למידה, אינטרנט ... ומה שביניהם

I no longer believe that either approach will produce the quantum improvement in American education that we all hope for.

Her book is being promoted as a big break from the past. That is certainly what her subtitle suggests. But you can't judge books by their titles. When I finished hers, I was delighted to see such an erudite analysis of where the education policy debate is right now. She left some blood on the floor, sure, but she also, in vintage Ravitch style, blessed some good ideas from all sides.

Many education reforms have gone badly in the last 20 years, but there never has been a golden age of school improvement. No Child Left Behind had many flaws, but it left us better off than than we were before, with more attention to low-income and learning disabled children, and some gains in lower grades, particularly in math. We bumble along, doing our best, hoping that our next idea will produce big gains but knowing that all we can expect is to be a bit better than before.

If the best that billions of dollars and the establishment of a test-score-obsessive, standardized education system can produce is “more attention” and “some gains” (as measured by those same tests, of course), that is not “better off”.

Narrowing the curriculum studied by almost all students in public schools to little more than reading and math drills is more than a “flaw”.

תוויות: מבחנים, סטנדרטים, NCLB