tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post8937799978620798630..comments2024-03-28T19:47:39.985-04:00Comments on CURMUDGUCATION: Happy Frickin' Birthday, Nation At RiskPeter Greenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16511193640285760299noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post-69069307577318475882018-06-11T14:54:09.099-04:002018-06-11T14:54:09.099-04:00Between 1968 and 1983 there was some progress towa...Between 1968 and 1983 there was some progress toward equalization of educational facilities, there was desegregation, increased funding for public schools, movement away from curriculum tracking (which is noted by "A Nation at Risk" in a coded reference to the abandonment of policies adopted to meet the sputnik challenge) There was some progress toward closing the "achievement gap." <br /><br />After A Nation at Risk the public schools are put on a semi-starvation diet (steady defunding), racial re-segregation, "mending not ending" ability grouping and a growing share of newly hired teachers who exited the teaching profession within a few years. Charter schools and high stakes testing had been around for a long time before the 2001 education bill marketed as "No Child Left Behind" was passed by Congress. <br /><br />Reformsters have ruled the roost for 35 years, and in that time have set the stage for a real crisis to be resolved via the charter-ization of the public school system. Inequitable governance has fueled the growth of charter schools. A Nation at Risk sounded the alarm about too much egalitarianism "at the expense of excellence." Post 1983 educational policies have produced a more more rigidly segregated, stratified and unequal system of education. There are K-12 education policies with a disparate impact on students of color, "color blind" racism, such as those that produce the "churn" of teachers in many high poverty schools. Doug Mannhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16504498605645918638noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post-68358838727932149652018-04-30T15:10:24.800-04:002018-04-30T15:10:24.800-04:00Over 40% of children in the US live near, at, or b...Over 40% of children in the US live near, at, or below the poverty line. We are not a nation at risk, but we certainly have an underclass that finds itself mired in generational poverty and dependence, living lives that have moved well beyond risk. Our struggling students, almost without exception, come from this population of impoverished Americans who have been deprived of hope by our de-facto plutocracy and the beat down produced by prolonged institutional racismAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com