Well, we have a new President, and if Barack Obama follows through on his campaign rhetoric, that's going to mean a change in direction for education policy. So which way should we go? One proposal that's been put forward by a group of educators is called the Broader, Bolder Approach, and its authors insist that, if we really want to close achievement gaps, we can't only look inside schools at things like teacher quality and curriculum. Those things are important, they say, but to really bring about changes inside schools, we have to think in terms of the bigger picture, and look at how what's happening outside schools impacts what goes on inside them.
Take a look at their position statement and see what you think.
2 comments:
While I was reading through the document I could not agree more with the message and I had heard about most of the facts/statistics previously. The whole reform sounds great, but many questions arise when I read it. For example, there is no money as it is for ANYTHING, this approach sounds pricey and I am wondering where the money would come from. Plus, with NCLB how is there even time to incorporate all these great ideas? The reform also talks about the importance of community partnerships and relationships and I have seen this at several schools and I get the sense that district 21 does this too.
I also agree that early childhood education is vital because many disadvantaged children don't have these opportunities and some enter school for the first time without any preschool or EVEN kindergarten experiences. Therefore, at 5 years old, these students are starting with a huge achievement gap. We talked a lot about this in my EAF class and A Shame of the Nation by Jonathon Kozol demonstrates this as well.
In addition, the reform wants to increase investments in health and quality of education, but again, where is the money to do this? I am a strong supporter for the after school and summer school programs, but how do disadvantage students get involved in these opportunities and how can they 'catch up' to their peers?
Lastly, the reform explains the significance in educating ALL students because they will be in charge one day and they need the skills and I totally agree.
I read the proposal for “A broader, bolder approach to education reform" and like Carli said it sounds wonderful in theory but funding is always an issue. I feel that since we are new teachers we are used to the lack of funding from the NCLB and hesitant to believe that this new approach would be supported/funded by the government. I completely agree that there is an “importance of high-quality early childhood and pre-school programs, after-school and summer programs, and programs that develop parents’ capacity to support their children’s education.” The first few years of the students education is vital to the school success the student has for the rest of his/her life. The achievement gap based on socioeconomic status is present because these students don’t have the support at home that other students do. I know from experience in my own classroom and from talking to my students’ parents that they feel helpless because they want to be there after school and help their student with homework and such but they can’t because of their work schedules. Also I think that summer school programs available to all would be very beneficial to my ESL students because I saw how hard it was for them to express their thoughts in English after a whole summer speaking mainly in their first language. Funding extra-curricular activities to keep students away from drugs and off the streets is an excellent idea. Building their character, social development, and whole person skills is obviously important and I only hope that like all the other ideas, this too will be supported and funded. The proposal wants to start “new accountability systems that combine appropriate qualitative and quantitative methods, and they will be considerably more expensive than the flawed accountability systems currently in use by the federal and state governments.” I agree that the current accountability system is “flawed” and we still should be kept accountable for the curriculum and instruction. The proposal said that it would be more costly which yet again needs more funding. I only wish that the proposal would have been more direct with what they had in mind for how they would keep everyone accountable.
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