Group items tagged

Virginia's Education Reform

States' Rights and States' Wrongs on School Reform

The authors conduct a study to see how teachers actually implement teaching requirements when they are enacted through policy reform by federal, state and local leaders.

Ed Equality is a great website of the latest information, videos, and new findings on education reform. It allows you to sign up and receive "daily news roundups". There are several signatories who include, Corey Booker the Mayor of Newark, NJ and Iris Chen; I have a Dream Foundation, CEO. Insightful, inspirational, and lots of resources!!

One of the arguments made in the Murphy article is that Americans are increasingly dissatisfied with the quality of public education. Yet, one of the most consistent findings in the PDK Gallup Polls over time is that the parents of public school parents might be lukewarm about education in general, but tend to be very satisfied with the school their child attends. This brief also contains some interesting information on the public's perceptions of current school reforms.

Mounting evidence shows that business-type/market-based reforms are not delivering anticipated results.

This article is just about one high school but it represents the confluence of the many factors that impact public education; NCLB, Race to the Top, reform initiatives, and the achievement gap.

What we can learn from England - Findings of a longitudinal study that explored the impact of recent educational reforms in England on the nature of the relationship between headteachers and lay school governors. Recent legislation has increased governors' and consumers' power and reduced the power of the "producers" of education. Governors are members of school governing bodies who have volunteered to work with headteachers in school administration. Findings indicate that the governor/headteacher relationship is not a consensual one. Factors inhibiting the development of a partnership include the micropolitical nature of school governance; the emerging organizational cultures of governing bodies; the loose coupling of governing bodies to schools; the differences between heads and governors about power; the complex and ambiguous nature of reform legislation; and cultural factors, such as race, gender, and ethnicity. The question is raised whether community involvement should extend to nonprofessionals taking a key role in educational decision making and policy formation.

The school board and superintendent set up the groundwork for instructional reforms. They turned to the Council of the Great City Schools to look at how well the district's instructional program was meeting the academic needs of these English-language learners and newcomers. The study shows how a program considered excellent that performs very well, can still miss students with limited English speaking skills. The report shows how the school district missed the fact that many of these folks even existed, let alone began building programming to meet their needs. Most important are the strategies that offer the students a chance to join mainstream and improve their achievement. 

Evaluation of recent Ed Week survey about most influential players in ed policy/reform.

"Like Gates, we feel the US must address the inadequacies in our education system, specifically those that propagate inequalities in our society. However, we caution using global competitiveness as an impetus for education reform - not because we do not believe in maintaining our forward thinking leadership role on the world stage. But rather because such language edges education dangerously close to being about the production of a marketable workforce serving corporate interests instead of about the cultivation of a critically thinking global citizenry serving the advancement of humanity. In place of the language of competition, we would suggest a language of equal opportunity and cooperation."

states reform governance - Liam Goldrick's take on Andy Rotherhams's TIME article

A man with passion took a stand and shared our free public television and radio change the then, now and tomorrow. If we were as passionate about reforming free public education would we see a difference?

The school board and superintendent set up the groundwork for instructional reforms. They turned to the Council of the Great City Schools to look at how well the district's instructional program was meeting the academic needs of these English-language learners and newcomers. The study shows how a program considered excellent that performs very well, can still miss students with limited English speaking skills. The report shows how the school district missed the fact that many of these folks even existed, let alone began building programming to meet their needs. Most important are the strategies that offer the students a chance to join mainstream and improve their achievement. 

A more personal view of a very influential educational reformer...sheds a little more light on the authenticity of Michelle Rhee.

Even if this is distorted and only half of the information is true... the education reform initiatives enacted by the new governor are atrocious. Yet, you gotta wonder... didn't the voters realize that you reap what you sow? What were they thinking when they elected the man who was CEO of the company that was fined $1.7B--the largest fine of its kind in history--for Medicare and Medicaid fraud? Ethics and social justice were clearly not part of his vocabulary.

"It was found that the state test has far-reaching effects on teaching, curriculum, school climate, students, parents, and school administration. The ideology of testing as a positive reform idea and the practice of testing as a constant and tangible threat, form the two poles of an experiential field that these educators encounter as figure and ground. The avoidance of failure and the threat of failure push these educators toward an ideological commitment to testing."