Latest / THE DAILY BRIEF / Literacy is at a CRISIS POINT 'Education expert on the future of high school in America'

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Literacy is at a CRISIS POINT 'Education expert on the future of high school in America' · THE DAILY BRIEF

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: After more than 30 years, New York State is now
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: moving to make Regents exams. Those are the rigorous end-of-year
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: tests that determine whether students receive a diploma. Well, those
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: exams are not going to be optional. The move is
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: intended to eliminate barriers to graduation for some students while
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: offering other ways to demonstrate that they have mastered required material.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: State education officials say the new approach will maintain high
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  Speaker 1: academic standards. Where critics are concerned, it could weaken those
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: very standards. and leave students less prepared for college or
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: their chosen careers. Joining us now, founder of Harlem Village
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Academies and the Deeper Learning Institute, Dr.
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: Deborah Kenney.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: She is the author of the bestselling book, The Well-Educated Child,
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: How the Principles and Practices of Quality Thinking, Agency, and
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: Ethical Purpose Work. cultivate deeper learning.
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: Dr.
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  Speaker 1: Kenney, good to see you, as always. This has been
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  Speaker 1: sort of bandied about, rumored for a while, this decision
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: on the Regents exams. Let's just get your thoughts here, including,
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: as I just laid out, the arguments on either side.
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  Speaker 1: Some saying these exams are not the best measure of
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: whether a student is learning, and others who say, wait
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: a minute, this might leave them less prepared.
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a very nuanced and in incredibly important time.
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: And like you said, this has been in the works
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  Speaker 3: since the 1980s, really. There are two schools of thought.
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: And I think the only way to really analyze and
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: understand this is to look carefully at those rather than
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: jumping to conclusions. On the one hand, there are people
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: who think this could be a disaster, that there will
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: now be no accountability, that there will be just faux rigor,
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: faux engagement. And I think that there's a reason to
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: have those kind of serious concerns. The folks who are
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: excited about this would be people who look at schools
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: like High Tech High as an example of a preeminent
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: project-based learning school where the kids got a chance to
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  Speaker 3: work with the scientist E.O. Wilson on incredibly sophisticated projects.
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: But the problem is the implementation. If you don't have
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  Speaker 3: a basement, if you don't have just a foundation of
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: accountability at the basic level, then what are you going
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  Speaker 3: to do with schools that don't have the ability or
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  Speaker 3: resources to achieve projects at that higher level? You know,
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  Speaker 3: George Lucas is very involved in project-based learning. And some
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  Speaker 3: of the ideas that could align with what the regents
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  Speaker 3: are aspiring to are just incredible. But there's no structure
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  Speaker 3: that's going to guarantee that that excellent implementation happens.
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: So let's set reading as an example to the side
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  Speaker 2: for a moment. Where do reading scores stand in terms
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: of public school students right now in New York State
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  Speaker 2: and New York City?
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  Speaker 3: Well, and across the country, there is a very serious
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  Speaker 3: concern among teachers that students arrive to middle school and
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  Speaker 3: high school not even able to read on grade level
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  Speaker 3: so that they don't even have the basics. And so...
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  Speaker 3: What are they reading? Well, they're not reading. That's the problem.
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  Speaker 3: You know, kids are... And we've talked about this before
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: here on the show, that literacy is at a crisis point.
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: And so if you're eliminating the requirement to read full books...
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: and kids are losing their attention span, then that is
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  Speaker 3: a serious problem.
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: How would you pass a Regents exam if you're fairly illiterate?
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  Speaker 3: Well, the idea now is that the Regents will not,
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  Speaker 3: it will still be required, but it won't be required
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  Speaker 3: to get a high school diploma, which means that on
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: the one hand, you open up opportunities for much more
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  Speaker 3: sophisticated curricula, like the International Baccalaureate, which we're doing at
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  Speaker 3: our school. So if you have the wherewithal.
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  Speaker 2: What is that?
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  Speaker 3: That is the most sophisticated high school curriculum in the world,
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  Speaker 3: the International Baccalaureate. It started in Europe, and it's now
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  Speaker 3: across the United States. And it requires students to not
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  Speaker 3: only read a lot, but to do an immense amount
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  Speaker 3: of writing, research projects. They spend a whole year learning
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  Speaker 3: how to do research. They have to write They're required
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  Speaker 3: to write a number of extended essays, oral defense of
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  Speaker 3: their exams. So it's incredibly rigorous. So if all schools
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  Speaker 3: were able to adopt such a sophisticated program, then this
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  Speaker 3: move by the regions will be an incredible opportunity. However,
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  Speaker 3: if schools don't have the wherewithal to do that, then
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  Speaker 3: it's a free-for-all. And that's why people are very worried. So, Dr.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: Kane, while we have you, the subject... The topic of
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  Speaker 1: du jour is AI right now, of course, including the
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: apocalyptic warnings.
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  Speaker 2: Of recent days.
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  Speaker 1: But this has already been a subject of serious debate
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  Speaker 1: in academia.
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  Speaker 2: Right.
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  Speaker 1: And New York City just announced it's banning AI for
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  Speaker 1: students through- And Los Angeles also.
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: Los Angeles.
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  Speaker 1: So the first and second largest school systems in the
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  Speaker 1: country doing so. What is your reaction to that? And
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  Speaker 1: is there an appropriate use for AI, whether it's for
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: high schoolers or other students? What should- It's unavoidable in
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  Speaker 1: some ways- How should it be used or.
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  Speaker 3: Not at all? Right. So first, it's going to be
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  Speaker 3: what the future holds. No question about it. There's a
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: lot of experimentation going on right now, a lot of ideas. However,
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: we should not be experimenting on our children. I mean,
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: can you imagine if there was a new drug and
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: they said it has the potential to cure this and
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: that disease, but it hasn't been tested? We're just going
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  Speaker 3: to shoot it into the arms of every kid. That
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  Speaker 3: would never happen. So I applaud the idea of a
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: moratorium and giving it time to make sure that we're
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: doing it in the right way.
• 6:08
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• 6:11
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