How Do We Improve Public Education in America?

These days, much of my focus has been on the gross under-funding of public schools, particularly in California. I believe that our funding decisions reflect our values as a society, and the steep reduction in funding of schools means that we don't understand how important quality education is to the future of our state and country.

Besides funding, there are also real questions about the way to structure our schools in order to offer equal opportunity to all students, regardless of background.

There is a large amount of evidence that student performance correlates with poverty rates no matter the educational model used. Here is a provocative interview with Professor Michael Marder at the University of Texas in which he presents data showing the strong correlation. While many people are pushing charter schools as a panacea, Professor Marder's data also shows that charter schools clearly lag public schools in performance. We must be very careful in how we expand the charter school movement in order to make sure it really does benefit all students, both at the charters and the traditional public schools.

Ten years ago, Congress created "No Child Left Behind," which puts a great emphasis on testing in order to gauge student progress and created an expectation that all students will be proficient by 2013. While the goal is admirable, additional tools or strategies were not offered along with the evaluation components.

We can learn a lot from schools in Finland, which are widely recognized as the best performing schools in the world. In Finland, there are no standardized tests. Students are evaluated by their teachers and the National Ministry of Education tracks progress by periodically testing a random sample of students. The key is that Finland's model for education relies on "the idea that every child should have exactly the same opportunity to learn, regardless of family background, income, or geographic location. Education has been seen first and foremost not as a way to produce star performers, but as an instrument to even out social inequality... This starts with the basics. Finland offers all pupils free school meals, easy access to health care, psychological counseling, and individualized student guidance." In other words, school is about more than curriculum. It is about making sure that all students are provided with everything they need to be successful. By the way, there are no private schools in Finland. The public schools are given all the resources they need to educate everyone. [Read more about Finish schools.]

Until we make education a priority and are willing to learn from the data and from education models that are working, we are shortchanging many of our next generation. Let's resolve in 2012 to work together to find ways to address the underlying needs of our students. It can be done through public schools, without relying on private institutions or charter schools.