Smaller class sizes, higher standards and more and more money. These popular but ineffective remedies did not help the future of education in this country. According to educational researcher, John Hattie. These remedies do not help. Over his career he has investigated improvements and interventions in education. Hattie studied 250 million students around the world over looking all types of interventions to their education.
Out of all this research, he has identified five common ideas in education policy that should not be overlooked.
- Achievement standards – It seems simple, you set up minimum standards on what you want your students to achieve. Schools are judged by how many students they have reached. According to Hattie, these schools are judged by as many students as they can reach. The schools that take in students with difficult circumstances are seen as failures. The alternative is to focus on growth and progress for each student no matter where they start from.
- Achievement tests –High performing schools with high achieving students don’t necessarily give more standardized tests. They often give fewer exams and have more success. An alternative to this is giving exams that teachers get immediate feedback so they could improve on their teaching skills in order to further assist their students .
- School choice – Hattie feels having parents choose an educational establishment for their children gives parents a sense of empowerment and school improvement. Hattie says private schools give no academic advantages over public school education on average. Charter schools, as well, fall short if economic situations are accounted for. To solve this problem, there is one choice above all else that has an impact on student learning and that is the teacher. Being able to choose the teacher may be more empowering.
- Smaller class sizes – Having smaller class sizes does not necessarily mean that learning will be accentuated. Hattie proves this by indicating that in Korea and Japan, two countries that have the best performing education systems, have 33 students per class. Hattie claims that small class sizes may have a positive impact but needs to paired with proper teacher support and training. Teachers need to learn to collaborate with their students more closely.
- More money- Korea and Finland outscore the US on international exams in math, science and reading. These countries spend less per student for schooling. Hattie feels anything above $40,000 he sees no clear relationship between the money spent and improved academic quality.
Hattie states the ideas that do prove to work time and again is empowering teachers to collaborate closely with their students. He outlines these effective ideas in his book Visible Learning Into Action.