I liked Nora Fleming's "Beyond School" blog through blogs.edweek.org. Her blog provides statistics and other information about current school programs being funded from various sponsors. Fleming writes about how much funding is being supplied for things like "Think Together" and "At Higher Achievement" and how these programs seem to be working. I like how she gives this information and her knowledge of education in a precise, logical manner without being too dry to her readers. She also supplies many other links to other reports in her blogs which I found to be helpful. Her blog might be a positive source for professional connections in one's teaching career.
I think it is important to include positive information when it comes to national education because most of the statistics can be so disheartening. Matt Miller's article, "First, Kill All the School Boards," was full of sad but true statistics about American schooling and funding for education. He writes, "Half of black and latino students in the U.S. don't graduate on time (or ever) from high school." That right there was enough to bum me out for the rest of my own school year. But also enough for me to want to be a part of a system that can change that. Miller knows that eliminating school boards would be beneficial but difficult since "...school boards are in effect, accountable to no one" but at "we can at least limit their role." He suggests that the U.S. have one set of national standards which I can agree with for progress purposes. If each state has different standards, how are we to gauge educational progress as a whole country? His 'solutions' or starts to sollutions have merit and are not unfathomable. They just demand a lot of hard work with changing an entire system ( that clearly is not working to its full potential). Fleming's blog and Miller's article, amongst other things, made me realize that I am politically UNaware and need to educate myself more on these national issues. I fully intend on doing so, by the way, fellow bloggers.
I was amazed at all of the education blogs out there. It was fascinating to read so many different perspectives on so many different subject's regarding education. Having no "education" background before starting the ATL Program, I was living in kind of blissful ignorance so to speak. My kids went to school, we attended parent/teacher conferences, chatted with my kids teachers here and there, etc. I was COMPLETELY unaware of all of the pressure teachers are under from EVERYWHERE! There's pressure from administration, the school board, pressure from local, state and federal policy makers, not to mention parents. I was unaware that politics was so intricately entwined in education. What an eye opening experience this has been for me…With all that teachers are up against in addition to relatively low salaries compared to other professions, its amazing that anyone chooses to be a teacher. Then my heart kicks back in and I think, teaching is truly a calling. No one does it because its easy or because they intend to be rich someday. We can either choose to curl up into the fetal position under all of the pressure or become educated about the issues and have a voice and the courage to speak up and become part of the process rather than a victim of it. So I , like you, realized how politically unaware I am. I too am going to make the effort to educate myself more on the issues! Thanks for your post! I enjoyed it!
ReplyDeleteThe "Beyond School" blog is really informative - I think it's helpful to know what is going on around the country and the world. Good way to get ideas and see what other school districts and cities are doing.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you and Miller that some type of national assessments would be useful in judging student progress but I worry that the country is so diverse that it would be diffucult to create a test that truly provided accurate results.