Marzano Reflection - Best and Worst of Times

Before I read Marzano’s chapter one of What Works Best in Schools, I reflected on what I thought were the worst parts of public school today. The first thing that popped into my head was my colleague’s comments of, “Remember when.....” When I first started teaching, I was on a team with four others. They each had over twenty years of experience. Two of them have already retired and one is retiring this year. They talk about how parent involvement has changed and how the freedom to teach what you think is beneficial has diminished. Another negative comment has been how kids do not have the creativity and work ethic like they used to have. On the positive side, they have shared how the kids know much more information and are academically advanced compared to where they used to be. The biggest complaint of all is that public schools and parents are not letting kids be kids. It is hard for me to judge what I have seen over time, because I have only been in the system for 8 years. In my opinion, I feel that the worst part of the times that we teach in are the influences of standardized testing. We put such an emphasis on these tests that we forget our main goal; to build lifelong learners. We are in the best of times because of the information that is at our fingertips. We can expose our students to any culture, place, animal, etc. with the click of a button. We are able to share strategies and concepts with each other and there is never enough time in a day to teach all of the creative lessons that we have access to.

            Marzano’s chapter helped me realize that during every time period people have thought that we are in the worst of times. Research in the 60s identified that public schools account for only 10 percent of the variance in student achievement leaving the other 90 percent up to background characteristics. This data was shocking to me and totally contradicted what I thought home life looked like fifty years ago. The TIMSS study was thought provoking also. I don’t understand why our 4^th graders performed moderately well compared to the 12^th graders who performed poorly. What changed in education for those students between those years? I do agree with Marzano that teachers and schools must use data and specific strategies to build successful curriculums that lead to successful students. We should use what we know to do our best to be highly effective. Figure 1.4 on page 10 was the most influential piece of this article for me. I completely agree that schools, parents, and students must come together to value those factors. If each one of those factors is met, our students will have a better chance of being successful. I feel that judging our schools is similar to judging our bank accounts.....we always want more. J