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Sunday, October 4, 2015

CURMUDGUCATION: Driven By Parent Choice

CURMUDGUCATION: Driven By Parent Choice:
Driven By Parent Choice


That's the dream for some reformsters-- a school system that is driven not by regulation or government edict and certainly not by the professional educators who work there, but a system that is driven by parent choice.

I believe there are probably idealistic purists among the visionaries who really do believe that we'd have a system where parents peruse sets of pure and transparent data and then make informed choices based on that data, allowing schools to compete and improve by responding to how their data plays out in the marketplace. These purists are sweet, like delightful five year olds who still wait breathlessly for Christmas morning and the proof of Santa's arrival.

But there are also advocates of choice who are less idealistic and less pure. They understand what having a system "driven by parent choice" really means. I'll give you a hint-- it doesn't mean a system driven by parent choice.

Idealists talk about parent choice as if it occurs in some sort of iron-clad vacuum, influenced by nothing by clean data and clear thinking.

That's silly. Parent choice is malleable, shapeable, bendable, and open to influence. Yes, technically, in a choice system, the ultimate decision is theoretically made by parent choice. But that parent choice does not begin and end with parents-- it is molded and directed by a hundred other forces.

Purists imagine parents poring over spreadsheets, consuming mounds of impartial school information 
CURMUDGUCATION: Driven By Parent Choice:


ICYMI: This Week's Edubloggery Sampler


Well, this has been a week. I will leave you to find your own pieces about John King failing upward and the NEA deciding to shove a Hillary recommendation down membership's throat. In fact, maybe you'll enjoy some reading to take your mind off all of that.

Highlighting Websites and Blogs
Nancy Bailey offers a great, mostly-organized list of some of the folks writing about the Great Public Education Debate. I include this not because she says nice things about me, but because it's always good to expand your reading horizons

Does Subject Matter Knowledge Matter As Much As We Think?
A look at some research about what has impact in the classroom. The most powerful part is seeing what does have an impact

A Charter Place Parable
Short and sweet tale of why charters are a bad idea, from the superintendent of Chapel Hill schools (so you really might have missed it)

AP Classes Are a Scam
This article from the Atlantic is actually three years old, but it's still worth a read now that the PSAT is more directly set up as a marketing tool for AP courses.

A Look Back at DeVos
Links to three videos of reformsters gabillionaire Richard DeVos talking about how public education needs to be the next frontier of trashing democracy for fun and profit. Oh, and the videos go back to 2002.

The Reformy Arguments Are Getting Worserer
This week the Jazzman got himself into an argument with one of the crack writers over at Education Post. This is the final piece of the series-- you can backtrack if you like, but this captures the Jazzman at his fact-wielding best.

Class Is In Session With Jose Luis Vilson
Vilson was profiled this week, and actually, sadly, it would be notable enough that any publication decided to profile an actual working teacher, Vilson is also an accomplished author and activist, so this profile is doubly rewarding. Lift yourself up by reading about one of the good guys who is actually making his voice heard from inside the profession.