CA Education Jam
Courtesy Loop_Oh
Recipe for CA Education Jam
Begin with a super complicated system that’s loosely held together by an unwieldy, overly legalized, chronically changing Education Code that no one can understand. Get some politicians, rocket scientists, and physicists together (i.e., Department of Education) to write standards that disregard children’s mental, physical, and social development. Mandate tests based on these standards. Tell teachers they are failing if their students don’t pass the mandated tests, giving them incentive to cheat or teach to the test. Give most of the meager budget to administrators and secretaries instead of to teachers or students. Make tenure a reward for quantity of teaching versus QUALITY. And grant unions so much power that they will actively squash and strangle attempts to change the system.
This week, you’ll include…
- ACLU suing California for lack of English instruction to English Language Learners.
- Morgan Hill filing a Lawsuit against CA for not teaching Special Ed students.
- Controversy over Next Generation Science Standards.
Add some new Common Core Standards (invented by politicians and business leaders, because they know what’s best for kids.) Pretend there’s a way to teach digital literacy without hiring trained teacher librarians to do it. Throw in extended and transitional kindergarten (because we haven’t yet learned how to teach children what they need to know in the TWELVE years-time we have with them before college.)
Stir the pot. Allow to simmer for a few decades. Then, bring to a boil and watch what happens.
