It's basically impossible to make any sensible change regarding education policy and reform without first asking: What are we trying to achieve with our public education system? So I asked some experts what their thoughts are on the matter.
Though early in its academic life, Amplify is poised to transform the entire K-12 experience. The man leading this transformation is none other than former NYC Ed Chancellor Joel Klein. This is an interview with him.
During a recent Twitter binge, I encountered an op-ed from 1970 scolding the efforts of the United States to implement technology into the learning experience. It held up shockingly well to today's environment. For Government theory to turn into Government action, the Foundation must act as the intermediary.
2012 saw a wave of change in the ed-tech landscape, and the blogosphere was there to track the movement along the way. Here are some of my favorite posts from the year past.
As far as I can tell, people are not fed up with teachers individually, but instead with the system in which they operate. I'm not saying this is necessarily a just view, but simply the reality of perception. I see a parallel to this in Congress. Political pundits love to reference the fact that the approval rating for Congress in the United States is fluctuating somewhere around 10%. What they often leave out is that reelection rates in Congress have never fallen below 80%. In other words, American voters do not dislike the work of individuals in Congress (or at least in their own district); instead, they are fed up with how the overall body of Congress is operating. Similarly, there are very few people that disprove of the work teachers do (save the occasional outlier). We all love teachers and we want them to have every opportunity available to maximize their effectiveness. This may mean that they need to adjust their teaching styles to fit the options now at their disposal.
These rubber-roomers get paid a fine salary to perform such tasks as counting the amount of chairs in a school building (a month-long assignment) and practicing pitching a softball (unclear how successful this endeavor can be in a supposedly cramped space). While the $22 million being paid to these rubber-roomers (not counting the paychecks of substitutes taking their place) is certainly a step up from the $30-40 million before the Bloomberg crackdown, it's still TWENTY TWO MILLION DOLLARS being paid to "teachers" to accomplish NOTHING.
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