Some reading from this week. Remember to share what you find interesting.
Five Myths About Pay for Success
Yet another method for Wall Street to undermine education in order to make a buck.
How Canada Became an Education Superpower
As always, I'll dispute the metrics used, but still an interesting look at how Canada handles education.
The Truth About Charters College Acceptance Rates
An op-ed from the El Paso Times explains why folks should hesitate to be impressed by charters that claim all their grads go to college.
Not Just Philanthropy
How the philanthropists who back ed reform consider political contributions an important part of their strategy (or maybe vice versa).
The Backlash Against Screen Time at School
The headline is completely misleading, but this article provides another nice follow up on the silicon valley wonderschool, AltSchool.
Why I Dread Returning To American Public School
She's coming back from Germany, where families pay a little more, and get a lot more.
The Long Record of Voter Rejection of Vouchers
A great compendium by Edd Doerr of all the times voters have said no to vouchers.
Bill Gates Throws More Money Around
The TFA-er founded Educators For Excellence is just another reformster astro-turf shell game-- but Gates is shoveling money at them.
Why Don't People Vote for Public Education?
Nancy Flanagan addresses one of those great modern mysteries.
Grit Is Sh!t
A look at how grit becomes an excuse to avoid helping students who need the assistance.
From the article about German schooling: "Based on their academic performance in fourth grade, children in Germany are divided into three tracks. I do not agree with this system but high-performing children benefit greatly."
ReplyDeleteWell, yes, exactly. That is a really huge caveat. That is exactly what charters want to do. Take the "high achievers" (those we pretend are the smartest and most motivated, but who in reality are just the best test takers, most likely because they have socio-economic advantages to begin with), "rescue" them from having to be schooled with "those kids", give them all the advantages and, voila! you've created the next generation of leaders. And if you don't make the cut at 4th grade, well, sucks to be you, but it's a lot cheaper to fully educate only a third of your population.
Talk to me when any country figures out how to fully educate *all* of their children. In the meantime, I think I prefer the U.S. system because at least a few more of those non-"achievers" have a chance of making it, even if people have to sell some wrapping paper to get there.