• Series of Four Lectures on Barriers to Effective Education.
• The four most barriers to effective education are:
• Equity.
• Accountability.
• Mobility.
• Obsolescence.
• Equity as a Barrier to Effective Education.
• Need to define equity. Three definitions. Equity of Time of Years of Education, Equity of Resources, and Equity of Results.
• Equity in Time of Years of Education:
• Everybody in the U.S. gets 13 years of free education. Grades K-12 are free.
• Beyond that you have to start paying.
• Some people more than others, and some places more than others.
• However, not everyone actually gets their 13 years of free education.
• Some kids drop out at the end of grade ten.
• In actuality, they are being short-changed by two years of free education.
• Even if you think of the 13 years as a sort of equity, you have to take into account that all education has some subsidies.
• This course is being subsidized.
• In-state students subsidy is around 50%. The out-state students by 20%.
• No one is paying the full cost.
• The greatest subsidy comes to medical education. That=s the most expensive education around.
• Dichotomy: the most expensive subsidy produces the class of people with the highest income. Is that equitable?
• Equity of Resources:
• This is how many dollars you spend on each kid.
• Not the money spent on facilities or materials used.
• This is equity of how the resources are distributed.
• The kids who have the most money spent on them are the kids who need it the least. They are from the higher socio-economic households.
• The kids who need it the most have the fewest resources available. That=s not equitable.
• Another shortfall in our thinking about distribution of resources (equity), is that the short-changed kids often end up in jail or on welfare and we end up paying for them in another manner.
• It=s actually in society=s best interest to make sure education works for everyone. We need more equity of resources.

• Equity of Results is the Third Kind of Equity.
• This mean results in terms of everybody getting as much education as will benefit them.
• Doesn=t necessarily mean everybody going on to college.
• Big Difference Between Equity and Equality.
• Equality is impossible to achieve and is undesirable.
• Dr. Allen is opposed to equality in education.
• He strongly supports equity in education.
• Equality is impossible to achieve because we are not all the same. We have different needs based on an individual=s special talents, abilities, and interests.
• Equity provides for everybody getting what they need and can profit from, not giving everybody an equal dose.
• The Way We Fund Education is Wrong.
• Half the funding comes from the state and the other half from the local community.
• The half from the local community usually comes from property taxes.
• Dr. Allen believes that the funding should come from the Federal Government.
• Since our population is so mobile it is the only equitable means of providing funding to take into account the differences in results.
• Example: A kid comes into the VA Beach school system after moving here from Mississippi. They may well be far behind the kids already in the system.
• Mississippi has the lowest per-capita spending on education of any state in the union.
• We would have to expend extra resources to bring the kid up to par with his classmates. That money comes from the pool of local property taxes which the kid=s parents may or may not have to contribute to.
• The Equity of Results Model Could Well Be the Special Ed Act Currently in Place.
• We have already recognized it takes more resources to educate the Special Ed kid to the same level as the other kids.
• Ideally, we would treat every kid like a Special Ed kid.
• Give everyone the resources they need to educate them to the level that they can benefit from.
• Example: If you gave the resources to provide intensive kindergarten and first grade levels to the bilingual kid, then they would have a better chance at succeeding in the training provided later on.
• Instead, we are trying to mandate that they speak English and if their skills aren=t up to par, it=s just their tough luck.
• Equity of results could ultimately help everyone find their true niche in our society. Not everyone should be a rocket scientist. But we should ensure that those who are suited to be rocket scientists, get the chance at the education to achieve that goal.
• Medical school training is another example. We (as the public) subsidize medical school training. However, not everyone gets an equitable opportunity to take that training.

• Equity in Teacher Assignments is a Sub-Group of Equity of Resources.
• Providing more money is not the sole answer to achieving equity.
• Studies in the Chicago area showed that even when the per-child spending was the same, the children from the wealthier socio-economic groups did better than the poorer kids.
• There also must be equity in teacher competency and experience.
• The schools attended by the poorer students (inner-city), usually go the brand new teachers or permanent substitute teachers.
• The more experienced teachers often opt to go to the better schools.
• Salary may be higher or have better working conditions.
• Kids may be easier to teach, less social baggage.
• May have strong PTA and community involvement in comparison to the inner-city schools.
• Equity in Teacher Assignments Should Include Incentive Pay for Those Teachers Who Take on the Tougher Assignments.
• Another aspect would be to require smaller classes.
• We need to make the tougher assignments more attractive to the more experienced teachers.
• Another Inequity is that the Newest Teachers Get the Hardest Assignments.
• Everybody loses.
• New teachers require more preparations to teach their classes.
• Haven=t had the opportunity to build up a stock of effective lesson plans.
• Tend to make more mistakes than the more experienced teachers.
• May be ill prepared to deal with the challenges of the toughest assignment.
• The Toughest Assignments Requires the Attention of the Best Teachers.
• Traditionally, we give the best teachers the honors classes and the newest teachers the hardest classes.
• The honors students are generally the kids who need the least attention!
• Maybe we should reverse that pattern. Let the new teachers ease into the system and gain experience before throwing them the hard curve balls.
• Ultimately, we could create a system where the most desirable assignments were the ones where the teaching is the toughest.
• Combination of incentives, pay, status, etc. to attract the best teachers.

• There is a Lack of Real-Time Mediation.
• This is the time that it takes to resolve a student=s academic problem.
• If having a difficulty learning something, you nominally should stop and help them with it.
• Current system doesn=t allow for that.
• Current system based on end of year remediation.
• If you pass, you are promoted. If you don=t pass, you are retained.
• Allows remedial needs to pile up for a whole year.
• Leads to frustration on the student=s part. Forces them to start all over again.
• When they start all over again, the kids get bored and develop bad study habits.
• Doesn=t turn out to be effective remediation of any sort.
• Real-Time Remediation Means That When There is a Problem, You Fix it Immediately.
• UCLA Research Study Points to Another Way to Approach the Subject.
• Madeline Hunter at UCLA decided to experiment with the summer gatekeeper cource in a masters degree program.
• Divided the subject matter (statistics course), into eight pieces, each a one week unit.
• You could not go on to the next unit unless you passed the test for the previous one.
• Typically, you wait until midterm exam to find out how you are doing.
• If you aren=t doing well, it puts you way behind the power curve.
• Intensifies the amount of study. You have both catch-up material and new material to master.
• In the research study some people had to work as much as 18 hours to meet the criteria of the first test.
• Typically, a normal summer course consisted for 5 hours of Lecture time in the class.
• Some finished the week=s material in a range of 5 to 18 hours.
• The requirement to pass the test before moving on was extended throughout the summer course period.
• Intent was to see how many hours of study would be required for the weakest student.
• First week was 18 hours.
• By using the pass before moving on approach, by the end of the summer the time to needed to pass the tests came down dramatically.
• Ensured that the student had mastered the basics before moving on to more advanced material.
• Time came down to 8 hours for the weakest student.
• 90 percent of the students got an AA@ in the course. These weren=t special students, they simply got timely remediation.

• Many Communities Feel That They Have a Right to a Bad Education.
• The U.S. believes in local control of schools.
• Every community has the right to have its own curriculum and make its own decisions.
• Does that include the right to a bad education?
• There are Disparities In the Ways that Different Communities Approach Education.
• Example: Two communities in the same metropolitan area.
• One does an excellent job with special education and the other does a miserable job.
• Special Education is costly, and although you get federal and state subsidies, if you go beyond that pool of money, it is very costly to the local district.
• Parents moving into the are naturally opt for the school that does the better job.
• This increases the pressure on that school district to meet the needs of a larger population. Unfortunately, the money available doesn=t keep pace with the population.
• Dichotomy: If you do a good job you get penalized. The less effective district program stays within the fiscal amounts, but the better school district has to ask for more money from it=s taxpayer base.
• Some Communities Have Opted to Deliberately Have Poor Programs to Avoid Tax Payer Burdens.
• Some communities in Arizona have no schools because the families know the schools are bad and they don=t send their kids there.
• This gives tacit approval to the concept of a right to a bad education.
• There is Also a Problem with System Accountability.
• There is no external accountability.
• Different levels of the system may do a great job, but the overall effect may be poor.
• Example: If the kindergarten teacher does a great job, but the succeeding teachers do a poor one, you get a poor result.
• However, if the kindergarten teacher does a poor job and the following teachers do a good one, the result may be good.
• Of course, you can have a mixture of good and bad throughout the 13 years of education, this may well give you a mediocre result.
• The circumstances of each school, in each district may negate the good or the bad. There is not pinpointing of accountability for the end result.

Lesson Element .7: AElements of Equity@

• The Right to Have Bad Schools Also Creates a Problem of Selfishness and Prejudice.
• A segment of the population known as DINKS (double income, no kids) plays a role in promoting the selfishness and prejudice.
• Concept behind their argument is: I don=t have any kids in the system so why should I have to pay for it? (Paying through the tax base).
• Prejudice is also promoted where districts has a substantial minority population.
• Simple prejudice, but a real problem.
• Some minority community kids require more resources to allow them to successfully stay up with the majority kids.
• Increases the tax base and breeds resentment in some segments of the majority group.
• These Difficulties Create a Barrier of Ignorance.
• This barrier of ignorance makes us short-sighted.
• Bad schools penalize all of society.
• Poor educated segments are more likely to:
• End up in jail or on welfare. They don=t fit into the mainstream of society.
• Requires a higher tax base to build jails and fund welfare systems.
• We still end up paying, but paying for highly negative systems instead of a more positive system: education.
• Some Elements of Equity.
• Funding Equity: Needs to be improved.
• Staff Equity: Put the teachers where they are most needed, not good teachers solely with the good students.
• Organizational Equity: This is a big factor. We need to ensure that the support staff, facilities, and materials are available as they are needed.
• Remediation Equity: Ensure that the time and method of remediation is immediate, not delayed.
• Homework Equity: Eliminate homework. There are other more effective means of getting parental involvement while still ensuring that the kids learn the materials.
• Equity of Access to Schools: This is access by the parents to the school.
• Many parents cannot come into school during the normal working day.
• Make the teacher available one or two days a month from noon to late in the evening.
• Currently, the average teacher works a 54 hour work-week. Unless the teacher is willing to sacrifice their own time, many parents will never have the opportunity to ever meet with the teacher.
• Equity in Transport: The bus schedules may well preclude some student=s involvement in extracurricular activities. No way to get to or from the activities because of the parent work schedules.
• Equity of Parent Access: This is access to the parent by the school. Again, work schedules of both teacher and parent may never permit interaction.
• Curriculum Equity: Some curriculums are richer in depth and offerings than other school=s curriculums. Is this equitable?
• Facilities Equity: Some diversity is inevitable because we can=t build all the facilities at the same time. However, some kids go to school in ancient, badly maintained buildings, while others enjoy new facilities wired with the latest technology.
• Ironically, its usually the same schools that always phase in the new things first.

Lesson Element .8: AAbstract@