Five Best Blogs: An Algebra-Free Zone
From Jay Mathews: Large study says great teachers get little respect: wapo.st/Q7ezwD
How education reform can fight crime ow.ly/cBwBr via Wonklblogs @ezraklein
Why Can’t We End Poverty in America? - NYT ow.ly/cB0iQ Peter Edelman
Malcolm Gladwell's new article ostensibly about Alberto Salazar but really about school reform ow.ly/cBweH [like they all are, at least as i read them]
Two reports find Las Vegas to be worst city in the nation for education - Las Vegas Sun ow.ly/cB2Br
Sherman Dorn coins an acronym to describe all the other acronyms: YASBA (yet another silver-bullet approach) ow.ly/cBQyB
Merrow prescribes Comer, Core Knowledge, preschool, & early college @LearningMatters ow.ly/cBQIG Objections?
The Treacherous(?) Road to E-Learning - National Journal ow.ly/cBQtH
There are some significant merits to John Merrow's recommendations, including his early college idea (hardly new -- that concept was the origin of the College Board's Advanced Placement program), but since the latter proposal is closest to my interests, and since you ask for objections, I've got some (as usual). The key weakness, I think, is that vastly different experiences will all be covered by the same word, "college", likely deluding the gullible into believing they are receiving educations equivalent to what you received, Alexander, while that will be far from the case. Now I agree that what's going on now in those south Texas schools is better than the dropout crisis that Superintendent King inherited, but at some point people are going to call for stronger certification of learning than what is represented by the grades of those outstandingly unselective "college" teachers.
Posted by: Bruce | July 30, 2012 at 20:55 PM
On the other end of the spectrum, the high school I used to attend had launched a program that lets students skip their last year of high school, and complete the same courses at college... for simultaneous high school and college credit.
Posted by: Sarah | August 01, 2012 at 14:42 PM