Making Changes

Since I do not have my own classroom, it is hard to give an example of how I helped overcome the problems of diversity within my school.  However, a friend of mine who is a science teacher approached me with a problem of her own.  She teaches in a low-income part of town where most of the students in her classes come from poverty-stricken homes, are often abused, and live in drug-ridden environments.  With so many distractions in the classroom due to behavior problems, she finds little time to reach all of the students who are actually motivated to learn.  She knows they are missing out on opportunities because she needs to devote so much time to serious situations caused by other students.  She met with the other teachers in the school and together they created a plan to help solve the problem.  They decided to sort the students within the classes by learning level so that they could focus on reaching more students on their own levels.   All the teachers collaborated on the plan and were pleased with the arrangement.  However, when the teachers took their plan to the administration, they were met with obstinacy.  Instead of receiving cooperation, they were all berated for even considering the possibility of separating the students into different classes.  The classes remain the same and the motivated students in the classes are struggling to learn from their teachers.  The teachers are without resources to control the unruly students and trying their best to give all the students the learning experiences they need, but it is not enough. 

It is difficult to make changes within the district and further out if teachers do not even have the power to make changes within their own schools or even within their own grade levels.  I have said that perhaps part of the solution to improving STEM education was for teachers to receive more training in improving lessons within the classroom, but now I want to change that statement slightly.  I think the solution to improving STEM education needs to begin with the people higher up in the system.  Those with the power to change things within the system should probably be the ones getting the most training and education on how to improve learning in the classrooms.  Teachers can have wonderful ideas, but without the power to implement them, they are useless.