Magnet vs. Charter
Once again, I had a version of this conversation.
Me: Charters are not public schools because they are not open to or committed to taking all students. They filter and cream and push out and refuse to backfill.
Reformster: What about magnet schools? Those are public schools which have stringent admission requirements. They don't educate every child, either, and they also pick and choose.
I can illustrate the hole in this argument by imagining the following contrasting conversations.
Conversation #1
Student: I would like to attend your most excellent magnet school!
School: Unfortunately, you have not met our stringent entry requirements. However, as is our legal and ethical responsibility, we will make sure to provide you with a full education elsewhere within this school district.
Conversation #2
Student: I would like to attend your delightful charter school!
Charter: Unfortunately, we don't want you. We don't have space for you. You are too old. You aren't
Me: Charters are not public schools because they are not open to or committed to taking all students. They filter and cream and push out and refuse to backfill.
Reformster: What about magnet schools? Those are public schools which have stringent admission requirements. They don't educate every child, either, and they also pick and choose.
I can illustrate the hole in this argument by imagining the following contrasting conversations.
Conversation #1
Student: I would like to attend your most excellent magnet school!
School: Unfortunately, you have not met our stringent entry requirements. However, as is our legal and ethical responsibility, we will make sure to provide you with a full education elsewhere within this school district.
Conversation #2
Student: I would like to attend your delightful charter school!
Charter: Unfortunately, we don't want you. We don't have space for you. You are too old. You aren't
I've been saying this for a while, but yesterday the Wall Street Journal put it out in the main stream media-- the Common Core as a single unifying force in US public education is dead.
The actual headline for Michael Rothfeld's piece is "Financial Woes Plague Common-Core Rollout." But "plague" is a generous description of the situation Rothfeld describes.
Five years into the biggest transformation of U.S. public education in recent history, Common Core is far from common. Though 45 states initially adopted the shared academic standards in English and math, seven have since repealed or amended them. Among the remaining 38, big disparities remain in what and how students are taught, the materials and technology they use, the preparation of teachers and the tests they are given. A dozen more states are considering revising or abandoning Common Core.
In other words, the dream that Common Core would be the single educational vision of the entire country-- that dream is dead. Dead dead deadity dead.
But Rothfeld's piece lays out a not-always-recognized (at least, not by people who don't actually work in education) culprit for the demise. He lists the usual suspects-- politics, testing, federal overreach. But the article is most interested in another malefactor-- finances.
The total cost of implementing Common Core is difficult to determine because the country’s WSJ: The High-Priced Death of Common Core
The actual headline for Michael Rothfeld's piece is "Financial Woes Plague Common-Core Rollout." But "plague" is a generous description of the situation Rothfeld describes.
Five years into the biggest transformation of U.S. public education in recent history, Common Core is far from common. Though 45 states initially adopted the shared academic standards in English and math, seven have since repealed or amended them. Among the remaining 38, big disparities remain in what and how students are taught, the materials and technology they use, the preparation of teachers and the tests they are given. A dozen more states are considering revising or abandoning Common Core.
In other words, the dream that Common Core would be the single educational vision of the entire country-- that dream is dead. Dead dead deadity dead.
But Rothfeld's piece lays out a not-always-recognized (at least, not by people who don't actually work in education) culprit for the demise. He lists the usual suspects-- politics, testing, federal overreach. But the article is most interested in another malefactor-- finances.
The total cost of implementing Common Core is difficult to determine because the country’s WSJ: The High-Priced Death of Common Core
