The article by Amy Asman concerning the Lucia Mar TAP education program (“TAP into the future,” March 30) was excellent. Undoubtedly, California cutbacks in school funding resulting from the recent severe decline in state revenue will compound problems in the education of our children. Ultimately, our local community must find ways to improve the education our children, even though less money is available.
As Asman reported, the TAP program is chock full of acronyms, replete with studies. It calls for complicated administrative operations, provokes ideological disputes, and entails earning grants. It will not satisfy the needs of our students. Alternatively, if our community pulls together to implement comparatively simple programs, we can elevate our schools.
We certainly need excellent teachers, involved parents, motivated students, and all members of our community to contribute to the education of our students. Consider an approach to education I call EPIC.
“E” stands for evaluation of all students—evaluation that must be ongoing, not some test near the end of the year. One way teachers can get immediate feedback about student comprehension is a method championed by Don Maas, who taught at Cal Poly. Instead of a teacher asking the class a question and calling on students who raise their hands for an answer, each student gives the answer using a signal, much like a catcher in a baseball game where only the pitcher can see the signal. In this case, the teacher is the pitcher and can readily determine what each student has grasped. It also gives the teacher the opportunity to praise not only those students who have the correct answer but show the other students appreciation for good attempts and their help in developing ideas. This approach can be used in groups of cooperative learning teams in which students help each other.
“P” stands for parents. Every parent should be given a written contract to spend at least one hour each day working with their student on homework. That contract must be monitored by the school.
“I” stands for investigate. Students are provided raw evidence and asked to draw conclusions from the evidence. Some examples of student investigation are evaluating evidence from mock court trials, comparing differing editorials, and interpreting political cartoons. I would like to point out, incidentally, the excellent work accomplished by Dr. and Mrs. Dennis Shepard’s Gen Span program, which engages senior citizens with local students in the classroom, so students can learn how and why the culture and community has evolved, to better understand current processes.
“C” stands for coaching. Teaching is difficult. The classroom is a challenging place, and merely achieving classroom control can sometimes preoccupy teachers. That is why much more peer coaching is imperative. Teachers can rely on seasoned colleagues to impart successful tactics for student instruction. Sound, proven classroom techniques bring great results.
If such a straightforward approach is seriously applied, it will surely produce excellent student performance.
Thomas Urbanske is a retired educator who taught and counseled Santa Maria-area high school students for nearly 30 years. He was also a county supervisor and city councilman for many years. Send comments via the opinion editor at econnolly@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Apr 14-21, 2011.