Globe tossed out 7 education ideas. Readers lob back some of their own.
Support for parents, early childhood education are vital
The feature “7 big ideas to fix education” (Page A1, Sept. 27) was well done and much appreciated. I want to highlight two critical factors in a child’s educational success.
The first of these is the role of parents in a child’s education and attendant socioeconomic factors. Virtually all parents, including those in the most dire circumstances, want their children to succeed, but the inequality begins in utero when parents in poverty are under myriad sources of stress with few ameliorating resources. Massachusetts’ ParentChild+ program and The Children’s Trust are two effective responses to this problem and need significant increases in funding. For good or ill, the parent will always be the child’s primary educator.
The second factor, not mentioned in the Globe article, is early childhood education. More support for the Massachusetts Department of Early Care and Education would address issues at the pre-school level.
Greater investments in these programs would save tremendously on costs later in life and would go a long way toward closing the dramatic educational and financial achievement gaps we also see later in life.
DAVID P. MAGNANI
Framingham
The writer served in the Legislature from 1992 to 2004, first as a representative and then as a senator. He was Senate chair of the Joint Committee on Education during passage of the 1993 Education Reform Act.
Lessons move right along before students can gain mastery
Bravo to the Globe reporters for soliciting and presenting breakthrough ideas that could help students recover academically postpandemic. Conspicuously missing, however, was addressing an inherent flaw in today’s education system: By design, most schools embed learning loss and failure for most students. That’s because today’s schools teach content, test students, and then move students along to the next unit, subject, or grade level regardless of their level of mastery. Indeed, students often receive their results after they’ve moved on. The solutions suggested in the article generally keep this time-based structure in place, which perpetuates learning gaps for many students.
We need to change the structure underlying schooling and move to a mastery-based model, which embeds student success by design. In that model, we would still offer learning experiences and still test and assess, but students would progress to the next unit, subject, or grade level only once they demonstrate mastery. By making time variable and learning constant, schools could then leverage tutoring, extended time, targeted student support, improved teaching, and more to guarantee comprehension of core concepts for every student, not just a privileged few.
MICHAEL HORN Lexington
Pandemic recovery efforts need to address student mental health, too
While learning loss captured by recent MCAS results is disconcerting, efforts to address the pandemic’s impact on students must also consider the social impact reflected in troubling mental health data. A balanced approach supporting academic progress and social and emotional development is needed.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s 2011-2021 Youth Risk Behavior Survey Data report underscores disturbing youth mental health needs. For instance, nearly 3 out of 5 teen girls showed persistent sadness or hopelessness in 2021. Youth mental health was already a concern before the pandemic; the social isolation and stress of the pandemic exacerbated the issue.
When we talked with teens in our Leaders for an Equitable Tomorrow program about their recommendations to improve youth mental health, they emphasized that the pressure to return to “normal” academic expectations despite the learning loss contributes to their stress. They also urged a greater youth voice in addressing mental health concerns, which would be helpful as strategies for addressing the pandemic’s impact are formulated.
The call for extensive one-on-one tutoring is a promising approach. Training tutors to be attentive to students’ social and emotional needs would be one way to balance the need to address academic concerns and mental health needs.
DAVID CROWLEY President and founder SCI Social Capital Inc. Woburn
Consistency, practice are key for tutoring to work
Suggesting a large-scale tutoring system as the first of seven ideas to help students makes a lot of sense. Boston, Springfield, Worcester, and Lawrence all have institutions of higher education within reach, and being a tutor while in college would look fantastic on any resume.
A short training session near the beginning of the school year would help point things in the right direction. Tutors could learn the reading assessments teachers use to help organize instruction.
But consistency is the most important factor. The only way to overcome reading struggles is to practice reading, with explicit phonics and vocabulary.
I used to ask my students, “If you’re a bad free-throw shooter, how do you get better?” You practice.
BEN KLEMER Jacksonville, Fla.
The writer is a retired reading interventionist.
Tackle absenteeism, boost teacher effectiveness
Your article asked whether Massachusetts needs a “nuclear option” to help students recover from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and offered ideas for addressing learning gaps. However, many of the ideas face operational and political obstacles. Perhaps this is why — despite historic funding levels — few have been implemented.
Here are two “nonnuclear” options to consider: ensuring kids are in school and investing in educator effectiveness. You can’t add hours to a school day a child is not attending, and the hours don’t matter if the teaching is not effective.
Chronic absenteeism in Massachusetts doubled since before the pandemic; about 200,000 students missed more than three weeks of school last year. We need more investment in getting kids to school: removing logistical barriers for families, providing work-based learning for high school students to earn income, and creating more accountability through strong student-family-educator relationships.
To make the time students spend in school effective, we also need to invest in teacher support. Supporting curriculum planning, collaboration, and training in evidence-based practices helps educators reach current and future students. If first-grade teachers across the state improve their ability to teach students to read, for example, the positive impact could last long beyond the expected fiscal cliff in federal funding.
With about $1.2 billion left in federal recovery dollars, let’s not overlook the obvious.
KERRY DONAHUE
Somerville
The writer is chief strategy officer at the Boston Schools Fund.
Do they really need vacation in February and April?
In the Globe’s front-page story “7 big ideas to fix education,” one obvious suggestion was missing. Instead of vacations in February and April, which are not far apart, how about one March vacation instead? Kids lose not only the scheduled time off from school but also sometimes the days prior, and returning can be disruptive. It seems they are barely back from the first break before getting ready for the second.
One week in March would be sufficient, and as a bonus, it could coincide with college break, making it easier for parents with kids in high school and college to vacation together. A win-win.
MATT TARLIN Needham
You should be asking the real innovators
Your article on addressing the postpandemic “learning gap” was beyond disappointing. Four writers contributed to this article, which began by asking, “Is it time for a nuclear option in Massachusetts to help [students] recover?” I cannot believe that the seven ideas that followed are what pass for a nuclear option.
As an educator for more than 30 years in New Hampshire, I developed and implemented a teacher institute using ideas gained through research and visits to innovative pilot, charter, and public schools in Massachusetts, Ohio, and Michigan. It stuns me that not one teacher or administrator from a charter or pilot school was quoted. Students at these schools could tell you exactly what is needed in order for them to be fully engaged, inspired, active learners.
The innovators in the education systems across Massachusetts need to speak up. A nuclear option that is innovative and student-centered might just do the trick.
FRANCES MEFFEN Dover, N.H.