Our educational system is often overly pessimistic about students' abilities, and overly critical of their accomplishments, said Michael Klonsky, director of the Small Schools Workshop at the University of Illinois - Chicago, in his keynote address to the annual conference of the Illinois Association of Teacher Educators, held Oct 27 at Knox College in Galesburg.

"We have all these letters [such as LD, an abbreviation for Learning Disability] to describe kids' deficits; we need some letters to describe their assets, such as LC -- Loves Computers-- or GP -- Great Poet," Klonsky said in his luncheon talk to attendees from throughout the state.

As an exercise at other conferences, Klonsky said, "I've asked teachers to design schools that will fail at least half the kids, especially the ones from low income families. I've never heard an original idea. Everything they can come up with is already being done," including "normalized" standardized tests that are scored so half the students score below average, and "tracking systems that channel lower kids into lifetime tracks... You can predict who will end up in prison and who will end up at Harvard."

At least part of the solution is better funding, but that's not enough, Klonsky said. "Some people think that a billion dollars and a good idea is enough to change the world, but it isn't," Klonsky said. Solutions require community support because "top-down reform doesn't work."

Klonsky's specialty is research on the effects of school size on student performance. "We're not just about making schools smaller, but about better visibility of kids" and creating a collaborative community of educators that links the curriculum with the lives and experiences of the students, Klonsky said.

Also at the conference, IATE awarded its 2005-2006 Student Teachers of the Year Award to Amber Kraus, a 2005 Knox College graduate; and Megan Livatino, a 2006 graduate of National Louis University in Chicago.

IATE Conference Photos -- Right, from top: Keynote speaker Michael Klonsky, director of the Small Schools Workshop at the University of Illinois - Chicago; Catherine Denial, of the history faculty at Knox, gives a talk on ways to bring original source materials into the classroom; Knox student Andy Fitz, in red shirt, is one of three panelists who discussed their experiences in a summer program that placed future teachers in high-needs schools; Below, Heather Hellenga, a 1990 Knox graduate is one of three Galesburg District 205 teachers who described about their "Morning Meeting" program that energizes students by breaking out of the traditional school day routines.

Knox College Educational Studies Program

IATE 2005-06 Student Teacher of the Year Awards