Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, October 7, 1995 TAG: 9510090008
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHARLES F. ROBERTS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Judging from the amount of coverage recently devoted to the subject of education, it's apparent the news media have identified education as the top priority issue. The public likely will agree with that assessment, but it isn't at all certain that they would accept the definition implied by the editorials, where the problem is always described as the need for more money for schools.
Money now seems to have become the "magic bullet" for public education. This belief has developed, in spite of the fact that none of the available statistics comparing per-pupil expenditures and student performance on basic competency tests show a high correlation between these factors. For example, the District of Columbia spends more than twice the amount on its students as do New Hampshire and South Dakota. Yet student performance seems inversely related to the amounts spent in these programs.
This same pattern is discernible in the data recently released by the State Board of Education covering the results of Virginia's Literacy Testing Program for sixth-grade students. This leads to the conclusion that funding is important but apparently not a reliable guarantee of a successful educational program. Success is always the result of good teaching and sound management of the educational resources.
That being the case, it's somewhat baffling to see the headlong rush to equip every elementary classroom in the state with banks of sophisticated computers. There's also a lot of talk about incorporating state-of-the art telecommunications technology into instructional programs, adding another very large additional cost to school operations without any prior evidence of a significant payoff.
Computers are absolutely indispensable tools for accomplishing certain specific tasks. If the need is for large-scale number-crunching, high-speed data, information processing or automating routine manufacturing and business processes, computers are clearly the device of choice. There's nothing to compare with computer technology for those jobs. But there has yet to be identified a clear and essential role for them in teaching young children to read and comprehend printed material or to competently perform mathematical operations. The unique contribution they might make to teaching thinking patterns required for problem-solving techniques is even more obscure. Failing to provide for those needs, computers become attractive toys providing new sources of entertainment.
At some point, probably around eighth-grade level, students do need to become fully immersed in the use of computer technology to prepare for a career in today's job markets. However, mastering basic reading, writing and math skills is far more important in children's early education. The mechanics of operating a computer can be learned at any time.
On the introduction of telecommunications technology into kindergarten through 12th-grade education, it's possible to envision promising concepts for employing video materials relayed by satellite to supplement on-site teaching. This application could be quite effective if delivered by persons exceptionally well-trained and uniquely talented in communicating with young children. But such a concept has yet to appear in the form of detailed plans and procedures for its systematic integration into the work of classroom teachers. Without this documentation, the most difficult aspect of the program would become another burden for the classroom teacher.
Such new ideas must first be reduced to working models that can be tested and proved feasible and effective prior to large amounts of dollars being appropriated and spent. We have experienced far too many colossal failures in elementary education in this country over the past 40 years, all resulting from too quickly adopting unproven educational theories. We can't allow parents to be "conned" again into accepting untested methods recently published, but aggressively promoted, by the educational bureaucracy and suppliers of educational materials. Parents should always demand the evidence that new methods and materials will actually improve the learning process. That is the bottom line.
If our goal is to realize a fast, sure-fire improvement in our public schools' performance, then the first increase in funding shouldn't be spent on the purchase of new gadgets, but allocated to raising the entry-level salaries of teachers. This change would enable public schools to compete successfully with other professions in recruiting the brightest graduates coming out of universities and colleges. Young teachers recently trained in new technology and its application to the learning process will be prepared to fully exploit these concepts as their role in elementary education is developed.
Forming and adopting rules for holding school administrators and teachers fully accountable for achieving clearly defined educational-quality standards is a change whose time has come.
Charles F. Roberts, of Blacksburg, is a retired research scientist from the Department of Agriculture.
by CNB