Let me offer the key takeaways up front.
This is a book very much worth reading.
It was not composed as one book, since much of the material is reworked from things Merrow previously did. That means there is some repetition, chapters of varying length and effectiveness. In general that adds to the value of the book.
I do not agree with Merrow on all his points, but do on the most important.
Because of his background, Merrow is almost uniquely positioned to write a book like this.
He offers some very pointed statements, which may surprise people who have only occasionally watched his pieces for PBS.
He tries to be sympathetic, and let people speak for themselves, but tries to ensure that if there is an important contrary view the reader has access to it.
And disclosure - I make a brief appearance in the book, because Merrow quotes part of a comment I posted on his blog.
Oh, and before I forget, the full title of the book is Below C Level: How American Education Encourages Mediocrity and What We Can Do About It
Let me start with Merrow himself. He graduated from Dartmouth with a degree in English in 1964, and when he failed the physical for the Peace Corps, wound up spending two years as a teacher in a public high school. He has done other teaching, including instructing prisoners in a penitentiary. We best know him for his more than three decades as someone who has covered educational issues, primarily on PBS's The News Hour, for which he has served as education correspondent. He has founded his own company, Learning Matters, and has written several other books and a number of news articles. Along the way he picked up a masters in American Studies from Indiana and a doctorate in Education and Social Policy from Harvard. He began his work as a broadcast journalist covering education in 1974. He has won two Peabody awards for his TV work, serves as a Trustee of Teachers College, Columbia U, and on the board of the Education Writers Association. In short, he brings substantial training, knowledge and experience to the writing of this book.
One purpose in Merrow writing this book now is his belief that we are long overdue to improve instruction and if possible lower the costs of education. Yet he does not come at this with the mindset of many who identify themselves as "reformers" with an inclination to exclude those who disagree with them. He offers three key points in his introduction, of which the second is key, that we need to
Abandon our fantasy that a magic solution exists just around the corner. Our fixation on instant cures is actually part of the problem. (p. xx)
In his third point he insists that we need truth telling and clear identification of those benefiting from the "convenient lies" about education, and then follows with a sentence that should help the reader have some sense of where this book will be going:
No Child Left Behind strikes me in some ways as the biggest lie of all. (ibid.)
Merrow divides the book into five sections, comprising a total 37 chapters and a conclusion. I will not even attempt to list all the chapters, much less discuss them. The link I provided above the fold will allow you to browse the table of contents as well as see some sample text. You can also read a sample of the book here at Merrow's website. Those should give you a sense of the thrust of the book, and the nature of Merrow's writing, which is quite clear, and through which he makes a series of effective arguments.
I cannot in a review of reasonable length really do justice to the entire book. Instead, I will first offer a number quotes I have selected from throughout the book to give a sense of the ideas Merrow is presenting, and how he is presenting them. Next, I will examine a bit more closely several key ideas from within the book. Along the way I will offer a few thoughts of my own about the book and the topics under discussion.
Let me note here several things
- I plan to examine some parts of the book in a bit more detail in subsequent postings here.
- There are some points I want to bring to your attention, but do not want to burden you with in the review. They will be included in several comments that will already be appended to this diary when it is posted.
Now for the promised quotes, in no particular order
Another barrier to innovation in education is the glut of 'experts," meaning that all of us went to school and therefore "know" what school should be like. (p.140)
My quarrel is not with testing but with testing that is too frequent and with tests that are too cheap. (p. 17)
Innovation occurs when you realize you're not getting through. At that point, like a good teacher, you'll scrap the "lesson plan" and devise a new one. (p. 133)
But today it's not enough for outstanding teachers to teach and listen well. Their real challenge is to consciously push students out of their comfort zones. p. 181)
Because much learning - including when teachers are doing the learning - is social, Ann Lieberman told me, "teacher evaluations shouldn't be about finding fault but about helping teachers learn but building on what they already know, what can help them move forward, and what can help them become more thoughtful about the complexities of their classrooms." In other words, beware of simple, simplistic approaches to evaluating teachers. (p. 200)
I think that charter schools risk becoming like schools of education if they aren't careful. How many of the 1,400 or so institutions that train teachers are excellent? I'd say 50 but, if you were to argue for 100, I'll go along with tat. But are the 100 excellent ones doing anything to get rid of the dreadful 500 to 700 schools? If they are, it hasn't made my radar screen. (p. 150)
People ignorant of the existence of opportunity and expectations gaps shouldn't hold office - political or educational. Those who shorthand the situation by blaming the "achievement gap" inadvertently contribute to public misunderstanding. Their intellectual laziness is inexcusable. (p. 56)
Cheap, norm-referenced, multiple-choice, machine-scored tests invite the kind of skill-and-drill instruction that poor kids are subjected to. Because test prep works and scores can be improved, schools face irresistible pressures to focus heavily on the subject matter being tested, and to give short shrift to everything else. Cheap tests also drive out more nuanced assessment like teacher-made tests and individual assessments, which are much more expensive to implement. (ibid.)
while it's a cliche that democracy in not a spectator sport, the unfortunate reality is that our schools are not preparing students to be actively engaged, responsible citizens. (p. 291)
If we were serious about educational accountability, we'd publish the disappearance rate. We'd figure out why kids were leaving. And we'd figure out ways to eep them learning in school, and graduating. (p. 64)
Merrow provides some eye-opening information about educational spending. We tend to think we are spending much more than we are. He offers comparison figures and then puts them in context:
year overall spending % of GDP
1950 $100 billion 9%
2001 $500 billion <5% <br>2006 5.5%
Our level of commitment to education has been going down. (data from p. 8)
We can look at this in our largest state, California, with data we find on p. 71:
In the glory days, Californians spent 5.6% of every dollar on schools; today it's less than four cents.
Consider that for a moment - in a time when there is much more to learn, when if our education is going to be relevant to the work place and the lives students will leave we need to spend more just on appropriate technology, California is only spending a bit over 70% of the ratio it used to spend on education. This is of course in part a result of voter initiatives, and when education is put to the vote there is a very real chance of similar things happening elsewhere - a relatively small portion of American households have children in the public schools. I live in Arlington VA, where the percentage of households with kids in school is perhaps 10%, but we fund our schools because we know it increase the value of our residences significantly more that the additional taxes we pay. Some Americans are not so lucky. I would also point out that over the same time the rate of incarceration has increased significantly in California as it has in other states. As a result the proportion of state spending on incarceration has been expanding significantly at the same time as that of education has been decreasing. One might well wonder about the connections and interactions.
One key additional factor on the finances of education is teacher pay. When learn on p. 9 that in 1991 the average teacher made slightly MORE than the average college graduate, but by 2008 the median range of teacher pay, for ALL teachers, of $47,100-51,180, was roughly similar to the starting pay for the average college graduate, which in 2010 DECLINED to $48,531.
In the selected quotes I offered one from chapter 31, which is titled "Practicing Democracy." As a teacher of social studies, this is an issue that is dear to my heart in several ways. My primary course is, of course government, and it makes little sense to teach about a democratic system of government if students have little chance to experience it. Further, I have also taught a course in Social Issues, which in those days had no formal curriculum - students were to explore how they came to position on possibly controversial social issues and learn how to dialog with people of differing views. In both cases we dealt with issues of controversy - how, for example, can you cover a heated election with national (Presidency) or statewide (Governor) implications without exploring some aspects of controversy. This is something that also concerns Merrow, who directly addresses it in this, one of the more important chapters in the book.
Merrow writes that even when educators accept the task to prepare students for life in a democracy, the students have to learn about issues, be able to debate them and also be able to come to decisions. Yet educators often cannot truly follow through
because of an unstated public "understanding" that schools should avoid controversy.
Merrow points out how ridiculous this is when students can readily through technology get connected with the controversial issues of the day, and that
By denying this reality, schools make themselves irrelevant at precisely the time that youth need guidance. (p. 292).
He goes on to talk about a hidden curriculum that prizes control and order over inquiry and learning, noting that schools and teachers often don't like to pose questions for which they do not have the answers, and asks "what kind of preparation is that for effective citizenship in a democracy" (Ibid.
Merrow provides a powerful illustration of this (on p. 294), exploring a statement on the website of Stafford County (VA) public schools, and then offering his response. Let me offer this complete section, with the double-blocked quote at the beginning being the words from the web site:
At home, as well as at school, exercising patience is a good way to avoid conflicts with brothers, sisters, and classmates. Sometimes self-control is a key ingredient of patience, for example, "hold your tongue" when someone says something you think is "dumb." Waiting your turn is another way of showing patience whether you are standing in line at the water fountain, raising your hand to speak in class, or waiting your turn to receive dessert at the dinner table at home.
There is, however, no mention of the value of occasionally being impatient - with cruelty and intolerance, for example. Am I the only one who reads Stafford's deeper message as an endorsement of docility? And that docility is the real value being preached here?
What I have just shared from the book is to me a clear illustration of how seriously Merrow has considered the various issues that relate in complex ways within our schools. The reader may not agree with his answers, or in some cases even how he phrases the questions, but my experience is that what is offered is well considered, thoughtful, goes beyond easy answers, and requires the reader to think more deeply before casually dismissing what Merrow offers
There are several other key areas on which I must touch, even if I cannot fully explore them. Merrow has a thorough exploration of the issues of safety, which as he points out include intellectual and emotional safety as well as physical safety. That resonates with me, because a student who does not feel safe, on any level, is likely to shut down and not to learn. It is why the adults in a school must be on guard for any signs of bullying of any kind, and address it immediately.
This relates to another set of issues. Merrow discusses a series of gaps, arguing that the idea of the achievement gap is misleading. He argues there are four gaps in our schools - in opportunity, expectations, affection and outcomes. In this section Merrow asks why, if we are so concerned about the achievement gap of blacks trailing whites, we are not as equally obsessed about the gap by which white performance lags behind that of Asian-Americans? He also asks why it is the white standard to which blacks and Hispanics should aspire. This is in a chapter titled Hypocrisy and the Achievement Gap, which gives an accurate sense of the 5 pages.
It also leads me to the previous chapter, which actually addresses one of these. Merrow titles it "The New A.D.D." and it addresses something he thinks is critical in education, and that is the issue of affection. Too many people do not realize how many of our young people are starved for affection from adults. Sometimes it may be because of broken or abusive homes, other times one or both parents could be deployed overseas. Whatever the reason, Merrow is blunt that we often do not care enough either for other people's children or our own. He is highly critical of how Attention Deficit Disorder has become a major factor in our schools, and equally critical of how much ritalin our school children consume - at one point 85% of the world wide consumption - and traces for us how a "parent group" was organized by the manufacturer of the drug to get it more widely accepted.
But it the other A.D.D that really concerns Merrow. He reminds us that all children crave affection, which he describes as necessary but insufficient condition for learning. In his chapter on safety he reminds us that students need to be able to express their feelings, and that adults need to Listen and show children you care by providing extra attention and physical contact. Yet as a high school teacher I am basically instructed NOT to touch or hug my students, which I find odd. When I coached girls JV soccer I might have to massage a leg cramp, and while I would not pat them on the butt as they did to each other, it was not unusual to participate in hugs of joy or sometimes to console a player who was hurt, or felt she had let down her teammates. I understand the concern some have of inappropriate relationships and contacts between teachers and students, but I also know how important it is for some of our students to feel comforted and reassured. If education is most effective when there are positive relationships and an atmosphere of trust between students and teachers - something about which Merrow writes and with which I agree - we may well have to revisit our paranoia about physical contact.
Merrow ends his book with a conclusion in which he offers a number of sensible suggestions. Choosing to describe our schools as in need of a 12-step program - "Public education and our democracy are in serious trouble, and recovery cannot begin until we admit we have a problem and resolve to solve it" - he lists 12 steps. Let me list only four, which I will not block quote - the words in bold are those of Merrow:
4. No Child Left Behind, founded on a premise that inadvertently encourages and rewards minimum performance, must be replaced with legislation whose premise is "Every Child Moving Ahead."
9. Elevate art, music, physical education and science in the curriculum.
10. Create high-quality, universal, free preschool for those 3- and 4-year-olds whose parents wish to enroll them.
12. Practice democracy. It requires diligence and work, but the old saw "Use it or lose it" applies here.
Below C Level is a very good book. It is something one can either read through, or, given its construction, perhaps read the chapters in one section. One can even benefit by picking a chapter at random and perusing. It is worthwhile to follow the numbers to the end notes. There one will encounter some really valuable material, including things like extended remarks from the likes of Deborah Meier.
I hope I have been able to give you a sense of both the book and of Merrow's thinking about schools, teachers, and education. There are real riches I have not even addressed minimally, that is how much the book contains. For example, there is an entire section on education after high school that is outside my own area of expertise. I would suggest that for anyone seriously interested in the future of American education, in the issues that have consumed us and are under public discussion, this book is a near invaluable resource.
Some of those who read this know that I have talked about the importance of other books, including the most recent by the late Gerald Bracey and the blockbuster by Diane Ravitch. While this is of a different character, it is of no less importance.
Peace.