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Here's a WORDLE of the words we 'rendered' from the Darling-Hammond article!
(if you don't know about Wordle, check it out at www.wordle.net)

media type="custom" key="5379917"

== = = =WELCOME TO THE T531 WIKI !!= (Wondering what "wiki" means? It's Hawaiian for "quick"-- wikis are a great teaching tool. I've used them as interactive online storage with my classes, and they also are safe spots for group projects...HB) = = ==INSTRUCTIONS: First, scroll down the page to get a picture of what the assignment looks like. To make changes/add your own material to this wiki, you must first be a member & sign in. When you do that, you will see the word "edit" and an image of a pencil in the upper right corner of this page. When you click "edit", an editing bar will appear at the top of the page. You probably don't need to do anything on that editing bar for this assignment except click SAVE when you are finished.==

==Be sure to place the cursor in the correct place you wish to add text before you add text (the __space below each statement will automatically expand__ when SAVE is clicked. To make sure you've done things right, click PREVIEW on the edit bar before you SAVE. If it doesn't look right, click "Continue Editing" and just use the backspace key to delete what you've done & try again.) In order not to have to type & retype if you misplace things, I recommend putting your text on a Word document separately, then pasting it in where you want it here.==

I've added a couple pieces of evidence under the first school reform statement below as a model for you. Just follow this format--after the text you add, include the name of the source, and then your first name/last initial in parentheses. One last thing-- for readability and neatness, try to keep the font sizes looking like they do here. All your material should be in regular, or "normal" size. If yours is too large for some reason, while in Edit mode, just highlight your text and click "normal" on the Edit Bar. Thanks!

Evidence in support:
"the average graduation rate of the 50 largest cities is well below the national average of 71%, and there remains an 18 percentage point urban suburban gap. Cities in Crisis 2009 finds that only about half (53%) of all young people in the nation’s 50 largest cities are graduating from high school on time."--Citie in Crisis Report (Shanna B) About 2,000 schools in this country produce 50% of the dropouts, and 75% of the minority students. --Arne Duncan (Herb B) The United States has fallen from #1 in mathematics to #24 – Bill Gates (Liz L.) Linda McNeil found that teachers reduced complex ideas and skimmed over difficult topics to maintain control over their students. --Mary Kennedy (Thomas L.) "So, what disturbs me—and I was just thinking about that program right before this, and I think, oh, who can possibly care about schools when you see what’s happening in some places in the world? But there is a connection. And it’s the lack of good education about the world, my fellow citizens, that contributes to bad politics in America and a democracy that doesn’t come close to meeting its potential." --Deborah Meier (Thomas L.) One in 4 American teenagers will drop out of school before graduation. One in three among Black and Hispanic students.--Kathleen Kingsbury(Myrna S.) According to a report by America's Promise Alliance, 50 of the largest cities in the United States report that 50% of their students will graduate from high school. Will Okun (Donna K.)

Then there's 18.5. That's the percentage of Indiana students -- almost one in five -- who fail to graduate from high school on time, despite concerted (and somewhat successful) efforts over the past several years to improve the graduation rate.” **Indystar “It takes cooperation to win Race to the Top”** (Rebecca C) Thomas Toch conducted an interview with Tom Payzant, a leader in urban school reform who did most of his work in Boston. Toch refers to "the troubled state of urban education" and sites one of the problems is leadership as only 1 in 7 superintendents last longer than 5 years. Payzant, in his 11-year tenure as superintendent, was able to implement successful reform efforts, but many districts are still struggling from lack of leadership. --Thomas Toch at Education Sector (Hallie M.) "For children, families and communities that have been poorly served for too long, we must act with a sense of urgency. We cannot wait, because they cannot wait." - Arne Duncan (Michele L.) We think about only 2,000 schools in this country, producing 50 percent of our nation’s dropouts and 75 percent of our minority children dropouts, we have a real challenge there. A. Duncan (Liz L.)

What Obama "gets" is that America's public schools often underperform and help cheat students out of brighter futures for three main reasons: 1) There are low expectations, not just for students but also for parents, schools and whole communities that are written off as not able to compete academically. Too many educators let themselves off the hook by telling themselves that poor kids from struggling backgrounds are somehow incapable of learning as well as kids from wealthier communities. --- Ruben Navaarrette Jr. (Maureen S)

Research shows that urban students--compared with their suburban counterparts--are more likely to live in poverty and attend schools with significantly higher concentrations of low-income students; drop out of high school; be assigned to special education; struggle with speaking, reading and writing English; live in single-parent households; and have less access to regular medical care. Also, urban schools tend to have fewer financial and educational resources and a shortage of teachers. --Melissa Dittmann (Maureen S)

The low skill levels of students leaving America’s urban public schools constitute one of the nation’s most pressing domestic policy problems. School dropout rates are one of many indicators of the magnitude of the problem. Dropout rates in many urban high schools exceed 50 percent (Balfanz and Legters 2004). Nationally, 35 percent of 35 percent of black and Hispanic students, the majority of whom attend urban public schools, drop out of school prior to graduation (Heckman and LaFontaine 2007). --Richard Murnane (Maureen S)

One source characterized the American curriculum as ‘a mile wide and an inch deep (Page 4). – Mary Kennedy (Lisa Z) The four most widely mentioned reasons given for the failure of reform are: Teachers need more knowledge or guidance in order to alter their practices. Teachers hold beliefs and values that differ from reformers’ and that justify their current practices. Teachers have dispositions that interfere with their ability to implement reforms. The circumstances of teaching prevent teachers from altering their practices (Page12). –Mary Kennedy (Lisa Z)

"Reformers have tended to focus mainly on their ideals. They overlook the complications teachers already struggle with, and they overlook the new complexities they themselves are introducing. Until they address these complications, they are unlikely to achieve their dream." - Mary M. Kennedy, p. 235 - (Rebecca C)

Charter schools, homeschools, and virtual schools are taking the middle class out of urban schools. Research shows that a desegregated population (both racial and financial) allows more access to college prep and career training; yet current reforms are taking this away, creating the urban school crisis. -Glass & Dittman (Marcella C)

Male students who are members of minority groups continue to face overwhelming obstacles to pursuing their academic aspirations, according to a report from the College Board. The result, it says, is a little-talked-about “third America” that is predominantly male, largely incapable of contributing to society, and often destined to be incarcerated. - Ian Quillen (Lindsay E)

Even armed with solid blueprint for change, full of elements tested at successful schools, Hogg administrators and their supporters face an enormous task. Among the 840 students at Hogg, most (87.5 percent) are Hispanic, and more than 84 percent qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. - Grace Rubenstein (Lindsay E)

In many parts of the country, the problems present within urban schools are perceived as so numerous and intractable that the term "crisis" is frequently applied to describe the situation; and this is how it is described by those who haven't given up hope completely. --Pedro A. Noguera (Cyndy S.)

“Moreover, urban teachers spend more time responding to student behavior problems--such as absenteeism, teen pregnancy, classroom discipline and weapons possession--than teachers in suburban schools.” --MELISSA DITTMANN (Trisha W.)

The mixed results of the plethora of reform initiatives implemented over the past several years suggest that urban schools alone cannot solve the societal problems imported into them, nor can they alone address the daunting obstacles often presented by educational bureaucracies.~ Hollyce C. Giles (Courtney J.)

The educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a Nation and a people. What was unimaginable a generation ago has begun to occur- others are matching and surpassing our educational attainments. –The National Commission on Excellence in Education (cited by Mary Kennedy) (Emily D)

"We report to the American people that while we can take justifable pride in what our schools and colleges have historically accomplished and contributed to the United States and the well-being of its people, the educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a Nation and a people. What was unimaginable a generation ago has begun to occur-others are matching and surpassing our educational attainments." - Mary Kennedy (Kellie F)

"Most education reform approaches go on the premise that with enough money and training, a school system can take a child in the 10th grade with a 5th grade reading level and somehow get him to traverse reading levels 6 through 12 in a 3 year time span. It cannot be done." -Paul Lott (Lisa A.)

" The second system of public education, which is based principally in poorer urban and rural areas, is indeed in crisis. Too many of the students in those schools are dropping out well before high school graduation. Too many are receiving high school diplomas that do not certify academic confidence in basic subjects. Too many are being left unprepared for the world of work. Too many are being left unprepared to go on to higher education and advanced technical training. Those schools are indeed in crisis and they require emergency treatment...." William Galston(Eric Richey).

"Failing the children fails the community. It's our future, too....A city struggling to break away from the Rust Belt can't afford to throw away its next generation." --Andy Gammill and Robert King (Donna K)  "Fifty years after //Brown v. Board of Education //, our urban schools are still separate and unequal," Keita said. "Urban school reform must be grounded in a real understanding of the complexities of urban life that have led to poor academic achievement by urban students." --Gwendolyn Puryear Keita, PhD quoted by Melissa Dittmann (Lorie P.)

=Evidence to the contrary:=

The rhetoric of crisis is part of the discourse, but it does not reflect reality. David Berliner wrote a book called the Manufactured Crisis which debunks the wholesale failure of schools, but it has had little impact on changing the rhetoric. --Gene Glass (Herb B)

Gene Glass entertains the idea that the nation's education system in crisis was invented and therefore, an emergency was declared to rationalize radical changes that political interests were imposing on public schools. -- Gene Glass (Jackie P.)

Moreover, some research has shown how even in these very troubled environments, some teachers manage to be extraordinarily effective. -- Nicholas Kristof (Maureen S)

Singapore’s Minister of Education states that Singapore is an exam meritocracy, and the U.S. is a talent meritocracy. Where Singapore’s students do well in tests, the U.S. does better in fostering creativity, ambition, curiosity, and a sense of adventure. – Gene Glass (Lisa Z) There is no evidence to suggest that U.S. school children score far below their counterparts in Europe and Asia –Gene Glass (Lisa Z.)

Since the 1970s, according to the NAEP, scores in reading and math have risen consistently for whites, blacks, and hispanics, dispelling claims that American students were learning less than their predecessors. -Gene V. Glass (Marcella C)

In Texas, two years after the IAF's Alliance Schools initiative began; three-fourths of the schools increased their scores on the state assessment test (Lewis, 1997). In New York, IAF organizations have created three new public schools with more collaborative approaches to education, have mobilized large numbers of parents to participate in and lead reform initiatives, and have had an impact on city-wide educational policy through a media campaign to publicize the retention of superintendents and principals in "Educational Dead Zones," with years of poorly-performing schools. ~Hollyce C. Giles (Courtney J.)

In fact, U.S. students, as a whole, were doing quite well, and better than in the past that was frequently glorified. –Gene Glass (Emily D)

Evidence in support:
Looking at urban school systems around the country, it is the ones without mayoral control that are doing better than those with mayoral control. Deborah Meier (Jackie P.) Reformers tend to overlook the complications of teaching that teachers already have in favor of their own ideas. M. Kennedy(Myrna S.)

I think it's missing the heart of what's the problem and looking at this from the eyes of the business eye which is different than the teacher, child & parent eye - Deborah Meijer (Rebecca C) The reform ideals themselves may be unattainable or may actually impede practice. – Mary Kennedy (Cyndy S.)

Genuine reform and improvement are impossible to achieve in schools where disorder and chaos are prevalent. - C. Payne (Cyndy S.)

The circumstances of teaching prohibit teachers from changing their practices. –Mary Kennedy (Trisha W.)

Student-initiated episodes substantially complicate the process of teaching and require teachers to develop adaptive strategies that may not be consistent with reform ideals. -Mary Kennedy (Megan G.)

Teachers work in bureaucratic institutions whose policies and organizational norms can be more or less supportive of their work. M. Kennedy (Liz L.)

The authors note that most schools attempt to engage individual parents without considering how differences in education, income, social networks, and positions of power can affect their ability or willingness to participate. The result is that parents from working and lower class groups are less likely to become involved in school-related activities. ~Hollyce C. Giles (Courtney J.) Certainly one important circumstance is the students themselves. Although we assume that teachers should be able to manage students, students create problems for teachers even in the best-run classrooms. –Mary Kennedy (Emily D)

"Despite teachers' attempts to foster stability and tranquility in their classrooms, interruptions appear to be a defining feature of American classroom life, and these interruptions frequently reduce student opportunities to engage intellectually with important ideas." - Mary Kennedy (Kellie F)

"Young people in other countries are going to school 25, 30 percent longer than our students here. . . . I want to just level the playing field."-- US Education Secretary, Arne Duncan (Desiree A)

The obstacle isn’t teachers, it’s the whole web of uninvolved parents, home problems, broken down communities, and so on. In these communities, how can teachers be effective? - Nicholas Kristof (Lisa A.)

"...educational institutions do not provide tranquil or reliable working environments for either teachers or students" Mary Kennedy (Eric Richey)

"They overlook the complications teachers already struggle with, and theyoverlook the complications teachers already struggle with, and they overlook the new complexities they themselves are introducing." Mary Kennedy(Eric Richey)

"Even though some of the distracting conditions of teaching could be removed by reformers, the general level of distraction that is inherent in classroom teaching, and the complications in the task itself, cannot." Mary Kennedy (Leslie R.)

"Reformers have tended to focus mainly on their ideals. They overlook the complications teachers already struggle with, and they overlook the new complexities they themselves are introducing. Until they address these complications, they are unlikely to achieve their dream." Mary Kennedy (Leslie R)

"Because teachers direct activities within their classrooms, we tend to perceive them as in charge, and therefore to assume that whatever they do must reflect their own personal stengths or weaknesses, rather than the situation itself." --Mary Kennedy (Desiree A.)

Evidence to the contrary:
"Teachers need more knowledge or guidance in order to alter their practices" --Mary Kennedy (Shanna B)

Education officials have revealed a new proposal to force out weak teachers, closing down teacher colleges whose graduates are not producing good results, and converting troubled schools to charter schools. -- Andy Gammill (Thomas L.)

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"What matters most in education is teacher quality... Moreover, some research has shown how even in these very troubled environments, some teachers manage to be extraordinarily effective." - Nicholas Kristof (Michele L.)=====

"Professional development programs also appear to have the potential to substantially influence teaching practices. Not only do they provide lasting changes in knowledge; they also change teachers' beliefs and values." -- Mary Kennedy p.228 (Kyle L.)

"The most widely help hypothesis for the failure of reform is that teachers lack the full complement of content knowledge and teaching skills that they need to engage in excellent teaching" Mary Kennedy pg. 174. While Kennedy found that some teachers did not lack content knowledge, if this theory rings true in any facet, then change is NOT beyond anyone's control. (Hallie M.)

With our nation becoming deeper in debt, who will support the future funding of public education? Gene Glass (Lisa Z)

Teachers have so much to do and so little time to plan it all out that they don’t really expect to be fully prepared or fully in control of their lessons” –Mary Kennedy (Lisa Z)

“Research shows teachers are the primary factor influencing student achievement.” -Tony Bennett (Megan G.)

These parents, mostly college-educated professionals with first and second graders, mean business. They aren't satisfied with throwing fundraisers to support enrichment programs or organizing parent activities to give the school a little boost. –Grace Rubenstein (Trisha W.)

Professional development programs have the potential to make powerful and lasting changes in teaching practice. They can genuinely alter teachers’ knowledge and capabilities and even their beliefs and values. Several teachers described their earlier skepticism about ideas they had acquired through professional development, only to embrace these new ideas wholeheartedly later. –Mary Kennedy (Emily D)

"Some reformers believe the main impediment to intellectual engagement is that teachers themselves are not sufficiently versed in the subject matter to be able to respond to the variety of ideas students generate." -Mary Kennedy (Kellie F)

Simmons said it was challenging trying to make people understand just how much potential for change schools have. “The expectations are too low in what they can do,” he said. “Schools have great capacity.” - John Simmons (Michele L.)

Evidence in support:
One hundred fifty years of reform experiments and disappointment shows that it is time to consider alternative forms to the public schools.--A. Coulson(Myrna.S.)

According to Paul Lott, most reform programs fail because our educational system is based on students progressing from one grade to the next in all academic areas when most have not all mastered those academic concepts. In other words, a 2nd grade student is promoted to 3rd grade after passing math with a 75%. There is still 25% of the math curriculum that the student does not understand at the 2nd grade level; of course he will struggle with 3rd grade math, and it just builds from there. The only way to make reform work is to change the entire system by implementing the Mastery Approach and allowing enough time to allow that approach to work (approximately 13 years)--Paul Lott, OpEdNews (Lorie P.)

"Most policy discussions assume that teachers are largely responsible for their own practices, and that the way to improve teaching is to improve teachers. Hence they focus more on the first three hypotheses. Yet many of the problems described in the book appear to spring from the situation itself, not from teachers' knowledge, values, or dispositions. The possibility that the reform ideals are unrealistic also needs to be considered." -- Mary Kennedy p.173 (Kyle L.)

"Further evidence that the reform ideals themselves are unreasonable comes from past reform initiatives. Histories of these efforts suggest that they were able to enlist teachers to invest heavily in these movements, often devoting long hours over evenings, weekends, and summers to reform efforts. However, the evidence also suggests that these efforts exhausted teachers and ultimately discouraged them from continuing. The teachers we interviewed often referred to time spent in the evenings making materials and planning lessons, a pattern suggesting that overtime is needed just to sustain an ordinary practice, without aiming for an ideal practice." -- Mary Kennedy p. 234 (Kyle L.)

"Reform movements have come and gone for decades without much visible impact on teaching practices. The problem is so widely recognized that historians are now chronicling these movements. Yet reformers continue to try, and others continue to generate hypotheses to account for the failures." --Mary Kennedy p. 3 (Maureen S)  "They found that, absent any outside influences, teachers depended on their own values and convictions as they established their learning outcomes." Mary Kennedy (Liz L.)

In reference to Arne Duncan’s approach to “turning around” failing schools, Kahlenberg finds that most current plans do not acknowledge the importance of the school community (students, parents, and faculty) in determining the quality of the school. Firing faculty and beginning with brand new faculty does not work, and neither does simply incorporating the structure of a charter school. We must find plans that incorporate the importance of the school community to succeed.--Richard Kahlenberg, (Lorie P.) “And so, to look for the answer increasingly in distant from where the action takes place, the cutting out of teachers’, parents’ and children’s voices in making decisions about schools, as we escalate the penalties if they don’t meet test scores. The incredible obsession with test scores, particularly in two particular areas, that hardly define what it means to be a well-educated person.” Deborah Meijer (Rebecca C)

"Charter schools may be accelerating the resegregation of public schools by leaving them more fragmented based on race, class, and ability." -Miron Cullen (Jackie P.)

Throughout the United States, failing schools are treated as local matters and responsibility for improving them is delegated to those who reside in the communities they serve. This continues to be the case whether or not communities can generate the resources to address the needs of poor students. From afar, state governments have established academic standards and systems for holding schools accountable, even though it is widely recognized that there are many schools where basic “opportunity to learn standards” have not been met. -Jeannie Oakes (Cyndy S.)

"The world has changed. The 21st century is dramatically different than the 19th century, but we still apply a 19th century system of organization on education. It's 180 days. It's that way so that kids can get out into the farms in the summertime." -Jeb Bush (Megan G.)

Further evidence that the reform ideas themselves are unreasonable comes from past reform initiatives. –Mary Kennedy (Trisha W.) Reform movements have come and gone for decades without much visible impact on teaching practices. The problem is so widely recognized that historians are now chronicling these movements. –Mary Kennedy (Emily D)

"This debate goes back at least to the 1830s, with one side pushing to expand educational opportunities and the other worrying that expansion would mean diluting the curriculum." --Mary Kennedy (Desiree A.)

Whole Language has, for the time being, been pushed aside for intensive phonics instruction. However, as with many things in the education system, I would not be surprised to see Whole Language reintroduced with a new title and slightly tweaked in a few years. No one is reinventing the wheel, they are simply recycling old ideas by giving them new names. Shouldn’t we take inventory of what did work, and what didn’t and use that to drive instruction? -stated by Jackie Pall from Glass Five Points Reflection (Lisa A.)

"Though reformers disagree on what is needed their proposals can be grouped into three broad ideals: more rigourous and important content, more intellectual engagement with content, and universal access to knowledge" Mary Kennedy(Eric Richey)

Jeanne Allen's response to President Obama's State of the Union Address on Jan. 27, 2010: "I know you believe that you've broken through the stalemate. I know that people are telling you that this is so, with many in the media reinforcing it daily. But in most communities throughout the nation, the people do not feel that way. --Jeanne Allen (Donna K)

Evidence to the contrary:
"What was unimaginable a generation ago has begun to occur--others are matching and surpassing our educational attainment."--Mary Kennedy (Shanna B) Barack Obama is willing to offer large grants to districts that come up with new plans and ideas that will help improve the quality of education. --Ruben Navarrette Jr (Thomas L.)

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"[Indiana's Fast Forward plan] envisions a drastically changed educational system where all teachers are evaluated each year. More than half their review would be based on how their students performed on state standardized tests compared with the students' previous scores, and low performers would face consequences.=====

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Reformers want teachers to increase students’ interest, capture their imagination, or pique their curiosity. They want students to be actively engaged with important ideas (Page 7). – Mary Kennedy (Lisa Z)=====

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“The big picture is that Race to the Top has focused the nation on the big questions in public education in a way that we rarely have been. We haven’t focused much before on having good evaluations. Now a lot of states are saying, ‘We’re going to do that.’ And that’s huge.” -Timothy Daly, in an article by Sam Dillon (Marcella C)=====

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Under the plan, Indiana would jettison its curriculum standards in favor of a new, national initiative and a nationwide test would replace ISTEP. The state would double the number of teachers from Teach For America and The New Teacher Project entering each year. It also would open up pathways to enter teaching for more people who don't go through traditional four-year education degree programs. New programs would train principals in the best ways to deal with struggling schools, and Indiana University would offer a joint MBA/educational leadership degree. The plan, Bennett said, would put the state on the cutting edge of education reform and make it significantly easier to improve student achievement. - Andy Gammill (Lindsay E)=====

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"Unlike past reform movements, school reform efforts are now focused on two key ideas: performance and scientific evidence. Motivated in part by economic considerations, the underlying rationale for many school reform programs is to raise the performance of U.S. students by strengthening their knowledge base and skills" -Barbara L. Schneider and Venessa A. Keesler (Hallie M.)=====

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Reformers could make their ideals more attainable by them into the full range of concerns that teachers care about. Reformers tend to think only about their concerns, but teachers must think about a much broader array of concerns. ~ Mary Kennedy p. 234 (Courtney J.) =====

"His (Arne Duncan's) agenda includes an extension of our agrarian 180-day school calendar, first designed to ensure that kids were in the fields, not in classrooms learning about an impending Civil War." Mike OBrien (Leslie R)

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"We have broken through the stalemate between the left and right by launching a national competition on improving our schools." --President Barack Obama, State of the Union Address, January 27, 2010 -- Jeanne Allen (Donna K) =====

Evidence in support:
//Cities in Crisis 2009: Closing the Graduation Gap// also looked at the economic and employment landscape for those with varied educational levels, including those without a high school diploma. It revealed that those who drop out of high school are less likely to be steadily employed, and earn less income when they are employed, compared with those who graduate from high school. Approximately one-third (37 percent) of high school dropouts nationwide are steadily employed and are more than twice as likely to live in poverty. (Shanna B) "It is generally acknowledged that completing high school represents a key milestone in an individual's schooling and social and economic advancement and that graduation rates are an important indicator of school system performance."--Christopher Swanson (Shanna B)

Gene Glass encourages readers of his book to view school reform "in light of economics and politics." -- Gene Glass (Donna K.) P.W. Jackson points out that classroomsare crowded,and that teachers and students must learn to live with these conditions and distractions. --Mary Kennedy (Thomas L.) Obama's Race to the Top program, which is set to provide $4 billion to schools, has specific guidelines that need to be met in order for schools to receive any of the grant money. The Department of Education has recruited independent reviewers to assess teachers' grants to determine where the funding will go based on criteria that include a coherant agenda for change, an evaluation plan for teachers, and an adoption of higher standards -- Sam Dillon, NY Times (Hallie M.)

"Nevada’s school superintendent, Keith W. Rheault, said in an interview that some Nevada educators had initially grumbled about the federal program [Race to the Top] but had fallen silent as the state’s tax revenues plummeted last year. 'When you’re starving and somebody puts food in your mouth, it’s amazing what states will do,' Mr. Rheault said"-- Sam Dillon, NY Times (Lorie P.) "This time of economic hardship may also represent the beginning of the end of the modern school reform movement. " - Chester E. Finn Jr. and Michael J. Petrilli (Michele L.)

"And so, to look for the answer increasingly in distant from where the action takes place, the cutting out of teachers’, parents’ and children’s voices in making decisions about schools, as we escalate the penalties if they don’t meet test scores. The incredible obsession with test scores, particularly in two particular areas, that hardly define what it means to be a well-educated person." D. Meier (Liz. L) We want them to look at their students as products, and that the way they can tell whether their product is good is whether its scores are higher, and then they’ll get paid more money.-D. Meier (Liz L.)

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18px;">“The nation began to view education as closely connected to the economy in manifold ways” –Gene Glass (Lisa Z) <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 115%;"> “The crises in elementary and secondary education is not a crises in achievement, but rather a crises in cost, or more properly, a crisis in the willingness of the middle class to support a long-standing institution” –Gene Glass (Lorie P.)

"Schooling is a special exchange in which those who pay for the service-parents and third party adults-are not the recipients of the service: children are. As a consequence, the mechanisms of information flow that cause markets to work in more traditional relationships are missing in education. Indeed, the profit motive seems ill-suited to the business of public education." C.R. Belfield (Jackie P.)

After the publication of //A Nation at Risk//, Vice-President George H.W. Bush held an education summit to discuss the issues at hand. Only politicians and bussinessmen attended; no educators were even invited. -Gene V. Glass (Marcella C)

"[High stakes tests] can be built, printed, ditributed, and later scored for an entire state for half the cost of building an elementary school. It is a reform much appreciated by tax conscious politicians." -Gene V. Glass (Marcella C)

"Attempting to fix inner city schools without fixing the city in which that are embedded is like trying to clean the air on one side of a screen door." Jean Anyon (Jackie P.)

Without a single source of cash, after-school programs are currently funded by a mix of government entities, foundations and individual donors. The result can be a maze as organizations aim for different outcomes, from violence prevention to increasing the graduation rate, says Harry VandeVelde, vice-president of development for the Boys and Girls Club of Chicago, which runs several after-school programs. -Harry VandeVelde (Lindsay E)

In the boom years, "investing" in education was a popular choice for governors and other politicians. But school kids are about to encounter fierce competition from their grandparents. -Finn and Petrilli on the recession's impact on reform (Lindsay E.)

When the national history of school reform is considered, it can be argued that many reform proposals are developed in response to perceived national or international political, economic, or social events. - Edwin Herr (Cyndy S.)

"Meanwhile numerous groups try to influence teachers' local decisions. Textbook publishers, professional associations, parent associations, religious groups and business alliances all enter the education arena." (page 3) -Mary Kennedy (Megan G.)

Let us now add another marker. This time of economic hardship may also represent the beginning of the end of the modern school reform movement. That's because of what turns out, in retrospect, to be a tragic flaw in the strategy of many reformers in recent decades: to offer the education establishment a lot more money in return for a little reform. -- //<span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal;">Chester E. Finn, Jr. and Michael J. Petrilli (Trisha W.) //

<span style="color: #272828; font-family: arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">And then there's the political environment, where elected officials are under enormous pressure to show that complex problems can be solved quickly. So there's a tendency to grab for low hanging fruit to show that progress is being made. -Tom Payzant, Superintendent of Boston Schools (Megan G.)

I want states and districts to take bold action that will lead directly to the improvement in student learning. I want local leaders to find those change agents who can fix these schools. I want them to provide incentives for the best teachers and the best principals to take on the challenge of teaching in these schools. And where appropriate, I want them to create partnerships with charter school operators with a track record for success. I want superintendents to be aggressive in taking the difficult step of shutting down a failing school and replacing it with one they know will work. We’ve proposed a $52 million increase in funding to develop and expand successful charter schools. –Arne Duncan (Emily D)

The other flaw in most education reform approaches is the belief that given enough money, a system can be reformed in a relatively short period of time by improving the overall quality of the school with new buildings, better teacher pay, and new books. --Paul Lot (Desiree A.)

"...states would be able to compete for their share of more than $4 billion in funding through the administration's Race to the Top initiative. But in order to do that, he said, the states have to demonstrate that they're serious about increasing accountability by doing things like tearing down "firewall laws" that prevent districts from factoring in student performance when evaluating teachers. That sinister brainchild was brought to you by politically influential teachers' unions who make it their solemn mission to protect their members from the scrutiny and standards that everyday people have to put up in their jobs. Obama's not having any of it. "If you are committed to real change in the way you educate your children," he told his audience, "if you're willing to hold yourselves more accountable, and if you develop a strong plan to improve the quality of education in your state, then we'll offer you a big grant to help you make that plan a reality."" Ruben Navarrette Jr.(Eric Richey)
 * “The Bureau of Labor Statistics own studies indicate that by 2015 approximately 13 million new jobs will be created that do not require post-secondary education. The number of new jobs that will require at least a bachelor’s degree is approximately 6 million—hardly the majority.” **Quote from Glass by Lorie Pietz (Lisa A.)

"It is impossible to imagine him [Martin Luther King, Jr.] standing alongside the business executives and politically powerful who demand more standardized testing, more privatization of public schools, and more schools in which teachers have no organized voice." -- Diane Ravitch (Donna K)

Evidence to the contrary:
"The most important force buttressing economic growth in the long run is the caliber of mass education; the most important escalator out of poverty is education; what matters most in education is teacher quality." --Nicholas Kristof (Thomas L.) American education problems will be solved with home reform not school reform whenever parents wake up to the fact that reformers have misled them for 40 years.---J.Rosemond(Myrna.S.) "Regardless of economic class or ethnicity, parents know their responsibilties" --Will Okun (Donna K.)

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"Parental involvement is one area of education policy where there is broad agreement: The more parents are involved with their children's education, the better the children do in school." - The Heartland Institute (Michele L.)===== "Reformers have tended to focus mainly on their ideals. They overlook the complications teachers already struggle with, and overlook the new complexities they themselves are introducing. Until they address these complications, they are unlikely to achieve their dream" - Mary Kennedy (Rebecca C)

All, regardless of race or class or ecomonic status, are entitled to a fair chance and to the tools for developing their individual powers of mind and spirit to the utmost. –Mary Kennedy (Trisha W.)

"So my hope is that, yes, let's adhere to conservative principles but let's have a passion for reform so that we can transform the things that we need government to do right. It doesn't have to be a government system, but it can be a government financed application so that no child is denied an opportunity to pursue their dreams." -- Jeb Bush (Kyle L.)

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18px;">Teachers Hold Beliefs and Values That Differ from Reformers – Mary Kennedy (Lisa Z)

"Reformers have tended to focus mainly on their ideals. They overlook the complications teachers already struggle with, and they overlook the new complexities they themselves are introducing. Until they address these complications, they are unlikely to achieve their dream." Mary Kennedy (Leslie R)

Past reform initiatives failed due to teacher exhaustion after spending long hours working toward reform, thereby discouraging them from continuing with reform efforts and returning to their previous beliefs. Therefore, reform efforts also come down to time-- Mary Kennedy (Hallie M.)

The reform sets out to change School but in the end School changes the reform. One may at first blush see a tautology in using this proposition to explain failures of reform. But to say that School changes the reform is very different from simply saying that School resists or rejects the reform. It resists the reform in a particular way -- by appropriating or assimilating it to its own structures. By doing so, it defuses the reformers and sometimes manages to take in something of what they are proposing. ~Seymour Papert (Courtney J.)

"From the "education president" down, politicians often lay claim to improved education as a campaign issue, but rarely take it beyond the level of banal generalities." -Jonathan Marin (Kellie F.)

"Parents are recognized as the students' first teachers. Without a strong partnership between the parents and the school, the quality of education suffers." - William Segall and Anna Wilson (Kellie F.)

A key to parents' development of personal power in the work of IAF is the "iron rule": "Do not do for others what they can do for themselves" (Cortes, 1994). The rationale for the rule is that parents become aware of their own capabilities as they assume responsibilities, and develop the confidence to take on increasingly challenging tasks to transform their children's schools. ECC and IAF have observed that when parents demonstrate their power in achieving positive changes for a school, teachers view parents with greater trust and respect (Lewis, 1997). - Giles. H. (Lisa A.)