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‘Education Reform’ Category

  1. GOOD NEWS: David Banks NYC Schools Chancellor

    December 14, 2021 by Tunya

    My comment to ECC, 14 Dec, in response to William Brown posting BCP on Letter from the trenches: Parent describes K-12 dystopia — my addition some GOOD NEWS

    Again, another whack at the education system! There seems to be no end to the stories about the school disasters parents and students experience. Some of us old-timers never questioned that our school days were all for the betterment of ourselves and society. It is such a horrible feeling to see current events pushing toward an END of civilization. It’s shameful to think that public schools contribute to this downfall.

    Thanks again to this ECC forum, and the regular contributors who do so much to keep us up to date. This latest story from Bruce just adds to our sorrow. Thanks, William, for this latest.

    To bring forward some GOOD NEWS, we read about the appointment of David Banks as Schools Chancellor in New York City, by the new Mayor, Eric Adams, effective Jan 1 in the New Year. From the news stories, here are some great promising quotes:

    • New York City education system is essentially flawed and needs to be fixed from the bottom up.
    • “We’re going to go back to a phonetic approach to teaching. We’re going to ensure that our kids can read by the third grade,” Banks said. “That’s been a huge part of the dysfunction.”
    • Banks says he’s thinking of establishing special schools for kids with learning disabilities, and he also plans to expand gifted and talented programs, and specialized high schools.
    • The mayor-elect [Eric Adams]is also vowing a laser-like focus on the Department of Education’s budget. He says right now, the money is not being spent properly and taxpayers are being shortchanged.
    • Mayor Adams said he wants to educate the whole child, and that includes making sure they have eyeglasses and healthy food if they need. He’s also committed to testing every child to see if they have dyslexia.
    Please watch the videos in these stories:

    Incoming Schools Chancellor David Banks On Why So Many Black, Brown Students Aren’t Reaching Proficiency: ‘They’re Teaching Wrong’

    Mayor-Elect Adams’ New Schools Chancellor David Banks Vows Change Is Coming To Dept. Of Ed: ‘We’re Going To Turn Over The Tables’

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  2. Family choice in education

    February 1, 2021 by Tunya

    It’s heartwarming to read American news about school choice. With the pandemic showing that health costs are going to be a priority for many years to come, other social spending costs are being probed for belt-tightening. Education is being examined — not only for efficiencies, but because alternative models of delivery are popping up and gaining favor at the legislative level.

    And the question is being asked: Should the government be the provider, in near-monopoly terms, of education to children? In such a top-down, bureaucratic system, each layer creams off their share before the beneficiary, the child, gets any benefit from the ed dollar.

    This latest article from Education Week notes progress on the school choice front.  https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/covid-19-may-energize-push-for-school-choice-in-states-where-that-leads-is-unclear/2021/01

    In the first weeks of 2021 one-third of American state legislatures are considering such moves as:

    – tax-credit scholarships
    – education savings accounts (ESAs)
    – increasing public charter schools
    – support for microschools (learning pods, pandemic pods . . .)
    – Covid special relief funds to assist families with computers, etc. for online learning

    In political science language we can see legislatures shifting to “governance” of education, which is funding, regulating, overseeing and auditing education providers. Through family choice provisions all kinds of new innovations can develop, good programs will thrive and poor programs will be defunded.

    Of course, there are detractors, including the militant Badass Teachers Association, not a union, but active in all states, with organizational capacity and reach. They oppose choice, accountability and testing.

    In Canada, we need more information on family choice in education and not be detracted by those who may rise in fervent, self-interested opposition.

    [posted on my Facebook, Educhatter post of 20 Jan ’21]

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  3. education reform is a dud

    January 22, 2021 by Tunya

    Education reform is a dud! Those involved might readily agree. Professor Seymour Sarason, himself at the forefront of education reform efforts, predicted in 1965 that all attempts to reform schools would fail. Wikipedia notes: “His prediction has an accuracy of 100%!”

    Anyway, a Political Scientist in an online interview supports that view and said that only an “exogenous” — external — power could provide a jolt for needed reform.

    The pandemic is certainly an external disruption to business as usual. With its effects, it’s foreseeable that government budgets will really feel the financial crunch, with education funding being squeezed. This is where Fraser Institute Reports will be useful in assessing return on investment and if increasing education costs, especially with dropping enrolments, are justified.

    And let’s not forget that bulge of baby boomers just entering retirement — further impacting health budgets.

    Don’t be surprised when people start talking about bare bones education.

    Interesting, that in 2015, amidst BC Ed Plan’s trials, a sterling committee of representatives from stakeholder groups was charged with developing proposals on assessment. Their report stressed how proper assessment would help produce graduates who would be: 1) Literate; 2) Numerate; 3) Curious and critical thinkers; 4) Leading a healthy lifestyle; 5) Able to connect to society and community.

    Great! But here’s the rub. Sarason again, dubious about reform, warned against the “intractability” — inflexibility — of public school systems. The World Bank in a recent report, “What Will It Take?” echoed the frustration re intransigence of education systems — chiefly noting that reading is “ a key foundational skill and a gateway to learning”, needing priority attention.

    What’s to be done?

    (Published in Educhatter, 22 Jan ’21, Education spending: Who’a Minding the Store, Jan 20, 2021 — and on my Facebook)

    Category Absurdities, Education Reform, Uncategorized | Tags: | No Comments

  4. media & schooling

    March 31, 2020 by Tunya

    Media and Schooling

    I keep thinking about that opinion piece Bruce Deitrick Price wrote and was passed on to ECC readers by William Brown, Mar 11.

    BDP’s article was entitled: K-12: Media Should Help for a Change. He makes the point that if the media was more attentive to exposing the faults of the public education system many corrective practices would emerge. We would have better literacy and better test scores. He encourages people to write their newspapers to provide more coverage of education matters.

    Now, that might help, but lately the trend has been that newspapers and media generally have been decreasing staffs that work on such stories.

    And, we also must be mindful of the fact that media is not always reporting, but in fact, sometimes are biased promoters of what they see as “the common good” — the public schools. To be otherwise is to be unpatriotic, they think.

    Two such articles that I’ve kept close to mind over the years are:

    – If You Send Your Kid to Private School, You Are a Bad Person https://slate.com/human-interest/2013/08/private-school-vs-public-school-only-bad-people-send-their-kids-to-private-school.html

    – Liberals: Don’t Homeschool Your Kids https://slate.com/human-interest/2012/02/homeschooling-and-unschooling-among-liberals-and-progressives.html

    Both these articles generated considerable debate for a time, 2012 – 2013, but did nothing to challenge the prevailing media positive mindset about public schools. In fact, as the first article infers, families could be seen as heroic by keeping their kids in public schools as they’re bound to improve, even if it takes “generations”!

    I’ll jump to my purpose for writing today. I do think we, and public generally, should approach our media outlets to honestly report education stories. Right now, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic we see schools being closed and students kept at home. Parents are mounting home education efforts and school systems are scrambling to produce online programs. This will be a time when many innovations can emerge. We should urge our media to report on these efforts.

    In particular, I would emphasize to the media that much home education, or homeschooling as the popular press likes to call it, is not new. Home education has been around since the 80’s and much groundbreaking work has been established. There are parent support groups in many communities. There is much literature and books and resources.

    I will hunt up the contacts for some of these support groups in my area. They would have success stories to tell and probably tips to share. I’ll approach my news sources to report on these successful, and from what I gather, happy experiences.

     

    [Sent to ECC

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  5. Alberta Texas accountability efforts

    February 2, 2020 by Tunya

    On post-secondary education funding, Jason Kenney gets it right  Globe and Mail, Jan 23, 2020

    My comment

    Anything a government can do to bring more accountability to our education systems — at any level — is welcome — news. Gary Mason says that “the Kenny government has made a move that was long overdue.”

    Here is the Texas government installing new reading requirements. All public schools (including charters) are to implement systematic, direct instruction of phonics in K – 3 [i.e., phonemic awareness/decoding skills/phonics]. Why? Because this is a proven approach, whereas other reading approaches produce LOW literacy rates.

    Furthermore, teacher-prep colleges/universities would lose their accreditation ability if their graduates do not demonstrate acceptable performance in the teaching of reading. https://www.educationviews.org/texas-at-forefront-of-teaching-phonics/?fbclid=IwAR00kh-Qsx-hUw8TWoCa5Roi0QWn8nFflH2VUjPzZ_yEKU10Id_UEmXQN7Y
    RESP

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