Turning the Lights Off Education

Carol Jago
Special to the Mirror 

   "Teachers, please excuse the interruption. The city is in a stage three energy alert. Please turn off half of your classroom lights." As I plunge my students into semi-darkness, I am struck by the irony of this announcement. The education governor now needs them to read in the dark.
   When Gray Davis declared education to be his number one, two, and three priorities, he didn't anticipate this run-in with power companies. Whatever the outcome of negotiations, state coffers are likely to be raided and the budget surplus that financed much of the Governor's reforms severely reduced. Maybe this is a good thing.
   Many of Davis's expensive school reforms have sailed through the legislature without much opposition. With public sentiment in favor of improving education and plenty of money at hand, several questionable programs were funded. 
   Paying high school students for high test scores and rewarding schools for improvement spring to mind as two particularly costly and ill-advised programs. 
   Instead of creating more headline-garnering initiatives to motivate people to do what are fundamentally their jobs -- that is, teaching and learning -- maybe the state should simply let schools get on with their work outside the limelight. 
   We know that the single most important influence on student learning is the teacher. And the single thing teachers need more of in order to do their job well is time. Last spring when I had five separate preparations (10th grade English, 12th grade English, Contemporary Poetry, Creative Writing, and Yearbook), it was not possible for me to craft each day's lessons as carefully as I would have liked. I didn't need more books or more professional development or more incentives to do well. I needed a 36-hour day.
   Recalling the words of Henry David Thoreau, schools need to "Simplify, simplify." This means focusing on learning. I know the argument that if students have all kinds of social and emotional needs (or if they are hungry) that they can't possibly focus on schoolwork. But schools need to admit that they are not going to be able to meet all of these needs and focus on what they do best -- teaching. 
   Improving initial instruction will eliminate the need for extensive remedial, summer, and special Saturday programs. Halting the class interruptions for counseling appointments, motivational assemblies, and pep rallies can help to make instruction more coherent. Giving teachers reasonable schedules that allow them to prepare carefully will improve learning.
   We also need to stop taking students' temperatures with tests every other week. My informal analysis indicates that students may lose up to 15 instructional days this spring for testing. Clearly we need good diagnostic information about our kids, and clearly schools should be held accountable for results. What we don't need is another test that tells us little more than that students who are learning English perform less well than native speakers or that kids from affluent communities score higher than kids in urban centers.
   Education remains a top priority for most concerned citizens, but turning the spotlight off education could be just what California schools need.
   Carol Jago teaches English at Santa Monica High School and directs the California Reading and Literature Project at UCLA. She can be reached at jago@gseis.ucla.edu