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Vicki Davis

Mexico Education Reform: President Enrique Peña Nieto Faces Teachers' Revolt - 0 views

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    Rebellion from teachers in Mexico who have bought and sold teaching jobs for generations without any national certification. Teachers are striking and bearing crowbars. These are reforms that most agree need to happen, but putting them in place is tough and sadly, it often hurts those we should protect the most... the children. Despite what some say, reforms need to happen in the US as well and this means upheaval here too. It can be challenging to separate the truth from the fabrications but I  hope that wherever the flag of edreform is raised that people will think of children and what is best for them. What is best for teachers is not always the best for children. It might be good in my own eyes to have a job, but if I'm not a good teacher, perhaps it is something that doesn't need to happen. Interesting reading. "The conflict is fueled by the importance of teaching jobs for the poor mountain and coastal villages where the dissident union is strongest. Teaching jobs in Guerrero with lifelong job security, benefits and pension pay about $495 and $1,650 a month, depending on qualifications and tenure, well above average in rural areas, according to teachers and outside experts. They said the price to get such as job can cost as much as $20,000, usually going to the departing teacher, with cuts for union and state officials."
Vicki Davis

The real problem in education: the 'opportunity gap' - 4 views

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    "But even by reasonable standards, the nation's educational outcomes are not in much better shape than they were in 1983. Whether we're looking at overall scores or at achievement gaps, the trend lines for NAEP, the so-called Nation's Report Card, generally show a post-reform picture that looks pretty much like the pre-reform picture - with positive trend lines but apparent slowing after 1990. There is no way to tease those data into showing that test-based accountability reform is accomplishing its key learning goals."
Adrienne Michetti

ICT in Education Assessments are Biased and Inaccurate « Educational Technolo... - 7 views

  • One of the conclusions was that indeed, large reforms (e.g., “Het nieuwe leren”, or the new learning) were imposed without scientific support. Another that political prejudices, not any kind of data, were the main motivating factor in the reforms.
    • Adrienne Michetti
       
      Sadly, I think this is true of most educational reforms - ICT or not.
  • The alternative, assessing educational reforms well before introduction, is a form of social engineering. Social engineering seems to always be more difficult than you think. And I think history has shown that education is no exception in this respect.
    • Adrienne Michetti
       
      an interesting argument, though I am not sure I agree.
  • Scientific “facts” are never appreciated unless they completely align with the preconceptions of the “stake-holders” (minus the children).
    • Adrienne Michetti
       
      what kind of "scientific facts" would guide ICT reform, though? what about research? studies? user testing?
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • : Does this ICT4E solution improve scores on existing tests
    • Adrienne Michetti
       
      whose tests? and what is being tested? and why do tests have to be the only metric of success?
  • The curriculum is obsessed with jargon and nomenclature, seemingly for no other purpose than to provide teachers with something to test the students on.
    • Adrienne Michetti
       
      I would probably argue that having tests which match the curriculum is a GOOD thing. However, in this case it seems that the problem is the curriculum. So reform does not always begin with the assessment, or with the ICT.
  • If we want to test whether changes in education really improve learning, we do have other tools. They are called aptitude tests.
Patti Porto

50 Essential Twitter Feeds for Education Reformers | Best Colleges Online - 16 views

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    "Follow education news, reform groups, influential people in education policy, and teachers at the front line, all here in our collection of great Twitter feeds for education reformers."
Victor Hugo Rojas B.

GTZ. Peru: Reforming financial policy in the education sector - 0 views

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    Money alone is not enough to improve a country's education system. But without adequate funding for school buildings, technical equipment, teaching materials and teacher training, education reform is doomed to failure from the very outset. The Peruvian Government is well aware of this: for its planned reform of the education system, it has put a new distribution key for budgetary funds at the top of the agenda.
David Warlick

What if Finland's great teachers taught in U.S. schools? (Not what you think) - 16 views

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    Many governments are under political and economic pressure to turn around their school systems for higher rankings in the international league tables. Education reforms often promise quick fixes within one political term. Canada, South Korea, Singapore and Finland are commonly used models for the nations that hope to improve teaching and learning in their schools. In search of a silver bullet, reformers now turn their eyes on teachers, believing that if only they could attract "the best and the brightest" into the teaching profession, the quality of education would improve.
Roland O'Daniel

Redu - 11 views

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    REDU stands for rethinking, reforming and rebuilding US education. Powered by people and technology, REDU is a movement designed to expand and encourage the national conversation around education reform by providing information and resources to learn, a community platform to connect, and tools and initiatives to act.
Vicki Davis

ED in '08 Blogger Summit - 0 views

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    Conference for educational bloggers -- too bad it is in the waning weeks of the school year.
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    Join thought leaders in education policy and national politics to discuss how the Internet is changing the discourse of education reform, and how those changes are affecting the 2008 presidential election. ED in '08 welcomes ed-bloggers and political bloggers to take part in the discussion. I'm glad the "thought leaders" in American can come, however, the timing of this conference precludes most teachers I know from even considering coming we're all in the "home stretch" and rarely are we able to leave the classroom, especially this time of year. I would hope that one day the edublogosphere would truly level us so that teachers would be included in these discussions. For, until that happens, I doubt we'll find any truly relevant change for the classroom.. just more buzzwords and "programs" that don't suit today's student. Hint: If you want reform, ask some good teachers or at least include them in the discussion. There are some big picture thinkers out there that ARE teachers in the public classroom.
Tony Richards

The Atlantic Online | January/February 2010 | What Makes a Great Teacher? | Amanda Ripley - 14 views

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    "What Makes a Great Teacher? Image credit: Veronika Lukasova Also in our Special Report: National: "How America Can Rise Again" Is the nation in terminal decline? Not necessarily. But securing the future will require fixing a system that has become a joke. Video: "One Nation, On Edge" James Fallows talks to Atlantic editor James Bennet about a uniquely American tradition-cycles of despair followed by triumphant rebirths. Interactive Graphic: "The State of the Union Is ..." ... thrifty, overextended, admired, twitchy, filthy, and clean: the nation in numbers. By Rachael Brown Chart: "The Happiness Index" Times were tough in 2009. But according to a cool Facebook app, people were happier. By Justin Miller On August 25, 2008, two little boys walked into public elementary schools in Southeast Washington, D.C. Both boys were African American fifth-graders. The previous spring, both had tested below grade level in math. One walked into Kimball Elementary School and climbed the stairs to Mr. William Taylor's math classroom, a tidy, powder-blue space in which neither the clocks nor most of the electrical outlets worked. The other walked into a very similar classroom a mile away at Plummer Elementary School. In both schools, more than 80 percent of the children received free or reduced-price lunches. At night, all the children went home to the same urban ecosystem, a zip code in which almost a quarter of the families lived below the poverty line and a police district in which somebody was murdered every week or so. Video: Four teachers in Four different classrooms demonstrate methods that work (Courtesy of Teach for America's video archive, available in February at teachingasleadership.org) At the end of the school year, both little boys took the same standardized test given at all D.C. public schools-not a perfect test of their learning, to be sure, but a relatively objective one (and, it's worth noting, not a very hard one). After a year in Mr. Taylo
Brendan Murphy

The Language of Reform - Bridging Differences - Education Week - 9 views

  • This narrow U. S. test-based agenda has blocked the advance of slower long-term reforms that might have made a difference to the lives of our youth--and the culture of our country. If...
Dave Truss

Gary Stager: Wanna be a School Reformer? You Better do Your Homework! - 8 views

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    I challenged myself to assemble an essential (admittedly subjective) reading list on school reform. The following books are appropriate for parents, teachers, administrators, politicians and plain old citizens committed to the ideal of sustaining a joyful, excellent and democratic public education for every child.
Anne Bubnic

Mobile Learning Institute [Video] - 9 views

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    The Mobile Learning Institute's film series "A 21st Century Education" profiles individuals who embrace and defend fresh approaches to learning and who confront the urgent social challenges that are part of a 21st century experience. "A 21st Century Education" compiles, in short film format, the best ideas around school reform. The series is meant to start, extend, or nudge the conversation about how to make change in education happen.
Thomas Ho

Immune to Reform by Marcus A. Winters - City Journal - 5 views

  • It is a factor outside of education that Moe believes is the real game-changer: the rapid expansion of information technology. Moe believes, as he and John Chubb argued recently in their 2009 book, Liberating Learning, that technology has the power to weaken the unions by fundamentally changing the way that schools operate. Schools are heavily dependent on human capital—that is, teachers. Technology is beginning to enter classrooms and perform some, though not all, of the tasks for which teachers have always been required. Interactive software can not only supplement, but eventually replace, a portion of teacher-based instruction. Over time, technology could make it so that schools require fewer teachers and thus fewer union members. Moe makes a bold prediction that someday soon, this is going to happen.
    • Thomas Ho
       
      Another reformer who believes in information technology as a means to education reform!
Vicki Davis

The Single Best Idea for Reforming K-12 Education - Forbes - 15 views

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    A nice article in Forbes magazine. The move away from "scalable factory" modes of teaching is gaining steam in business. Educators wake up. Propose solutions or solutions will be given to you by those that may not understand education.
Jeff Johnson

School Choice Crucible: A Case Study of Boulder Valley - 0 views

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    SCHOOL CHOICE is a controversial public education reform -- but not as controversial as it should be. Support for choice remains strong in the face of mounting evidence that long-standing controversies are being decided in favor of the critics of choice. Our study of the choice program in the Boulder Valley School District adds to the growing body of research documenting serious flaws in the theory, procedures, and outcomes of school choice. Advocates of school choice contend that competition gives parents a voice and the power to vote with their feet. Schools that consistently perform poorly will lose "clients" and be forced to go "out of business," resulting in overall improvement in both achievement and parental satisfaction. Advocates of choice also contend that school choice can better accommodate a diversity of student interests and needs than the "one-size-fits-all" approach they ascribe to traditional public schools. Finally, they contend that school choice can reduce inequities. School choice is really nothing new, according to them, for parents have long chosen schools by choosing their place of residence.
Tony Searl

Technologically Externalized Knowledge and Learning « Connectivism - 2 views

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    Reformers have largely worked within, rather than on, the system of education. Working within the system has resulted in status-quo preservation, even when reformists felt they were being radical. Illich failed to account for how educational institutions are integrated into society. Freire spoke with a humanity and hope that was largely overlooked by a comfortable developed world incapable of seeing the structure and impact of its system. To create and nurture change, a message must not only be true for an era, but it must also resonate with the needs, passions, interests, realities, and hopes of the audience to whom the message is directed.
Vicki Davis

New standardized tests feature plugs for commercial products - 5 views

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    Disgusting. Via the Washington Post So many things going wrong. "Talk about corporate-based school reform. New high-stakes standardized tests aligned with the Common Core State Standards are featuring plugs for commercial products. And the companies didn't have to pay a penny. Yes, New York state students who this past week took Pearson-designed exams were just treated to plugs for LEGO, Mug Root Beer and more products from at least half a dozen companies, according to  the New York Post."
Suzie Nestico

In Education, Small Is Sensible « Deborah Meier on Education - 3 views

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    Why small, organic, agency-driven schools are important.  Addresses the extraneous factors important to school reform such as poverty, drugs, violence, etc.
Roland O'Daniel

Teacher Evaluations: Publicly Naming Educators Tied To Performance Scores Hinder Reform... - 1 views

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    Should teacher value-added information be released publicly?  I agree that evaluation decisions should not be based solely on one criterion but think something like value-added data should be public information. I would want to know this kind of information about my children's teachers. 
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