Debate about the purposes of education never seems to end. Should young people become educated to get prepared to enter the workforce, or should the purpose of education be focused more on social, academic, cultural and intellectual development so that students can grow up to be engaged citizens? … But it doesn’t have to be either-or. […]
Tag Archives: Schools and Poverty
U.S. education policy: Federal overreach or reaching for the wrong things?
Great advances for economic and social justice, such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and civil rights laws are the result of federal legislation and Supreme Court decisions. All of these benchmarks of progress been initiated by local social and political action, but they have been achieved nationally….. The problem over the last several decades of […]
The strategic campaign needed to save public education — in nine steps
Over the last several decades, a concerted negative public relations effort has tainted the idea of government as a mechanism to serve the common good. Investment in and the credibility of the institution of democratically governed public schools have been under sustained attack, while education inequity has increased. As a result, much needed sustained systemic […]
Education Reform: Unsubstantiated Benefit Claims; Unreported Side Effects
We are in a marketing war for the soul of American education. We are at risk of a radical change in which protecting the rights of the few trumps ensuring the common good and in which democratic participation gives way to private governance. These battles are raging in the open, but the public is observing […]
Escape From Poverty for a Few More Students Is Not a Worthy National Goal
The 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision provided a catalyst to advance but not fully achieve racial and economic justice. Sixty years later, Republicans and Democrats alike continue to talk about race, poverty and education. However, there is a chasm in current education policies between proclamations of intent and real effects. The […]
What If We Approached Testing This Way?
Frequent high-stakes testing and its misuse for teacher evaluation are poisoning the assessment waters. Assessment should not be the goal of learning. The word “assessment” should not make students, teachers, administrators and parents cringe. It does not have to be this way. For students and their teachers the most effective use of assessment is to guide […]
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