Allen Quist Response
1
Question 1: Many alternatives to the existing education
system have been proposed; including charter schools, vouchers and private
sector involvement. Do you favor any of these approaches, or do you
have specific proposals to strengthen the current system?
I support charter schools; I am cool to vouchers, but the biggest issue
facing Minnesota education today is the impending adoption of the
Graduation Standards part two, also called the Profile of Learning
(at a cost of $187 million over the next two years).
This is how it works:
The Profile of Learning is now being adopted by rules which mandate,
starting with this Fall's freshmen, that all public school students
must complete 24 "performance packages" in order to graduate from
high school. (78 performance packages will be required for grades k -
12.)
Each performance package consists of some 30 pages of instructions and
assignments devised to be completed in "collaboratives" (group
projects) with no tests, no grades and no credits. In other
words, these performance packages are a radical re-invention of
education, by force of law, along lines that are highly controversial
and totally experimental.
The performance packages will result in a dumbing down of the curriculum
by requiring huge amounts of time that can only come out of existing
courses, curriculums, and lesson plans. (See the article in the Star
Tribune, 2-8-98, p. A17.)
There are no scientific measurements of student learning in those
projects, because they are constructed to be evaluated by rating
scales, not by objective tests. For that reason it will be
difficult to determine if this experiment is working.
Every teacher will be required by law to monitor the progress of every
student on every package. That is, the system mandates large amounts
of paperwork that will consume precious teachertime.
The packages include a substantial state curriculum, including massive
diversity training, along with specified teaching methods. This fact
has prompted many teachers to say: I am not a teacher anymore, I am
now a technician.
I oppose this experimental new system because I believe it will do
serious damage to the educational achievement of Minnesota's
children. I would replace it with various proven methods
including objective tests of basic skills given at the end of each
grade, k-12.
