Thanking Ted Sizer

Each year the University of Massachusetts (UMASS) at Lowell asks doctoral students to take part in the annual colloquium. A colloquium is an event in which scholars get together to engage in discussion about a particular topic. Over the last couple of years I have had the opportunity to make the acquaintance of Boston Public Pilot Schools expert Dan French and renowned author, Jonathon Kozol. I have been provided with memorable moments at these events, my favorite of which was having Kozol’s book, Letters to a First Year Teacher signed by John. He wrote on the first page, To Michael. For all our children.

At one of these events I sat next to an older man and a woman who I assumed was his wife. While he sat and seemed to listen to every word that Dr. French was saying about the Boston Pilot Schools, his wife just sat and knitted. At some point the gentleman was introduced to everyone as Theodore “Ted” Sizer. I remember thinking to myself how fantastic it was to be sitting next to such a famous author. One of Ted’s books, The Red Pencil: Convictions From Experience in Education is among my favorites when it comes to ideas about improving the education system as a whole.

Among my favorite of Dr. Sizer’s assertions is the one that he draws about educational equality. He made a pretty compelling case for why things in schools are the way they are when he wrote, “Over the course of a year, most children spend more than twice their waking hours outside of school. This time, not surprisingly, carries far more influence than the amount of time spent in the classroom, if not for some, surely for most.” He goes on to say, “If we want a powerfully educated population we must attend to all aspects of each child’s situation, in deliberate, sustained combination.”

Now I don’t mean to bore you with quotes from books, but what Sizer says is very important. The fact that the percentage of students achieving proficiency on MCAS examinations goes up as the socioeconomics of the school community is not merely a function of happenstance. There is legitimate research to support that student achievement increases with socioeconomic status. If those who authored the No Child Left Behind Act would just realize this, our summer and weekend programming would be just as powerful as that which happens in our 180 day school year.

On the topic of socioeconomic status and its direct relationship on student achievement I could write for hours. In actuality, I have written for hours about this – but I really don’t want to bore you with research. The real reason that I wrote this blog tonight is that I want to say thank you to Ted Sizer, a forward thinker, a wonderful author, and a pioneer in the American Education System. On October 22, 2009 Ted passed away at the age of 77 after a lengthy battle with cancer. Ted not only left us with inspirational and promising ideas about how to improve education for our children – he left us with work that simply must be done.