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Thursday, November 8, 2012

Schools Matter: Time for Obama to Change Course on Education

Schools Matter: Time for Obama to Change Course on Education:


Time for Obama to Change Course on Education

From an engineer and a scientist who sees the damage of current corporate education reform and can't understand why Obama can't just do the arithmetic.

A call for President Obama to change course on education

By Arthur H. Camins , Updated: November 7, 2012

 Arthur H. Camins is director of the Center for Innovation in Engineering and Science Education at the Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey.
With the election behind us, it is time for the Obama administration to step back from its education policy and access whether its foundation is sound and supported by evidence. It is a moment to summon the courage to change course.
 We have had wars on drugs, poverty and terrorism. Now, depending on perspective, we have a war either for or on education. Certainly, many educators feel under siege. Popular slogans like, “Whatever it takes,” sound like battle cries.  This brings to mind the documentary film, “The Fog of War,” as a metaphor for education reform.
In the hopeful 1960s, the nation’s focus on poverty was undone by a president fearful of accusations of being weak on defense and soft on communism and trapped by unexamined


MORE TESTS!!!! SKrashen & CBirmingham comment

My comment on “Final College-Readiness Definition Guides Test Consortium,” Ed Week, Nov 7.

What does it mean to be college-ready? What does it mean to be eager to inflict yet another battery of tests on our test-weary educational system? What does it mean to ignore the evidence that high school grades are an excellent predictor of college success?

I think it means more profit for testing and computer companies (tests must be administered online), who never seem to be satisfied, who want an ever larger share of our tax dollars. I think it means more of “take from the