Schools need real solutions, not magic-bullet fixes
Sunday, May 15, 2011
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Education Secretary Terrel Bell (left) and President Ronald Reagan discuss school issues in the aftermath of 1983's "A Nation at Risk" report. Reagan had earlier created the Commission on Excellence in Education in response to Bell's concern that schools were failing to meet the demands of a competitive workforce. The commission produced the 1983 critique of the U.S. education system.
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In the nearly 30 years since publication of the national wake-up call, "A Nation at Risk," the United States has used the silver-bullet approach to fix what's broken in education, trying every fad and ideological whim to improve student achievement. Today we favor the "business" or market approach, hoping to spur higher academic test scores by creating private-school choices, simply measuring achievement through standardized tests or threatening teachers by firing staff or shuttering public schools. But left in the wake are ineffective charter schools and voucher programs that are largely no better, and
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/05/13/IN2Q1J74BQ.DTL#ixzz1MTZbsoYS