Robert J. Samuelson - School reform's meager results - 0 views
www.washingtonpost.com/...AR2010090502817.html
school review education curriculum motivation student learning political USA WashingtonPost
shared by Roland Gesthuizen on 15 Sep 10
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few subjects inspire more intellectual dishonesty and political puffery than "school reform." Since the 1960s, waves of "reform" haven't produced meaningful achievement gains.
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no one has yet discovered transformative changes in curriculum or pedagogy, especially for inner-city schools, that are (in business lingo) "scalable" -- easily transferable to other schools, where they would predictably produce achievement gains.
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The larger cause of failure is almost unmentionable: shrunken student motivation. Students, after all, have to do the work. If they aren't motivated, even capable teachers may fail.
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Motivation is weak because more students (of all races and economic classes, let it be added) don't like school, don't work hard and don't do well.
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Against these realities, school "reform" rhetoric is blissfully evasive. It is often an exercise in extravagant expectations.