Reform

That was... disappointing. I just watched the Michelle Rhee interviews and I feel like nothing substantial was said. She completely dodged the question of standardized testing, shouldered aside the matter of HOW we can determine who effective teachers are, and never mentioned legislation at all. There was a great deal of talk about the system being broken, but they barely touched on the ways that it is hurting and made almost no useful mention of how it can be healed. She talked of closing ineffective schools and firing ineffective teachers, but not how you determine which schools and teachers those are or how we can be sure the others are any better. She didn't even seem to have a firm stance on whether charter schools are part of the answer. Or if sometimes less effective teachers might just be in need of training. I know other states don't ask as much as PA does for certification. I know for a fact that there's at least one district in MD that I could get a job in now being more than halfway through my program, as long as I continued working toward the degree. That's a little scary, though a part of me feels like that might be a good direction for student teaching to go, paying tuition to very nearly work full time for a semester is a little hard to swallow. That's the way it is though. As far as reform goes, I think it has to come from every direction to work. From the bottom with us the teachers doing everything in our power to reach every kid and teach meaningful lessons. From the center, with administrations who support their faculty, who understand best practice and know it when they see it, who help to craft the conditions under which good teaching flourishes and learning thrives. From above with legislators who listen to educators and take the time to understand what promotes learning, because everything can fall apart because of one well-intentioned but poorly crafted law or budget cut. From every side parents need to look out for their kid's interests and keep all the other players in line. Each element has the power to resist the needed changes, so real progress will happen when they work together... or at least go in similar directions. Herding cats. Oh and can we please let the testing companies go hang? I detest the thought that so much of our schooling is in the hands of FOR PROFIT entities (also my problem with some of the cyber schools). Let's instead work with some employers and build our own tests to suit the needs of our economy, not the ideals of an outdated academic standard. Maybe we'll let the companies print those for us, AFTER we as educators and community have built them.