This was posted as a response to an article entitled “Grade Inflation is Ruining Inflation” on Quillette.
The heyday of Western Education was probably 50s Britain. They believed in the transformative power of education and designed their education accordingly. They also believed in using tests to locate gifted kids from poorer background and placing them in grammar school environments where they could thrive. Then it became apparent that although there were some within the lower classes who were gifted, they were the exceptions, not the rule.
The middle and upper middle classes maneuvered to get their kids into the grammar schools at all costs, regardless of whether they possessed the natural ability or not. And once it became clear that rather than breaking down class barriers to create an egalitarian society with almost no income inequality other than that based upon age and seniority, they were simply replacing the class system with a new hierarchy based upon meritocracy, the always Left-leaning educational establishment quickly fell out of love with their new system like a jilted lover.
We know all this is true because nearly two decades ago they tried getting adults educated in this era to try the exams of the time, whilst simultaneously asking contemporary 16 year olds to try the old exams. The results were stark. The middle aged were able to breeze through the modern exams successfully, even though most of them hadn’t spoken a word of French or performed trigonometry in roughly four decades, whilst the kids floundered- there was no way they could possibly perform at the standards once demanded of school leavers within living memory.
And it all shows in areas like mental math. There is a theory in cognitive science which accurately encapsulates just exactly how the human brain learns and stores information for future reference, called cognitive load theory. What it basically states in that working memory is puny and in order to perform more complex mental task we need to store information in long term memory, calling it forward for reference at some future date. If you know that 7 x 8 = 56 without even having to think about it, and can work out 10 x 18 = 180 at a glance, then you have a fair chance of working out 18 x 17 without resorting to calculator or pen and paper. If you don’t, then the only way you will manage it is if you happen to score very highly for Maths aptitude.
All of this requires an education which is at least a lot more traditional during the early years. All of this is a little personal to me. My brother is dyslexic- despite scoring at the top end of the cognitive spectrum, he has only 5 or 6 of the available slots in working memory, rather than 7. Had it not been for the early intervention of my mother, who just happened to be a primary school teacher, then his life path could have been quite different. She was able to argue with the local education authority for the one-to-one weekly resources that he needed. He now has a bachelors in science and a masters in computing- despite deciding that he didn’t like the politics of office environments and instead opting for a second career as a head chef.
This is indicative of greater problems in our education system. Trying to keep Special Educational Needs kids in mainstream education, whether for behavioural or cognitive reasons has proven a complete disaster for both the SEN kids and their classmates. Keeping disruptive kids in school doesn’t help either. And however much liberals might like to think that streaming kids on the basis of ability might unduly stigmatise kids in class five or six out of six in a year, the effects of placing kids of widely varying ability in the same classroom can have a far worse effect. A good teacher can keep the five or six kids who constantly fall behind motivated and on track, but why should they have to? In a class of almost equal ability they can focus their attention on the kids who are not paying attention or getting too energetic.
The worst thing about it is trying to keep disruptive or unruly kids in school, is that even modestly disrupted classes can result in two years worth of lost education by the end of K-12. And it’s all based upon the hypothesis of the school-to-prison pipeline. In the UK, we still exclude kids- but we do actually provide the resources to do everything we can for them, even if often times the specialist help arrives too late to make a difference. We have what are called Pupil Referral Units.
In the best cases kids, the boys (and they are mainly boys), are placed in one-to-one mentoring situations with admirable male role models undertaking activities like boxing in addition to their regular school work. But the results are stark- they are still 200 times more likely to be involved in a knife crime incident, either as a victim or as an offender. In many instances they have already come into contact with gang grooming influences, especially over social media, these days.
In an era where we overprotect kids from imagined threats of the real world, with child abduction cases being all but non-existent and a whole infrastructure revolving around amber alerts, we expose them to the hugely negative developmental influence of social media through mobile phones, and give any stranger access to them through the internet. Many kids who have been killed because of social media interaction were not the victims of some sexual predator, but because they just happened to be groomed by, or happened to insult, an entirely different type of predator through a screen.
The other darker truth is that a portion of the group will already fall at the extreme end of the anti-social personality disorder spectrum- what used to be called psychopaths or sociopaths. Much of this has to do with childhood abuse or neglect, which tends to aggregate at the bottom end of the socio-economic spectrum, at least at a statistical rather than individual level.
Yet these kids are still better served than they would be in America. We count our homicides by the million, rather than by the 100,000. And the amazingly committed public servants who staff these programmes do achieve positive results all the time. Many of these kids go on to become model citizens and taxpayers. In America, most end up in prison.
And red.hybiscus is right on this one. As an experienced teacher with decades of experience, her previous exhortations against the bureaucracy which prevents teachers from effectively managing discipline has not fallen on deaf ears. Further research has shown it has more profound implications, when we examine the claim that funding in the primary problem in American Public Education. In the UK we spend £4,900 per pupil per year on education at the primary level, and £6,300 per pupil per year on education at the secondary level. In the US, $13,600 is spent per pupil per year. The money is being wasted somewhere.
If you are on the Left, you will doubtless question the wisdom of spending huge amounts of money on tablets for kids, which are of little classroom utility, often in circumstances where the school doesn’t have access to Wi-Fi. If you are on the Right, your personal axe to grind will probably be more along the lines of massive bureaucratic waste, or questioning the impact of environmental impact studies performed by intellectuals, often at costs which run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars per study.
In the UK, there has been a recent sea change in educational thinking, inspired to a degree by a few exceptional schools serving poor, high crime communities. Particular attention has been paid to testing for the results of phonics, and reading engagement for boys is a specific target- given that some question the impact of providing reading resources which always depict the girl as a plucky, adventurous rebel against the expectations placed upon them, whilst simultaneously relegating male characters to either villains, or dim, but loyal sidekicks. Is this really the type of material which will encourage boys to read for pleasure?
Like him or not, his decision to bring in a phonics check and open up the national pupil database could have a lasting impact
Regardless, we will be able to tell whether the changes are for good or ill within a couple of decades, as the changes will only effect England and Wales, and will not be implemented in Scotland. It should be noted that PISA results for Scotland have been on the decline, and now place behind England, where once they were considerably better performing. Currently, the SNP dominates in Scotland where devolution over matters like education prevails, whilst more generally the UK, has been governed by the Conservatives since 2010.
But before American Conservatives celebrate too much it is worth noting that the Tories could best be described as a broad political spectrum running from the economic libertarian to what in American terms might best be described as Centre Left, with a level of cronyism which is apparent in areas like procurement, but doesn’t extend to areas like tax policy or legislation. There is even something in there for the progressives.
The Tories full-throated support of universal healthcare is longstanding- to do otherwise in a country where the NHS is given the status of a national religion would be tantamount to political suicide. Although the Johnson government has been criticised for many aspect of their handling of COVID, the provisions made for workers were not amongst the charges levies against them. The UK furlough scheme most closely resembles that of Denmark.
It’s time to set politics aside when it comes to education. Progressive politics doesn’t necessarily mean progressive education, although recently the cultural side of the progressive ideology has begun to bleed into education, in the mistaken belief that most structural or systemic racism can be traced back to unconscious or implicit bias. This is simply not true- although implicit bias is a factor, especially in areas like hiring (where it is particular focused in customer facing roles, because people always believe worse of others than they really should)- most systemic or structural racism doesn’t require bias, it happens by itself, which modern activists would know if they had read their Stokely Carmichael. At least 80% operates through a combination of socio-economics, the proportion of productive fathers in a community, and most especially through the all pervasive influence of what could best be described as a statistical hegemony.
In this light, the structural reforms required in education requires a radical approach. For too long American politics has focused too narrowly upon the argument over Charter versus Public education- it’s a distraction. And it is certainly not about funding, although it might well be about waste- both through corporate lobbying for completely unnecessary capital expenditures and through bureaucratic waste.
There needs to be a wholesale rethink in educational theory, away from unproven dogma towards what the best of what cognitive science can teach us, with cognitive load theory. Teachers need to be free to enforce discipline, regardless of what overzealous bureaucrats, parents, politicians and governors may think. Above all, they need high quality headteachers who will support them and give them access to continuous learning and improvement. American culture, is particularly heartless in this regard- if one is a grossly ineffective teacher, then only the unions will defend you, often to a fault.
In the UK, we take a more humane approach. Although we score 7th on the scale of economic liberty worker protections are enshrined into law. As a result, any underperforming worker with over a year’s service cannot simply be fired from their job, unless they commit gross misconduct. What this means for underperforming teachers is that they need to given support and ample opportunity for improvement. Often training can be an issue, as the one year PGCE with limited classroom experience and supervision, simply isn’t enough. Morale can be a problem, especially if a new teacher struggles to control the behaviour of a classroom, or a more experienced teacher may have become disenfranchised with the system.
We need to stop looking to politics as a proxy to solve all our problems. It is not a magic wand, and at worst it reduces complexity and nuance down to binary tribalism. The real root cause of the failure of American education is not funding or unions or corporations. It’s not charter versus public or a divide caused by some being able to afford private whilst others cannot. It’s a car crash to be found at the intersection of partisan politics, caused by the politicians fighting for control of the traffic lights, and the victims are the kids.
Thanks, both of you- most kind
Good article. Thanks
Excellent, well written, nuanced and insightful.