Educator Musing: Those Who Can

Picture of button seen on the Illinois Education Association Facebook page

Ten points representing a platform for education
1. Every child deserves and shall receive an exceptional education with an excellent teacher, every minute of every day of every year.

2. Improving schools is not the function of government. Governments do not improve schools.

3. The governor, state representatives, state senators, and the Michigan Department of Education are not knowledge authorities on education.

4. Education is not political. Education is fundamental.

5. Local communities must control their school systems.

6. The government needs to get out of the education business. Instead, the government needs to act to make an excellent education a fundamental right of every child.

7. Excellent schools require consistent funding. Local schools require options for raising revenues.

8. Research and practice have informed us, and will continue to do so, as to the elements of an excellent education. Technology is one of the quintessential tools in this pursuit. We must use research and practice to inform our work, constantly.

9. Local school districts must work together, with other entities to increase efficiency, decrease redundancy, and improve effectiveness.

10. One size does not fit all—children, families, teachers, schools, communities, people, alligators, onions, fruit trees, fingernails, political parties, transmissions. Schools require different options, depending on their needs.

Rod Rock, Ed.D – Superintendent of Clarkston Community Schools District
Superintendent’s Call To Action

And to what end? For over a decade we have engaged in increased testing with punitive consequences under No Child Left Behind. There is no evidence that the massive outlay in tax dollars and learning time has produced increased learning. SAT scores have not gone up. NAEP scores have remained flat. Remediation rates at community colleges have not gone down. Our students have not improved on international assessments. Rather than acknowledging that testing is not the lever for increased learning, the plan is now to increase the pressure. There will be consequences, but better learning outcomes will not be one of them.

Carol Corbett Burns – Principal of South Side High School in New York

Principal: ‘Kids, it’s you and the teacher against the test’

There are a number of things that I think are broken with the current law that working in a bipartisan way we can have common sense fixes. I think the law is too punitive, too prescriptive, it’s led to a dumbing down of standards, and it’s led to a narrowing of curriculum. We need to fix all of those things. We have to reward success, reward excellence, look at growth and gain, not just absolute test scores. We have to be much more flexible.

Arne Duncan – U.S. Department of Education Secretary

Education secretary: 'No Child Left Behind' has led to a 'dumbing down'

The U.S. Congress has been attaching purse strings, regulations, and mandates to modern public education since the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965.

Congress established in 1980 the United States Department of Education to implement policies with the passage of the Department of Educational Organization Act.

The federal government has had plenty of time and has spent plenty of money to show that politicians know how to improve public education. Apparently their programs are not working and they don’t know what they are doing.

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Saturday, May 21, 2011

Those Who Can – Teach

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