I can not be certain that the talk went in exactly the direction they expected. Surely its subtitle must have raised some eyebrows: Would Horace Mann Tweet? Whether my talk satisfied their expectations, perhaps I'll never know. But I can report that the audience was kind, attentive, and shared in the conversation that followed.
To read one person's thoughts on the fate of democratic control of America's public schools, and to learn if Horace Mann would Tweet were he alive today, please click on the following link:
Gene V Glass
Arizona State University
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University of Colorado Boulder
National Education Policy Center
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San José State University
The opinions expressed here are those of the authors and do not represent the official position of the National Education Policy Center, Arizona State University, University of Colorado Boulder, nor San José State University.
Don't forget about blogging
ReplyDeleteWould you allow the Badass Teachers to create memes from this piece? We will use social media to spread the wisdom of your words in graphic format.
ReplyDeleteRosemary, of course. Anything you wish. ~Gene
Deletetyvm. Will send as approved. One question, why did you use LIOO as OO page instead of UOO or NPE?
DeleteGodo point, Rosemary. I didn't do a vey good survey of what's out there. My bad.
DeleteNot a problem, just a question. Jeanette Deutermann has done a terrific job rallying LI parents, and she is on the board of NYSAPE.
DeleteUnfortunately it was Al Shanker himself who supported the development of charter schools. It's in his biography, Tough Liberal.
ReplyDeleteHi Gene, thanks for your advocacy. With your permission, I would like to post the pdf on my testing collection at http://bit.ly/testing_testing. Will link back to the original here, as well, of course. Also, very interested to get your perspective on some of the current concerns about the computerized tests and intersections of ethics/power/industry/profits: http://eduresearcher.com/2016/01/22/essa/
ReplyDeleteRoxana. Yes, please use it for all good causes.
DeleteHmm. In Feb 2009 you tweeted, "Staring in dumbfoundedness at Twitter." In Nov 2009 you tweeted, "9 months later, i still can find no use for Twitter."
ReplyDeleteSince then, you tweeted an inane question to which you received no response and had one retweet posted last year.
Your enthusiasm for Twitter seems to have been sparked by the consequences of a Diane Ravitch tweet. Isn't this an example of Simpson's Paradox, or a variation of the "paradox?"
If Horace Mann were alive today, gawd only knows whether he would tweet or what he would say if he did. That was then and this is now. But the title made for a good speech.
Seems to me it's too facile to credit the "Opt Out" movement or "social media" for ESSA. As Jack Jennings tells the story in his 2015 book (google for it), the consensus held from 1965 to the mid-80's that US pre-collegiate ed could be fixed by "more money to schools." Since then the belief from the mid-80s was that "standards, standardized tests, and sanctions " would do the trick. That's where you start telling the story, and it's not a happy one. With ESSA, the Federal Government punts the matter "back to the states"--disregarding the fact that the reason the feds got involved in 1965 was that the states had demonstrated they lacked the capacity. How it will go in the future remains to be seen, but "opting out" doesn't provide anything to build on. And relying on "social media" to do the job of R&D would be dubious to say the least.
"Opt Out" won't create new ideas, but it has the power to kill bad ideas.
DeletePost hoc, propter hoc fallacy?
DeleteThe thing is. 2/3 of the "standards, standardized test, sanctions" idea are still alive and well under ESSA. Standards and standardized tests are still firmly in place under the reauthorization. Ironically, the strongest interest supporting the tests are the civil rights groups who find the "achievement gap" inherent in the test construction useful to their agenda. The beat goes on.