This week's post is brought to you by the letter B

...for backwards.

I've written before how much I think modern education policy is going in the wrong direction. This post will be no exception. First, the Young Education Professionals' Blog has this great piece about the "3 blunders of Common Core" and solutions for each. While CCSS does have good ideas, its biggest blunder is that things happened much too quickly. As any policy-maker or scientist can tell you, slower changes for something as gigantic as the national education system, work better. It's easier to tell what works and what doesn't when there are fewer variables.

Valerie Strauss has also reported about two different issues that I would like to address: The first relates to the concept above, that change must happen slowly, and that it doesn't come out of nowhere. Finally, this other piece suggests that collaboration is at the core of strong policy, especially when it comes to the classroom, which I firmly believe. But when you have Race to the Top and similar initiatives, competition takes the place of collaboration. Though competition is not in and of itself a bad thing, education is not the place for it. When it comes to improving schools, things work much more smoothly if collaboration is firmly in place.

I'm not saying anything that has not been said before. But perhaps if these things keep getting said by parents, educators, students, and other people who are actually in the trenches of education, things will finally start getting better.

RIP my highlighter

I recently finished reading Diane Ravitch's "The Death and Life of the Great American School System," which discussed why the culture of testing and choice undermine the goals of a true education. It was phenomenal, and though I knew about and agreed with most of her claims, I thought that by embedding the current reforms into educational history was a great way to show two things: 1) How we got to this point and 2) How we keep going in circles. I recommend it for all educators, policy makers, and anyone else interested in education. (I also am metaphorically kicking myself for not having read it sooner...)

Ravitch's book reminded me about Richard Whitmire's "The Bee Eater," about Michelle Rhee's reign in DC, which led me to find this. The article discusses the dangers and irresponsibility of Rhee's ignoring the very real effect that poverty has on children's educations. This other piece from the NY Times goes on to say how many things that should be handled by the government that are becoming privatized (i.e. charter schools and jails) are harming the poor even more -- in this case, making the poor pay for their own services once provided by the government. Let's be clear -- as much as I (and others) complain about the government, there are things the government is good for. Like regulating businesses. But evidently, that is not the case anymore.