2015: The Year in Education
By Anthony Cody.
This was a big year for education. We saw the tortuous end of No Child Left Behind, replaced by a new law that will be subject to many future battles over the amount of tests and the stakes placed on them. Charter schools continued to be darlings of the corporate world, but diligent reporting and research showed evidence that many schools in that sector winnow out difficult students. Chicago continues to be a flashpoint, in part due to the extraordinary organizing done there by community activists and members of the Chicago Teachers Union. The hunger strike by activists there showed what was at stake when schools are closed. The gathering in Chicago of the Network for Public Education was a high point for the year.
On the campaign trail, Hillary Clinton was endorsed by both teacher unions, but after her recent comments about school closures, many members and activists are still looking for a candidate that will articulate a solid set of policies around K12 education. While Bernie Sanders has an appealing populist platform, his K12 education policies have not been well developed or emphasized. In this post, I urged Sanders to address some key education issues in order to gain support from educators.
The Black Lives Matter movement offered a powerful response to the ways that systemic racism results in terrible crimes against African American people, and a reminder that the school to prison pipeline continues to exist in our schools. Taking on racism has to be a central part of our efforts to improve education for all students.
It seemed a bit oxymoronic, but once again, President Obama took time to criticize the emphasis on testing his administration’s policies have deepened, as I pointed out here.
As NCLB and the Common Core recede into the past, we have heard Duncan and others call for a new 2015: The Year in Education - Living in Dialogue:
