Comments on: How Washington is undermining the Bay State’s high education standards http://www.pioneerinstitute.org/blog/education/how-washington-is-undermining-the-bay-states-high-education-standards/ Public Policy Research Tue, 08 May 2012 20:17:19 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 By: Eduardo del Solar http://www.pioneerinstitute.org/blog/education/how-washington-is-undermining-the-bay-states-high-education-standards/comment-page-1/#comment-4697 Eduardo del Solar Tue, 04 May 2010 13:04:46 +0000 http://www.pioneerinstitute.org/blog/?p=2130#comment-4697 That is, why are our federal leaders racing to support “turnaround school” scenarios that have almost uniformly failed across the country. Don't blame the feds. Here in Boston Court St will screw thing up quite well when applying more of the same top down management strategies that continue to ruin school systems in our nation. Even though the BPS has no evaluations for teachers, they now claim the selection to keep teachers in turn around was based on performance evaluations that do not exist (based on Globe story) to select the teachers!!! Turn around schools will fail because of incompetent LOCAL, not federal, burrocrats. to insist that we secure union support when the unions, together with superintendents and school committees, have most often opposed hard reforms (including standards); We are against reform because reform or deform based on top down corporate principles has failed everywhere. We did not need Diane's book to prove that. Do we need Chief Knowledge Officers that have never been in a classroom telling skilled teachers how to teach? Bottom line is schools will continue to fail as long as buy in from teachers is excluded from the teaching process. Big kudos to Mass unions for rejecting the Race to the Bottom funding! That is, why are our federal leaders racing to support “turnaround school” scenarios that have almost uniformly failed across the country.

Don’t blame the feds. Here in Boston Court St will screw thing up quite well when applying more of the same top down management strategies that continue to ruin school systems in our nation.

Even though the BPS has no evaluations for teachers, they now claim the selection to keep teachers in turn around was based on performance evaluations that do not exist (based on Globe story) to select the teachers!!! Turn around schools will fail because of incompetent LOCAL, not federal, burrocrats.

to insist that we secure union support when the unions, together with superintendents and school committees, have most often opposed hard reforms (including standards);

We are against reform because reform or deform based on top down corporate principles has failed everywhere. We did not need Diane’s book to prove that. Do we need Chief Knowledge Officers that have never been in a classroom telling skilled teachers how to teach?

Bottom line is schools will continue to fail as long as buy in from teachers is excluded from the teaching process. Big kudos to Mass unions for rejecting the Race to the Bottom funding!

]]> By: Mary Gregor http://www.pioneerinstitute.org/blog/education/how-washington-is-undermining-the-bay-states-high-education-standards/comment-page-1/#comment-4558 Mary Gregor Tue, 06 Apr 2010 19:30:37 +0000 http://www.pioneerinstitute.org/blog/?p=2130#comment-4558 If found your piece in the WSJ interesting. However, you didn't mention the school choice aspect of reform and its impact on the improvements in Massachusetts education. Although this is only public, not private school choice, districts were forced to confront their shortcomings or lose students - usually the motivated ones. Allowing parents and students to walk out on an underperforming school staffed with clueless or arrogant administrators gives them the opportunity to attend a school with better curriculum and a more serious approach to learning. For my family, it was a godsend. If found your piece in the WSJ interesting. However, you didn’t mention the school choice aspect of reform and its impact on the improvements in Massachusetts education. Although this is only public, not private school choice, districts were forced to confront their shortcomings or lose students – usually the motivated ones. Allowing parents and students to walk out on an underperforming school staffed with clueless or arrogant administrators gives them the opportunity to attend a school with better curriculum and a more serious approach to learning. For my family, it was a godsend.

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