tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8285353362748898720.post4899803793560525027..comments2024-03-28T06:53:24.022-05:00Comments on a blog about school: The choice they don’t want you to haveChrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12919030671050831251noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8285353362748898720.post-80551729179800272022012-06-29T13:28:08.404-05:002012-06-29T13:28:08.404-05:00Thanks, everyone, for the comments.
Teacherken --...Thanks, everyone, for the comments.<br /><br />Teacherken -- Agreed. Again, right now there is no way my local school board could make this happen, because of the constraints imposed on it by the state. I can't say I'm hopeful, either.<br /><br />Kay -- Yes, there is no escaping it. I wish I knew the answer to your question.<br /><br />Becca -- Under the Constitution, any public school that discriminated on the basis of race, or violated the separation of church and state, could be legally challenged.<br /><br />But yes, some school districts would make choices that I would not like. I think that's just in the nature of pluralism. (More extended discussion <a href="http://ablogaboutschool.blogspot.com/2011/10/why-is-school-choice-so-unappealing.html" rel="nofollow">here</a>.) <br /><br />I'm not an absolutist about local control, because I do agree, for example, that Constitutional restraints have to apply everywhere. But I think it's a mistake to raise too many policy choices to that level. I just don't trust the impulse to use centralization to impose good policies on other communities against their will.<br /><br />Your school sounds terrific, and if charter school laws have enabled it to exist, that's a point in their favor. But, as you note, the school is still responsible for meeting NCLB's test score requirements, so I can't help but think that if test-score concerns are not driving your practices, they may have to at some point -- that's the whole point of the law. I'd like to have the freedom to choose a different educational philosophy from the one that sees raising test scores as the only bottom-line goal.Chrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07559356125770114400noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8285353362748898720.post-34134044501977285032012-06-29T13:08:25.532-05:002012-06-29T13:08:25.532-05:00Stuart -- I don't see myself as arguing for vo...Stuart -- I don't see myself as arguing for vouchers, but for decentralization and local control. If each school could be what its particular community wanted it to be, I think that would break up the awful sameness that currently runs through the public schools.Chrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07559356125770114400noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8285353362748898720.post-4028321875745264372012-06-29T08:59:32.702-05:002012-06-29T08:59:32.702-05:00I found your blog through Diane Ravitch's blog...I found your blog through Diane Ravitch's blog, and I thought that I would share my comment from there:<br /><br />See, the ironic thing is that I work at the kind of school you're describing — and it’s a charter school (the non-profit kind with a community- and parent-run board, not the corporate kind). Because the school is a charter, it has more leeway. The charter has a play-based curriculum where the kids move around a lot. There’s no homework K-2. Students’ interests decide the science curriculum, although we make sure that they end up eventually hitting all of the state standards. Teachers are treated as professionals. And while students have to take the state standardized tests — it is a public school, after all — they do not drive the curriculum. The assumption is that if kids are engaged and learning, they’ll do okay on the tests. (It’s a new school, so we’ll see if that is true.) Wasn’t the original point of charter schools to provide genuine educational alternatives?<br /><br />But the problem with choice is that you can’t really have a public policy that embraces some kinds of charter school philosophies and not others (although it would be a good step in the right direction to nix the corporate ones). To take the your idea of “local schools,” it sounds great at first. But it assumes that communities are progressive. What if one local community decides that they want schools what only teach what’s in the Bible, or (like the Texas Republicans) they are against teaching any critical thinking skills because it makes kids not trust their parents? Or what if an under-privileged community is convinced by a smooth-talking reformer that what they really want is a skill-and-drill curriculum? How can we say yes to my school and no to their schools?Beccanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8285353362748898720.post-29945862070334173402012-06-29T08:25:07.173-05:002012-06-29T08:25:07.173-05:00Great summary of the problem. We live in Georgia a...Great summary of the problem. We live in Georgia and have three children. I would love to choose a neighborhood school for my children that is more like the ones I used to work in years ago, before NCLB and RTTT, but there is no escaping the plethora of tests that teachers, administrators and other parents believe we must prepare the kids for. So the tests drive the education. <br />Why is it so hard for some to see the insanity of this?Kaynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8285353362748898720.post-21853638520501005482012-06-29T07:44:33.650-05:002012-06-29T07:44:33.650-05:00not just up to local school board. Schools are a ...not just up to local school board. Schools are a state function - you would have to get state legislature and governor to agree. Increasing numbers of state legislators are either owned by ALEC which makes them hostile to public education or in bed with those interested in making profits. I am not hopefulteacherkenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02225551101423123044noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8285353362748898720.post-65854326226028880422012-06-29T07:22:54.001-05:002012-06-29T07:22:54.001-05:00I tend to agree with you that school voucher would...I tend to agree with you that school voucher would be a better way of exercising school choice.Stuart Buckhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05731724396708879386noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8285353362748898720.post-52046421171189446102011-03-07T23:57:37.179-06:002011-03-07T23:57:37.179-06:00KD -- I don't know. I think it all comes down...KD -- I don't know. I think it all comes down to whether you could find school board members who would take the initiative on those issues. If the school board were given the freedom to make its own decisions about educational policy, and were willing to do so, I think they could hire a superintendent who would put them into practice. But I always think it's a miracle that anyone at all is willing to run for school board.Chrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12919030671050831251noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8285353362748898720.post-15153749226990167762011-03-01T21:31:04.523-06:002011-03-01T21:31:04.523-06:00This is an interesting concept. Would we be able ...This is an interesting concept. Would we be able to find a group of people, from school board officials to teachers, genuinely concerned about running an educational system the way the community wished them to?KDhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07883213697051461818noreply@blogger.com