February 2, 2014 by Tunya
Today I posted this comment in TWO spots in reaction to an American politician, Mike Huckabee, who still supports Common Core but suggests the name be changed — rebranded, refocused.
– http://www.educationviews.org/mike-huckabee-common-core-creators-rebrand-retreat
Category Education Reform, Parent Tribal Memory | Tags: | No Comments
February 1, 2014 by Tunya
"Support Needed" Do you see that on your kid's report card? In practical terms, that simply translates into the parent needing to buy tutoring service for their child. And, that is what is happening to a greater degree in the so-called "parent involvement world" today.
Math tutoring services in the community are thriving.
Tokenism, lip service, and symbolic use of parents is a common experience of parents in public schools.
Parents by nature (chemically, psychologically, and instinctively) are geared to look after their children. They want to make a difference in their children’s lives – in their lifetimes and in the lifetimes of their children.
How many old-timers can testify that their natural instincts to advocate for their children were deflected or crushed? How many saw their children’s interests become second-fiddle to the school system’s agendas?
* Currently, how many parents are frustrated in their dealings with the public school system? How would parents like to be treated? What would make a difference so that they feel more instrumental — in charge of their children’s education? How can parent energy be used to help students? Ask them.
So, when we are promised MORE parent involvement, let’s make sure it’s not more of the same – diversionary busywork, fundraising, endless meetings, etc. (20 other descriptions of ineffective displacement tactics could easily be listed.)
Parent involvement has come through many evolutions – participation, consultation, involvement, advisory, engagement. The term engagement is more in vogue now, connoting something more meaningful and direct.
Category Education Reform, Parent Tribal Memory | Tags: | No Comments
January 31, 2014 by Tunya
Can citizens effectively and efficiently manage their own affairs? Their own schools? Can self-governance work in education? YES, there is this hope for schools — provided there is limited central state interference and provided powerful special self-interest insiders don’t dominate.
That is the message Elinor Ostrom, a co-winner in 2009 Nobel Economics prize, passes on to help empower people at local levels to 1) challenge outsiders and self-interests, and 2) confidently evolve the procedures, rules, and oversight which serve their interests. She cautions against any one-size-fits-all model. Local people, local governance.
While Ostrom’s work has usually dealt with user-managed fish stocks, pastures, woods, lakes, and groundwater basins, she has also been embraced by development workers, especially in third world countries. Her general principles apply to any area where citizens manage their own projects — without the heavy fist of the state or the invisible hand of the market.
Ostrom distinguishes the three methods of provision: public, private, and civil. She sees more citizens becoming involved in policy analysis and application if they are to avoid becoming “the objects of an authoritarian regime” or exploited for profit.
Self-governing, adaptive organizations follow these principles:
1. Balance power at many levels within the structure (checks and balances)
2. Monitor performances and hold designated persons accountable
3. Accept conflict as healthy, indicating need for mediation or more problem-solving
4. Empower citizens and communities with enforceable rights to check abuses of authority
Category Book Reviews, Education Reform, Parent Tribal Memory | Tags: | No Comments
January 30, 2014 by Tunya
The term rent-seeking is defined as when teacher unions prefer different school inputs than parents primarily because their
objectives are not solely the maximization of student achievement.
Hoxby, C. M. 1996. “How Teacher Unions Affect Education Production.” Quarterly
Journal of Economics, v11: pp670-718.
The results indicate that “mobile” parents may be able to pressure teachers into accepting lower budget increases, higher levels of effort, and add fewer administrative encumbrances. Hoxby concludes that unions are primarily rent seeking
and may be a primary means in which the lack of district competition leads to an increase in inputs and worse student performance. Instead, these results arguably suggest that teachers unions effectively separate their rent-seeking quality from their role as educators.
Those opposed to teachers unions argue that they have separate agendas from
improving education quality. Hoxby (1996) argues that, aside from their goal of
improving education quality, teachers unions have a rent-seeking attribute—they prefer
different school inputs than parents primarily because their objectives are not solely the Castelo 5
maximization of student achievement. This rent-seeking quality could prevent optimal
inputs from entering the educational system. For example, teachers unions tend to dislike
the use of merit pay and tend to oppose anything that induces competition among schools
or teachers
Category Education Reform, Parent Tribal Memory, Uncategorized | Tags: | No Comments
January 29, 2014 by Tunya
Why is your education Ministry reluctant to seriously increase funding, as demanded by so many?
The reason is that most ALL Ministries are relatively well-connected to each other, and they ALL see the writing on the wall.
More cost efficiencies are the serious issue, thus talk of abolishing small school boards into regions, or moving to mayor control . . . The bloated administrations do NOT RELATE to student needs…..
So, as the systems implode, I'll keep showing how recommendations of the past were not heeded. Waste, narrow self-interest, corruption — all play a part today in people's cynicism about our public government education systems.
More reccommendations from 40 years ago from Public Testimony on Public Schools
6 State legislatures seek to coordinate all education related services.
7 State guarantee the right of teachers to organize and negotiate on matters relating to teachers' wages, welfare, and benefits.
8 Basic ground rules for bargaining be established to provide each side with balanced incentives to reach agreement.
9 Align budgetary procedures to guarantee that neither side is unfairly constrained in reaching a collective bargaining agreement.
10 Set rules and guidelines that guarantee fairness to all sides, public access, and public influence . . . open meeting laws be establilshed at all levels to encouragbe public discussion and dissemination of information.
11 Ensure adequate and proporetional representation in the political process through the election of all local school and school council members.
12. Appoint a task force in each state to revitalize the educational system as an accessible and responsive democratic institution providing equal educational apportunity for all.
[Well, I see that bringing forth these old recommendations certainly causes some “pause”. Forgot all those parts about collective bargaining which was a teachers’ cause. They must have seriously organized their inputs to this “citizens'” commission. Today people complain that it is the organized teacher union movement that is a major obstacle to education responsiveness. In contrast, the parent cause has still been left in the dust!]
Category Book Reviews, Obstacles, Parent Tribal Memory | Tags: | No Comments
Tunya Audain
It’s International !
These “common core” goals are being imposed, under different guises, in different parts of the world. Australia developed a New National Curriculum — six years in the making under Labor — which is now under Review by a new conservative government.
In Canada we have different provinces moving to 21st Century Skills but they’re on par with CC due to their radical shift from the 3Rs to competencies — collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, global citizenship, etc.
The one statement of Huckabee’s I do agree with is this: “I am steadfast in my belief that parents – parents – should ultimately decide the best venue for their children’s education, whether it’s public schools, private schools, religious schools, or home schools.”
It’s this viewpoint that needs much stronger advocacy from politicians and public. Anyone watching CC and its implementation will clearly see a lot of agents and private businesses far-removed from the local ground level in education. They will clearly see how these international efforts at standardizing — effectively dumbing down — are being coercively imposed. These methods and the “who’s who” alone should condemn CC and its spinoffs.
Parents are the very last to comprehend this radical usurpation of their primary role in education.
A professor at Hillsdale has done us all a great service because he not only studied the curriculum path but also the Teacher Guides. Terrence Moore, in his videos and book, describes part of the material on “Frankenstein”. A “hands-on” experience is to view a skit from “Saturday Night Live”. In the skit the word “fascist” is used. This is the instruction to the teacher:
“Point out the use of the term ‘fascist’. Explain its traditional political meaning and how it has been extended to refer to any right-wing extremist group.”
Naturally, some CC critics refute this “fascist” label and are taking this rather personally. However, some might simply see this as classical projection — the kettle calling the pot black. So, in a way, this is very revealing! It’s certainly adding to the mounting anxieties about 21st Century Learning campaigns
.