Comments for Education News Colorado Opinion & Commentary

Comment on From the editor: Parents propose marriage by Kevin Crosby

Kevin Crosby — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 22:22:19 +0000

As one who works in a rural area devoid of charter schools I am curious. I keep hearing about the concern that charters, as well as other forms of “atomization,” have a tendency to re-segregate the population. Indeed, we had a small and sputtering charter movement here, and in a discussion with one of the prospective board members, he confessed that one of his motivations for getting involved was to try to create a school where his kids would be separated from “those kids.” They wanted to close initial registration for the first year in February of the previous year, hoping that the enrollment would be stacked “in their favor.” Hmm… I can see that being “disadvantaged” can simply mean not having parents that value and/or are paying attention to educational options – or having parents that simply lack the skills or where-with-all to advocate for their children. Thus, students whose parents are educated or more “advantaged” work to get their kids in what they believe are the better schools, and the “traditional” schools end up “marginalized” with a population of the “left-behind.” The question then is who is advocating for the “left-behind”? It’s not like traditional school employees are going to coach the disadvantaged to try to get into better schools. Shouldn’t traditional schools be getting the message that they need to change in order to retain as well as attract students? Am I off base, or is this what seems to be going on? Is there something I’m missing here? How can we have choice while also ensuring that children coming from lower SES families get equal opportunity?

Comment on “Building a better teacher” by Mark Sass

Mark Sass — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 02:32:34 +0000

Kevin, differentiation is the result of recognizing that students learn at different rates and with different styles. When you and I went to high school in the 1970s, there was only a recognition that it was the teachers job to document these differences, not to recitify them.

Comment on “Building a better teacher” by Kevin Crosby

Kevin Crosby — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:32:33 +0000

jj, I really do feel I need to respond to what I believe are inaccurate assumptions on your part. First, I don’t believe I and most people who are critical of public education are naive enough to believe in a “utopian…perfectibility.” Also, I’m not sure “every generation of Americans finds a ‘new’ reason to flog public schools.” My central complaints are no different today than they were when I was a high school student in the 1970’s, or as you said earlier: “But hey, let’s face it, the schools of a hundred years ago were even then out of step with reality.” For example, art of “Building a Better Teacher” has to do with helping them become more skilled at differentiation. But differentiation to me seems a band-aid placed on a larger problem. As much as I support standards, I also fear that an unintended consequence of the standards movement is the further entrenching of the march to mediocrity. We spend a lot of resources trying to get the U and PP students to a rather mediocre P, but comparatively few on continuing to raise the ceiling on our brightest. Differentiation is a reaction to a system that tends toward the middle, a system that tends to lockstep movement through a relatively inflexible curriculum in such a way that teachers must either differentiate for the top and the bottom or risk numbing the minds of those who are ready to move on and creating learned helplessness for those who are not ready for the curriculum in the first place. This concern is not new to this generation or any other (think Dewey or Montessori).

Comment on From the editor: Parents propose marriage by van schoales

van schoales — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 11:07:49 +0000

Andrea thanks for your post, yes, I believe deeply in equality and indeed this is America, a great country where promises sometimes don’t meet reality, particularly when it comes to public education.

I’ve spent my entire career teaching, running/opening schools and working to change policy so that more disadvantaged kids can access the American Dream. I’ve mostly done this in the context of schools that were more integrated ethnically and socio-economically because it does make a difference. I think that we would mostly agree here.

The argument that DSST at Cole, or for that matter, West Denver Prep at Lake is causing more segregation in DPS is not supported by the evidence here in Denver.

As for Lake, I have been very supportive of getting high quality schools like West Denver Prep and starting a new high quality IB school in the Lake building. The current school housed at Lake has not worked. It is failing far too many kids so I would not defend the program or the adults running the school.

Comment on “Building a better teacher” by jj

jj — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:24:01 +0000

Oh yes, the Efficiency Movement. Now there is a fascinating study in sociology And weird. And as you say, we are still at it. But we’re Americans after all and Kevin, maybe we do have a worldview we pursue as every generation of Americans finds a “new” reason to flog public schools: the fervent, even utopian, belief in the perfectibility of the product er, student/citizen/worker.

Comment on Systemic change vs. atomization by Kevin Crosby

Kevin Crosby — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 22:35:50 +0000

I’m not sure systemic change and atomization are mutually exclusive. My hope is, since atomization is happening anyway, that it will inspire and motivate more comprehensive systemic change and thus “improvement in larger numbers.”

Comment on Name some great movies about kids, schools by Jeff Buck

Jeff Buck — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:59:24 +0000

Here’s a recent documentary that’s doing well on the festival circuit in CA. I have not seen it yet but everyone I know that has speaks highly of it.

http://www.racetonowhere.com/

Comment on “Building a better teacher” by Jeff Buck

Jeff Buck — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:29:57 +0000

jj: “The inefficiencies were huge …”

And in that setting, the devotees of the Efficiency Movement set about correcting this situation by applying the same empirical tools used to analyze and improve manufacturing processes.

I wonder how many working teachers have even heard of the Efficiency Movement. Quite a bit of what goes on these days reminds me of what went on during that time. Of course, having no idea about it keeps us from choosing not to recycle the same failed ideas.

So, in my strongly held opinion, another element of “building a better teacher” must be an adequate exposure to the foundations of education (both history and philosophy). Ignorance of what has been done and thought in education does nothing to advance reform.

Comment on From the editor: Parents propose marriage by Andrea Merida

Andrea Merida — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:50:32 +0000

Van, how come it’s ok for you to point out all these community leaders and electeds are behind this Cole-DSST idea, but you were nowhere to be found when the VERY SAME thing happened at Lake?

Double-standard, much?

As Mr. Augden pointed out, charters have a tendency to segregate. It appears that you are thumbing your nose at a process that will ensure that education is equitable for ALL Cole-Whittier kids. Make fun all you want, but I will fight to make sure we have parity and equity in DPS, whether you and the other gentry like it or not.

Don’t you believe in equality, Van? This is America.

Comment on “Building a better teacher” by Kevin Crosby

Kevin Crosby — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:34:31 +0000

jj: “I doubt there is any way to rescue the souls of children from the maw of industrial design. If only we could start over…oh yeah, what IS our worldview that informs the decisions we make about what we call education?”

Some are trying to start over by creating magnet schools and charters, private schools, and home school networks. This is why it is imperative that “regular” public schools reinvent themselves! Unfortunately, many interested in rescuing “the souls of children from the maw of industrial design” are simply checking their kids out. Many would-be high school students check themselves out.

As for “our worldview” – Therein lies the rub. There is no “our worldview,” but I would maintain that if we are not careful the tyranny of the majority will dictate… This is why we need choices whenever and wherever possible, even in rural areas. Since my first teaching job in an alternative program in the 1980’s I have maintained that if more “regular” schools looked like “alternative” schools there would be no need for “alternative” schools. Every school should be an alternative.