tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21843852.post8748468868642719310..comments2024-01-04T05:57:26.735-06:00Comments on Education Policy Blog: Hosted by the Forum on the Future of Public Education: attempting to change education - some personal thoughtsCraig A. Cunninghamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18160288758906798678noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21843852.post-24696055931811461602007-04-29T22:03:00.000-05:002007-04-29T22:03:00.000-05:00Yes, local control is no panacea. One grassroots ...Yes, local control is no panacea. One grassroots group in Florida, for example, ended up mandating a strict form of Direct Instruction for a large number of their schools. And local control can end up discriminating.<BR/><BR/>However, the key issue for me is that those who do have "local control" are the priveliged. Try to change tracking, for example, as Jeannie Oakes has shown in detail, and you will run head on into these folks. The people who don't have local control are those who are marginalized in a range of other ways as well.<BR/><BR/>It is local groups that will be able to fight to direct federal funding in their district to the most needy schools. Right now, the local groups with power fight for the opposite, usually. (Think as well, here, of the parent groups that form around magnet schools in inner-city areas to protect their funding).<BR/><BR/>We often think of community as if it were a noun, but it's really a verb. It's an ongoing process that emerges in different times in response to different pressures. We need to create communities that can fight for their rights in areas where these kinds of intentional groups do not currently exist (or are limited in their capacity). Perhaps even if they end up fighting for Direct Instruction I'm not sure about this, but maybe as long as they aren't a part of the far right wing movement that has no interest in dialogue, at least a group has been created that can fight. <BR/><BR/>Only when we have a diverse group of institutions on multiple levels will we be able to fight effectively for even the most basic kinds of equity. Dan has been arguing, for example, for the importance of a "foundations" organization to wade into this fight as a collective. <BR/><BR/>Many of these issues aren't about clashing instructional issues or complex pedagogical challenges.<BR/><BR/>Two studies of different urban contexts found that 50% of low-income inner-city children of color have untreated vision problems . . . .<BR/><BR/>And Ken is right. Teachers, in general, don't have time to work on these issues. So maybe we should stop focusing almost entirely on teachers.Aaron Schutzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10667097977144954236noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21843852.post-2458366209749641282007-04-29T19:00:00.000-05:002007-04-29T19:00:00.000-05:00Barbara-I agree with you on the importance of prac...Barbara-<BR/>I agree with you on the importance of practitioner reflection, and would argue that such should apply not only to the classroom teacher, but also to the administrator. Yet as our school days and responsibilities are currently structured there is little opportunity to do so and even less reward or recognition when one manages to accomplish it. Far too much time is taken up with CYA documentation, rather than meaningful documentation and reflection.<BR/><BR/>And I would argue that building such reflection, or if you will metacognition, to the learning processes for the students would result in a far greater of ability of students to guide their own education.teacherkenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02225551101423123044noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21843852.post-40113152431015404552007-04-29T18:57:00.000-05:002007-04-29T18:57:00.000-05:00Kathryn wrote "blockquote>Until education is more ...Kathryn wrote "blockquote>Until education is more locally controlled and child-centered<BR/>with financial support the only type of federal input, other than perhaps serving as a repository/clearing house for educational data, information, etc, all of us teachers and students will function as some sort of guinea pigs, pawns in the big bucks<BR/>game of federal programs that squelch the life from all, an enervating jolt of pain."<BR/><BR/>I will agree in part, and disagree in part. I agree with what she says about the role of the Federal government in general. But I would have to insist that history demonstrates a need to ensure that states and locality do not discriminate - on the basis of race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, physical disability, learning disability, etc. That complicates things more than a little - if these are federally<BR/>established rights, then the federal government must have some level of oversight to ensure that such rights are not denied.<BR/><BR/>I think it possible to combine both a large degree of local control and flexibility to meet local needs and the federal responsibility of oversight of federally guaranteed<BR/>rights. But then, I come back as I often do, to a far more basic problem: what is the purpose of public education, for however we shape the various roles played<BR/>by political and governmental entities at various levels, these should be congruent with the purpose we ascribe to public education.teacherkenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02225551101423123044noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21843852.post-44329394110622303892007-04-29T18:31:00.000-05:002007-04-29T18:31:00.000-05:00The nature of human interaction, which education b...The nature of human interaction, which education brings about, is social and moral. Just as you say, we gather together is various ways to teach and learn. We strive for Gadamer’s “fusion of horizons.” The morality is a complex issue, as well, as it involves the choosing of curricula, programs, funding, district lines, selection of administration and faculty, etc. Is this right? Would something else be better? The morality lies in the willingness of those involved to make choices that are in the best interests of all. These two aspects stand in the shadows of the political nature – not just funding through taxation, not just the Constitution, those are the de jure manifestations of the political nature – more significant and powerful are the politics of those who find themselves in charge of making educational policy. Their politics speak more loudly to policy than taxes paid, willingly or unwillingly by the public or the Constitutional mandate that gives major responsibility for education to state governments (another issue). Rather consider the individual as well as collective politics of those in power who make policy, who determine the nuts and bolts of the lives of our school children – funding of programs, policies that determine who is tested when over what with particular consequences. That is the political, much more insidious than more benign and obvious forms that you mention. The interactions you describe with elected officials highlight the misplaced authority that allows them to make policies that are self-serving and reprehensible. Until education is more locally controlled and child-centered with financial support the only type of federal input, other than perhaps serving as a repository/clearing house for educational data, information, etc, all of us teachers and students will function as some sort of guinea pigs, pawns in the big bucks game of federal programs that squelch the life from all, an enervating jolt of pain. <BR/><BR/>Education is the point at which we decide whether we love the world enough to assume responsibility<BR/>for it and by the same token to save it from that ruin which, except for renewal, except for<BR/>the coming of the new and young, would be inevitable. And education, too, is where we decide<BR/>whether we love our children enough not to expel them from our world and leave them to their<BR/>own devices, nor to strike from their hands their choice of undertaking something new, something<BR/>unforeseen by us, but to prepare them in advance for the task of renewing a common world.<BR/>—HANNAH ARENDT, 1961, P. 196Kathryn M. Bensonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09144622337472566242noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21843852.post-23458183063830014562007-04-29T12:39:00.000-05:002007-04-29T12:39:00.000-05:00HI,My name is John Holland. I am also a classroom ...HI,<BR/>My name is John Holland. I am also a classroom teacher interseted in education polciy. Since I earned my National Board Certification I felt I could actually do something about it. I have offered recommendations to the Virginia Board of Education regarding the reauthorization of NCLB. I usually think of policy like this: Everyone working on public policy is actually like everyone building a boat. If we get involved with a particular polciy early on, we can help design it, shape it, see that it will float, be progressive, and offer expert advice from the teacher's perspective. If on the other hand we come to the table late, we are likely to be one of the many people involved with sanding the boat so that it will move smoothly. Even though both jobs have their merits, I would prefer to be on the front end of the process. I have, however engaged in some work from the begininng and we are getting close to the end now. Sanding a boat I helped top design and build is much more rewarding than sanding a boat I wasn't around to see born.<BR/>Just some thoughts. Check out my blog if you are interested.j m hollandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05536633137490529534noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21843852.post-80557077201555292362007-04-29T07:57:00.000-05:002007-04-29T07:57:00.000-05:00KenYour "ramblings" make several good points quite...Ken<BR/><BR/>Your "ramblings" make several good points quite explicitly and one critical point implicitly.<BR/><BR/>Yes, we are confused about the purposes of schooling. Most folks don't even talk about the point of the enterprise because they think they know. Those who do talk about it speak at cross-purposes or disagree outright with respect to whether economic, political, social, or even existential purposes ought to dominate. And until we get some vague agreement on the purposes, our chances of "fixing" the system are nil.<BR/><BR/>But, you point out, maybe fixing the system is a fool's errand. Maybe we can't "fix" the system -- either in the sense of getting it completely right OR setting it in some stable form. And since policy is really about fixing the system, then perhaps spending so much time trying to get it just right is not time well spent. Still, some aspects of our present system are clearly doing harm -- and it is more than "tilting against windmills" to right clear wrongs.<BR/><BR/>What comes through most clearly though is the value of reflection about the system and the work and the possibilities and the purposes by those who do the real work of our educational system -- the teachers. And this is probably the one feature of the system I would work the hardest to expand and enhance: the capacity of individual educators to take a clear-eyed look at just what each is doing and why and to assess how it's going. This suggests something about teacher candidates' prior "dispositions" (ah, that word!) and the way they should be educated/prepared, as well as about the structure of their employment (i.e. the time and the encouragement to do this kind of reflection -- imagine "in-service" about the purposes of our work!).<BR/><BR/>If teachers have the time and capacity for both fine-gauged (examining all kinds of "assessment data" with respect to specific but broadly conceived goals) and broad-gauged (examining the question of purposes in general terms) reflection, they will themselves be the wedges for appropriate development and change within the system. Policy will be born in the context of practice rather than imposed by those who are altering systems.Barbara Stengelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00750720938489052189noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21843852.post-35860583419635828022007-04-29T07:54:00.000-05:002007-04-29T07:54:00.000-05:00This comment has been removed by the author.Barbara Stengelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00750720938489052189noreply@blogger.com