Response to Peter Morgan on School Renovations; Add Your Responses Here

According to Peter Morgan “These renovations can make a better education easier to achieve.”

In fact I can find no hard evidence of this whatsoever.  The arguments that the schools, safety and utility might improve could be valid.  That is a judgment call.  But to say that education outcomes could or would, in any way, be improved is simply contradictory to just about every study I have ever read on how to improve education.  To claim that there is any chance that spending on facilities is going to improve education outcomes is disingenuous at best. 

What are, then, the factors that improve education?

1.)    High expectations in leadership, teachers and students.  Goal and Achievement oriented.

2.)    High quality teachers.  One bad teacher can ruin a kid’s life.  One great teacher can vastly improve a kid’s life.  And that is beyond a doubt.

3.)    Assess teachers, schools and students using real data in real time and adjust accordingly.  There is a feedback loop.  Kids do not fall through the cracks because there are no cracks.

4.)    Rigorous curricula.   Teaching material in depth and frequent testing in depth using data in assessment.  Nothing in education is backed by stronger scientific evidence. 

5.)    Ownership; stakeholders.  Teachers and student are integral to the process, not object to be manipulated.  For instance it turns out that well devised student questionnaires are highly reliable assessments of teacher quality.  Administration buffers classrooms from distractions.