He mentions KIPP schools, an amazing charter school system profiled in Paul T0ugh's "What it Takes to Make a Student," previously posted about here. Kristof always mentions research that shows that simply telling students that intelligence is expandable helps them do better on tests. Researchers also praise intensive early-childhood education centers.
In past years, I made all of my students choose education-related topics for their big research papers, and we had many discussions about the gaps in education ... the gap between haves and have nots in America and the gap between American student test scores and students in other countries. Some of those comparisons feel unfair because America is trying to do something no other country does in the same way ... provide a free public education to everyone. The size and scope of our goal is just different & when I read about comparisons with Belgium and Singapore, two places with higher test scores, apples and oranges come to mind. We don't really track (and probably should) and we test everybody, not just those students who have been placed in academic tracks. Still, while the American public education goal is noble, the execution is flawed, and I welcome research that points us in more effective directions.
3 comments:
Where else I have heard about Kipp schools? I just remember being very impressed. I think they started in New York.
I've always thought that yes you are born with a certain level of intelligence, but that anyone/everyone can improve by trying (meaning: reading) enough.
My mom went to Japan on a Fulbright to study the Japanese school system. She said it was surprising how different attitudes were. Their test scores are much higher than US averages, but they track heavily, and have different expectations.
She sat observing some classes where the students paid no attention at all to what the teacher was teaching. They texted, slept, chatted in the back, all while the teacher continued as if they were paying attention. When she asked the teacher about it he explained that it is not his responsibility to make them pay attention. A principal told her that they had perfect attendance. No students ever missed. They didn't take attendance either though.
The thing that matters is passing major tracking exams and many students take night school cram courses to help them pass those tests.
It is a very different world than trying to really engage disinterested students in John Donne poetry.
I think that intelligence is flexible and that some kinds of intelligence are not measured well by testing. There are some people whose minds work in ways that make learning easier or more difficult, I guess that is what I would consider innate intelligence. Then I think that there is a learned component to intelligence that builds on that bedrock of how your mind works.
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