In a new book Work Goes Mobile, authors from Nokia describe the transformation of their company to a global mobile workplace. In today’s Washington Post, Education Columnist Jay Mathews analyzes here the ten-year-old Challenge Index I that Newsweek is now using to prepare its annual “America’s Best High Schools” report. The contrast between the two approaches is stunning, and a bit scary in terms of how behind the times school thinking can be.
As I read about Nokia mobile teams of workers interacting flexibly and effectively even across countries and oceans, I have hopes and visions of students being able to do the same for their studies. Perhaps a mobile sophomore global studies class would enroll students from a country on each of the six populated continents; the class members would access their study materials and confer with each other using their mobile phones. In a view that makes our old way (just a decade ago) of looking at schools downright provincial, the broadest Challenge Index I measure of interrelationships among kids of different demographics is within a school itself. That is weirdly out-of-date and insular by workplace standards.
If we were writing Challenge Index 2006 for high schools, would we not be doing our youngsters the right service by putting mobility of people (students and teachers) and online open learning knowledge at the top of the criteria for education excellence?
March 24th, 2006 at 1:23 am
I am not amused by his relentless defense of his challenge index and “Best High Schools List.” When the book came out, its major selling point was the List, the promise of which figured prominently on the book’s cover. (He had never mentioned anything about this to our board or the faculty.)It was further propelled onto best- seller lists by the original Newsweek article. That Mathews’ book publisher, newspaper and Newsweek were all part of the same corporate empire explained how such a poorly researched work based on a manifestly erroneous premise became so influential. The list is updated, Newsweek increases its circulation and Mathews’ pockets are lined.
In the meantime, students in high schools across the country are being told that they must be capable of doing college work and that their transcripts should be crammed with AP courses in order to be accepted at a good college. As someone who taught AP American History for almost twenty years I am heartbroken by the damage done by Mathews. Large numbers of students now sign up for AP courses for all of the wrong reasons - social pressure to be “at the top”; pressure exerted by parents; and college admissions concerns. One year our department approached the administration because we feared for the mental health of three students who were overwhelmed by the demands of an AP course. It is one thing for a bright student to be absorbed for hours working on a favorite subject. It is quite another story when an “average” student struggles until two o’clock in the morning to master the massive amount of material of a course in which he has little interest. Such a student may take five or six AP courses in junior and senior years. How much of a favor are we doing these youngsters? Sleep deprivation is a major problem among today’s adolescents. Recent articles on the subject highlight what teachers have known for years.
A few years ago our PTA asked the guidance department to research the impact on college admissions if we imposed a limit on the number of AP courses our kids could take at one time. They were upset by the increased pressure on their children. Our guidance department was given a very clear message by the colleges: the fewer AP’s, the less attractive the transcript.
Maturation and socialization occurs in stages. Some students move forward more quickly than others. The nature of college work requires a level of academic maturity and sophistication that most high school students do not possess until their senior year. A good teacher working with students appropriately placed will bring them through an AP class. Students who cannot handle these classes should not be stigmatized, penalized, or forced into taking them for any reason.
Jay Mathews damns with faint, patronizing praise and hubris a new study in which the authors dismisses his List and his Index because it ignores countless other factors integral to the mission and success of American high schools. He needn’t worry, though. As long as his Newsweek and the College Board continue to benefit from the List, and as long as he has the bully pulpit of the Post, he will continue to rake in the bucks. Incidentally, if his avowed rationale for these earnest efforts seems a bit too good to be true, go to his early articles on AP admission requirements and discover his very personal motivations.
March 24th, 2006 at 6:29 am
There is a suspicion bubbling up that tests and standards are largely a way to protect schooling “as it is” by providing scores that can be used as “proof” that schools are doing their job. We must be very careful not to perpetuate an educational system that is at its core a certification business not a teaching business.
Our best bet is to listen to the teachers. Thanks to Mrs. D for your insight and advocacy of students.