A Challenge to Colleges of Education

The Dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education has issued a strong challenge to colleges of education:  In a CNN Report, Dean McCartney said (among other things):

[Arne] "Duncan has challenged education schools "to move out of the Ivory Tower and into the schoolhouse." I agree. We need to conduct research that is rigorous and relevant to the pressing problems in education -- not research for scholars that lies fallow in journals."

If the RTTP approach isn't sound as many claim, what are the researchers in the nation's colleges of education reporting that demonstrates what should be done?

90 Good Years and Counting

John I. Goodlad celebrates his 90th birthday today.  He was born on August 19, 1920 in North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Children throughout the world have benefited from his contributions to the improvement of education.

As he reaches this milestone he continues his work writing and pushing others to think how communities and educators can work together to see that schools are constantly renewing.

A number of us joined him tonight for what he claims was his first birthday party.  Anyone with a message they would like passed on to John can add it as a comment here and I will share it with him.

Simple but wrong

For many who seek political solutions to strengthening the educational enterprise, the task seems simple. Federal, state, and local authorities act as if they can solve whatever the system’s ailments are by creating policies that establish high standards and test students to make sure that these standards are being met.


High expectations for student performance are essential but there is plenty of evidence that the task of shaping educational experiences that are valuable for all children is much more complicated and difficult than simply increasing pressure on systems to be accountable. The very diversity that makes the nation strong plays out in our cities, towns, and villages in many ways.

We need to insist on local solutions by educators working in close harmony with a wide array of community members. We need to make sure that all voices are heard in the conversation. Persisting in the current approaches will lead to a more fractured society in which the haves and have-nots both lose.

Number 1 at what?

In his 17th blog entry Roger Soder addresses issues associated with our leader's preoccupation with being number 1.  (Some of my Canadian friends laugh at our obsession with being better than anyone else.)

Soder asks us to consider if everyone really needs a BA or "some" higher education.  He leaves us pondering whether there are some more important matters about which we should be striving to be number 1 if we insist on measuring our efforts in competition with other countries.

Click on his page in the right hand column then return here to add your own comments on the matter.  Surely this is a question of significance to many.

Here we go again

This note from "EducationNews.org":

"Paul Peterson - Within 10 years, half of all high school courses will be taken online, say Clay Christensen and Michael Horn. Bill Gates has now trumped that prediction with an even stronger one: within five years the best higher education will be available on the internet."

Obviously I am getting old.  It seems lilke only yesterday that all schooling was going to be via the radio; then all schooling was going to be through television.  Now it's all going to be on the web. 

My guess is that 10 years from now when the pundits are predicting the domination of web-based schooling there will be some new technology that will make the web as we know it obsolete -- what do you think?

Is it ethical?

Randy Cohen, the New York Times "ethicist" shared his response to the following issue in the Sunday magazine for August 6th:

"My husband donated time and money to computerize a public-middle-school-teacher’s successful remedial math program. It is up and running in that teacher’s classroom. A number of people, including the school’s principal, have come to see it in action and are interested in using it in their private- and public-school classrooms. This teacher would be pleased to sell it to them and other math teachers. May this public-school classroom ethically be a showroom for interested visitors? NAME WITHHELD, NEW MEXICO"

He began his answer saying:

"It may not. This is a classroom, not a showroom; these are students, not a focus group. In middle school, all “interested visitors” are disturbing or at least distracting. Even if the customers — sorry, pedagogic observers — enter on little cat feet, the kids will notice, and their attention, and learning, will be at least momentarily ruffled."

Click on Randy's name above to read the rest of his response.

My questions:


Do you agree with his answer?

Specifically, do you agree with his assertion that any visitor is apt to distract the students?

If you agree with his assertion about visitors, what are the implications for evaluating the quality of teaching in a classroom?

Declaration of Education Rights

Jim Strickland has drafted a "Declaration of Education Rights." 

I agree with some of his statements, disagree with others, and think that some of them contradict each other.  For example, compare his proposed Article 8 and Article 4.  Is he consistently talking about "education," or is he shifting between education and schooling?

His draft statements are on the LODS page of this Blog.

Take a look and tell us what you think by adding your comments below.  Would agreement on such a statement be helpful?  What changes would you suggest?  Does it propose a number of rights that don't exist now?

Promising Change

A non-profit supported by private groups including the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation is providing teams of teachers to schools that are involved in turn-around efforts.  The teachers on the teams serve as leaders, are contracted for longer times so they can plan and work together, and provide experience in urban turn around schools that often have faculties composed on mostly first and second year teachers.

This looks like a strategy that other groups such as the school-university partnerships in the NNER should consider.

Learn more at New York Times .

At first glance it appears that the idea could be strengthened by adding principal and community engagement specialists to the team so that the teacher leaders and adminisrative leaders could be linked effectively with the community to gain even more success in their renewal efforts.  Anyone know of an instance where such a broader approach is taking place?

Educate to Tweet

Biz Stone (co-founder of Twitter) is quoted by the San Francisco Chronicle with an explanation of why it is important for everyone to learn to read.

"If you can't read, you can't tweet."

Find the story at Chronicle article .

And now we know why everyone needs a good education. 

Actually -- the approach being taken by the techies at Twitter in the new school they are creating sounds like it is worth learning more about.

Twisting science

Those who prescribe educational panaceas are often guilty of actions similar to those of others who twist good science to serve their preconceptions.  Check out this example of what happens when polticians and others abuse science. Nadine Ball shared this example with me.  Do you have others? Are findings about programs such as Teach for America or Charter Schools subjected to the same kind of spin?

Those who can't do -- teach

(Posted 8 3 10)
I used to think this was an insult to teachers -- now, with a slight twist in wording -- "those who can't do -- want to be in charge of  education" -- I think it may not only be true but a major source of our problems in educating the youth of this nation.


(Posted 8 5 10)
Consider this example of a group that often can’t do – but seems to think they have all the answers for education.

Why do business leaders insist they know what is best for schools? What is it that they have accomplished recently that demonstrates they have the answers to how our communities and the educators in them should proceed?

Consider the recent successes of American business: the bailed-out investment firms, banks, and mortgage lenders; the joys of flying on our airlines; the wisdom and ethics of those who managed Enron; the environmental messes caused by the oil companies; the bonuses paid to top executives whose companies lose money; the auto companies that required Federal loans to stay in business; the newspapers and magazines that are closing shop.

(8 7 10) Just saw that "disgraced HP CEO" received buy out of nearly 28 million for his bad behavior (Two days later an article said it was 40 million -- but who's counting?)

Is it possible that these experts should clean up their own houses before they pontificate regarding enterprises about which they know so little?

(Posted 8 6 10)

For more evidence of the problems with business leaders' approach to solving school problems see August 6, 2010 New York Times report on what non-educator leaders and Wall Street bankers managed to do to the finances of the Denver Public Schools.

(Posted 8 4 10)
Before I could add to my opening statement, Diane Ravitch addressed the topic on  Valerie Strauss' Blog: "The Answer Sheet."  Check it out by clicking on the link in the right hand column of this page.

AED Scholars

AED Scholars are university- and school-based educators who are making positive contributions to the education of children for life in a democracy.  Check out the AED Scholars page by clicking on the page listing in the right hand column. 

The scholars are engaged in a wide-range of diverse activities -- if you have suggestions for what kind of work they should be doing or want to know more about this group add your own comment below.