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‘Education Reform’ Category

  1. Education — parent choice or totalitarian coercion?

    July 23, 2016 by Tunya

    Should Parents Be Able To Choose Their Children’s Schools ?

    In traditional school format let’s look at these two items and COMPARE AND CONTRAST, then express your OPINION in 250 words or less:

    √ #1 Donald Trump Jr speech to Republican National Convention 22 July 2016
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlpPH1ZQ1eo

    “The other party gave us public schools that far too often fail our students, especially those who have no options. Growing up, my siblings and I we were truly fortunate to have choices and options that others don’t have. We want all Americans to have those same opportunities.

    Our schools used to be an elevator to the middle class, now they’re stalled on the ground floor. They’re like Soviet-era department stores that are run for the benefit of the clerks and not the customers, for the teachers and the administrators and not the students.

    You know why other countries do better on K through 12? They let parents choose where to send their own children to school. That’s called competition. It’s called the free market. And it’s what the other party fears. They fear it because they’re more concerned about protecting the jobs of tenured teachers than serving the students in desperate need of a good education. They want to run everything top-down from Washington. They tell us they’re the experts and they know what’s best.”

    √ #2 Fraser Institute’s Report Card on Alberta’s High Schools 2016, July 23, 2016

    The Report Card on Alberta’s High Schools 2016 rates 307 public, private, separate and charter schools based on five academic indicators generated from grade 12 provincewide testing, grade-to-grade transition and graduation rates. “Alberta parents want the best for their families and having the ability to compare school performance helps them make a more informed decision about the school their children attend,” said Peter Cowley, Fraser Institute director of school performance studies.

    Taking into account the last five years, Alberta’s two charter high schools achieved the highest average rating of 8.3 (out of 10), followed by private schools (8.1), separate schools (6.3) and public schools (6.0). In addition to the rankings, the Report Card illustrates which specific schools are improving or falling behind in academics. The data suggests that every school is capable of improvement . . .

    “When parents see the Report Card’s objective evidence that a school’s results are consistently low or declining, they often become very effective advocates for improvement,” Cowley said. “Every year, every school in the province should find ways to improve student results—it’s as simple as that.”
    https://www.fraserinstitute.org/sites/default/files/alberta-high-school-rankings-2016-newsrelease.pdf

    [posted to SQE — http://www.societyforqualityeducation.org/index.php/blog/read/saturday-at-the-movies-trump-this ]

    Making An Informed Choice On High Schools In Alberta ?

    See the latest Report on ACADEMIC results on AB HSs

    https://www.fraserinstitute.org/studies/report-card-on-albertas-high-schools-2016

    Read the news release https://www.fraserinstitute.org/sites/default/files/alberta-high-school-rankings-2016-newsrelease.pdf

    Read full FI reports on AB, BC, ON Elementary and High Schools, QC HS http://www.compareschoolrankings.org/

    NOTE: FI Reports deal with the ACADEMIC side of schools, generally SKILLS of reading, writing, arithmetic and reasoning — what parents generally expect, and which can be measured by standardized testing. In contrast, educators are seen to be shifting to the AFFECTIVE domain, the COMPETENCIES, (creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, communication, character, culture and computer technology) and which are hard to measure (and compare) against understood and acceptable standards. These differences need to be appreciated to see how the issues in education are stacking up regarding accountability, choice, parental vs establishment authority, international comparisons, etc.

    [posted as part of my FB 20160723 on above SQE content and with additional comment.]

    Category Education Reform, Opinions in media, Uncategorized | Tags: | No Comments

  2. Education Choice is NOT School Choice

    May 23, 2016 by Tunya

    School Choice OR Education Choice

    Why should education simply be a choice between one institution and another? 12 years of being contained and restrained and induced into an institutional mindset. Deinstitutionalization is what we talked about in the 70s after Ivan Illich did his book, articles and conferences on “deschooling” society.

    Please note, he was not only talking about deschooling schools, but also fracturing the institutional mindset of society as a whole.

    Well, it’s come to pass. Nevada is the education choice model to follow. It is the first actual universal model to put the responsibility back into the biologically rightful holders of the duty for education of the young — the parents.

    While Nevada is still not over the legal hurdles it faces, here is the Handbook for Parents — http://www.nevadatreasurer.gov/uploadedFiles/nevadatreasurergov/content/SchoolChoice/Parents/Parent_Handbook.pdf

    Note page 3 — “ . . . innovative thinkers from all political backgrounds have proposed concepts that turn school choice into education choice — the ability for parents to truly control their child’s K-12 education.”

    Surrey, BC, is experiencing the very same conditions that prompted Nevada’s new model — budget problems, immigration of many new school-age children, disaffection with use of portables. This what I wrote to the Globe and Mail and Vancouver Sun to their coverage:

    New Model For Education Funding

    In announcing millions of dollars for schools construction in Surrey the BC Premier stated that a new funding model may be needed.

    Interesting that in Nevada last year practically the same circumstances were at play — immigration squeeze placed a big demand for school spaces and there was a huge need for portables. Nevada chose to offer an alternative funding structure for parents to choose from: They could apply for Education Savings Accounts. Many parents signed up and would qualify starting after May 1 this year. They could spend the money for private schools or tutors or a whole host of other mix-&-match possibilities.
    The beauty of ESAs is the unbundling of education — it does not have to happen at a full-time school. Flexibility is a great spur to innovation, especially for meeting individual needs and talents of students.

    We did have our foot in the door of such a plan already in Sept 2014 during the teacher strike. Finance Minister’s office paid out $40 a day for 13 days in Sept. For 180 days of a school year that would be $7200. That would be a good incentive for parents to find (or create) education services and probably be able to use already existing community spaces.

     

    [ comment to SQE Mondauy 23 May, '16 http://www.societyforqualityeducation.org/index.php/blog/read/a-win-win-solution-the-empirical-evidence-on-school-choicehttp://www.societyforqualityeducation.org/index.php/blog/read/a-win-win-solution-the-empirical-evidence-on-school-choice ]

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

  3. Parent Voice, choice and academies

    May 11, 2016 by Tunya

    Academies and Parent Voice Are Both Good Social Policies In Education

    The UK is following good advice regarding schools being accountable to the Ministry, thereby bypassing the self-interests that dominate schooling. Why this is happening is not peculiar to the UK alone. It is in other Western countries (Canada, USA, Australia, New Zealand) that schools have become the captives of self-interests and a dominating political/philosophical agenda generally called “progressive”.

    This post correctly identifies that parents generally have a different agenda for schools: “For progressivism to become a mass phenomenon, most ordinary parents had to be pushed out of educational decision making, because the vast majority of them stubbornly clung to conservative notions about hard work, discipline and knowledge acquisition.”

    Again, I say, this has been the common experience in the aforementioned Western nations. In the USA the response has been the gradual growth of alternative models such as charter schools, vouchers and education savings accounts. But, the opposition is vehement because vested interests are not primarily in the field for the best interests of the child.

    Government is well advised when it pays attention to the academic results the academisation model delivers. Here is a quote that supports the return of voice and choice to parents from Berkeley Law professor emeritus John E. Coons, 2002:

    > "There are a lot of benign effects of school choice but, for me, choice is family policy. It 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.”

    To Anthony Radice I want to say — What a profound post this is. I hope you pass it on to the powers that be in the Ministry and Prime Minister’s office.

     

    [comment sent to Anthony Radice, The Traditional Teacher on topic of how parent voice was pushed out for progressivism to spread, and how Academies in UK should return more local voice as opposed to establishment, unions, ed faculties, local boadrs, etc. https://thetraditionalteacher.wordpress.com/2016/05/11/the-ideas-behind-forced-academisation/comment-page-1/#comment-842 ]

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

  4. bystanders no more — Education reformers

    May 2, 2016 by Tunya

    We Need A Movement — Bystanders No More In Education’s Downfall

    As we join others in this Education Consumers Clearinghouse blog in showing our dismay about education systems’ dysfunctions we must also recognize that we stand judged. I’m as guilty as anyone for inaction, helplessness, sense of defeat and a strong desire to retreat entirely from the fray.

    Robin, who runs the blog — Invisible Serfs Collar — from which we have been reading, says her aim is to inform, not advise. By directing “sunlight” on these looming and menacing “transformations” in education she feels that that “is the best disinfectant I can think of”. After years of posting these alarms the latest is about psychological reshifting from natural biological imperatives toward anticipatory (preemptive) behaviors acquired through schooling practices such as group (collective) work and collaboration — all while the race continues toward greater use of data-gathering, robotics and artificial intelligence in “education” of the young (more like training).

    William feels duty-bound to bring forth warnings such as Robin’s to our attention — “our ‘educational leaders’ do not want children to learn how to read, lest they select texts that are not designed to create the new society.”

    Martin and Will bemoan the fact that schools are refusing to teach reading — comments seeming more like “shrugs”, “that’s the way it is”, “what can be done about it, anyway?” — rather than any call to action.

    Deborah, ever active as columnist and local politician, writes about rescuing her son from schooling disaster and informs us that her district has just added a third “behavior skills” containment center — my guess, more for avoiding embarrassing dropout figures than real help.

    My own response to this conversation — also helplessness and utter dismay that the dangers foreseen and forecast are not being taken seriously or counteracted. BUT, I can add two more sad, related bits of bad news:

    – Homeschooling is being used in Indiana as a punishment and way to push-out difficult students to avoid dropouts and “expelled” figures and perversely, to boost test scores by removing poor performers. The homeschooled students are then counted as “transfers” and not losses or a black mark to the system. — http://www.educationviews.org/districts-homeschooling-punish-students/

    – There is to be in the next few years a massive world campaign to promote teaching of reading to children in developing countries. The work has been done — needs-assessment tools have been field-tested — protocols for community involvement have been mapped out, etc. What remains is for the Ministries of Education of the developing nations to then adopt the methods for implementing the reading programs. BUT, the literature involved already foresees a problem — “The reading ‘wars’ are alive and well in many low-income countries, often miring ministries of education and teaching centers in seemingly endless debates between the ‘whole-language’ and ‘phonics-based’ approaches.” (pg 11 of 1st edition , 2009, EGRA Early Grade Reading Assessment)

    My Question: Do we continue to agonize and bringing forth our outrages? Or, is there more that can be done? It’s not really bystander apathy that is displayed here but — even as people capable in our own little worlds — nonetheless in the world of education we are overwhelmed by a juggernaut that enfeebles us. Any good news? Any ideas for action?

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

  5. Textbooks No More — Bad news

    April 30, 2016 by Tunya

    Institutional Memory For Education Reformers Sadly Lacking

    This post on textbooks in schools, or the lack thereof, illustrates just how handicapping it is not to have informed discussions about education issues. Going back to previous discussions 6 years ago it’s interesting to note how valuable it is to have context and a wide-range of views expressed.

    The education system has its institutional memory to advance its positions. The teacher unions have institutional memory to advance their benefits and political agendas. Parents and public and taxpayers simply do not engage very effectively in public discourse because there is little by way of background on which to lean on for facts and figures and to advance reform. This is where Society for Quality Education, through its blog, has been so helpful. It provides both a forum for discussion and a backup archive from which to search for issues of the past. Long may we enjoy this excellent service!

    Now, to the matter at hand: textbooks.

    1 I do know that home educators are great at using textbooks — be they old, used (even ancient) textbooks for their studies. We do know that home educated students generally do very well in education whether it’s on standardized tests or college and university.

    2 In the commentary brought forward from 2010 this gem pops up from a post by TDSBNW on 06/07 — “Unfortunately, pseudo-science is the name of the game in education, and always has been.” So, even if the latest, best, and compelling research shows up that textbooks are definitely superior to the mish-mash now being used the question arises: Would the education system bow to evidence? This seems to be the continuing refrain informing current education debates and adding to the polarization — on one side we see parents and some reformers pressing for evidence-based standard procedures and on the other hand we see an education system steadfastly resistant to that position in favor of methods largely based on subjective beliefs, fads and politics versus hard facts. What will it take to shift to more objective standards?

    3 Of course, textbooks, by themselves are not the issue alone. It’s the credibility of the textbook that’s also important. Here is an oft-quoted story about Dr Suess:

    “That damned ‘Cat in the Hat’ . . . I did it for a textbook house and they sent me a word list. That was due to the Dewey revolt in the Twenties, in which they threw out phonic reading and went to word recognition . . . I think killing phonics was one of the greatest causes of illiteracy in the country . . . there were two hundred and twenty-three words to use in this book . . . I read the list three times and I almost went out of my head. I said, I’ll read it once more and if I can find two words that rhyme that’ll be the title of my book . . . I found ‘cat’ and ‘hat’ and I said, ‘The title will be ‘The Cat in the Hat.’”

    That dismaying experience with the whole-word, look-say, word recognition movement and his first “Cat” book (1957) was reported in 1981 in “Arizona” magazine. When Dr Seuss fully grasped the situation he then afterwards became known as a strong champion of phonics.

    The Internet just cannot replace textbooks as long as they’re credible and students can read !

    [To SQE 20160430 http://www.societyforqualityeducation.org/index.php/blog/read/gone-by-the-book]

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

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