RSS

robertogreco + nclb   54

SpeEdChange: If you say "scale up," you don't understand humanity
"The trick to sharing "best practices" is to stop doing that. Instead, share "our practices" and let ideas meet, collide, mix, and take root differently in each place. The trick to "scaling up" is the same - stop trying. If BMW has to "Americanize" their cars in order to sell them in the United States (adding cup holders, etc), what makes people like Intel or the KIPP or TFA foundations so arrogant as to imagine that they can replicate themselves among vastly different communities?

Instead we imagine, attempt, describe, converse. We pass along concepts, not plans. We share observations, not blueprints. We accept that whether it is a child or a school, we can not evaluate anything with a checklist or a score, but only with very human description.

That's a less rational world which requires more humane effort, and it contains troubling mountains and deep valleys because it is not flat. But it is the world in which we actually live."
heartofdarkness  wine  diversity  differences  norming  norms  standardization  rttt  nclb  arneduncan  benjamindistraeli  williamgladstone  cottonmather  hybridization  worldisflat  universaldesign  scalingup  scalingacross  germany  france  uk  us  americanization  localism  local  teaching  learning  unschooling  deschooling  comparativeeducation  blueprints  society  americanexceptionalism  exceptionalism  reform  britisshemprire  thomasfriedman  assimiliation  cooexistence  frenchcolonialism  terroir  deborahfrieze  margaretwheatley  anglocentrism  decolonization  colonization  humanscale  human  scaling  scale  education  schools  2012  irasocol 
february 2012 by robertogreco
An Introverted Boy Against An Army of Label Makers | A.T. | Cleveland
"I certainly still lie awake some nights worrying that I am in denial, that Simon has some gross deficiency not yet identified, and I am did him great a disservice. I worry constantly that I should limit his reading and solitary time and push him into sports and classes and social activities. But just when I am about to write that check for ice hockey classes I touch base with my instinctive sense of my son, this imaginative, overly verbose happy creature, and decide not to risk ironing out his uniqueness.  Until we can figure out more creative ways to educate and encourage introspective boys who are neither high achievers nor troublemakers—boys “in the middle,” like Simon–I will keep holding my ground, my breath and my tongue, and shoo away the well-intentioned label makers who cross our path."
males  boys  academics  introspection  nclb  productivity  howwelearn  unstructured  creativity  specialized  learningdisabilities  slowprocessing  add  dysgraphia  dyslexia  adhd  overdiagnosis  autism  schooliness  schools  learningdifferences  learning  parenting  education  teaching  introverts  susancain  2012  annetrubek  from delicious
february 2012 by robertogreco
Better Test Scores Lead to Better Lives and Strong Economy: Fact or Hunch? | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice
"To say “tread carefully” and “proceed with care” after three decades of steel-toed boots stomping of public schools, not to mention, the transfer of an audit culture soaked in high tech from the corporate sector to national educational policy is, well, almost funny. It is, at the least,  a disappointing end to  such a clear laying out of the assumptions embedded in the reigning “tough love” reform ideology in which Mike Petrilli has been a card-carrying member."
via:tom.hoffman  ideology  policy  education  schools  us  publicschools  testing  standardizedtesting  commoncore  nclb  rttt  mikepetrilli  2012 
february 2012 by robertogreco
SpeEdChange: The art of seeing
"we must stop being blinded by our incredibly limited view of "science." Rather, we must learn to see again, to see widely & complexly. To build our own deep maps of the people, places, & experiences before us. You cannot describe the experience of a middle school English class w/out knowing what happened in the corridor before class began, or what happened the night before at home. You cannot describe the work coming out of a 10th grade math class w/out understanding the full experience of students and their parents with mathematics to that point…And you cannot tell me about the "performance" of any school if you have not deep-mapped it to include a million data points—most of which cannot be charted or averaged or statistically normed.<br />
<br />
Human observation & deep mapping are hard, but hardly impossible. These are skills which we all had before school began, and which we must recapture. We'll start by putting down our checklists…& in the next post, we will start to practice…"
seeing  observation  observing  deepmapping  learning  education  unschooling  deschooling  science  progressive  administration  management  tcsnmy  lcproject  schools  irasocol  nclb  billgates  gatesfoundation  arneduncan  rttt  checklists  adhd  adhdvision  pammoran  salkhan  jebbush  matthewkugn  robertmarzano  instruction  training  gamechanging  from delicious
june 2011 by robertogreco
Borderland › Areas of Smoke
"One thing for sure, I’m done caring at all about whether anyone passes or not. I won’t even look at test scores anymore. We’re fucked no matter what, since working hard to pass the damn things means taking all the joy out of learning stuff.<br />
<br />
Until this year, I thought that the tests themselves weren’t so bad, and that the damage came from the uses they were put to. But I see things a little differently now, after going through some practice items with my students this year. I overheard one of my students with limited language skills say to himself, “I’m so stupid!” Ouch! Test prep is more educational for me than for them. Some changes are due. I’m going to kick my evil plan up a notch or two next year. More on that later."
dougnoon  testing  reform  rttt  nclb  arneduncan  standardizedtesting  learning  education  schools  schoolreform  2011  fuckitmoments  reading  teaching  from delicious
june 2011 by robertogreco
Borderland › Hearts and Minds
"I am done caring about reformist nonsense. At staff meeting…discussing AimsWeb Data…how many students in each grade are below proficient, at risk, proficient based on how well they handled oral 1-minute timed reading…disgusting display of a brain-dead method…We were asked to say what we planned to do…When it was my turn, I said I’d be going with the happiness plan. What’s that? It’s getting the kids to enjoy reading so that they do it on their own. How does it work? Easy. Give them choices & time to read every day, & then celebrate their accomplishments. I got a round of applause. Kind of sad, really, when I think about what that might mean."<br />
<br />
"I’ve seen enough “data”. Next year my classroom is going to be about creativity, projects, & having fun w/ ideas. The way I look at it now, every year may be my last, & I don’t want to go out playing a numbers game that was rigged against me & my students from the start. Rigidly applied standards will fail the kids; that’s not my job."
dougnoon  teaching  reading  creativity  well-being  resistance  pedagogy  2011  data  testing  standardizedtesting  poverty  theprivateeye  standards  standardization  numbersgame  statistics  schools  policy  reform  schoolreform  arneduncan  barackobama  rttt  nclb  from delicious
june 2011 by robertogreco
Things May Not Get Better! : Stager-to-Go
"I clung romantically to fantasies that Americans embraced democratic principles, the common good & loved children. Learning otherwise is a somber realization, especially on Easter Sunday…<br />
<br />
"If you wanted to destroy or privatize (a semantic difference w/out distinction) public education, you needed to find a way to erode public confidence in the each & every public school. But how to do that? [Explains how GW Bush et al. did]"<br />
<br />
"Please! watch this video clip from Rachel Maddow show, share it w/ friends & then try to restrain your violent impulses or find strength to carry-on for another day…The message is really important & stunning.<br />
<br />
This is the tale of how two generations of severely at-risk young people are having their chances for a productive life and slice of the American dream sacrificed on the alter of capitalist greed, authoritarian impulses & callous disregard for the vulnerable."
education  deschooling  criticaleducation  garystager  unschooling  democracy  georgewbush  policy  privatization  charters  pubicschools  society  2011  michigan  detroit  catherineferguson  schools  activism  neoliberalism  corporations  greed  corporatism  lcproject  government  us  arneduncan  newtgingrich  schoolreform  reform  alsharpton  michellerhee  barackobama  oprah  nclb  rttt  money  rachelmaddow  politics  from delicious
april 2011 by robertogreco
Chris Hedges: Why the United States Is Destroying Its Education System - Chris Hedges' Columns - Truthdig
"A nation that destroys its systems of education, degrades its public information, guts its public libraries and turns its airwaves into vehicles for cheap, mindless amusement becomes deaf, dumb and blind. It prizes test scores above critical thinking and literacy. It celebrates rote vocational training and the singular, amoral skill of making money. It churns out stunted human products, lacking the capacity and vocabulary to challenge the assumptions and structures of the corporate state. It funnels them into a caste system of drones and systems managers. It transforms a democratic state into a feudal system of corporate masters and serfs…"<br />
<br />
[Printable: http://www.truthdig.com/report/print/why_the_united_states_is_destroying_her_education_system_20110410/ ]
education  politics  reform  us  corruption  class  money  policy  rttt  nclb  testing  standardizedtesting  billgates  michaelbloomberg  schools  schooling  chrishedges  socrates  hannaharendt  civilization  civics  morality  authority  obedience  consciousness  self-awareness  skepticism  thinking  criticalthinking  lcproject  tcsnmy  greed  from delicious
april 2011 by robertogreco
The Case Against Standardized Testing
"high scores often signify relatively superficial thinking<br />
<br />
many of the leading tests were never intended to measure teaching or learning<br />
<br />
a school that improves its test results may well have lowered its standards to do so<br />
<br />
far from helping to "close the gap," the use of standardized testing is most damaging for low-income and minority students<br />
<br />
as much as 90 percent of the variations in test scores among schools or states have nothing to do with the quality of instruction<br />
<br />
far more meaningful measures of student learning - or school quality - are available."
nclb  alfiekohn  testing  testscores  standardizedtesting  criticalthinking  meaning  measurement  learning  teaching  tcsnmy  lcproject  unschooling  deschooling  achievementgap  from delicious
april 2011 by robertogreco
Obama's Policies Under Fire: Department of Ed Responds - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher
"On Monday night I posted a blog pointing out that President Obama's remarks at a town hall meeting seemed to undermine Department of Education policies. I received a request for a correction to my post from Justin Hamilton, Press Secretary to Secretary Duncan. He agreed to answer some questions for me, which I posted earlier today. Note that in my questions, I included President Obama's remarks. Mr. Hamilton has removed those quotes in his reply."
education  testing  standardizedtesting  barackobama  2011  arneduncan  justinhamilton  policy  rttt  nclb  learning  schools  performance  assessment  accountability  from delicious
april 2011 by robertogreco
Yong Zhao » Blog Archive » A True Wake-up Call for Arne Duncan: The Real Reason Behind Chinese Students Top PISA Performance
"Interestingly, this has not become big news in China, a country that loves to celebrate its international achievement. I had thought for sure China’s major media outlets would be all over the story. But to my surprise, I have not found the story covered in big newspapers or other mainstream media outlets. I have been diligently reading xinhuanet.com, the official web portal for Xinhua News Agency, China’s state-controlled media organization, but have yet found the story on the front page or on its education columns. Instead, I found a story that has caught the attention of many readers (in Chinese) that provides the real reason behind Chinese students’ top performance.<br />
<br />
The story, entitled A Helpless Mother Complains about Extra Classes Online, Students Say They Have Become Stupid Before Graduation, follows a mother’s online posting complaining about how her child’s school’s excessive academic load have caused serious physical and psychological damages:"
education  china  pisa  testing  standardizedtesting  policy  arneduncan  2010  yongzhao  assessment  politics  international  well-being  singapore  korea  japan  hongkong  tcsnmy  schools  teaching  learning  rttt  nclb  from delicious
march 2011 by robertogreco
SpeEdChange: The Big Lies (Part One)
"standardized testing measures compliance…<br />
<br />
In order to have a standardized test, you must have a single view of what something means…Not only that, you must have a single idea of what human development means at a fixed point.<br />
<br />
What standardized testing measures is how a student complies with a fictional human "average" built according to the expectations of a societal elite…<br />
<br />
This sounds nice, a single standard, that "high expectations for all" newspeak phrase. But what it means is that your children - not born rich to two parents with doctorates from Ivy League schools, raised with multigenerational support and in small-class-size private schools - will never be able to catch up or keep up. <br />
<br />
Measuring human growth & development is not like measuring the reproduction of a single prototype on an assembly line. It is a complex system of helping to figure out where a student is, and how to help them get where they are going."
innovation  assessment  competition  edreform  reform  education  policy  rttt  nclb  standardizedtesting  testing  standards  standardization  2011  publicschools  humandevelopment  irasocol  learning  measurement  compliance  unschooling  deschooling  schools  from delicious
march 2011 by robertogreco
Diane Ravitch - The Daily Show with Jon Stewart - 03/03/11 - Video Clip | Comedy Central
"Diane Ravitch believes education reform should focus on getting children out of poverty, not finding the bad teachers."
education  politics  policy  dailyshow  rttt  nclb  jonstewart  dianeravitch  testing  standardizedtesting  arts  science  history  schools  publicschools  finland  privatization  2011  poverty  learning  accountability  interviews  parenting  segregation  racialisolation  vouchers  charters  teaching  blame  greed  compensation  benefits  reform  gatesfoundation  broadfoundation  healthcare  preschool  headstart  from delicious
march 2011 by robertogreco
Daily Kos: I Don't Want to be a Teacher Any More
"Maybe it’s that for the first time, our school didn’t meet AYP…  <br />
<br />
When I heard this, I instantly thought of the 2 ELL in my class who hadn’t passed their reading tests last year & how unfair I thought it was that they even counted on our test scores when they came to our school in January & were absent at least twice a week from that point on. I was wondering how I could possibly have gotten them to benchmark level in 3 days a week for 3 months. I was thinking how if only those two students hadn’t counted on our scores, we would’ve met AYP as a school. When I mentioned it to my principal, she just said there are no excuses. We aren’t allowed to have any excuses… I thought of the little boy I had with an IQ of 87 who could barely read. I thought of the little girl in a wheelchair who’d had 23 operations on tumors on her body in her 11 years, & the girl who moved from Mexico straight into my class & learned to speak English before my eyes, but couldn’t pass the state test…"
teaching  education  us  policy  rttt  nclb  frustration  unions  oregon  testing  standardizedtesting  standardization  teachingtothetest  respect  2011  from delicious
february 2011 by robertogreco
Think Again: Education - By Ben Wildavsky | Foreign Policy [""Relax, America. Chinese math whizzes and Indian engineers aren't stealing your kids' future."]
"American students' performance is only cause for outright panic if you buy into the assumption that scholastic achievement is a zero-sum competition between nations, an intellectual arms race in which other countries' gain is necessarily the United States' loss."<br />
<br />
"If Americans' ahistorical sense of their global decline prompts educators to come up with innovative new ideas, that's all to the good. But don't expect any of them to bring the country back to its educational golden age -- there wasn't one."<br />
<br />
"In this coming era of globalized education, there is little place for the Sputnik alarms of the Cold War, the Shanghai panic of today, and the inevitable sequels lurking on the horizon. The international education race worth winning is the one to develop the intellectual capacity the United States and everyone else needs to meet the formidable challenges of the 21st century -- and who gets there first won't matter as much as we once feared."
us  policy  education  china  india  competiveness  spacerace  sputnik  arneduncan  rttt  nclb  shanghai  pisa  anationatrisk  learning  schools  propaganda  fear  standardizedtesting  highereducation  highered  colleges  universities  from delicious
february 2011 by robertogreco
NYC Public School Parents: What Finland and Asia tell us about real education reform
"And yet what lesson have the Obama administration and its allies in the DC think thanks and corporate and foundation world taken from the PISA results? That there needs to be even more high-stakes testing, based on uniform core standards, that teachers should be evaluated and laid off primarily on the basis of their student test scores, and that it's fine if class sizes are increased. <br />
In a speech, Duncan recently said that "Many high-performing education systems, especially in Asia," Duncan says, "have substantially larger classes than the United States." <br />
What he did not mention is that Finland based its success largely upon smaller class sizes; nor the way in which many experts in Asian education recognize the heavy costs of their test-based accountability systems, and the way in which their schools undermine the ability ofstudents to develop as creative and innovate thinkers -- which their future economic growth will depend upon."
research  asia  finland  testing  standardizedtesting  standardization  teaching  learning  policy  nclb  schools  schooling  us  china  pisa  comparison  korea  arneduncan  2011  barackobama  georgewill  business  democracy  rttt  classsize  pasisahlberg  politics  economics  money  misguidedenergy  respect  training  salaries  from delicious
january 2011 by robertogreco
Yong Zhao » “It makes no sense”: Puzzling over Obama’s State of the Union Speech
"Obama also said in his speech:<br />
<br />
"Remember-–for all the hits we’ve taken these last few years, for all the naysayers predicting our decline, America still has the largest, most prosperous economy in the world. No workers—no workers are more productive than ours. No country has more successful companies, or grants more patents to inventors & entrepreneurs. We’re the home to the world’s best colleges & universities, where more students come to study than any place on Earth."<br />
<br />
So who has made America “the largest, most prosperous economy in the world?” Who are these most productive workers? Where did the people who created the successful companies come from? & who are these inventors that received the most patents in the world?<br />
<br />
It has to be the same Americans who ranked bottom on the international tests… [STATS]…Apparently they have not driven the US into oblivion and ruined the country’s innovation record.
education  rttt  obama  2011  policy  schools  innovation  china  india  children  learning  creativity  economics  teaching  publicschools  yongzhao  us  science  stem  moreofthesame  moreisnotbetter  competition  competitiveness  curriculum  pisa  comparison  history  future  nclb  arneduncan  reform  from delicious
january 2011 by robertogreco
The truth about failure in US schools | Paul Thomas | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
"Progress is impossible as long as debate about educational underachievement glosses over basic social facts like poverty"

"Throughout the world, the full picture of any nation's schools reflects the social realities of that country; when schools appear to be failures, the facts show that social failures (the conditions of children's lives outside of school) are driving the educational data. And we will certainly never address these social failures – and the truth about our schools – if political leaders and media voices refuse even to say the word 'poverty', while promoting simplistic manipulation of data."
assessment  failure  education  sociology  nclb  rttt  policy  us  poverty  society  schools  publicschools  from delicious
december 2010 by robertogreco
Rick Ayers: An Inconvenient Superman: Davis Guggenheim's New Film Hijacks School Reform
"Waiting for Superman is a slick marketing piece full of half-truths & distortions…suggests problems in education are fault of teachers & unions alone, & it asserts that the solution…is greater focus on top-down instruction driven by test scores…I'm not categorically opposed to charter schools; they can & often do allow a group of creative & innovative teachers, parents, & communities to build schools that work for their kids & are free of deadening bureaucracy of most districts…can be catalysts for even larger changes. But there are really 2 main opposing positions in "charter movement" -- not really a movement…but rather diverse range of different projects. On one side are those who hope to use charter option to operate effective small schools that are autonomous from districts. On other side are corporate powerhouses & ideological opponents of all things public who see this as a chance to break teacher's unions & to privatize education. Superman is a shill for the latter."
waitingforsuperman  charters  corporatism  testing  standardization  standardizedtesting  money  politics  pilcy  influence  privatization  rickayers  uniformity  specialinterests  documentary  2010  reform  education  publicschools  schools  funding  nclb  rttt  from delicious
september 2010 by robertogreco
The Indypendent » Learning the 3C’s: Competition, Corruption & Cheating [via: http://www.tuttlesvc.org/2010/09/exactly-this-and-no-more.html]
"most common complaints I hear from other uni-level teachers…students don’t read & can’t write. Having grown up w/ internet, they tend to skim readings as onscreen PDFs but have difficulty finding central argument or supporting evidence of an essay.<br />
<br />
The writing students do is almost universally formulaic…students are uncomfortable breaking out of generalizing & banal template they’ve been taught. Schools are embracing digital learning tools, but now students assume everything they need to know can be Googled. They learn how to write w/out a voice. This reflects lack of deep thinking. But I don’t blame the students…systemic problem…stop teaching how to pass test & begin teaching…how to think.<br />
<br />
The effect of testing regime can also be found in…“What do I have to do to get an A?”…demonstrates commitment to achieving certain mark but no engagement w/ thinking…leads many students to challenge final grades, displaying strong sense of entitlement as if they were customers."
testing  nclb  rttt  criticalthinking  tcsnmy  writing  reading  standardizedtesting  entitlement  engagement  grades  grading  education  schools  schooling  schooliness  unschooling  deschooling  lcproject  from delicious
september 2010 by robertogreco
Alfie Kohn: What Passes for School Reform: "Value-Added" Teacher Evaluation and Other Absurdities
"Of course people disagree about good education, just as they may not see eye to eye about which movies or restaurants are good. We may never change each other's minds, but we ought to have the chance to try, to discuss our criteria and reflect on how we arrived at them. As Deborah Meier likes to point out, disagreement is both valuable and inevitable in a democratic society. Undemocratic societies attempt to conceal the disagreement, imposing a single, simple standard from above -- and, worse, use that standard to make decisions that can ruin people's lives: which teachers will be humiliated or even fired, which kids will be denied a diploma or forced to repeat a grade, which schools will be shut down. A productive discussion about who's a good teacher (and why) is less likely to take place when the people with the power get to enforce what becomes the definition of quality by default: high scores on bad tests."
alfiekohn  nclb  rttt  education  standards  standardizedtesting  standardization  teachning  learning  policy  tcsnmy  unschooling  deschooling  lcproject  arneduncan  joelklein  billgates  2010  latimes  valueadded  meritpay  schools  charters  uniformity  reform  from delicious
september 2010 by robertogreco
New Designs for Learning: A Conversation with IDEO Founder David Kelley | LFA: Join The Conversation - Public School Insights
"Analytical thinking is great. It’s the way you learned to be step-by-step—to collect data, analyze it & come up w/ a conclusion, like you did in science class. It is really useful, & I hope people keep doing it. It's very important. Design thinking is more experimental & less step-by-step. It's fuzzier. It's intuitive. It's empathic. We often say that it’s integrative thinking, where you put together ideas from different sources—it’s synthesis. This is a way of thinking that is not quite so linear, but you can build confidence in it if you do it over & over again…the basic premise of design thinking revolves around empathy, being understanding of what other people want, & how the world is put together from a social & emotional point of view…wouldn’t you have multiple faculty members with different points of view in the same classroom, so that the kids are not biased" [via: http://stevemiranda.wordpress.com/2010/09/05/david-kelley-on-design-thinking-from-the-archives/]
analysis  synthesis  d.school  creativity  design  education  learningspaces  emergent  tcsnmy  schools  lcproject  designthinking  empathy  intuition  criticalthinking  21stcenturyskills  socialemotionallearning  bias  k12lab  prototyping  toshare  topost  nclb  making  doing  realworld  storytelling  generalists  scaling  davidkelley  from delicious
september 2010 by robertogreco
SpeEdChange: What I wish Bill Gates had learned about education from Microsoft
"What most frustrates me is that Gates doesn't even seem to have learned the lessons which his company could have taught him. It is a classic case of a smart person letting what he doesn't know overwhelm what he does, which is turning out sad for all of us....
billgates  education  technology  microsoft  tcsnmy  lcproject  policy  influence  understanding  learning  experience  rttt  nclb  gatesfoundation  money  power  ignorance  tracking  standardization  agesegregation  standards  accountability  2010  open  cheating  choice  individualized  business  elitism  irasocol 
july 2010 by robertogreco
The Answer Sheet - Primer for ed reformers (or, it’s the curriculum, stupid!)
"*Learning, real learning—trying to make more sense of what’s happening—is as natural & satisfying as breathing. If your big reform idea requires laws, mandates, penalties, bribes, or other kinds of external pressure to make it work, it won’t. You can lead the horse to water, & you can force it to look like it’s drinking, but you can’t make it drink."

[via: http://stevemiranda.wordpress.com/2010/07/22/the-most-comprehensive-awesome-189-words-ever-written-about-school/ ]
curriculum  reform  criticalthinking  policy  education  learning  tcsnmy  progressive  standards  standardizedtesting  testing  rttt  nclb  motivation  elibroad  billgates  malcolmgladwell  wealth  influence  money  collaboration  understanding  humans  lcproject  deschooling  unschooling  teaching  commoncore  accountability  autonomy  righthererightnow  hereandnow  sensemaking  bighere  longnow  toshare  topost  interdisciplinary  marionbrady 
july 2010 by robertogreco
Hold Schools Accountable, but Don't Standardize Learning - Room for Debate - NYTimes.com
"But will national standards rekindle student progress, or prove to be an illiberal reform from a progressive president? Arne Duncan, Obama’s education secretary, points to Germany and Japan, where centralized standards and national tests coincide with strong student performance. Yet correlation does not prove causality. And these societies are eager to undo rote learning and nurture greater inventiveness among their graduates – a key driver of technological advances and value-added returns to the national economy.
education  standards  standardization  policy  us  japan  germany  creativity  curiosity  learning  schools  tcsnmy  innovation  progressive  criticalthinking  conformity  authoritarianism  arneduncan  2010  rttt  nclb  invention 
july 2010 by robertogreco
Uniform National Standards Are Not Equal - Room for Debate - NYTimes.com
"The top-down, test-driven, corporate-styled “accountability” movement -- featuring prescriptive state standards -- has already done incalculable damage to our children’s classrooms, particularly in low-income neighborhoods. Just ask a teacher. It’s no coincidence that the most enthusiastic proponents of No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top, etc., tend to be those who know the least about how kids learn. And now they’re telling us that a single group of people should shape the goals and curriculum of every public school in the country.
alfiekohn  education  learning  national  standards  us  rttt  nclb  policy  schools  politics  competitiveness  equity  testing  accountability  standardization  standardizedtesting  tcsnmy  uniformity  commoncore  onesizefitsall  fairness 
july 2010 by robertogreco
This Little Blog: A Place to Respond: Tom Vander Ark's List of Race to the Top Edu-Entrepreneurial Opportunities
"Tom Vander Ark was the first Executive Director for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He is now partner in Vander Ark/Ratcliff, an eduction public affairs firm, and a partner in a private equity fund focused on "innovative" learning tools.
forprofit  tomvanderark  education  rttt  nclb  charters  investing  money  policy  schools  standards  standardization  publicschools  ripeforcorruption  privateequityfunds  socalledreform  reform  entrepreneurship 
july 2010 by robertogreco
Tuttle SVC: Job Outlook for Veteran Social Studies Teachers at Charter Schools
"My conclusion from all this is that charter schools just don't feel they can spend their personnel budget on high experience and salary history/social studies teachers. They have to save their money for tested subjects, then science, then realistically a lot of them would probably even prioritize arts above social studies. Given the current system, this is completely rational. Most charters cannot afford all experienced teachers, so they have to pick and choose."
charters  education  schools  tomhoffman  experience  socialstudies  balance  money  arts  science  testing  standardizedtesting  policy  howarneduncanisbreakingthings  nclb  rttt 
july 2010 by robertogreco
Why I Changed My Mind | The Nation
"None of the policies that involve testing and accountability—vouchers and charters, merit pay and closing schools—will give us the quantum improvement that we want for public education. They may even make matters worse...
dianeravitch  education  society  poverty  health  economics  mindchanges  policy  nclb  rttt  politics  accountability  2010 
july 2010 by robertogreco
Education Policies One Reason for the "Enthusiasm Gap" - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher
"Someone recently told me I would be even less happy with what a President Palin might do with No Child Left Behind, so I should be a bit less critical and get with the program. I imagine President Palin might do worse, but honestly I am not sure how. And at least I would not feel as if I were administering the punishment to myself." [via: http://www.tuttlesvc.org/2010/06/ill-take-palin.html]
education  sarahpalin  barackobama  policy  politics  us  disappointment  arneduncan  nclb  rttt 
june 2010 by robertogreco
Book Review - The Death and Life of the Great American School System - By Diane Ravitch - NYTimes.com
"I have always relied on Ravitch’s intellectual honesty when battles become intense. And her voice is especially important now. President Obama and his secretary of education, Arne Duncan, seem determined to promote reforms relying on testing and choice, despite fresh data calling their benefits into question. I wish we could all share Ravitch’s open-mindedness in seeing what the data really tells us. Somehow, I doubt that’s what will carry the day."
nclb  standards  testing  education  choice  change  reform  dianeravitch  rttt  tcsnmy  arneduncan  policy  politics  2010 
may 2010 by robertogreco
Race to the Top should be left behind
"our [college] students use faulty shorthand in place of critical thinking.
comprehension  education  standardizedtesting  testing  nclb  rttt  assessment  learning  grades  highschool  colleges  universities  tcsnmy  writing 
april 2010 by robertogreco
One size doesn’t fit all - The Boston Globe
"The No Child Left Behind Act, with its high-stakes testing beginning in 3rd grade, has led many schools, especially in poor communities, to start the drill and testing regime in kindergarten. This shift, even before the release of the new standards, has eroded the foundation young children need for school success.
standards  rotelearning  education  play  schools  experientiallearning  kindergarten  tcsnmy  unschooling  deschooling  schooling  learning  assessment  achievementgap  reading  loveoflearning  children  directinstruction  rttt  nclb  policy 
april 2010 by robertogreco
Standardized Testing: Separating Wheat Children from Chaff Children"
"Suppose next year almost all the students in your state met the standards & passed the tests. What do you suppose would be the reaction from politicians, businesspeople, & newspaper editorialists? Would these folks shake their heads in frank admiration & say, “Damn, those teachers are good”? That possibility, of course, is improbable to the point of hilarity. Every time I’ve laid out this hypothetical scenario, audiences tell me that across-the-board student success would immediately be taken as evidence that the tests were too easy.
alfiekohn  nclb  standardizedtesting  sorting  society  education  schools  standardization  politics  standards  accountability 
april 2010 by robertogreco
Letter to NYT Magazine
"Notice that this kind of instruction does nothing to help children think critically, understand ideas, or (heaven knows) become excited about learning. Notice, too, that it’s an approach mostly applied to poor kids of color. As Jonathan Kozol has observed, “Children of the suburbs learn to interrogate reality,” while “inner-city kids are trained for nonreflective acquiescence.” What we’re being asked to celebrate here are 49 techniques for enforcing that acquiescence.
alfiekohn  schools  education  standardizedtesting  assessment  schooling  lemov  teaching  criticism  criticalthinking  rttt  nclb  instruction  learning  tcsnmy 
march 2010 by robertogreco
'The Death and Life of the Great American School System' by Diane Ravitch - latimes.com
"Diane Ravitch, probably this nation's most respected historian of education and long one of our most thoughtful educational conservatives, has changed her mind -- and changed it big time. Ravitch's critical guns are still firing, but now they're aimed at the forces of testing, accountability and educational markets, forces for which she was once a leading proponent and strategist. As President Obama and his education secretary, Arne Duncan, embrace charter schools and testing, picking up just where, in her opinion, the George W. Bush administration left off, "The Death and Life of the Great American School System" may yet inspire a lot of high-level rethinking. The book, titled to echo Jane Jacobs' 1961 demolition of grandiose urban planning schemes, "The Death and Life of Great American Cities," has similarly dark warnings and equally grand ambitions."
dianeravitch  books  education  policy  testing  accountability  us  reform  nclb 
march 2010 by robertogreco
Tuttle SVC: Multiple Measures of the Same Data
"I still have trouble believing that I live in a world where decisions to close schools would be made without even bothering to move your finger over one more column on the NECAP report to look at the writing scores. Hey! You already paid for them! They're right there. See?
data  rhodeisland  schools  policy  education  testing  tomhoffman  publicschools  nclb  standardizedtesting  tunnelvision 
february 2010 by robertogreco
Big Thinkers: Linda Darling-Hammond on Becoming Internationally Competitive | Edutopia
"Stanford University professor and noted researcher Linda Darling-Hammond discusses what the United States can learn from high-achieving countries on teaching, learning, and assessment -- from Finland to Singapore."
education  learning  teaching  schools  reform  21stcentury  edutopia  curriculum  international  global  finland  singapore  lindadarling-hammond  tcsnmy  projectbasedlearning  inquiry  inquiry-basedlearning  nclb  policy  standards  us  teachereducation  training  classpreparation 
february 2010 by robertogreco
Debunking the Case for National Standards
"Are all kids entitled to a great education? Of course. But that doesn’t mean all kids should get the same education. High standards don’t require common standards. Uniformity is not the same thing as excellence – or equity. (In fact, one-size-fits-all demands may offer the illusion of fairness, setting back the cause of genuine equity.) To acknowledge these simple truths is to watch the rationale for national standards – or uniform state standards -- collapse into a heap of intellectual rubble. ... The goal clearly isn’t to nourish children’s curiosity, to help them fall in love with reading and thinking, to promote both the ability and the disposition to think critically, or to support a democratic society. Rather, a prescription for uniform, specific, rigorous standards is made to order for those whose chief concern is to pump up the American economy and make sure that we triumph over people who live in other countries."
assessment  education  alfiekohn  pedagogy  curriculum  change  reform  teaching  standards  poverty  politics  learning  criticism  nationalstandards  rttt  nclb  trends 
january 2010 by robertogreco
SpeEdChange: The Carnegie Unit
"Carnegie Units are a bad idea in practice, but they are not the real problem. Our problem is our lack of imagination - and our unwillingness to take real risks in changing a broken system.
education  history  carnegieunits  standardization  nclb  barackobama  georgewbush  standardizedtesting  policy  politics  thomasjefferson  publicschools  irasocol 
december 2009 by robertogreco
t r u t h o u t | Obama's View of Education Is Stuck in Reverse
"The success of a market ideology that has produced shocking levels of inequality and impoverishment, along with a market morality that makes greed and corruption ubiquitous, should raise fundamental questions about how viable such a philosophy is for educational reform in the United States. Obama's vision of education is largely centered around an economic discourse and rationality tied to the past, to the world and business values of investment bankers, insurance companies, and various other institutions in a market-driven culture that viewed aiding society largely with contempt. What the Obama administration must understand is that the crisis in education is not only an economic problem that requires resuscitating the values of the Gilded Age, but a political and ethical crisis about the very nature of citizenship and democracy. Obama and Duncan, on the issue of educational reform, appear to be stuck in reverse."
barackobama  education  policy  economics  arneduncan  nclb  neoliberalism 
august 2009 by robertogreco
Tuttle SVC: Inside Urban Charter Schools
"But you have to remember that there are many schools for whom the mandated measures of performance are not congruent with the mission of the organization. Schools that start every hour with a timed, silent "do now" assignment are more closely aligned with the performance on a silent, timed exam, than schools whose culture emphasizes presentation and exhibition of projects."
nclb  assessment  schools  schooling  testing  charters  tomhoffman  books  public  education  learning 
june 2009 by robertogreco
5 Myths About Education Reform - washingtonpost.com
"1. We know how to fix public schools; we just lack the political will to finish the job. 2. Teachers know best how to teach kids; policymakers should leave them alone. 3. The federal government meddles too much in the affairs of local schools. 4. Teacher unions are the enemy. 5. There's no place in education for politics."
education  research  reform  standards  nclb  charters  unions  policy  politics  us  teaching  via:cburell  jaymatthews 
march 2009 by robertogreco
Content vs Concept: The winner is… « Organic Classroom
“I like to think of concept based curriculum as helping students become good at asking questions, not just good at answering them." ... “concept based curriculum helps students to develop deep understandings about themselves and their world. These understandings can happen in a content based curriculum, but they aren’t what drives the teaching and learning, it is almost as if the deep understandings happen by accident.”
via:cburell  education  schools  teaching  learning  content  philosophy  tcsnmy  nclb 
february 2009 by robertogreco
Bridging Differences: We Need Schools That 'Train' Our Judgment
"Duncan seems more comfortable lying with statistics? What, after all, is his definition of a “good college” but one that’s hard to get into—thus consigning most people to failure. Similarly what’s his definition of “success”? Doing “better than average”? Thus consigning most of us to failure. I know too many successful adults who don’t meet Duncan’s definition to call such teachers liars." ... "We turn classroom teaching into a “test-like” setting. When we script teaching and pre-code children’s responses we have simply another form of standardized testing. I see it daily: when teachers tell children to put on “their thinking caps.” The kids shift into that special “school-mode” of so-called thinking: trying to guess what answer the teacher wants to hear. It’s not what was needed in the 19th Century, or the 2lst."
assessment  nclb  testing  teaching  schools  colleges  universities  success  failure  arneduncan  schooling  via:cburell 
february 2009 by robertogreco
A Broader, BOLDER Approach to Education | BoldApproach.org
"Nevertheless, there is solid evidence that policies aimed directly at education-related social and economic disadvantages can improve school performance and student achievement. The persistent failure of policymakers to act on that evidence — in tandem with a schools-only approach — is a major reason why the association between disadvantage and low student achievement remains so strong."
education  schools  politics  economics  policy  inequality  chrislehmann  boldapproach  performance  reform  nclb  disparity  society  poverty  us  government  research  rights 
february 2009 by robertogreco
edublogs: Ken Robinson's The Element: reincarnating creativity
"Schools are built for, and in the image of, the industrial revolution ... Creativity and standardised testing can't share the same bed ... The death of entrepreneurship ... What is it that needs to change? Clue: It isn't curriculum or assessment ... Fundamental change through Brains Trusts ... Making sure that our current and future students in schools and higher education establishments are capable of entrepreneurship in many areas of their lives, of coming up with solutions that marry new technology (bringing with it new possibilities we could not have before thought through) with strong understanding of design to tackle issues that really matter is the number one task to ensure that they can fully participate as citizens. Simply providing access to part of that equation is not enough: broadband for all without understanding for all, community without happenstance on a global scale, a child's creativity without understanding of the potential technology brings."
education  kenrobinson  learning  entrepreneurship  tcsnmy  curiosity  passion  self-directedlearning  schools  deschooling  schooling  unschooling  creativity  change  reform  learning2.0  outliers  malcolmgladwell  online  internet  gamechanging  ewanmcintosh  testing  assessment  nclb  scotland  us  teaching  children 
february 2009 by robertogreco
Reform School | Newsweek.com
"What's the key to their success? What are they doing that the United States is not? First, they have many fewer children in poverty and a much bigger safety net. We have 22 percent of our kids in poverty—the highest proportion of any industrialized country...Second, they spend their money equally on schools, sometimes with additional money to the schools serving high-need students. We take kids who have the least access to educational opportunities at home and we typically give them the least access to educational opportunities at school as well. We have the most unequal spread of achievement of any industrialized country except for Germany. Then in Finland or Sweden or Hong Kong or Singapore, teachers get a completely free preparation, with a salary or a stipend while they're training. In Singapore, beginning teachers make more than beginning doctors. Our teachers teach 1,100 hours a year on average. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development average is 650 hours."
schools  education  us  teaching  reform  change  finland  singapore  science  lindadarling-hammond  poverty  policy  nclb  via:cburell 
december 2008 by robertogreco
Education Sector: Research and Reports: Measuring Skills for the 21st Century
"New assessments like the CWRA, however, illustrate that the skills that really matter for the 21st century—the ability to think creatively and to evaluate and analyze information—can be measured accurately and in a common and comparable way. These emergent models also demonstrate the potential to measure these complex thinking skills at the same time that we measure a student's mastery of core content or basic skills and knowledge. There is, then, no need for more tests to measure advanced skills. Rather, there is a need for better tests that measure more of the skills students' need to succeed today."
cwra  assessment  21stcenturyskills  evaluation  education  technology  future  accountability  skills  research  change  reform  testing  nclb  via:cburell 
november 2008 by robertogreco
Borderland » Blog Archive » Assessments for Learning
"One of Darling-Hammond’s slides listed what she called the “changing expectations for learning”:
learning  teaching  dougnoon  testing  assessment  change  reform  schools  schooling  education  policy  standards  tests  cv  nclb  literacy  tcsnmy 
november 2008 by robertogreco
GOOD Magazine | Goodmagazine - School Wars
"The problem is that we do not create productive contexts for learning in which the needs of each child are met as their talent, interest, curiosity, and passion are amplified. The last thing we need is another sweeping top-down reform."
garystager  schools  education  reform  change  policy  learning  administration  management  philanthropy  politics  testing  leadership  nclb 
august 2008 by robertogreco
Borderland » Blog Archive » Shock Resistance
"Ignore infrastructure until it fails (claiming there isn’t money to maintain it). When a crisis hits, and while everyone is disoriented (in shock), funnel public funds to contractors who’ll presumably make it all better. Use force to suppress the opp
dougnoon  nclb  schools  naomiklein  privatization  politics  policy  education  money  infrastructure  reform  change  shockdoctrine  us 
july 2008 by robertogreco
RSA - Sir Ken Robinson
kenrobinson  video  education  innovation  learning  reform  schools  gamechanging  lcproject  schooldesign  curriculum  creativity  arts  imagination  future  schooling  homeschool  unschooling  deschooling  creative  society  change  nclb  us  uk 
july 2008 by robertogreco
Hoover Institution - Education Next - What Americans Think about Their Schools
"new national survey of U.S. adults conducted under the auspices of Education Next and the Program on Education Policy and Governance (PEPG) at Harvard University"
us  schools  education  policy  reform  politics  teaching  children  public  private  nclb  meritpay  charters  homeschool 
october 2007 by robertogreco

related tags

21stcentury ⊕  21stcenturyskills ⊕  academics ⊕  accountability ⊕  achievementgap ⊕  activism ⊕  add ⊕  adhd ⊕  adhdvision ⊕  administration ⊕  agesegregation ⊕  alfiekohn ⊕  alsharpton ⊕  americanexceptionalism ⊕  americanization ⊕  analysis ⊕  anationatrisk ⊕  anglocentrism ⊕  annetrubek ⊕  arneduncan ⊕  arts ⊕  asia ⊕  assessment ⊕  assimiliation ⊕  authoritarianism ⊕  authority ⊕  autism ⊕  autonomy ⊕  balance ⊕  barackobama ⊕  benefits ⊕  benjamindistraeli ⊕  bias ⊕  bighere ⊕  billgates ⊕  blame ⊕  blueprints ⊕  boldapproach ⊕  books ⊕  boys ⊕  britisshemprire ⊕  broadfoundation ⊕  business ⊕  carnegieunits ⊕  catherineferguson ⊕  change ⊕  charters ⊕  cheating ⊕  checklists ⊕  children ⊕  china ⊕  choice ⊕  chrishedges ⊕  chrislehmann ⊕  civics ⊕  civilization ⊕  class ⊕  classpreparation ⊕  classsize ⊕  collaboration ⊕  colleges ⊕  colonization ⊕  commoncore ⊕  comparativeeducation ⊕  comparison ⊕  compensation ⊕  competition ⊕  competitiveness ⊕  competiveness ⊕  compliance ⊕  comprehension ⊕  conformity ⊕  consciousness ⊕  content ⊕  cooexistence ⊕  corporations ⊕  corporatism ⊕  corruption ⊕  cottonmather ⊕  creative ⊕  creativity ⊕  criticaleducation ⊕  criticalthinking ⊕  criticism ⊕  curiosity ⊕  curriculum ⊕  cv ⊕  cwra ⊕  d.school ⊕  dailyshow ⊕  data ⊕  davidkelley ⊕  deborahfrieze ⊕  decolonization ⊕  deepmapping ⊕  democracy ⊕  deschooling ⊕  design ⊕  designthinking ⊕  detroit ⊕  dianeravitch ⊕  differences ⊕  directinstruction ⊕  disappointment ⊕  disparity ⊕  diversity ⊕  documentary ⊕  doing ⊕  dougnoon ⊕  dysgraphia ⊕  dyslexia ⊕  economics ⊕  edreform ⊕  education ⊕  edutopia ⊕  elibroad ⊕  elitism ⊕  emergent ⊕  empathy ⊕  engagement ⊕  entitlement ⊕  entrepreneurship ⊕  equity ⊕  evaluation ⊕  ewanmcintosh ⊕  exceptionalism ⊕  experience ⊕  experientiallearning ⊕  failure ⊕  fairness ⊕  fear ⊕  finland ⊕  forprofit ⊕  france ⊕  frenchcolonialism ⊕  frustration ⊕  fuckitmoments ⊕  funding ⊕  future ⊕  gamechanging ⊕  garystager ⊕  gatesfoundation ⊕  generalists ⊕  georgewbush ⊕  georgewill ⊕  germany ⊕  global ⊕  government ⊕  grades ⊕  grading ⊕  greed ⊕  hannaharendt ⊕  headstart ⊕  health ⊕  healthcare ⊕  heartofdarkness ⊕  hereandnow ⊕  highered ⊕  highereducation ⊕  highschool ⊕  history ⊕  homeschool ⊕  hongkong ⊕  howarneduncanisbreakingthings ⊕  howwelearn ⊕  human ⊕  humandevelopment ⊕  humans ⊕  humanscale ⊕  hybridization ⊕  ideology ⊕  ignorance ⊕  imagination ⊕  india ⊕  individualized ⊕  inequality ⊕  influence ⊕  infrastructure ⊕  innovation ⊕  inquiry ⊕  inquiry-basedlearning ⊕  instruction ⊕  interdisciplinary ⊕  international ⊕  internet ⊕  interviews ⊕  introspection ⊕  introverts ⊕  intuition ⊕  invention ⊕  investing ⊕  irasocol ⊕  japan ⊕  jaymatthews ⊕  jebbush ⊕  joelklein ⊕  jonstewart ⊕  justinhamilton ⊕  k12lab ⊕  kenrobinson ⊕  kindergarten ⊕  korea ⊕  latimes ⊕  lcproject ⊕  leadership ⊕  learning ⊕  learning2.0 ⊕  learningdifferences ⊕  learningdisabilities ⊕  learningspaces ⊕  lemov ⊕  lindadarling-hammond ⊕  literacy ⊕  local ⊕  localism ⊕  longnow ⊕  loveoflearning ⊕  making ⊕  malcolmgladwell ⊕  males ⊕  management ⊕  margaretwheatley ⊕  marionbrady ⊕  matthewkugn ⊕  meaning ⊕  measurement ⊕  meritpay ⊕  michaelbloomberg ⊕  michellerhee ⊕  michigan ⊕  microsoft ⊕  mikepetrilli ⊕  mindchanges ⊕  misguidedenergy ⊕  money ⊕  morality ⊕  moreisnotbetter ⊕  moreofthesame ⊕  motivation ⊕  naomiklein ⊕  national ⊕  nationalstandards ⊕  nclb ⊖  neoliberalism ⊕  newtgingrich ⊕  norming ⊕  norms ⊕  numbersgame ⊕  obama ⊕  obedience ⊕  observation ⊕  observing ⊕  onesizefitsall ⊕  online ⊕  open ⊕  oprah ⊕  oregon ⊕  outliers ⊕  overdiagnosis ⊕  pammoran ⊕  parenting ⊕  pasisahlberg ⊕  passion ⊕  pedagogy ⊕  performance ⊕  philanthropy ⊕  philosophy ⊕  pilcy ⊕  pisa ⊕  play ⊕  policy ⊕  politics ⊕  poverty ⊕  power ⊕  preschool ⊕  private ⊕  privateequityfunds ⊕  privatization ⊕  productivity ⊕  progressive ⊕  projectbasedlearning ⊕  propaganda ⊕  prototyping ⊕  pubicschools ⊕  public ⊕  publicschools ⊕  rachelmaddow ⊕  racialisolation ⊕  reading ⊕  realworld ⊕  reform ⊕  research ⊕  resistance ⊕  respect ⊕  rhodeisland ⊕  rickayers ⊕  righthererightnow ⊕  rights ⊕  ripeforcorruption ⊕  robertmarzano ⊕  rotelearning ⊕  rttt ⊕  salaries ⊕  salkhan ⊕  sarahpalin ⊕  scale ⊕  scaling ⊕  scalingacross ⊕  scalingup ⊕  schooldesign ⊕  schooliness ⊕  schooling ⊕  schoolreform ⊕  schools ⊕  science ⊕  scotland ⊕  seeing ⊕  segregation ⊕  self-awareness ⊕  self-directedlearning ⊕  sensemaking ⊕  shanghai ⊕  shockdoctrine ⊕  singapore ⊕  skepticism ⊕  skills ⊕  slowprocessing ⊕  socalledreform ⊕  socialemotionallearning ⊕  socialstudies ⊕  society ⊕  sociology ⊕  socrates ⊕  sorting ⊕  spacerace ⊕  specialinterests ⊕  specialized ⊕  sputnik ⊕  standardization ⊕  standardizedtesting ⊕  standards ⊕  statistics ⊕  stem ⊕  storytelling ⊕  success ⊕  susancain ⊕  synthesis ⊕  tcsnmy ⊕  teachereducation ⊕  teaching ⊕  teachingtothetest ⊕  teachning ⊕  technology ⊕  terroir ⊕  testing ⊕  tests ⊕  testscores ⊕  theprivateeye ⊕  thinking ⊕  thomasfriedman ⊕  thomasjefferson ⊕  tomhoffman ⊕  tomvanderark ⊕  topost ⊕  toshare ⊕  tracking ⊕  training ⊕  trends ⊕  tunnelvision ⊕  uk ⊕  understanding ⊕  uniformity ⊕  unions ⊕  universaldesign ⊕  universities ⊕  unschooling ⊕  unstructured ⊕  us ⊕  valueadded ⊕  via:cburell ⊕  via:tom.hoffman ⊕  video ⊕  vouchers ⊕  waitingforsuperman ⊕  wealth ⊕  well-being ⊕  williamgladstone ⊕  wine ⊕  worldisflat ⊕  writing ⊕  yongzhao ⊕ 

Copy this bookmark:



description:


tags: