Everyone loves good, fun competition. For many, opportunities to prove one’s greatness, fully display admired talents, and beat out a friend or rival are just irresistible. I can take that shot better than her… His writing is mundane. Let me show him how it’s done… That blueberry pie was tasty, but mine is delectable.
For several decades now, education reformers have tried to design policies that tap into this competitive nature that humans and their institutions are prone to exhibit under the right conditions. Whether it’s through the creation of charter schools, federal grant competitions, or “Teacher of the Year” contests, policymakers have rightly recognized that teachers and principals need systems and incentives that bring out their “I want to win, I can do that better” spirits. (I can hear the booing and moaning of education school professors and Deweyites in the background.)
But during this same period of time, after countless conversations about competition and incentives, teachers and principals haven’t made the drastic gains and improvements that we’re all hoping for. You’ve heard it: Student achievement scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress are essentially flat (except for small gains from a few subgroups). The U.S. continues to be outranked by its Asian counterparts in science and mathematics achievement, even though there has been some recent growth. And crime rates remain too high in schools that serve mostly poor, minority students.
Why is this? Well, at the elementary and middle school levels, I partly blame pretty bulletin boards like this one:
Image from Trading Ideas
The truth is, as a son and fiance of elementary school teachers, I genuinely like and appreciate school bulletin boards. These masterpieces are often colorful, witty, and creative, and sometimes they’re even used to reach legitimate learning outcomes. But, geez! From what I’ve witnessed in schools and heard from teachers, the social and professional pressures to decorate these 4′ x 6′ rectangles, along with the rest of their classrooms, is intense. Around the start of the school year you can feel the almost-ruthless spirit of competition in the air as teachers cut, glue, staple, and pin with the serious goal of producing the very best piece of art on the hall.
And this kind of competition among elementary and middle school teachers isn’t limited to bulletin boards. Teachers face pressure from their principals and peers to pull off impeccable school plays, make beautiful outdoor gardens, and stylize their doorframes in ways Van Gogh couldn’t imagine. The trouble with all of this is that teachers are competing to be the best in creating the illusion of learning rather than focusing their energies and resources on actually helping students learn.
Education reformers love art, theater, gardens, and bulletin boards, but we also want students to master core academic knowledge and skills that will help them become informed citizens, productive workers, and free thinkers. To see how far the U.S. has come towards achieving that end during the NCLB Era, an academic researcher should take up this topic. I want to know if the pressure to design bulletin boards and make glittered posters is greater than the pressure to ensure that students know how to write and solve linear equations. Have teacher incentives begun shifting away from pretty and illusory objectives and towards concrete academic goals? Are teachers now competing to have the highest science scores and the best reading lessons?
You see, teachers have always been, and will always be, somewhat competitive. One key challenge for policymakers is ensuring that teachers are involved in the types of competitions that truly benefit their students and society.
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I’ll take 2/3 right from almost anyone at Core Knowledge. That’s essentially an endorsement.
You’ve got this about two-thirds right. The “competition” to put up great bulletins boards is not a competition, per se, but a by-product of superintendants and other district administrators who do drive-by evaluations by check list. The theory is that there are certain “visible signs of teaching and learning” that are the hallmarks of productive classrooms. Not unnaturally, pressure is brought to bear on teachers to make their classrooms and bulletin boards look good to appease the wandering supervisor. It is, however, a giant time suck and yet another example of gamesmanship. Teachers are expected to master the art off the dog-and-pony show, instead of honing their craft. The New York Times wrote about this some years ago:
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/18/nyregion/judging-a-school-by-its-posters-bulletin-boards-are-scrutinized-and-fretted-over.html?scp=1&sq=bulletin+boards&st=nyt
Admin may push for pretty BBs, but my experience has been that most ES teachers really like the artsy-crafty stuff and would do it anyway. That means that not only do they like creating pretty BBs, door decorations etc. but they like their students to do the same – dioramas etc. instead of written book reports, arty projects instead of written history or science work etc. No wonder boys (and a lot of girls) aren’t liking school.
In my older kids’ (now in their 30s) era, that pretty much ended when they hit JHS (7-8), and lots of girls who never had less than an A had a rude awakening, since nice handwriting, coloring and decorating no longer counted for much. The whole grade pattern changed, with boys doing much better, at least until the girls got the content focus. Unfortunately, by the time my next kids arrived, that JHS had become a (6-7-8) MS (over strong parent protests) and the artsy focus continued until HS.
No, I wouldn’t blame only admin; I’m with Forrest and Obi.
In my district, the dog-and-pony show of choice is the “Learning Area.” For those not familiar with it, it is a section of a room in which children go to perform certain activities. The upper level administration, almost none of whom have any experience outside lower level elementary, are pushing mandatory usage up through high school.
It’s all about providing documentation that we’re doing something. Bulletin boards, doors, learning areas, displays, etc. are easy “evidence” of what is being done in the classroom. We spend so much time trying to prove that we’re doing something that there is little time left over to accomplish anything.
August,
Not one? If that’s the case, I suspect that one of the following must be true:
a. You don’t work in K-6 education.
b. You have worked in unique, high-quality schools that care more about reality than appearance.
c. You listen to what people say rather than watch what they do. Most teachers wouldn’t admit to placing such a great value on appearance (assuming that they are even aware of their true values and concerns).
Of the hundreds of teachers I’ve worked with and known over the years, I’ve never met one who cared more about bulletin boards than what their kids learn.
Parents as “customers” and all…it’s called marketing. Maybe public school is not the place to worry about marketing?
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