K12 Consensus

Working to reform education in a consensus-based environment.

You are here: Home / Archives for Education Reform

The Complexity of School Choice as Improvement Model

by

school-choice

The Harvard Graduate School of Education‘s online journal Usable Knowledge published an interview with educational economist Joshua Goodman regarding the implications of President Elect Donald Trump’s selection of Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education. Specifically,

The selection (of DeVos) has raised larger questions about who should finance education, how schools should be held accountable, and even how we define the value of a public school system.

A major factor negatively influencing school choice and market pressures as the sole direction of education improvement efforts are the lack of immediacy, where school quality is more difficult to measure than in other areas of the economy, like Goodman’s examples of restaurants and grocery stores.

Inside Detroit’s Radical Experiment to Save Its Public Schools

by

Detroit’s Cass Technical High School (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

Referencing this older article about the complete restructuring of Detroit Public Schools, but it’s instructive for education reform efforts when parent Arlyssa Heard’s comments are considered:

“We have people making decisions who do not have children here and don’t know anything about what educators are facing in the classroom.”

Education reform efforts need to involve educators and parents, reliant on research and best practice and local influence, absent of ideology.

The quest to create an education system that works for all kids

by

We’re afraid to admit that demographics still predict destiny.

Paul Reville, Professor, Harvard Graduate School of Education Founder - Education Redesign Lab speaks during Poverty Matters: Making the Case for a System Overhaul at the Harvard Graduate School of Education inside Askwith Hall. Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographer
Paul Reville, Professor, Harvard Graduate School of Education Founder – Education Redesign Lab speaks during Poverty Matters: Making the Case for a System Overhaul at the Harvard Graduate School of Education inside Askwith Hall. Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographer

Harvard’s Graduate School of Education and Professor Paul Reville organize a series of nationwide meetings to address how high-quality educational opportunities can be experienced by students other than those in affluent neighborhoods. The solution? Community involvement, as teachers and principals cannot be solely responsible for any turnaround.

More information can be found at Education Redesign Lab.

Why America’s Schools Have A Money Problem

by

This article, posted by NPR‘s Morning Edition, provides insight into the current economic state of American education, with historical origins, and perspectives between low-income and affluent communities and school districts. It began with a question: “How do we pay for our schools?”

Today, our school funding system is infinitely more complex, but still based on that one, powerful idea — that education is a public good, and paying for it could be considered a public obligation.

map-us
Source: Education Week, U.S. Census Bureau. Credit: Alyson Hurt and Katie Park/NPR

 

Lawmakers show they couldn’t care less about the health of Detroit’s schools

by

Governor Rick Snyder

How Michigan’s legislators, Governor Rick Snyder, and the pro-charter school lobby circumvented bipartisanship and consensus to force a narrow ideological solution on Detroit’s schools.

When a British Prime Minister sold out Czechoslovakia to the Nazis, Winston Churchill acidly said words to the effect that he had been forced to choose between war and shame.

“He’s chosen shame now; he’ll get war later,” he said.

In Lansing this week, the Michigan Legislature had the choice between a plan that would actually give the Detroit schools a chance to revive, or selling out to the charter school lobby, which wants no restraints on terrible charter schools.

After a day of thinking about it, they unhesitatingly chose shame.

Speaker Kevin Cotter