Class Notes From April 14th

Tyack and Cuban Group Questions
Why is there a lack of teacher input at level of policy talk?
Policy officials may consider teacher opinions and ideas to be more negative based and too localized. Teacher input is considered to be at the bottom the food chain, since they are not administrators or previous policy makers. Also, teachers decide to not input all of their opinions due to burn out, negative thoughts on policy making altogether, or timidness to make a statement.

Do smart boards challenge T&C's assertions about technology as reform?
Tyack and Cuban would consider smartboards to be another tool that could be integrated into the classroom, but not a method to run the classroom itself. The classroom dynamic of a teacher communicating with students is still the primary form of education.

Does tracking help maintain graded schooling? Does the need to collect, compare and keep data help?
Tracking by graded schooling allows for easy and valid statistical information that leads to good individual data. Tracking can help with both ends of the student achievement spectrum. The collection of data is used heavily for political use and causes the "inertia" of institutions to keep from changing.

Do T&C support national standards, especially as a means to close the quality gap between states?
National standards are broken down into two parts, content and performance. While it is easier to understand content standards, it may not be as easy to implement performance standards because of differentiated school resources and long standing state standards.

Are there current "policy elites"?
Arnie Duncan- Sec. of Education, Bill Gates and his foundation, NYC's Superintendent Kline (missed the first name), there has been a movement from early progressives being university faculty and government official types to person with K-12 experience.

Are there current examples of successful implementation of technology?
Smartboards, internet instructional pages and computers in general

Is meaningful, lasting reform possible given Americans constantly changing visions of schooling?
Not really, it's a natural consequence of democratic society. The system will change as the people in and around it will change.

What are the consequences of moving our educational goal post?
if we move the goals up the expectation goes up, but the pressure on students goes up as well. On a broad scope, if the goals move up and are not met, people may begin to lose faith in the system.

School Choice Versions (Overall: Up Parental Support and Competition Creates Improvement)
Magnet schools: A public school with a focus, or types of majors within it. Can sometimes be a school within a school. It does integrate all students together somehow, usually through electives.

Open Enrollment: A public school concept that could eliminate attendance problems. Has a criteria for enrollment to limit admission and tries to create competition so schools will stive to get better. Transportation is a problem with this and generally limits students by geographic location.

Charter Schools: A public school that enters into a contract with the school district and maintain agreed upon academic standards, but keep their own policy freedoms. Most require a contract with parent to ensure their involvment (usually not a problem, these parents what in). Transportation and food is not allows provided. Can seem to be elite types, or exclusive.

Home Schools: Parents decide to self educate their kids. Reasons may vary, but religious, pedagogical and philosophical tend to lead the list. States have requirements or assessments that these kids need to pass. Some even have a printed curriculum parents can teach right off of. States could also have criteria for parents such as a certain degree. Internet advancements have changed home schooling including group schooling and specialized teaching areas for parents.

Virtual Schools: Online education of K-12 that allow certain students who missed long periods of school to catch back up. They do not have to pay for them. Usually for students who were expelled and then reinstated, or students who want to study AP courses not offered at there school like "Chinese".

Vouchers: Centered around Friedman article and Dr. Pope will discuss it in depth next week. Friedman thinks education should center on vocational and citizenship needs. Libertian Economic Theory. We should deregulate schooling.