Does money improve basic education?

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Friday, January 31. 2020

Does money improve basic education?

To a point, it seems to. After that point, not much. Teacher quality matters of course, but I do not see how school buildings matter. Do high-tech blackboards improve education? I do not see how. Blackboards (now whiteboards mostly), pencils, and paper do the trick.

But parental influence might be most important.

How money matters for improving education

Posted by The Barrister in Education at 16:18 | Comments (18) | Trackbacks (0)

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The most important determinant of what kind of students a school system graduates is what kind of students enter.

#1 Andrew Stanton on 2020-01-31 18:19 (Reply)

This is exactly right. The siblings of students with learning and behavioural issues usually have the same problems. The parents (or should I say parent) has little time or investment in education. The parents often don't see the point in education - "Heck, I left school at 15 and I'm fine!" "If my child acts out in school - that's your problem, not mine. I'll deal with him at home, you deal with him in class...." The problem after that is that leadership won't expel the student because they get state/federal funding because of the behavioural issues.

#1.1 Andrew Simmonds on 2020-01-31 18:25 (Reply)

^This

#1.1.1 snopercod on 2020-01-31 19:15 (Reply)

High tech whiteboards help of course! When once a teacher would stand with their backs to the class writing on a board, a teacher can flick pre-written notes onto the board from his phone, explain them as he goes on, put on a short video illustrating the concept, then run an assessment for understanding with real-time results. The whole thing then gets added to the students cloud drive for them to use in their assignments/exams. No photocopying, no time spent chalking up the board or erasing, no need to set up the TV or projected, no marking assessments at home and then giving feedback 3 days later, all the evidence of instruction and learning can be sent to leadership in a matter of seconds and it can all be used and modified over and over again.

#2 Andrew Simmonds on 2020-01-31 18:19 (Reply)

“When once a teacher would stand with their backs to the class writing on a board, a teacher can flick pre-written notes onto the board from his phone, explain them as he goes on, put on a short video illustrating the concept, then run an assessment for understanding with real-time results. The whole thing then gets added to the students cloud drive for them to use in their assignments/exams.”

Wow, fourth grade has really changed from when I was a student.

#2.1 Jm01 on 2020-02-01 11:23 (Reply)

Half the children are below average intelligence. Education can't fix that.

#3 Stargazer on 2020-01-31 19:54 (Reply)

Never learned the difference between average and median, huh? Hope your kids did better.

#3.1 KURT LINTON on 2020-02-01 08:02 (Reply)

2020 Skewered Award Winner.

#3.1.1 Aggie on 2020-02-01 13:29 (Reply)

I would have to disagree, based on my own experience as a science teacher. The Smartboards and tablets/laptops can be game-changing for SOME classes.

Science - almost every teacher uses them to add features that can't be accessed otherwise. In labs, virtual labs, probe ware, interactive - it is more challenging, and more expensive, to teach high school science without it.

Social Studies - maybe - IF the class involves mapping/geography. The GIS component adds to the class, and gives kids some experience with using tools that will lead to good jobs.

Shop - 3-D printers, CNC - you really can't properly prepare kids for high-tech jobs without the technology.

But, that's high school (and, for teachers willing to learn, middle school). For elementary, I agree with you about the lack of need.

#4 Linda S Fox (Link) on 2020-01-31 21:27 (Reply)

"Per pupil spending" is not clearly defined here and often not elsewhere. The real way to do this is to divide the total budget of the educational system and divide it by the number of students in the system. Schools often report spending by how much of the budget is allocated to the classroom, not how much money is spent in the entire system. And the variance, even in classroom spending, can be large, especially across an entire country. The difference between total expenditure per pupil and per pupil spending can be massive. See https://youtu.be/XzvKyfV3JtE

And the measures of learning are spotty at best, again with wide variance and little information on dropout rates and basically who is in the test pool.

These data and these graphs are of very little use in analyzing or understanding spending or educational effectiveness.

#5 Peter Lorenzi on 2020-01-31 22:33 (Reply)

Let’s pretend not to notice the obvious, OK?

Let’s pretend that all peoples have exactly the same aptitude, and that “nature” has nothing to do with it.

As we claim to apply “advanced analytics,” let’s ignore the obvious.

ANYTHING, not to offend.

#6 RobM1981 on 2020-02-01 08:20 (Reply)

There are some things which cannot be said.

I can put up with that. It is true in every society since creation. Yet I do object to being forced to say the opposite. That is a bridge too far.

#6.1 Assistant Village Idiot on 2020-02-01 13:51 (Reply)

If money was that important Abraham Lincoln wouldn't have learned anything. Student motivation is more important than money. I used to know a teacher that got out of teaching because the students could not be disciplined and you couldn't expel them. It only takes a few unruly students to disrupt learning for a whole class. He would take disruptive students to the principal's office, and an hour later they were back in class. He told me a student threatened to kill him and nothing happened to the student. When the students realize bad behavior has no bad consequences it just encourages bad behavior.

#7 Ray on 2020-02-01 12:21 (Reply)

I can fix this with two simple changes:
1. Make the parents responsible for their children's attendance, school work and deportment. With enforcement.

2. Remove undisciplined and unproductive children from the class and put them where they will be better controlled and better tutored/taught.

#8 Anon on 2020-02-01 16:03 (Reply)

One kind of spending that would probably help: smaller *schools*, especially at the middle school and high school level. It's hard to imagine why a school needs to have more students than an auto assembly plant has employees. These exercises in giantism surely create an anonymous, anomic environment that has much to do with behavior problems, which in turn affect learning.

#9 David Foster (Link) on 2020-02-01 17:39 (Reply)

Foundation for economic education (FEE) describes small Vermont towns that are too small for schools so the state sends tuition money to the parents to spend on any school acceptable to the parent. It seems to work and apparently costs about a quarter less and provides better results. The current system in the US focuses on the education bureaucracy rather than on the actual student. Free the parents and students instead of holding them hostage to the state and state employees. Then get rid of the Federal Department of Education or ship them to the hinterlands where they may refuse to go and then close up shop for lack of interest.

#10 indyjonesouthere on 2020-02-01 22:50 (Reply)

Want to get Education changed? Make every politician and person who draws a check from the Education Mafia be required by law to send their children to Public School.

#11 Robert Sendler on 2020-02-02 09:11 (Reply)

I was a teacher, and I can tell you from first hand experience that the kids don't learn anything in Public Schools. The children are prisoners, being held in a detention center every day for eight hours. In the past, some schools were voluntary. The kids could attend or not; it was entirely their own decision. And do you know what happened? The schools completely changed, so that the kids would want to go there. In fact, the schools had a rule: if you misbehave, you can't come back the next day. As a result, all the kids were on their best behavior. And this happened because the schools were subjected to market forces.

#12 Ron Lieberman on 2020-02-04 11:01 (Reply)

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Friday, January 31. 2020

Does money improve basic education?