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Wednesday, August 1, 2012

A Consumer’s Union for Schools « Deborah Meier on Education

A Consumer’s Union for Schools « Deborah Meier on Education:




A Consumer’s Union for Schools

What would it be like if we took our children and their teachers as seriously as CU takes the many products it “assesses”, “tests”, “reviews/”
If you haven’t looked at an issue of CU recently, pick one up.  Read the average auto review—and particularly the ones that compare a great many cars.  They do not give you a single score.  They “score” according to dozens of categories—so that the reader/consumer can keep in mind the trade-offs that are critical versus those that are trivial for their uses.  Do they need a lot of storage space, what the price tag? how many people fit into the car and other “objective” factors.   They also rate more subjective ones: how they like the dashboard, how “quiet” the ride is, etc.   The tests they use to create these individual scores are expensive and time-consuming.  And ever so often they even do a more in-depth review of most of the leading or more interesting cars.    They are guides