K12 Consensus

Working to reform education in a consensus-based environment.

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The Complexity of School Choice as Improvement Model

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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

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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.

Two Sides Come Together On Gun Research Funding

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NPR broadcast a story on the consensus process involving usually oppositional viewpoints.

Rachel speaks with former congressman Jay Dickey and Dr. Mark Rosenberg, president of The Task Force for Global Health, about the lack of funding gun research.