|
|
9486 in the collection
The Conversation: Education chief wants a transformation
Ohanian Comment: The paper invites you to "join the conversation" by posting your comments in their forum. Here is one reader comment: You can not make teachers responsible for the economic status of the parents in a community. Economic status is directly correlated to student success. High income school populations out perform low income school populations for a variety of reasons, including parent understanding of the value of education, parent involvement in the education of their child, support for the school programs and a host of other things like children getting glasses and health care when they need it.
But a lot of the comments are nasty, directed against poor people and immigrants. Don't go there.
Interesting, isn't it, that the public takes their rage out on poor people rather than the corporate politicos like Duncan?
Mr. Duncan, dance as much as you want: much of real progress is not measurable in elementary school.
Someone take away this would-be reporter's press releases. She dares to call Duncan "a one-man whirlwind in a battle against stifling bureaucracy," when what he is just a stooge for the corporate-politico plan. Hey, don't take my word for it: See Black Agenda's characterization of him here.
The reporter ends by parroting "It isn't about the money."
Indeed.
It's always about the money.
By Pia Lopez
plopez@sacbee.com
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is a man in a hurry. Children, he says, have only one chance to get an education: "We cannot wait because our children cannot wait."
And he's a one-man whirlwind in a battle against stifling bureaucracy at all levels – whether at the Department of Education in Washington or in rules and regulations at the local level that get in the way of efforts to improve student achievement.
This may not seem a traditional agenda for a Democratic administration. But it may have a chance at being effective, because the president and his education secretary can challenge traditional constituencies and the pathologies of the status quo without anyone doubting their commitment to public education. Naysayers to reform cannot claim there's a privatization agenda at play.
The bottom line for public education is that whatever difficulties swirl around a school and a community – principal turnover, changing curriculum, poverty and violence, student troubles at home – the classroom has to be a refuge of learning. And those in it have to have, as Duncan puts it, "a fundamental, unalterable belief that every child can learn."
Students of all backgrounds have to show progress from the day they enter school on Sept. 8 to the day they leave school on June 17. And that progress is measurable. Let's stop dancing around that.
But Duncan realizes individual classrooms cannot be islands. They alone cannot assure the progress we need in student achievement. As Duncan points out, of 100,000 schools across the nation, about 5,000 schools underperform year after year, about 5 percent. About half of these chronically underperforming schools, he observes, are in big cities, a third in rural areas and the rest in suburbs and medium-sized towns.
He's calling for radical change.
"In the months and years ahead," he has said, "we will ask thousands of communities across America to close and reopen schools based on data showing that they are underperforming. That has never happened before and it will be as difficult as it is important."
That will require that we find 5,000 "high-energy, hero principals" to take over these struggling schools.
It will require finding 250,000 "great teachers who are willing to do the toughest work in public education."
Duncan doesn't expect this to happen overnight. But he does expect it to begin now. "We can start with one or two hundred in the fall of 2010, and steadily build until we are doing 1,000 per year."
He has four basic models in mind for transforming broken schools:
1. The children stay and the staff leaves. Teachers can reapply for their jobs and some get rehired, but most go elsewhere. His view is that, "At least half of the staff and the leadership should be completely new if you really want a culture change."
2. Replace staff and leadership and create experimental public schools run by charter organizations, universities or nonprofit groups.
3. For smaller communities with fewer options for new staff, keep most of the existing staff but change the culture by increasing the school day and school year; providing new flexibility around budgeting, staffing and the school calendar; changing curriculum.
4. Close underperforming schools and re-enroll the students in better schools.
And he expects action now: "We should be starting today to build teams that will take over schools in the fall of 2010."
In California, if we went after the 5 percent of the lowest-performing schools, that would mean tackling 267 elementary schools, 65 middle schools and 58 high schools. In fall 2010, we could start with five to 11 elementary schools, one to three middle schools and one to three high schools and steadily build up. This is doable.
Of course, the secretary doesn't make these kinds of decisions. Closing underperforming schools is a state and local responsibility. His job, as he sees it, is to support that effort with funding – and that's what Race to the Top is, a $4.35 billion pot of money.
So when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger called a special session on education Aug. 20, he saw the urgency of the situation. With the first round of Race to the Top applications due in December (perhaps being postponed to February), the state doesn't have long to work with lawmakers, local districts, nonprofits and others to have action plans in place for fall 2010.
The state Senate, too, saw the urgency of the situation on a bipartisan basis. The education committee held hearings in August and introduced bipartisan legislation on Aug. 26. The Senate already is holding hearings around the state on opportunities for local districts – how districts, school boards, teachers, parents and business leaders can get involved.
The Assembly, however, has been slow to act. Finally, in the week after its regular session ended on Sept. 11, Speaker Karen Bass announced a special committee and a schedule of hearings. But the first hearing isn't until the end of this month and the last is in mid-December. Even if application deadlines are delayed from December until February, this is inadequate.
To make this latest attempt at educational transformation work, it will take the work of districts, superintendents, principals, teachers, foundations, charters, nonprofits, parents, elected officials and businesses. And they will have to put pressure on lawmakers.
And it isn't about the money. The new funds, as Duncan points out, are merely a way to produce a needed sense of urgency. Will California move at the pace dictated by those determined to resist change? Or will it seize this chance for real turnaround in broken schools? The months of October and November will tell.
— Pia Lopez
Sacramento Bee
2009-09-21
http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/story/2193422.html
INDEX OF OUTRAGES
Pages: 380
[1] 2 3 4 5 6 Next >> Last >>
|
