Educational expert addresses Marcellus teachers

Dr. Bill Daggett

After students left campus Dec. 10 in the late morning, as part of the Marcellus Central School District’s annual go-home-early drill, teachers filed into the high school auditorium for a stirring presentation about the nation’s changing educational landscape.

The talk, “Preparing Students to be College and Career Ready,” was delivered by Dr. Bill Daggett, founder and chief executive officer of the International Center for Leadership in Education. Marcellus Central Schools use the “Rigor/Relevance Framework” developed by Daggett’s organization to examine curriculum, instruction and assessment.

While introducing Dr. Daggett, Marcellus Director of Secondary Instruction Deborah Glisson thanked him for “focusing, grounding and helping” her as she navigated the steep learning curve of Annual Professional Performance Reviews (APPR), Student Learning Objectives (SLOs), and the new Common Core Learning Standards.

Dr. Daggett began by praising the American education system, noting that he’d visited every state in the union, as well as 29 foreign countries: “I believe ours is the finest education system on the face of the Earth – bar none.”

“Overall, American schools are good,” he said. “Last year, we had the highest percentage of 18-year-old graduates in history.”

But education has not kept pace with the changing world economy over the past 30 years, despite several stabs at reform – starting with the 1983 report, “A Nation at Risk,” and then continuing early last decade with the No Child Left Behind Act and today with Common Core.

Despite these movements, in the 2012 Programme for International Student Assessments (PISA), which assess proficiency in math, reading and science around the world, the United States was ranked the lowest of all industrialized nations.

So what’s the solution?

We need to treat college as a means to an end, i.e. gainful employment, and not an end itself.

There are 13 million Americans on unemployment, but 3.8 million vacant jobs that pay more than $50,000 a year. Why? Students aren’t learning the skills they need to be career-ready.

As a nation, we’ve also incrementally lowered our standards, Dr. Daggett said.

“You’ve performed very well at this school,” he said.

But the answer, ultimately, is more rigorous and relevant standards taught in a cross-disciplinary application.

“If not the Common Core, then what?” Dr. Daggett concluded.