Mind the Gap

1. Chapter one: In recounting her journey through many educational reforms, Diane Ravitch makes a number of provocative statements. Choose two, quote them, and personally respond.

“Testing, I realized with dismay, had become a central preoccupation in the schools and was not just a measure but an end in itself.”

I understand the importance of accountability and testing, but when it is taken to an extreme like NCLB implemented, unintentional negative consequences have emerged. For example, teachers spend weeks preparing their students for these language arts and math basic skills tests, which do not actually test the students knowledge, but more so their ability to take a test. Then, based on those results, schools are either rewarded or penalized. We need to rethink this system and start from an end result. What type of students do we want our education system to produce? Are math and language arts the most important subjects—the only ones that students should be held accountable for? Testing has taken over our schools and it has left teachers feeling frustrated, unable to attain unrealistic goals, and it is making our students dumber. Let’s figure out another, more inclusive, and less intimidating way to hold our schools accountable.

“We must make sure that our schools have a strong, coherent, explicit curriculum that is grounded in the liberal arts and sciences, with plenty of opportunity for children to engage in activities and projects that make learning lively.”

I completely agree with Ravitch here. I believe that liberal arts and science are just as important as math. I feel that during science class students have the opportunity to interact with hands on materials and make their learning more concrete and thus real. Making learning lively is an incredibly important skill for teachers to learn. As a Kindergarten teacher, it is one of the things that I love most about our curriculum. When I talk about this with my friends, most of them reply, saying that they loved all of the hands on learning that took place in Kindergarten and felt like it was “downhill from there.” As teachers, it is our job to make the curriculum come alive, whether that be through small group discussions, performance assessments, or field trips outside. We have an obligation to engage our learners and connect the material to their personal lives—I believe that in those moments is when students really learn.

2. Chapter two: On page 16, Ravitch gives a brief definition of a well-educated person. How would you characterize a well-educated person? What should any well-educated person know in today’s world?

A well-educated person knows how to positively interact and collaborate with others while respecting and listening to their ideas. A well-educated person knows how to trouble shoot, problem solve, and use resources around them to gain understandings and come to conclusions. A well-educated person is well rounded in their subject knowledge and is a life long learner.

In today’s world a well-educated person should know world history, have an understanding of their own personal history, know the basic elements of science, know how to problem solve using math, be able to read and write and express themselves in a coherent and succinct manner, and appreciate and understand music, art, and philosophy.

3. Thinking about the class discussion on the book, what stands out for you? What would you have liked to say that you did not say?

Regarding the book so far, what stands out to me is how many reforms and attempts to “fix” our education system have taken place and either failed like NCLB, or have not gained enough momentum to be put into place. What I take from these various reforms and ideas are that people deeply care about the education of our children. What I also am starting to believe is that these policymakers are rather disconnected from schools, how they function, and what it means to receive a well-rounded education. The status of our schools, because of NCLB, is appalling and puts such a sour taste in my mouth when it comes to policymaking and accountability. I agree with Ravitch, that what we need to be focusing on is rich curriculum based standards and finding another way to hold our students accountable for information that they have learned in ALL subject areas.

4. Choose one gap you listed from your subject area and identify 3 resources: a website, an article, and a book that can help you fill that gap. List these and discuss what you learned from one of these.

Within my subject area that I am exploring (garden-based nutrition education in elementary schools), one gap that I have discovered in my knowledge base is the current status of nutrition education in elementary schools. I found a statistical analysis report, conducted by the federal government, that details nutrition education in K-5 public elementary school classrooms. This report will help me understand how many teachers have had formal nutrition education training, what resources are available for teachers, how many teachers teach lessons regarding nutrition education, and whether they teach it as a separate subject or weave it into other content areas.

Another gap in my content area is how and where garden based nutrition education fits into current content standards. I found a book, published by the government (again), called A Child’s Garden Standards, which links school gardens to California Education Standards for grades two through six. I have learned that this guide bridges the distance between the garden based experience and the standards by linking specific lessons to specific standards in grades two through six.

Last, another gap in my content knowledge was the actual process of planning, preparing, and caring for a school garden. I found two websites that have assisted me in understanding the process. First, Michelle Obama has a great garden checklist that can help a school get started in finding the right spot. http://www.letsmove.gov/school-garden-checklist Second, the University of Califronia Garden Web provides a more detailed process of planning and preparing your own garden. http://ucanr.edu/sites/gardenweb/Vegetables/

5. Your annotations of resources are meant to be both scholarly and brief. Discuss in detail why/how any two of these articles were useful to your topic/question(s). Consider such things as listing specific information you learned that you didn't know before; how this new learning leads to other questions or sources; why this writer was convincing; whether you would seek this writer out for other articles he/she has written, and anything else you'd like to state in a blog that others can learn from and read.

One article that was useful to my topic investigated whether a garden-enhanced nutrition curriculum improved fourth grade school children’s knowledge of nutrition and preference for some vegetables. Specifically, I learned that the curriculum improved students’ preferences for several vegetables. Students only exposed to the nutrition lessons increased preferences for carrots and broccoli. However, students at the garden site also increased their preferences for snow peas and zucchini. This shows that just being exposed to a nutrition education curriculum can affect students’ preferences for vegetables.

Ann Cooper, head of nutrition for Berkeley Unified School District and an outspoken activist for serving fresh and sustainable foods to students, spoke at TED in December 2007. This primary source is incredibly useful in regards to my topic because she outlines who is responsible for the unhealthy school lunches provided to our students across the country and why it is so important that we fix the problem and get it right. She launched the Great American Salad Project (GRASP), which provides fresh salad bars in over 300 schools and also joined Jamie Oliver’s TheLunchBox.org, which gives school the resources to transform their menus and provide healthy meals. Because Ann lives in Berkeley, Ca, I am hoping to contact and possibly get her opinion on a garden based nutrition curriculum.

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