Education
Defined. . .
Public education in the United States
has served many functions, better or worse, over the years. Just as our founding documents and national
rhetoric show a disconnect between the vision of a nation founded on the
principles of "Liberty
and Justice for all" and the reality of what has transpired over time; so
too, our systems of public education have too often left the promise of
equality and opportunity for all unfilled.
The vision of education as the cornerstone of a democratic society has
been co-opted by politicians seeking a tool to access power, and by those who
would use education as a weapon of socialization or domination. These efforts have left students, families,
communities and educators to grapple with an inequitable and inefficient system
that serves different groups in different ways and produces unequal results.
There have been efforts
made to address the issues around public schooling in America, but
they are too often controlled by those outside of the schools that are being
reformed. It is readily apparent that
many of these so called "reforms" find their motivations not in sound
educational practice, or in an effort to make the system better for all
students. Instead, these
"reform" efforts are rooted in a desire to achieve a specific
political, social or economic outcome.
Educators on the front lines in our schools are put in the unenviable
position of having to choose between risking their jobs or teaching in ways
that they feel are inherently flawed and unjust.
An education system that does not honor the educator as one
of the most powerful supports in a child's life fails to realize the value of
local leaders.
azcentral.com
Despite claims to the
contrary, our public education system has never been uniformly supported
financially or pedagogically. Now, with
the waves of economic and social
"reform" sweeping our nation the problems are magnified.
The teachers have been lying to us. For years. They've been
covering it up. Papering over underfunding and mismanaged fiscal priorities
with brightly coloured posters and sparkly stickers. Concealing an impoverished
system by...
huffingtonpost.ca
Chicago
teacher reports on the effects of privatization of custodial services at her
school, and it is a dirty business.
livingindialogue.com
Venture capitalists and for-profit firms are salivating over
the exploding $788.7 billion market in K-12 education. What does this mean for
public school...
thenation.com
There
are many ways that the injustices and inequities play out in our current system
of public education. The Achievement
Gaps that our students face are well documented. The buildings that serve different
communities are visibly unequal. We can
also see how our students are tracked and moved in directions that result in
unequal outcomes.
None of this is
particularly new or even startling to those who have been paying attention to
our educational systems in the present, or the past. The gaps and inequities have been in place
for a long time, and they mirror the gaps and inequities that we see in our
broader society. What is especially
troubling about the current state of affairs is the concerted effort to make
these unfair imbalances as permanent as possible through policy and
legislation. Whether by directly
mandating certain policies (NCLB and RttT), by influencing curriculum and
assessment (Common Core) or by controlling educators through intimidation and
silencing their voices (Act 10) the current crop of education "reformers"
are seeking to institutionalize unjust educational practices.
A generation ago, our nation enacted the No Child Left
Behind law (NCLB) which measured the quality of our schools by the state
standardized reading and math test scores of students. Schools that did not
make the required progress were...
nea.org
That this follows so
closely on the heels of a period of hope in American society; a time when our
schools were becoming more integrated and Achievement Gaps were closing, is
deeply troubling. It is also problematic
that those who are falsely "reforming" our public schools are doing
so in the name of improving outcomes for students and supposedly creating a
better system. They are based on a
flawed idea that competition and accountability will create a system that
improves educational outcomes.
The efforts to make a
system that will address every need of every student in a uniform way ignores
the simple reality that all individuals are exactly that, individuals. No two learners will be exactly alike and any
system of education must take that into account. Our current "reforms" also attempt
to take the multiple facets of education and select a few to apply. Education becomes a thing that we can
identify and quantify (as in getting a good education or a poor one) and loses
its status as an active process that is difficult to place a number or value
on.
Our current system has
become so data driven that we have, in the process of defining a quality
education, ceased to deliver what we seek to measure. We test, we assess, we record and collect
data, and in the end we fail to provide quality educational opportunities to
our students. Instead of allowing our
students to explore their world and playfully interact with their learning
environments we post "learning objectives" and measure their progress
as though they are patients in an intensive care unit. We put our students on an educational
treadmill and turn them into piece work employees or assembly line workers who
are rewarded for parts of a process, but never get to see the whole product
they are working towards.
Many years ago, I first heard the term "semantic
infiltration." It was used to refer to the way that...
dianeravitch.net
A key component in the
efforts to "reform" education is the use of standardized assessments
to measure progress and to hold our educators and schools accountable. While assessment is a vital part of any classroom
it has become a more dominant aspect of the process than it should be. As a 4th grade educator I will spend close to
30 hours administering standardized assessments to my students this year. That is about as many hours of art
instruction as they will receive, or as many hours of music as they are
allotted. I hear educators from primary
grades talking about how they haven't yet gotten into their curriculum because
they are still administering assessments.
Our students who are most at risk are not being taught, all so that we
can determine that they need to receive instruction in the areas that our
assessments identify as needs. Yet, any
educator in my school building can already tell who is in need of more intensive
support, even without specific data about a student.
Over-testing has become a
central aspect in the struggle around improving educational outcomes for our
students. Even Progressive educators
find themselves falling into the assessment trap when we compare our test
scores to those of privatized schools.
We also allow assessment to become a dividing force when we push for
students in voucher schools to be tested in the same way public school students
are. In reality, all educators should be
banding together to inform our communities and unite in an effort to reduce the
amount of testing that all students experience.
I Refuse to Administer the PARCC: A Letter to the Citizens
of Colorado by pegwpen · September 21, 2014 Citizens of Colorado, I address
this letter to you,...
corave.k12newsnetwork.com
Denver
area students walk out of school in protest
salon.com
1. the process of receiving or giving
systematic instruction, especially at a school or university.
or. . .
2. an enlightening experience.
The question remains, to we want students in our
schools systematically instructed, or enlightened? It is up to us to decide.
The
Good, The Bad and
The
Ugly. . .
The Good . . . Despite all the efforts to derail the ACA there is some relatively
good news on the health insurance front.
Rate filings submitted to the Wisconsin Office of the
Commissioner of Insurance (OCI) show the cost of health insurance plans to be
offered to Wisconsin residents on the Affordable Care Act's...
wkow.com|By Greg Neumann
We all need to make sure that
everyone who is eligible has their vote counted in every election.
Got ID, Wisconsin?
An interactive tool to ensure your vote counts. Brought to
you by United Wisconsin.
unitedwivote.com
Wisconsin
DMV Official Government Site - Obtaining an ID card
Requirements for obtaining a Wisconsin identification
card.
dot.wisconsin.gov
While there is always the
important caveat that the Madison economy isn't thriving for all groups, we
also know that the Madison way of doing things can work, and can be a positive
vision for our state.
Madison economy thriving in spite of the WMC/Walker Way
Discussions from a graduating Master's student on items
including life in the Upper Midwest, the dismal science, and brilliant
beverages.
jakehasablog.blogspot.com|By Jake
formerly of the LP
National defense is
important, and our security needs to be protected. However, we can't forget that a huge part of
national security is having a stable, well fed, engaged population living in a
socially just society. That's something
that unions can help create.
Unions: The Real Homeland Security
Americans are obsessed with national security. Over half
of the national budget is spent on defense. The Department of Homeland Security
has brought us the biggest bureaucracy in the history of human kind. But for
most of us real security...
middlewisconsin.org
The Bad . . . If this election continues to be
portrayed as a choice between the lesser of two evils then we will struggle to
get the turnout that we need. We may
have reservations about Mary Burke, and we may want her to take a stronger
stance for public education and labor, however, we know that we will be ignored
(at best) and attacked by her opponent.
We need to put our support behind a candidate who will do more than
cater to a small group of special interests.
Democratic nominee Mary Burke has stayed mostly quiet on
union issues, despite its potency among organizers
america.aljazeera.com
The Ugly . . . All the information and all the
effort to get out the vote is being made more difficult by the timing of the
decision and the logistics of implementing the law. This is a horrible injustice and it's
happening right now, in our state.
Agencies: No money to implement voter ID
Dane County Clerk Scott McDonell: Implementing voter ID this
close to the election 'a mess' : Ct
In a television interview, he says some people will
struggle to be able to vote in the Nov. 4 election.
host.madison.com|By Lee Enterprises
