Coleman Report in the Modern Era

The following post is inspired by this article (it is admittedly long, but worth the read):

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/04/technology/technology-in-schools-faces-questions-on-value.html?pagewanted=6&_r=1&hp

Before I begin I am going to warn you that this is one of those posts that is more about sociology than my students, but I threw in a picture at the end to amuse you, and there will be a back to school post soon.

I've been looking for inspiration since my last post and finally here it is! This article questions the effectiveness of technology in the classroom, mostly as a result of one school district that has spent a significant amount of money to have increased technology in all of the classrooms there. As test results came in this summer it was time for districts to really consider what is going on in their classrooms that is effective and what is not. Unfortunately the tech heavy school district did not raise test scores since the implementation of laptops/smartboards/projectors/etc. As I read I could not help but think back to all of my sociology of education classes to one of the most cited reports in the history of American education: The Coleman Report. In brief, The Coleman Report found that increased spending in America's schools did not actually result in increased high academic achievement. So to sum it up school funding ≠ increased student achievement. Now the report was hundreds of pages long so it said a lot more than that, but at the time this was really BIG news to people because the thought was always more spending = high achievement. After reading this article I couldn't help but think, "well we've proven Coleman's hypothesis right again."

Technology is a hot topic in education, just as it is in the rest of the world. The thing I find the most amusing about this though is that while most top executives carry their Ipads to work, or college students take notes on their laptops in class while they simultaneously wirelessly search the internet, the technology in classrooms is actually pretty archaic. I think that I've noted this in posts before. Let me give you a few examples: the oh-so-coveted smartboard (an enormous piece of equipment that many teachers cannot even use properly that only allows a few students at a time to interact with it manually), my class computers (although I am very grateful for them, are PCs that run on an old server, an older version of word, and are all plugged into the wall), laptop carts (I haven't actually seen one of these at my school, but I've heard they exist and I imagine the technology is far from up to date), and the age-old overhead projector (which is actually being phased out at my school for document cameras, but we have what looks like an overhead projector graveyard in the library right now).

If Coleman found that in 1966 an increased spending on schools was not directly increasing student achievement than what are we doing spending all of this money on technology? Now this is not to say that I do not see the value in educational spending, because believe me I DO, nor is to say that I don't want those Nooks in my classroom this year because I DO, but I just hope that we are figuring out where the right places to spend are. Sociologists frequently harp on the fact that Coleman's report found that it was not so much school spending on resources that effected student outcomes but instead it was about student background and socioeconomic status. If technology is not helping close gaps, then we need to find out what truly is the difference between the experience of a successful high SES student and an unsuccessful low SES student and spend money on filling those gaps. Now we are getting into examining the whole child and what gaps exist between students from different SES levels, and I could go on about this for a long time. I believe that what it comes down to are gaps in cultural capital. Initially, we may have thought that technology fits into the category of cultural capital, but maybe this study says it doesn't. It may just be another resource that is not closing the gaps as Coleman said.

In my next post I will talk about the gaps we are creating/sustaining with cultural capital, how I suggest to avoid creating/sustaining those gaps, and how I plan to address it this year with MY STUDENTS!

A picture to leave you with...an explosion of resources that were not being used by a veteran teacher at my school. Coleman would not support. To my dismay, and eventual amusement this is how I found my classroom about 7 days before school began.

Luckily the cabinets were miraculously emptied before I went to dispose of everything in them.

On Silence

TFA tells us that October and November is a time of deep hardship for a first year teacher. There is data that says on the continuum of stress for a first year teacher this is the pinnacle of that stress. I admittedly tried very hard to resist this, but I must admit they are right. Since my last post I have worked harder than I ever did before, and I am still working to keep my student's spirits alive.

In order to find some solace this weekend I decided to go back to my roots and attend Quaker meeting in Charlotte. In Quaker meeting silence is very important. As I was sitting in meeting I was reflecting on being silent, and the peace I felt when the only things that I could hear were small movements in the room. I realized that as a teacher I place a high value on silence as well. When I am able to finally get all eyes in my classroom back on me, and mouths shut I feel like I just completed a marathon. So on Sunday I thought to myself, why is this so important to me in class. I can completely justify its importance in my religious life, but in class it's really just about control.

I decided this week to let go of some of this control. We are working in literature cirlces this week and rotating through working on the computers to respond on a wiki site. This means that students are leading each other through reading comprehension, and using their own opinions to talk to me online. We started on Friday and it has been anything but silent in my classroom since then. I think that despite my loss of peaceful silence my students are learning. It is really exciting to see them using the wiki (I am using edmodo.com), and most of the students are doing an excellent job working together to read.

Although October and November are proving to be challenging (just like TFA said they would be) I am learning to find moments in my classroom even when it's noisy that bring me the same joy as sitting in a meeting house in silence. It is my goal to be better about posting, so I should be back to at least once a week very soon!

If you are a mentor, I am sorry that the emails have been infrequent; my students have been busy starting the new book and have not had a lot of computer time. Please look out for some more emails coming really soon. If you never got an email your student is probably struggling with their email so please contact me and I will make sure they send you an email this week.