Teachers College Symposium Exposes Social Costs of
Inadequate Education
By Liza Young
|
Laurie
Tisch, Trustee |
|
President
Arthur Levine |
|
Charles
Rangel, US House of Rep. |
|
Michael
Rebell, Director CFE |
One of the soundest
investments for the financial and moral future of society
is proper management of education. Significant educational
gaps remain between whites and low income minority groups,
spawning the creation of the Campaign for Educational Equity.
At the recent symposium at Teachers College of Columbia University,
underwritten by the Laurie Tisch Foundation, a member of
the TC Board of Trustees, entitled “The Social
Costs of Inadequate Education,” a wealth of information
was provided regarding the social ramifications of inadequate
education, balanced by presentations of experts in educational
research who shed light on promising pathways in education.
Ronald F. Ferguson, of Harvard University, enlightened the
audience with his idea of school reformation, which he describes
as needing to occur at the level of a national movement. He
envisions the move towards educational equity as founded on
school transformation within the framework of whole-district
reform. That is, school reform towards equity requires adequate
training of teachers for involvement, but also comprehensive
district support in terms of leadership and appropriate accommodations
in the classroom to implement changes.
Ferguson indicated
standards called for by the Council of Great City Schools
as including a “school board focused
on policy-level decisions that support improved student achievement
and a shared vision between superintendent and board.”
He provided the example
of Union City, New Jersey, which over the course of ten years
moved from the second lowest performing district in the state
to leading in test scores among New Jersey’s
largest cities. Rather than the State taking control over the
district, the Board gave the authority to completely revamp
the system, with Tom Highton, then principal of the Gifted
and Talented school appointed as Superintendent and Fred Carrigg,
then supervisor of bilingual and English as a second language
(ESL) education chosen as executive director of academic programs.
The transformation occurred through a comprehensive examination
of what was not working with design of new policy which is
annually reviewed, and revised as necessary; effective communication
between policy makers and implementers; active support of teachers;
properly tailoring programs to the respective needs of localities,
such as geared literature to those for whom English is a second
language.
Within the home, Ferguson underscored the role of parenting,
stating that parents need to be more cognizant of their influence
on children. Fergusson highlighted five variables of preschool
parenting which research has demonstrated as contributing school
readiness, which are: nurturance, discipline, teaching, language
and materials. In studies, whites scored higher on these parenting
dimensions than minorities, which can be partly contributed
to resource inequalities.
In line with Fergusson’s emphasis on the essential role
of parenting to school performance, Dr. Clive Belfield, Dept
of Economics, Queens College, provided a comprehensive examination
of the role and state of early childhood education. Research
has demonstrated far-reaching, long–term positive effects
of pre-kindergarten on the individual and on society, with
participation in such programs leading to reduction in the
future in the high school dropout rate, crime, and teen pregnancy.
Belfield described that access to early education is actually
higher for African Americans than for whites although examination
of access to pre-school across the poverty line reveals that
rates are lowest for those just above the poverty.
The challenge for attaining
the promises Pre-K programs offer, according to Belfield,
is to ensure that the most disadvantaged kids are getting
access to quality pre-school. The caliber of pre-K education
directly impacts the results it will generate; the gains
of Head Start were not equivalent to those of Model Programs—the
latter would require more funding.
Belfield further described
the debate of Universalizing Pre-K versus targeting it. While
Universal pre-school is more politically correct, due to
funding limitations it would likely occur at a smaller scale,
and according to Belfield, “small universal
public subsidy is neither fully efficient nor especially equity
enhancing.”
Janet Currie, Department
of Economics, Columbia University, a discussant at the program,
expressed the view that there is hope for closing the educational
gap as seen through examples such as Union City and model
pre-school programs. She also indicated that more research
is needed with respect to ideal parenting interventions—for example, with respect to
the findings that parenting interventions have not increased
math scores, she emphasized the need for more research to find
out “ what works pedagogically.”
Currie applauded Fergusson’s
earlier call for open revelation of research findings among
minority groups, positive or negative. Such revelations and
research conferences as this pave the road towards reaching
equity in education.#
