Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Education ‘Reform’ Is Wrecking Our Schools | Alternet

Education ‘Reform’ Is Wrecking Our Schools | Alternet:

Education ‘Reform’ Is Wrecking Our Schools

Developmentally inappropriate tests, aimed at students as young as Kindergarten, are undercutting any gains the Common Core might help us make.

Photo Credit: Levent Konuk via Shutterstock.com
 
The latest news stories from the brave frontiers of a movement known as “education reform” are in, and the consensus view is that down continues to be the new up.
Personnel programs such as teacher merit pay that were supposed to improve the financial efficiency of schools are now being discarded for financial reasons. New competitive forms of schooling such as cyber charters that were supposed to reform the system through competition are now in need of “top-bottom reform.”Teachers who are held more accountable for children’s motivation to pursue education are discouraged to seek more education for themselves. Schools that are supposed to rescue children from poverty are bearing the brunt of deep cuts in spending.
Amidst this colossally dysfunctional scenario descends the new national