary education.

This proposal includes a $1 billion increase to provide support for school districts that have been serving a greater number of students from low income families.  This is exactly the type of focus that I think is critical in reforming our current education focus.  What baffles me as I look further into this issue is that it's been a campaigning tool one way or the other for at least the last 15 years, and it's still a major problem.

Education makes up 6% of federal budget and 30% of state budget. Looking at the general overview of the Minnesota State Budget, it's hard to argue where we could adjust spending, and I think it simply becomes obvious that burdening the state with the vast majority of funding responsibility for education is irresponsible. When you look at our national budget you see that 55% of our spending goes to the military. It's sickening when you start to research where this money goes, and find stories about manufacturers, banks, and other companies overcharging on military contracts. In one extreme case, a company is accused of charging $600 for a hammer on a contract for building military trucks.

This is a rabbit hole that goes deep, and there doesn't seem to be a single politician that believes the government is spending it's money appropriately. The most common campaign promises by far are ones related to how the government spends it's money. My question is, why hasn't someone done something about it already?

I definitely understand that there are people that benefit from huge piles of money falling at their doors. If I was selling hammers for $600 a piece I'd probably be on the other side of this issue, but I'm here, staring at a future career that manages to land itself on nearly every "top underpaid jobs" list on the internet, while also studying in the only civilized country that doesn't offer some form of free higher education.

It makes me angry, and I want things to change. I don't just want more education funding, I want more funding education. I want people to have access to a deeper understanding of where money comes from, where it goes, and who it's benefiting. When we spend 55% of our budget on military defense, does that 2 trillion dollars help the military 2 trillion dollars worth? or does it only benefit them 20 billion dollars worth because of companies inflating prices 1,000% to milk military contracts?

When a state spends 30 percent of it's budget on education, what does that mean?  How is that money being allocated, and is it going to the schools that need it, or is it staying in the area codes that pay higher property taxes?

My conclusion is simple: Numbers alone don't help anybody, and campaigning on promises to increase percentages or put billions of dollars into this or that don't mean anything. Without a true understanding what schools are lacking, and a solid plan to provide the funds to fill those needs, we might as well be throwing money into a black hole - or in the case of American politics, electing someone else to do it for us. I can't say for sure what the solution may be, but I think the first step we need

The Great Gingerbread Man Escape!

I remember in first grade, around Christmas time, we were in school and got to make gingerbreadmen cookies. Everyone was excited to taste our creations - but the unthinkable happened. We returned to the school kitchen, and I knew something was wrong when I didn't smell any freshly baked gingerbread. My worst fears were confirmed when we opened the oven. The gingerbread were gone. The official story was a breakout. A mass escape. Some of the other kids accused instructors or even the lunch lady. "Gingerbread mans can't walk!" Nate Hazel proclaimed.  Regardless of what happened, we had to find them. We started searching different areas of the school, but went home that day empty handed. It was looking bleak, but on the chalkboard the next day we had our first clue. The principal's office. There we found a note left by gingerbread men themselves laying out their plans. They were going to hide above the chalkboard in our own classroom until they could escape! We returned to our classroom and found them lining the top edge of the chalkboard. It was way above our line of sight at the time, so they may have even been there the whole time. I'll never know. I still wonder, even though this all happened in December of 1999.

And now it's 2015, and I started thinking: How can I put a new twist an such a memorable classic? I have to come clean - this idea wasn't entirely my own, but a collaboration with my boyfriend who recently started working with the Raspberry Pi device that I discussed in my previous post.  It was also inspired by some of the concepts of gamification that I've been learning about as well. What if we can update the classic game of 'find the gingerbread man' to include technology?

The core technology behind this idea is called Near Field Communication, or NFC. The basics behind it are really simple. An NFC tag is an extremely thin small computer chip, and whenever an NFC capable device gets within an inch or so, it triggers a script on the device that can be used to launch a website, start a phone call, or simply to display a message.

The idea is still a little rough, but it goes a little something like this:
The day begins with the children making their gingerbread men and bringing them to the kitchen only to return later to find an empty cooking tray! Luckily, Ms. Gonsalez saves the day when she tells the children we can build a machine (a Ginger-tracker? a Cookie-Detector?) that can be used to track down the gingerbread men, but she can't do it on her own.

This would then lead into the very basic Raspberry Pi creation lesson, where the children work together to build this very simple device. Again, it's not important that the children actually attempt any complex processes like coding, or putting components together, what is important in this part of the lesson is the sense of accomplishment at having built a tech device to solve their problem, and the exposure to the idea of coding, computer science, etc. in the simple fact that it exists, and that they learn it's something they are capable of doing if it interests them. The idea is to end up with a device that looks like computer components put together. It looks like something we built in a classroom - something like this:

Once we have the device put together (again, this will be a really easy thing to do. I watched my boyfriend build a tiny photo booth in under 3 hours.) the tracking will begin.

The rules will be very simple. Over the next couple of days as the children move throughout the school they will keep their eyes open for any traces of the gingerbread men. I originally imagine they'll find laminated pieces of the gingerbread men (an arm that fell off, or a button, etc.) but there might be a better way to do it.(What would gingerbread footprints look like?)

When students spot these pieces they report back to the class, and we make our way out with the new device in hand. And this is where the NFC comes into play.

The tag will be hidden inside whatever clue is found, so when the device is powered on and makes contact the the clue, text will appear on the screen. Maybe it will give an exact location, or a general direction, or something else entirely, but the point is that each clue will bring the students one step closer to finding out what happened to the gingerbread men.

Of course once all the clues are found the final step is locating the gingerbread men themselves. That will be the ultimate reward for the children for a job well done, and will hopefully leave the children feeling like they actually participated and succeeded in finding the gingerbread men through their own actions.

The exercise won't only reward them with a mouthful of cookie and a fun memory, or at least that's what I am hoping. If everything goes as imagined they will be left with their exposure to the idea of how computers work, the confidence that building a machine is within their reach, and some experience and familiarity with the idea that technology can be used to interact with the real world.

I think exposing children to these wonderful ideas early is like planting a seed that has the potential to grow into something wonderful. It was simple experiences like these that I valued through the years, and looking back I think they had a great effect on me over time. It's hard to put into words but the memory of the hunt that I described above was a lot of fun, and over 15 years later I can't think about it without smiling. I hope I can give my students experiences that are that memorable, or even more so.

Standardized Testing

Not having a better solution (yet) is not a good reason to stick to a system we know is broken.

Standardized testing measures everyone against each other to determine a statistical average, and to compare students against their peers. Progressive research continues to demonstrate that this type of thinking is outdated, and that measuring every student on the exact same metric might give an accurate representation to how well those academic subjects are memorized.

These studies go well beyond college as well. A recent student shows that there is no significant difference in performance between students who do and do not submit SAT or ACT scores when applying to universities.

According to the University of North Carolina, standardized test results do predict success in postgraduate programs - so it’s not to say that they are useless.  However, only 8% of the United States population hold Graduate degrees.  It makes since to voluntarily take a standardized test when considering postgraduate school, as it may help predict how successful you would be in that environment. Up until that point in a person’s life, the benefits become much more difficult to define.

One problem with the standardized test is what the goal is when they are put into place. We seem to be a society that loves numbers, percentages and to criticize. Most standardized tests today, especially in the k-12 world, are used to measure success, and not to predict success.  This means that the one major benefit that I was able to find when it comes to standardized tests (the fact that the results are a good predictor of success)  are just a happy side effect and not the purpose of the test in the first place.

The reason the ill defined goal becomes an issue is because good ‘standardized test results’ are the goal, but what those test results represent seems blurry. Do they represent whether the school system did a good job? Does it represent if the school needs more money, or needs its funding cut?  What do we gain from standardized testing?

The answer to this question depends on who you ask, and what side of the argument you are on. One side likes to point out that “93% of studies in the last 100 years show that standardized testing has a positive effect on student achievement.”  On the other side you’ll hear “A May 26, 2011, National Research Council report found no evidence test-based incentive programs are working:”

I’m always wary of statistics like this because they seem to be worded specifically to support the idea that the writer wants to support. 93% of studies in the last 100 years show a positive impact, but how did that number change over time? If we just look at tests in the last 10 years, do we see the same results?

There are some pro arguments that more abstract benefits come from standardized tests. For example, proponents argue that separating minorities or non-english speaking students into separate testing categories creates an unequal system which would result in more segregation. This line of thinking makes sense to me, but I still believe that there are options to explore that can accomplish these same things without the drawbacks of standardized tests.

Overall I think we need to agree on an educational philosophy. What is education in America? What is the goal of education?  Only then can we decide truly if standardized testing has it’s place in accomplishing that goal. Right now the goal seems to be “get a good job”, but we’ve seen that the high school education isn’t preparing anyone for getting those jobs right now. So maybe that needs to change.

Educational Philosophy Statement

I believe students should be taught skills that will continue to be useful throughout their lives. The fundamental purpose of an education is to help an individual grow, and to create members of a society and a community that are capable of being productive and successful. If you’re not teaching children to be independent critical thinkers then you are churning out factory pieces to be exploited by corporations, politicians, and anyone else who’s best interest involves pushing for an uninformed population.

There are several expectations for basic adulthood that are not part of the school curriculum, and aren’t being taught consistently by parents, and I believe that is leaving our society with a ‘knowledge deficiency.’ Some of these things include skills like managing money, how interest on loans work, moderate nutritional education, writing cover letters and resumes, etc. Adjusting current curriculum's slightly away from topics like abstract math, classic literature and the periodic table to make room for more practical and universally used topics would be very beneficial. Children need to continue learning how to interact and communicate with the world around them. Abstract processes taught for the sake of tradition aren’t helping when it’s hard for many people to even justify the time they spent in high school learning things that never applied to their adult lives.. Exposing children to ideas such as geology, astronomy, algebra and calculus are great - but mandating that students dedicate time to those skills is wasteful. Education should be teacher guided but tailored to each individual.

I believe that courses should be interactive and collaborative. Exercises should encourage communication and broadening of social horizons within the classroom. Life is not full of solo projects, and only solo tasks. Any homework assignment should be a contribution to the class as a whole, not an isolated individual responsibility. Work should be done to benefit something greater than themselves, where the final goal is a sense of team accomplishment. Leading everyone to be proud of each other, where everyone keeps each other accountable and helps each other through struggles, and not just focuses on themselves.  

I believe that exercises should be structured so educational goals are met and the students add their own context. Childhood brains develop through their interaction with the world. Curiosity is rewarded with knowledge, and we must encourage and facilitate curiosity and experimentation. Students should be able to express themselves and play with the ideas and assignments given - so long as a true effort is being made and the student has striven to accomplish something, and the student was engaged, then there is no failure no matter the outcome. If a classroom exercise is to draw a duck, then drawing a blue 50 foot duck should not necessarily be judged on the accuracy in which it depicts a real life duck. Although there are cases where this may miss the educational goal, there are many instances where an effort outside of the specific instructions still exercise the intended skillset.

I believe that play should be structured into learning. I don’t think there should be a separation from play and learning. I think there’s a way to do both. I think it’s important for students to gain experiences and for students to learn by doing. This mantra can be applied creatively to come up with lessons that teach students useful lifelong skills, through interactive and collaborative projects where students can work on specific tasks that speak to their interest and strengths. This would not only lead to more students being engaged, but also the students being engaged on a deeper level.