If you listen to those running for office and their supporters, public education just can’t get anything right. Which leads me to some interesting observations. Observations that may be biased by the fact that my teaching and school leadership experience was in inner-city schools in Houston, Texas.
Interesting Observation #1: Over-testing and the damage to student self-esteem due to test difficulty were never issues until affluent and suburban schools were no longer automatically “successful.” When the tests were kicking my students and my teachers in the teeth, we were either, “lazy or needed to work harder and care more.”
Interesting Observation #2: The same politicians who are now concerned with the negative effects of accountability… Also are the same politicians concerned with failing schools… Who also espouse that the solution to “failing” schools is to create financial subsidies for affluent and suburban families to send their children to segregated schools that have not and are not subject to accountability and state testing.
Interesting Observation #3: 90% of public educators must like the system the way it is and the way it is going. Because they keep going to the polls and voting for the people that are racing to see who can defund and dismantle public schools the quickest.
But then again, as I wrote at the beginning of this post, maybe I’m just biased and need to work harder and care more.
Think. Work. Achieve. Your turn…
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