Reading Reflection 1 - Rethinking High School

Despite the gloomy economic picture and the consequences it is having on public education, I find myself encouraged about the future of education. Not only is there recognition of the need for changes to a more vibrant, dynamic and relevant curriculum and school experience, but that action is taking place to bring about these changes. Action from dedicated and experienced teachers dissatisfied with the status quo, and action from teacher credential programs like our own here at CSUSM. As teacher candidates, we are looking to the future and can be advocates for change.

Chapter 1 gives an overview of 'best practices' for high school reform. As the authors mention (and is recurrent nthroughout the book) is that best practices are not incompatible with curriculum mandates and standardized testing, revealing that the prevalent "teach to the test" teaching methods have no real validity. In one study outlined in the chapter, students given challenging, problem-based and collaborative learning experiences using content that is real-world and 'authentic', scored higher in standard tests than students having traditional schooling methods. I suspect that in many cases, teachers are sticking to these 'test-prep' methods because they are entrenched in it and unwilling to do the work necessary to change. Of course there are other reasons too, such as large class sizes, dictats from principals, fear that 'change' may negatively impact student test performance. But as the chapter talks about, changes in schools happens slowly. Teachers are not expected to make wholesale changes overnight, and can experiment with different approaches to find out what is successful and unsuccessful for their own classes of students.

Q: What didn't seem like a great measure of reform? Not sure there are any things described here that are not good measures.

Q: What Second to None 'components of reform' are there in the chapter?
All of the aspects of secondary education reform are touched on in this chapter: 1. creating new curriculum paths - e.g. holistic learning with integrated curriculum, students construct meaning rather than rote learn facts; 2. new professional roles - e.g. teachers gain new voice in shaping curriculum, they act as 'coaches' and 'guides' not just dispensers of information; 3. restructuring schools - this is what this is all about; 4. powerful teaching (see 2); 5. comprehensive support for all students - e.g. mentoring and advisory sessions; 6. comprehensive accountability and assessment - e.g. focus on what students can do, not necessarily just test scores, integrate curriculum and instruction with assessment.

Q: What idea or concept from the chapter would you like to investigate further? Details of 'high authenticity' versus 'low authenticity' curriculum topics (p.14), especially for science. What particular features distinguish these? What exactly is meant by these terms, how can all topics in science content standards be made authentic, especially given time constraints and nature of some of the content?