via blogs.edweek.org
There's a lot of talk about the "achievement gap" on standardized tests. It's even been referred to as a "civil rights issue."
But "the powers that be," led by Secretary Arne Duncan and President Obama, don't seem to understand the underlying causes of the achievement gap, and are hell bent on extorting states to enact their pet strategies and plans, in spite of the fact that they've already been tried and found to fail.
I will also say once again how asinine it is that education policy is made without educators. Duncan has never been a teacher, and neither has Obama. Politicians do NOT belong making decisions about education policy - teachers should be making the decisions.
It could be that you are only talking about secondary education teachers here, but President Obama did teach for 12 years at the University of Chicago Law School (according to Wikipedia).
ReplyDeleteBut yes, These decisions should be made with input from teachers. And, I would argue, cognitive psychologists and educational psychologists. There is lots of research out there about how learning occurs. There seems to be a gap between psychology departments and education departments in universities, so the knowledge gained from research rarely merges with the practical knowledge that teachers have from their experiences.