Is Progressive Schooling Just Around the Corner? (Part 2)
Predicting the future, well, is iffy. Except for an occasional Nate Silver who became famous in calling the 2012 election of Barack Obama, more often than not, predictions of what is around the corner range from goofy to funny. I do laugh at the big bloopers made by smart people about the future (see here). And I have gotten off a few clumsy ones of my own. So, at best, I am somewhere between occasionally right and, more often than not, wrong.
But my lack of success has yet to stop me from looking around the corner. The previous post asked whether a progressive coalition was forming to challenge frontally the current efficiency-driven, standards-based, testing and accountability movement that has dominated public schooling for the past three decades. I would like to think so but my experience, research, and ability to read portents of the future do not add up to an enviable record. So, readers beware.
Here are some fragments of a potential coalition that I do see emerging:
*Parents, educators, and students drawn from the political left and right (e.g. progressives, home schoolers, and Tea Party advocates) opposed to the amount and spread of standardized testing–the op-out movement–including mountinganxiety over new tests for assessing student learning of Common Core Standards;
*Traditional progressive groups (often splintered and small) that have low profiles for a long time yet continue to support educating the whole child,Is Progressive Schooling Just Around the Corner? (Part 2) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice: