Along with other federal departments under the new administration, the U.S. Department of Education has been staffed not by a policy or practice expert, but by an ideologue. And related to what is known about the new Secretary of Education is her advocacy for school choice in the form of vouchers, despite what the most recent research reveals about their ineffectiveness as a school improvement model. But, as this article well demonstrates, governmental education reform efforts are rarely about improving instructional practice, and instead about the more politically-oriented governance. Too often, legislative school reform omits those most informed, and those most affected: the practitioners and students.
A president’s job is a special kind of difficult — not just demanding, but exceedingly complex. One of President Obama’s advisers once said that nothing comes to the desk of the president unless it’s “almost impossible” — and he has to figure it out.
The selection (of DeVos) has raised larger questions about who should finance education, how schools should be held accountable, and even how we define the value of a public school system.
A major factor negatively influencing school choice and market pressures as the sole direction of education improvement efforts are the lack of immediacy, where school quality is more difficult to measure than in other areas of the economy, like Goodman’s examples of restaurants and grocery stores.
Paul Reville, Professor, Harvard Graduate School of Education Founder – Education Redesign Lab speaks during Poverty Matters: Making the Case for a System Overhaul at the Harvard Graduate School of Education inside Askwith Hall. Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographer
Harvard’s Graduate School of Education and Professor Paul Reville organize a series of nationwide meetings to address how high-quality educational opportunities can be experienced by students other than those in affluent neighborhoods. The solution? Community involvement, as teachers and principals cannot be solely responsible for any turnaround.
Along with other federal departments under the new administration, the U.S. Department of Education has been staffed not by a policy or practice expert, but by an ideologue. And related to what is known about the new Secretary of Education is her advocacy for school choice in the form of vouchers, despite what the most recent research reveals about their ineffectiveness as a school improvement model. But, as this article well demonstrates, governmental education reform efforts are rarely about improving instructional practice, and instead about the more politically-oriented governance. Too often, legislative school reform omits those most informed, and those most affected: the practitioners and students.
The complexities of problem-solving the near impossibilities, and lessons for teachers and leaders alike involve critical thinking, collaboration, effective communication, access to information, and vision. What would we do if we knew we had a future president in our classroom?
