The Broader, Bolder Approach – currently attracting a lot of media attention – is as impressive for the breadth of its support than the gist of its message.
The approach it advocates is simple: it’s not all on the schools.
When the Bush administration became angry over 9/11 it reacted emotionally, looking for someone to blame and acting with insufficient understanding of the nuances of the situation. We are now stuck in the morass of
When the Bush administration became angry over education, it reacted emotionally, looking for someone to blame and acting with insufficient understanding of the nuances of the situation. We are now stuck in the morass of NCLB.
The Broader, Bolder Approach calls on teachers and administrators to do a better job. But it also points out that teachers and administrators could bring distinction to themselves and that would not necessarily and immediately improve test scores. To blame teachers and administrators for low test scores is an emotional oversimplification of the problem. As such, it is bad public policy.
A wide coalition of educators, parents, scholars, public-policy experts, and businesspeople want NCLB put into perspective. Test scores are one, valuable tool; they are not The Holy Grail.
3 comments:
Mark, thank you for bringing this to my attention. It's helping to restore some of my faith in humanity. It seems almost obvious that the solutions to our problems--whether in foreign policy, education, or any where else--won't be in one place, yet I think government (along with media) harbors an obsession with simplification. It's refreshing to see an initiative that attempts to actually complicate a problem in order to arrive at a better solution. Hopefully, this approach will catch on...
I agree with you on view of teachers and administrators. The Boarder, Bolder Approach sounds like a wonder new to me. If you are a teacher who really does care about their students then this would sound wonderful. The power to educate your student the way you really want and teach them things that is not in the text books. Maybe I see more the possible and none of the consequences as you mention. Perhaps I just want to the possible…
I think about the qualities we are taught to be the most important in critical, creative, and caring individuals, and the politicians exhibit anything but these. They aren't examining multiple viewpoints, working with people from other parties, questioning assumptions, searching for meaning and definitions, they are forming gross generalizations, working unilaterally, and making decisions based on close-mindedness. Maybe it isn't Britney Spears or 50-Cent that we should be focusing on as poor role models.
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