{"id":29605,"date":"2021-05-04T11:46:37","date_gmt":"2021-05-04T16:46:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/?p=29605"},"modified":"2021-05-04T11:46:37","modified_gmt":"2021-05-04T16:46:37","slug":"from-diverse-standpoints-experts-agree-on-the-need-for-re-energizing-k-12-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/2021\/05\/from-diverse-standpoints-experts-agree-on-the-need-for-re-energizing-k-12-education\/","title":{"rendered":"From Diverse Standpoints, Experts Agree on the Need for Re-energizing K-12 Education"},"content":{"rendered":"

This story about the discussion during a program of the Marquette Law School’s Lubar Center for Public Policy and Civic Education appeared initially in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on May 2, 2021.<\/em><\/p>\n

Pedro Noguera and Rick Hess talk to many school superintendents and principals around the United States. In general, they don\u2019t find them to be oriented toward the sharp partisan divides that dominate education debate.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you talk to people who lead school systems, they are less ideological,\u201d Noguera said. \u201cThey focus on practical matters.\u201d<\/p>\n

By \u201cpractical matters,\u201d Noguera meant the daily things that lead to kids getting good educations, things like good teachers, good learning practices, and school cultures that offer warmth, safety and stability. Those are things he hopes will be given renewed priority as education recovers from the COVID pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there\u2019s a silver lining to come from this experience with respect to education, I hope it\u2019s a return to a focus on education that stimulates and inspires kids,\u201d Noguera wrote in a book, co-authored with Hess, that came out several weeks ago.<\/p>\n

Just the name of the book made me want to read it: \u201cA Search for Common Ground: Conversations About the Toughest Questions in K-12 Education.\u201d Hess is director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute and is generally conservative. Noguera is dean of the Rossier School of Education at the University of Southern California and is generally liberal. They are among the best-known observers of American education.<\/p>\n

American education policy is shaped by polarized divisiveness and there is little reason to think all the fighting is productive when it comes to kids.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, if there were a way to rank states by how intense these schisms are, I would nominate Wisconsin as a likely winner, so to speak. Just look at the recent campaign for state superintendent of schools or brace yourself for the partisan fighting that will mark the culmination of the state budget process in coming weeks.<\/p>\n

So I thought it would be good to hear what Noguera and Hess have to say. That led to a Marquette Law School virtual program with them, posted on April 27, and to this column.<\/p>\n

Noguera said school leaders are eager to focus now on issues such as the social and emotional needs of children who have been isolated and under stress and on the quality of the experiences students have.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd by quality, I mean something that challenges kids, something that gets them thinking deeply, that the kids resonate with and they know this is worthwhile,\u201d Noguera said. \u201cWe have spent so little time on that in this country over the last 20, 30 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both Hess and Noguera agreed that too much emphasis has been put on measuring achievement of children through testing, and too little on setting up kids for good learning, especially kids who are given more meager resources and opportunities to learn.<\/p>\n

Noguera talked about helping his nine-year-old daughter with some of her school work. \u201cI was just shaking my head because the work, the assignment, was aligned with the Common Core standards and it was totally uninspiring. It was just the least creative assignment I could imagine.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just wondered, why has it come to this? How did we lose the creative parts of teaching and learning that seemed to be much more available when I was a kid? So I hope that that conversation comes back to education much more.<\/p>\n

\u201cEducation \u2013 here\u2019s what I know from my own experience. When you get a good education, you want more education. You read a book you love, you want to read another one. That\u2019s how it works.\u00a0 And we should be feeding that desire to learn in kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hess and Noguera agreed on a lot of points in the discussion. But they clearly disagreed on some, including school choice and what has been learned in 30 years of public funding of vouchers so students in Milwaukee can attend private schools.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m comfortable with choice across the board,\u201d Hess said. \u201cIt\u2019s an opportunity for everyone to rethink how schools should do the work in ways that better fit kids.\u201d He agreed that problems haven\u2019t been solved, but he said school choice is a starting place to expand opportunities.<\/p>\n

Noguera said, \u201cIn my opinion, Milwaukee is the clearest case to show that choice is no panacea. You\u2019ve had choice for longer than anyone else and you still have so many bad schools all over Milwaukee. You\u2019re the test case to show choice is not the answer.\u201d He added, \u201cI say this as someone who has spent time in Milwaukee. I have visited schools with (school choice advocate) Howard Fuller, who I know very well.\u201c<\/p>\n

I said that, for many years running, only about 20% of students in Milwaukee have scored as proficient or better in reading tests. That\u2019s true both for public school and private school voucher students.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s so sad,\u201d Noguera said. \u201cWhat we don\u2019t do in education is look at where we\u2019re getting good results and ask, how do we take what they have done and spread it around to other schools?\u201d<\/p>\n

Large majorities of people want to see more practical and less partisan efforts around improving education, Hess said, a conclusion backed by polling data. \u201cWhat I think we need to do is to push back\u201d against the loudest voices, he said. People such as him have platforms that allow them to be heard. \u201cWe need to stop using them to bang the table and shout that I\u2019m right,\u201d he said. They should \u201cmodel what it looks like to reach across.\u201d<\/p>\n

Noguera said the country is faced with a myriad of problems. \u201cWe\u2019re not going to get any closer to solving them if all we do is fight with each other,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The program with Hess and Noguera may be viewed at The Hottest Issues in K-12 Education: Tough Questions, Thoughtful Answers – YouTube<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This story about the discussion during a program of the Marquette Law School’s Lubar Center for Public Policy and Civic Education appeared initially in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on May 2, 2021. Pedro Noguera and Rick Hess talk to many school superintendents and principals around the United States. In general, they don\u2019t find them to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[78,349,122,46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education-law","category-lubar-center","category-public","category-speakers","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/71"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29605"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29607,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29605\/revisions\/29607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}