Recently, Connecticut’s governor and his education department discovered that cellphones in the classroom are a problem. The response from teachers across the state was “Welcome to the 21st century.”
Schools have been dealing with phones for over two decades. Unfortunately the state’s remedy is as predictable as it is sad. The chief executive stated phones would be out of the classrooms by the fall 2024. Then he immediately passed the baton to the Connecticut State Board of Education.
The result was the usual. Lots of this, a little of that but nothing concrete that the local districts could use as an action plan. In other words another unfunded mandate that the cities and towns have to figure out how to implement.
Regrettably, this will have a negligible impact on year-end test scores because it avoids the actual keystones of high achievement. Successful schools have strong academic goals, high student expectations and strict adherence to those two issues.
Your exceptional districts have been navigating the phone problem for years. It is one of many behavioral issues that arise every year. Now they will be forced to spend valuable time discussing this latest state edict, make any necessary adjustments and continue being noteworthy. That evidence will come at the end of the year when they receive their outstanding standardized test scores.
The dysfunctional schools will see the state’s emphasis on phones as another panacea that will help to turn things around. They will form committees, have lots of meetings and issue a ton of reports. The result will be the same poor year-end scores. The greatest hopes and dreams for students are useless unless high standards are enforced.
Every school in the U.S. has lofty goals and expectations. These can be seen on their websites and they are discussed at all functions. What separates high and low performers comes down to the execution of those objectives. Strong programs have protocols in place that clearly state what is academically and behaviorally appropriate. These students will receive consequences, positive and negative, based on their actions.
Dysfunctional schools do just the opposite. They lurch around looking for the easiest and least painful way to do things. It results in continuing their culture of failure. This repeatedly happens because of faulty polices that feel good but are rarely effective. One example should suffice.
The Nobel prize for a colossally bad idea has nothing to do with cell phones. It is the concept of “social promotion.” Scarily it is still found in far too many communities. It declares that we don’t want to stigmatize children by making them repeat a grade. The fear is it will cause emotional and psychological damage. Obviously no one wants a six foot tall, 300- pound second grader in a classroom. But there are many interventions that can minimize harm and maximize skill retention.
The glaring statistic that should drive a stake through this horrible theory regards reading skills. It is now accepted dogma that a child who cannot read competently by the end of third grade is destined for a life of guaranteed hardships. This gives a youngster a very small window to acquire an essential skill. Currently, the tragic results of social promotion are being played out in colleges and businesses everywhere. These institutions are forced to put in place remedial programs to assist applicants who have little or no applicable skills.
There is an element of unintentional collusion that surrounds the focus on issues such as cell phones. It takes hard work, determination and constant vigilance to create a flourishing learning environment. It is much simpler to focus on problems that allow schools to avoid the heavy lifting. Plus they brag about not hurting anybody’s feelings.
But in the end, what is the greater disservice? Repeating a grade or condemning a child to a marginal future.
Vincent Turley lives in Hartford.