Improving education means changing the system, not just spending more
Wisconsin’s public school students have now been back in school for nearly a month. For many parents, teachers and students, the start of a new school year means a return to familiar problems.
There are many wonderful schools, teachers and school leaders across Wisconsin. But there is also a mountain of evidence that the Badger State’s public school system faces serious academic and behavioral challenges.
Academic performance has moved steadily in the wrong direction. Wisconsin students have lost the equivalent of nearly an entire grade level in reading performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, since the state’s recent peak. At the same time, teachers increasingly report classrooms where disruptive and sometimes violent behavior makes it harder simply to teach.
A recent Badger Institute analysis by Daniel Buck, a former Wisconsin teacher and school administrator now with the American Enterprise Institute, offers solutions. Rather than simply putting more resources into a system producing disappointing results, policymakers should focus on reforms that improve how public schools function.
For many well-documented reasons, school choice should be at the center of any education reform agenda. Wisconsin should continue giving families more freedom to choose among district, charter and private schools.
But choice cannot be the entire agenda. As Buck notes, even in states with the most robust choice programs, the large majority of students remain in public schools. While continuing to expand choice, improving public schools must remain a high priority because those are where most kids are.
So how do we do it? The first step is to restore academic expectations.
Wisconsin recently lowered the scores students need to receive a “proficient” rating on the state Forward Exam. That can make performance look better on paper without students actually learning more. Buck recommends aligning Wisconsin’s proficiency standards more closely with the more demanding NAEP, making it easier to compare Wisconsin with other jurisdictions.
He also recommends building on Wisconsin’s recent literacy reforms, which have focused on evidence-based phonics instruction, with a similar approach to mathematics. That means universal screening to identify struggling students, targeted interventions, stronger curricula and ensuring future teachers are trained in evidence-based math instruction.
A second, equally important priority is creating classrooms where teachers can safely and effectively teach. No curriculum reform can succeed where disorder makes instruction impossible.
The behavior problems documented in Wisconsin schools are not minor disruptions. Badger Institute research has described students throwing chairs, assaulting teachers and engaging in fights that caused serious injuries. National surveys show student behavior is one of the most important sources of stress for teachers.
Wisconsin lawmakers should therefore revisit a proposed teacher bill of rights that would clarify when disruptive students can be removed from classrooms, establish procedures for their return, and protect teachers who act in good faith to maintain order.
Wisconsin should also improve teacher preparation. Buck recommends following Florida’s lead in requiring preparation programs to place greater emphasis on practical classroom skills. Florida law requires programs to focus on mastery of academic content and instructional strategies instead of theoretical and ideological discussion of oppression and privilege.
Whatever one thinks of the broader ideological debates on those topics, Buck’s underlying point is straightforward: Prospective teachers need to know how to plan a lesson, manage a classroom and teach effectively. This should be the purpose of teacher preparation.
He further recommends attracting and retaining excellent teachers by moving beyond across-the-board pay increases toward compensation systems that reward strong teachers and help districts attract educators in hard-to-fill subjects.
Finally, schools should better prepare students for life after graduation through stronger career and technical education and greater transparency about which credentials lead to valuable employment opportunities.
The common thread is that improving education requires changing the system, not simply spending more money on the existing one.
Just as students have begun a new year, Wisconsin’s government will in January begin a new legislative session. It should use it to pursue structural reforms that improve academic performance, strengthen classroom order and better prepare teachers and students while resisting calls to simply throw more money at longstanding problems.
Ben Eisen is vice president of research and policy for the Badger Institute.
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