Hear Ye, Hear Ye! All (well, maybe just a wee bit) the news that’s fit to print… and even more that isn’t but is printed anyway. Of the articles I come across, some may be worth sharing even if I, and possibly you, aren’t supportive of what is being reported. There may be something of interest to you in this line up of articles.
In the Future, Today’s Education Will Look Like ‘19th-Century Medicine’
Insanity In the Classroom: Government Schools Today
The danger now is that the feds and the educational establishment will step up their efforts to absorb all educational choices into the one-size-fits-all model of indoctrination, manipulation, and dumbing down that has been unleashed on America.
Abandon the Gospel of Education Reform
Then, as now, education reformers preached a certain gospel: Hold teachers solely accountable for educational gains. Expand charter schools. Focus relentlessly on high-school graduation rates. This was the recipe for success.
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For most of my career, I preached the old gospel of education reform. But now, research and experience suggest that policy makers need to embrace a new path forward and leave the old gospel behind.
The Kind Of Policy We Must Never Make Again
About the Race to the Top ridiculousness.
The Race to the Top was an overwhelming success, if success is defined as getting states to adopt the policies the Obama administration wanted.
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The focus on “innovation,” data, and technology is misguided, too. Innovation is not necessarily improvement—it’s easy to make something new that isn’t actually any better.
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There’s a kind of “behaviorist” thinking here: You don’t need to know anything about what it’s actually like in a school in order to improve one.
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If you trusted teachers, you would ask them to propose the methods they thought would most improve students’ experiences, then give them the financial resources they needed to improve their schools accordingly. Knowledge is decentralized, meaning that a teacher always knows more about her classroom than the Department of Education does.
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Shockingly (or not), the Obama Department of Education didn’t even know that the policies it was promoting would actually work.
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What we need is a race to make sure every school has a music teacher, every building is safe and beautiful and well-maintained, every child is well-fed, every classroom is full of books and supplies, and every teacher has what they need in order to help children discover the world of knowledge.
Teachers Union Report Warns Of ‘Crisis’ From Disruptive Student Behavior
Empty schools and busy picket lines on the first day of CICS charter strike
What Is the Average Teacher’s Salary in the U.S. in 2019?
- Busting out of the one size fits all mold? photo by J.R. Wilson
The Underground Parent 