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‘Obstacles’ Category

  1. Flight From Education Accountability

    November 2, 2015 by Tunya

    Flight From Education Accountability

    Teacher unions are the “protection racket” grown up to shield the public school trade from judgment.

    Politicians and governments fail to use their powers for reform in favor of retaining the “status quo” — continued political funding from unions, “labor peace”, etc

    The media does stories — it’s not their habit in modern times to expose glaring incongruities.

    There is no other human service — medical, pharmaceutical, police, fire fighting, etc. — that is so evasive of accountability or “best practices”. Bad outcomes are not tolerated as they are in schooling. It is only education that is such a “Swiss cheese”, attracting experiments, fads and ideological programs.

    Why, even the supreme chief for international education standards, Andreas Schleicher, Director for Education and Skill for PISA (Program for International Assessment) seems to have been cornered into a state of obvious appeasement to the anti-testing, anti- accountability crowd. See — “Schooling Redesigned”, OECD, Oct 22, 2015, where he argues that those who seek “robust scientific evidence” for new proposed directions will not be favored with any examples of “’proven’ or ‘best’ practices” (pg 5).

    The best hope is not to expect any of the culprits above to change but for consumers to themselves flee the system. Either home educate, where parents overwhelmingly use proven phonics reading programs, or choose a private school.

    Hopefully, in your child’s lifetime a new funding program called Education Savings Accounts (ESA) will arrive wherein parents get an account set up by the Education Ministry by which to choose services. Look up Nevada ESA.

    [ http://www.city-journal.org/2015/25_4_new-york-schools.html —What I Saw in the Schools, Sol Stern, 2 Oct 2015 ]

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

  2. Judgement harsher of teachers – James 3:1

    October 30, 2015 by Tunya

    Educators Dodging The Judgment Of James 3:1

    “Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.” – James 3:1, Bible NIV

    In social media I have seen the occasional teacher mention that they are aware of the extra expectation of teachers — that judgment is justifiably harsher in this field than in any other. Yes, whether they mention James 3:1 or not, nonetheless, these few seem to be keenly aware of the extra responsibility as they deal with impressionable young minds.

    As I observe education trends internationally I see a decided move by education systems to inch away from accountability. As we head into more of the imposed 21st Century Learning “transformations” — involving such biggies as OECD, UNESCO, Common Core, OISE, etc. — we see the replacement of hard statistics with narratives, checklists and other subjective reports. This is to accommodate the shift away from hard skills such as reading, writing, arithmetic and knowledge to soft competencies as collaboration, creativity, etc. Is this shift away from accountability measures a consequence of James 3:1?

    One major way to sidestep accountability is sabotage. This has just been gloriously demonstrated in Ontario by timely organized teacher strikes that prevent some districts from doing standardized tests and certainly averting the calculation of a provincial score.

    The Windsor-Essex Catholic District Bd already has a math task force set up stemming from past concerns. The local newspaper reports: “ . . . the task force will look beyond the system and the country for examples of best practices.”

    Now, here is a hitch. The latest manifesto from the OECD — “Schooling Redesigned — Toward Innovative Learning Systems” — clearly states that this is “ . . . not a compendium of ‘best practices’.” And Andreas Schleicher himself, Director for Education and Skills responsible for PISA reports, an international benchmark setter for student achievement, says: “Some will call for a robust scientific evidence base . . . [but this report] avoids references to ‘proven’ or ‘best’ practices . . .”

    Furthermore, in the literature plugging this report is a testimonial from TUAC — Trade Union Advisory Committee to OECD, an interface for trade unions with OECD — “Teacher unions are, can and should be at the centre of creating the conditions for innovation.”

    Now, how do I feel about all this? After a half century of trying to be a good biological parent, and now grandparent, and after being told, interminably, that parents and the education system are two sides of the same coin, what can I say? Totally frustrated!

    I will simply ask: Why does the flipped coin always land with the producers on top and the consumers face down? Where is the justice for parents and their children in this equation? The only hopeful sign is to work for more options so that there is some relief and escape from such totalitarianism and accountability avoidance.

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

  3. Tall poppies in Education – cut down to size

    October 23, 2015 by Tunya

    Call-out Against “Massachusetts Miracle” Tall-Poppy Syndrome

    [This was a reply submitted on Jay P Greene’s blog about Bill Gates http://jaypgreene.com/2015/10/14/emperor-gates-has-no-clothes/]http://jaypgreene.com/2015/10/14/emperor-gates-has-no-clothes/ ]

    Thanks to Sandra Stotsky and others in Massachusetts, attention is focusing on the deliberate dumbing-down of a high scoring school system. But now, Common Core is being pushed. Education programs have been working so well for so many years that Mass. has a reputation for great reading, math and science scores. In the blogosphere, education consumers and critics often mention this American state as a model to be followed.

    It’s likely some kind of unprincipled envy that’s conspiring to bring Massachusetts education down to size. Cut down the tall poppy. See “The Tall Poppy Syndrome” http://www.societyforqualityeducation.org/index.php/blog/the-tall-poppy-syndrome

    That happened in Canada in the province of Alberta. For many years AB was the top scoring province in the country and measured highly against international education scores as well. The main reason performance was high was due to choices parents had between schools including charter schools since 1994.

    But, the usual culprits despising choice, plus the adoption of 21st Century Learning “transformation” (like CC) have cut down this “tall poppy” to size. Scores have been dropping and right now there is a huge parent effort to at least bring back some rigor to Math.

    An alien to Planet Earth would shake his head in sorrow and puzzlement. Why would excellent programs to help children learn be compromised by untested experiments? And, why do free-democratic nations that embrace human rights allow only a few to exit these programs? Thankfully people like Stotsky and Greene are calling-out against these kinds of absurdities!

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

  4. Call-out of Gates

    October 15, 2015 by Tunya

    Call-out Of Gates Urgently Needed 

    Look at the title of this story — Imposing Common Core On America Is Way Harder Than CURING MALARIA – Bill Gates : http://dailycaller.com/2015/10/08/bill-gates-imposing-common-core-on-america-harder-than-curing-malaria/


    It is timely to ask: Who is advising Gates ? The story says Gates complained that “obstinate, noncompliant parents” were the problem behind resistance to Common Core. Yet his own children are in an expensive non-CC school. What advice caused him to avoid CC? Probably good advice. After 7 years of quietly funding experimental education programs he is now being more public about his well-funded agendas for others. Yes, for others, not his own family !


    He is doing the biological right thing by his children — protecting them from harm and hoping to launch them well-equipped into the future. Why would he then want to impose an amateur, not field-tested, poorly researched, one-size-fits-all federal program on other people’s children ?


    From someone outside the system — I am a parent and grandparent — I am ashamed at how “the system” lacks in judgment on this issue. Some sort of mass hysterical delusional intimidation must be going on. Is there really some organized conspiracy to produce a two class system — a small educated ruling elite and an obedient, compliant mass public ?


    There are few who are calling-out BOTH Gates and Common Core pushers on this questionable path.
    Only Jay P Greene, professor at University of Arkansas who supports education choice, seems to have the guts to call-out this hocus-pocus. Please see http://jaypgreene.com/2015/10/14/emperor-gates-has-no-clothes/

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

  5. discontented teachers easy targets for “fads”

    October 4, 2015 by Tunya

    Why Is The Education Industry Such A Breeding Ground For Fads ?

    Why do we despair that education — unlike medicine, engineering, architecture, or practically any other field of human endeavor — is so immune to research-based best practice? Experimentation of all sorts prevails — untested and without any protocols and safeguards to protect the young, captive audience aujects. Will there ever be a huge law case to sue for damages and harms? Why is research that clearly proves sheer and unmitigated poor outcomes ignored? How can costs keep escalating without any demonstrable benefits to students? Questions proliferate about the contradictions — how impervious the industry is to rational change — how persistent some practices remain regardless of their poor results. On, and on, and on, flow the questions.

    I’ve written earlier about the theory that GROUPTHINK SYNDROME might explain some of the contradictory and sometimes downright malignant behaviors seen in education — http://www.parentsteachingparents.net/2015/09/malicious-group-think-in-education/

    Some people hope that common sense may someday prevail: Not likely! Others think that technology will bring effective practices forward to help our young people gain a good education.

    Well, beware! Here are explanations provided by Professor P Groff why Whole-Language (a very shaky teaching of reading method) gained such a rapid and lasting following — http://www.readinghorizons.com/research/whole-language-vs-phonics-instruction#special

    “The Special Attractions of Whole-Language (WL)

    1 . . . educators historically have been notorious for their inability to resist the lures of educational innovations, regardless of whether or not they have been empirically validated.

    2 . . . WL relieves educators of much direct personal accountability for the results . . .

    3 . . . WL appeals to many educators’ romantic and/or humanistic interpretations of what is healthy child development . . . honoring children’s freedom and dignity is held to be more essential than how literate they become.

    4 . . . in the past, educators have ignored or rejected most of the empirical findings in practically all aspects of their field of endeavor.

    5 . . .the apparent simplicity of WL is alluring for teachers . . . With WL, teachers do not have to submit to pedagogical discipline that a prescribed course of direct and systematic instruction demands.

    6 . . . educators who have liberal social, economic, and political views doubtless are charmed by WL’s decidedly left-wing agenda . . . ”

    Groff goes on to mention these other factors — monopoly control of public schools, grade inflation, absence of rigorous examinations of teachers seeking certification, and parents’ seeming indifference towards the schools as “conditions [that] create a breeding ground for the emergence of empirically unverified educational innovations . . .”

     

    [SQE 20151004]

    Category Malpractice, Obstacles, Uncategorized | Tags: | No Comments

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