Is the School “Reform” Drought Breaking? – @ THE CHALK FACE knows SCHOOLS MATTER:
by plthomasedd
My colleague and social studies educator, George Lipscomb, is offering a May Experience course addressing “What Makes a Great Teacher.” He started the course today with a Sweet 16 of teacher values so I thought this idea may be a great way to ask people to confront priorities regarding what our current high-stakes test-based accountability [...]
by freetoteach
Since Bill Gates and other billionaire boys and girls club members are dictating education policy and coming up with new and brilliant ideas such as, “the teacher is the most important” indicator of whether students learn, perhaps he can give us some more lessons on teaching.
We can start lesson one on conspicuous consumption, lesson two, grandiosity, lessen three, all life is a competition. We can end with a discussion of whales and if the students are lucky, he can invite them over to take a look in his underground aquarium.
by Jim Horn
Corporate ed reformers in Memphis are planning to close a dozen schools in order to backfill the current 57-million dollar hole created by the planned opening of more corporate charter schools. Citizens, however, have a different view on the matter. Join the fight in Memphis to improve community schools, rather than shutting them down to [...]
by John Thompson
Wasn’t Sir Ken Robinson’s Education TED talk wonderful? His PBS TED presentation followed some outstanding students, teachers, and scholars who stressed the power of relationship-building and fostering students’ creativity. He also followed “reformers” like Bill Gates, Geoffrey Canada, and host John Legend. Perhaps because they were on public television, these accountability hawks were on their best behavior. They did not promote high-stakes bubble-in accountability or teacher-bashing.
Robinson noted the excellence of many schools he has visited. He explained, however, that schools succeed despite the dominant culture of reform. He found it noteworthy that schools designed to provide personalized support for students and project-based learning are known as “alternative schools.” If those sorts of schools were the norm, we would not need alternative slots.
Robinson argued that humans are naturally diverse, but No Child Left Behind fostered uniformity. It narrowed the curriculum. Whether the other TED participants knew it or not, “reform” has often driven the types of talents and ideals demonstrated by the other presenters out of our classrooms. Gates
