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‘Education Reform’ Category

  1. Smart Spending Called For — EDUCATION & HEALTH

    October 10, 2015 by Tunya

    Smart Spending Called For — EDUCATION & HEALTH

    Here is the latest information on Education Savings Accounts as they apply in the US. — ESAs: The Next Generation of School Choice, Oct 2015
    http://static.excelined.org/wp-content/uploads/ESAs-the-NextGen-of-School-Choice-FINAL.pdf 30 pg

    “Vouchers and tax-credit scholarships are like the rotary phone: great at making phone calls, but that is all they can do. ESAs are like smartphones: they can make phone calls, but you can use them to do your banking, shopping, search for businesses, and much more.

    ESAs “The key here is customization. Parents are no longer relegated to School A or School B. A child can attend a private school and receive speech therapy, or learn math and science online, English and history at home, be tutored twice a week, and deposit remaining funds into a college savings account. Through an ESA, education is no longer “use it or lose it.” Parents decide where the best values are; they have the ability to direct their child’s funds in the most efficient way.” (P17)

    HEALTH — With changing demographics the two big pulls on public funds are still education and health. But, the growing proportion of seniors and concomitant demands on services are overtaking the funding demands for education of the young. This US report demonstrates in another way why education spending has to be more efficient and accountable — http://excelined.org/FacetheStrain/ 2pg brief, 100 pg Report

    “Turn and Face the Strain: Age Demographic Change and the Near Future of American Education outlines a fierce battle looming between the needs of public health care and education. A crisis is fast approaching that makes comprehensive improvement of America’s public schools more important than ever.”

    The same realities are evident in Canada. We must have more public conversations about effectiveness and efficiency in our public services.

    Category Education Reform, Uncategorized | Tags: | No Comments

  2. e d hirsch “wave” of ed reform – I

    October 9, 2015 by Tunya

    Catching The WAVE Of Knowledge-based Education Reform — The GOOD NEWS (Part I)

    If there ever was a flipped classroom for adults to QUICK-LEARN about education reform it is here.

    But, first let me explain. Flipped classroom is the style of teaching where the students do their homework as assigned reading at home, then come to the classroom to discuss with the teacher what was learned and prepped ahead.

    Ed reform has had so many varieties over the ages so it’s hard to know where to start. VERY DISAPPOINTING are the books and articles which end up saying: And what you can do about it. (I’ve found over a dozen!) So, how many of us got NOWHERE?

    Anyway, after 4 decades of experience, I think this Hirsch Wave is one of the best things ever — for TWO REASONS:

    1 Knowledge-based curriculum is back in vogue, having been dismissed and deleted because knowledge was to be “constructed” meaningfully from the context of students’ experiences, and besides, content is obtainable “on the Internet”!

    2 Knowledge-backed approach is gaining headway — away from the philosophical belief mindsets of past education leaders. Proof, evidence, research, best practice and other similar objective criteria are coming to the fore — challenging feel-good, subjective theories.

    The best “flipped classroom” on the topic of Ed Reform is right here — Educhatter — on the Core Knowledge Curriculum. [Thanks P Bennett.] https://educhatter.wordpress.com/2015/09/21/knowledge-matters-why-is-the-content-lite-curriculum-in-retreat/#comment-18595

    After reading the whole article you’ll want to follow-up the 11 links provided before engaging in the brouhaha. There is much food for thought, enlightenment and material for advancing the much needed reforms.

    My suggestion is to start with #10— an articulate father (Sol Stern) having travelled the trusting-parent-to-dubious-parent-to activist-parent route.

    Category Book Reviews, Education Reform, GOOD NEWS, Uncategorized | Tags: | No Comments

  3. Flabby Families & Absence of choice

    September 9, 2015 by Tunya

    Choicelessness Leads To Flabby Families

    Certainly, the model of Education Savings Accounts as a way of ensuring education as a public good is overdue. Thankfully, both persuasion and budgetary realities are convincing legislators to release their tight controls over prescriptive education spending and to trust parents to make wise decisions using ESAs. The more jurisdictions (5 US states so far) that do this the better the chances of an educated public — people able to lead self-sufficient lives and participate in free democratic citizenship. Such is the yet-unproven promise of these new models. (We can be sure there are still considerable resistance and overt and covert opposition to ESAs. Good luck with the continuing effort!)

    Yes, the freeing up of the education dollar has had a long discussion over the decades. Coons and Sugarman did propose something along the lines of ESAs or vouchers way back in ’78. Now, I would like to bring forward more of Coons’ views as they relate to family policy as counter to persistent centralizing efforts.

    See this interview — School Choice as Family Policy: John E. Coons — http://news.heartland.org/newspaper-article/2002/02/01/school-choice-family-policy-john-e-coons

    Some short excerpts:

    “ [Choice as family policy] . . . is one of the most important things we could possibly do as therapy for the institution of the family, for which we have no substitute. The relationship between the parent and child is very damaged if the parent loses all authority over the child for six hours a day, five days a week, and over the content that is put into the child's mind."

    "What must it be like for people who have raised their children until they're five years old, and suddenly, in this most important decision about their education, they have no say at all? They're stripped of their sovereignty over their child."

    “And what must it be like for the child who finds that his parents don't have any power to help him out if he doesn't like the school?”

    "It's a shame that there are no social science studies on the effect of choicelessness on the family. If you are stripped of power—kept out of the decision-making loop—you are likely to experience degeneration of your own capacity to be effective, because you have nothing to do. If you don't have any responsibilities, you get flabby. And what we have are flabby families at the bottom end of the income scale."

    We won’t expect any sympathy or studies on lack of choice from the new Think Tank, Learning Policy Institute (Linda Darling-Hammond, Pres and CEO), will we? Yet one more “non-partisan” central command effort to keep families at arms-length from their children’s education.

    Category Education Reform, Obstacles, Parent Tribal Memory, Uncategorized | Tags: | No Comments

  4. Education BIG SHIFT – to consumer side

    August 13, 2015 by Tunya

    Education Ground Shifting — Will It Be Rescue & Salvage OR INNOVATE? *** √ ***

    The big shift as I see it is towards consumer-driven developments in education. AWAY from system needs, priorities, rent-seeking, elite capture, behind closed doors collective bargaining, language changes, subversive behaviors, etc., etc. Flipping the system to favor teacher driven agendas is not going to work in mass education systems. —

    School-based management doesn’t have much interest now. Educator career ladders will only work in a tightly managed mass-production government civil service system. —

    AND, ironic for me to say, these developments toward customer satisfaction have little to do with any real pent-up demand from the consumer (families) NOR any parent movements. I, having worked steadfastly for the parent voice in education decision-making for the last 45 years, can say it’s not due to any of my efforts or that of like-minded advocates. Except, my involvement in home education movement, little else has stuck. (PS: HE, another essay to come, has had significant effect on these new shifts of mind and behavior.) —

    NO, it’s raw economics that’s driving new ideas and new ventures. Not the least of the reasons for Nevada’s near-universal Education Savings Account plan was its state budget problems. To fulfill the constitutional mandate to educate the young the state would have had to build tons more schools and hire many more teachers. Instead, they decide to release state funds (note: federal funds excluded) to parents to seek education where they can find it, and upon satisfactory quarterly reports, will continue to access their accounts.
    — 
    Kansas has just signed a waiver bill to keep its public schools running in dire teacher-shortage, but by loosening the teacher credentialing procedures. Non-licensed personnel will be able to operate in areas belonging to the Coalition of Innovative Districts. This is to provide for flexibility in hiring and meeting the needs of students. http://cjonline.com/…/state-board-passes-controversial-lice… —

    The BIG SHIFT is that governments are seeing that constitutionally — they are obliged to ensure education of the young — but that they don’t have to PROVIDE it. —

    To provide, produce,coerce the actual education (schooling) can be seen in TWO elementary radical ways: 1) it’s government indoctrination; or 2) it’s welfare assistance with government workers doing the work.

     

     

    Category Book Reviews, Education Reform, GOOD NEWS | Tags: | No Comments

  5. Education Savings Accounts – ESAs

    August 11, 2015 by Tunya

     

    Denationalization — THE REASON To Flip The System

    Just received my copy of the book being discussed — Flip The System: changing education from the ground up.  A quick skim tells me there is a FEAR going round — that the education system is itself shifting — and teachers feel their safe haven in public schools is being threatened by “denationalization” ! ! ! !  

    Here is a closing statement from the two authors, Evers and Kneyber:

    “ . . . more and more states are losing the ability to control their education systems — something we can refer to as denationalization.”

    That’s much more accurate than calling what’s happening as “privatization” !

    So true.  Different models of education of the young are being developed and the Education Savings Account is one of the best, in my opinion, coming from a parent and grandparent.  Yes, better than charters, vouchers, magnet schools, etc., etc.  Please do check out this video which I link in this reply I just sent to Jay P Greene’s blog:

    ESAs — Education Watershed

    An hour spent with this video is so worthwhile.  The promise of meeting education needs of children in their lifetime through Education Savings Accounts in parents’ banks is so promising.  Hopefully we in Canada can keep pace with this far-reaching model.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpiN2KGj3QA

    As policy analysts point out this is the smart phone vs. the rotary phone. http://spectator.org/articles/63652/parental-choice-20

     The watershed analogy is quite correct and the speakers in this video show how this turning point, once established, is irreversible.

    • Unbundling the school system — services, subjects, skill-training need not happen in one building
    • Experimentation, innovation, diversity, leads to a natural evolution
    • Student progress depends on proficiency not compulsory seat time
    • Quarterly reports to monitoring agency checks authenticity of spending before next release of funds
    • Parents themselves start help lines re how-to, choices, and positive/negative reviews of products, services
    • The potential is there to meet disparate and unique needs of a wide variety of young students — special needs, Native Americans, low-performing schools, foster children, ESL, etc.

    Considering the projected financial cost-saving to states, plus superior education results and high parent satisfaction surveys, hopefully, this model will spread quickly.

    [published as above in Facebook, and Educhatter, and 2nd section in Jay P Greene’s blog]

     

     

    Category Book Reviews, Education Reform, GOOD NEWS, Parent Tribal Memory | Tags: | No Comments

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