Why Most Schools Fail

The Essential Core

The government education system in New Zealand has become a behemoth which will never change.  That, we believe, is the most realistic assessment of the vast edu-bureaucracy and the educrats who run it. 

Debates over the "system" inevitably turn into discussions about quality teachers.  Most people instinctively realise that any and every education system will fall over if teachers are second grade or inadequate to the task. 

Allan Peachey, former principal of Rangitoto College was pretty clear on this.  Finding and securing the best available teachers was a core part of a principal's duties and responsibilities.  He describes what he looked for when recruiting teachers to work at Rangitoto College.

Exemplary Excellence in a School

Standards

A few weeks ago a copy of Allan Peachey's What's Up With Our Schools came across our desk.  Peachey's brief bio can be found here.  He died of cancer in November 2011, after a stellar career in front-line, hands-on education.  His impatient contempt for educrats and teacher unions is legendary.  His success in leading Rangitoto College is still spoken of with great respect amongst serious educators.  

Here is Peachey's take on how to raise and maintain high standards of behaviour in a school.

It is not possible to completely eliminate bad behaviour but I have found that the time spent on this can be greatly reduced if the school and its staff articulate very clear, consistent and challenging expectations of the students, and pay attention to the basics.

The correct uniform is to be worn at all times, and if it isn't we will deal with it; we will not pretend that we haven't seen it.  Swear within earshot of a teacher, and you have sworn at the teacher; the penalty for that is exclusion from school.  Deal with these little things and the big things take care of themselves.  Graffiti is rare in our school, but when it appears it is immediately removed, and it is certainly not to be tolerated on classroom desks.  Zero tolerance works.  [Allan Peachey, What's Up With Our Schools: A New Zealand Principal Speaks Out (Auckland: Random House, 2005), p. 20.] 

Of course the reason one would maintain a standard of zero-tolerance over behaviour and would practise strict enforcement of the code is that teachers can then spend far more time teaching and extracting the best from students.

When the Old Becomes Startlingly New

At Last, Some Sense in Education

Every so often a piece is published which is like a ray of common-sense amidst a dark night of foolishness.  And so it came to pass on October 31st, 2014.  The Sutton Trust published some research conducted by Professor Robert Coe of Durham University and colleagues. The website blurb on the Sutton Trust reads as follows:

The Sutton Trust was founded in 1997 by Sir Peter Lampl to improve social mobility through education.  As well as being a think-tank, the Sutton Trust is a ‘do-tank,’ having funded over 200 programmes, commissioned over 140 research studies and influenced Government education policy by pushing social mobility to the top of the political agenda.

The title of the research is, What Makes Great Teaching? Review of the Underpinning Research.   The Sutton Trust, a co-sponsor of the work, provided an executive summary of what has become evident to the researchers:

This report reviews over 200 pieces of research to identify the elements of teaching with the strongest evidence of improving attainment. It finds some common practices can be harmful to learning and have no grounding in research. Specific practices which are supported by good evidence of their effectiveness are also examined and six key factors that contribute to great teaching are identified. The report also analyses different methods of evaluating teaching including: using ‘value-added’ results from student test scores; observing classroom teaching; and getting students to rate the quality of their teaching.

To improve pupil attainment there are two key factors which must be at work:

Letter From the UK (From Tolkien)

A Piece of Gandalf Magic

Lord of the Rings author's rediscovered message to fellow teacher talks about how frustrating he found the work

Alison Flood
Thursday 12 June 2014
The Guardian

JRR Tolkien, who famously wrote the first line of The Hobbit while marking exam papers, told a fellow teacher that "all teaching is exhausting and depressing" in a previously unknown letter which has just come to light.
The Lord of the Rings author wrote the letter on 17 January 1964 in response to Anne Mountfield, a newly qualified teacher who was working at Eltham Green School in London. Mountfield had written to Tolkien that her "rather restless" class had been spellbound when she read them The Hobbit. Tolkien typed her a reply, saying that the story of Bilbo Baggins's adventures "seems to go down well at school".

He then added a handwritten note to the bottom of the letter, telling Mountfield that "All teaching is exhausting, and depressing and one is seldom comforted by knowing when one has had some effect. I wish I could now tell some of mine (of long ago) how I remember them and things they said, though I was (only, as it appeared) looking out of the window or giggling at my neighbour".