Education's Ultimate Goal

The election season is in full swing, and one of many issues at play is education. Unfortunately, it's not a big enough one, but in the last decade or so it's become a slightly larger part of the social consciousness. (Barack Obama even mentioned TFA explicitly during his speech at a rally held in St. Louis last night!) But since better education for all can be the root of the solution, we have a lot of work to do in raising its place in public discourse. But I digress. This post relates to the ultimate goal of education: later-life success.

One of the main reasons why I teach is to help give my students better opportunities in life. This effort has been successful in many ways. I had an opportunity last year to advise seniors through the College Summit program. The motto of the program is, "So that all students that can make it IN college make it TO college." CS produced a 95% college acceptance rate for the 80 seniors in the program last year (thanks to some wonderful colleagues of mine), the vast majority of whom will be their family's first-generation of college students. But despite this success, much work needs to be done. I have already seen far too many students who, after graduation, have not made it as far as I had hoped.

At a new TFA alumni event last year, we were asked about what had motivated us in the classroom. I talked about some of the top students in my school, some of whom I have taught and others who I have not taught but who are outstanding positive influences in the school. A particular student comes to mind... a brilliant, outstanding student, had a great love for learning, and soaked up everything taught like a sponge. But when the ACT score came back, it was a 24. Not a bad score, but in my opinion this student was capable of a 30 or higher. And many of the brilliant top students whom I have taught and interacted with over the last few years have similar stories... another great student last year regularly aced difficult geometry tests yet only managed a 16. I could go on and on. Many of these students consistently do well in their classes and are brilliant thinkers.

Granted, tests are not always sound indicators of academics. But when a student masters everything that he/she is taught in the classroom and still scores significantly below capability on the ACT, it seems to me that the school/educational system, not the student, is at fault. The reality is that too many students who are so capable of success on the postsecondary level are not academically ready when they enter college. (Though that does not mean they don't succeed... I must say that one of my favorite parts of my job is seeing students come back to visit after they graduate with their outstanding college report cards.!) Too many students go through high school without being challenged enough academically. We as educators MUST look at this issue and carefully reexamine the way we educate.