In a recent post, I argued that because customized teaching and learning have so blurred the lines between public, private and homeschooling, it is now most practical to define public education as education which satisfies each state’s mandatory school attendance law. We require students to be educated to achieve a[Read More…]
Tag: customization
blog stars: Education lawsuit in Florida, in praise of choice and customization & more
Editor’s note: blog stars is an occasional roundup of good reads from other ed blogs. The EdFly Blog: Frivolous litigation earns dunce cap As for Florida dumbing down education, as is alleged in the lawsuit, the state ranks first in the country in the percent of 2011 graduates who took[Read More…]
School choice will empower teachers
Unlike Kelly Garcia, fresh out of college I knew a lot about unions. I grew up in a union household. My mom worked on a factory assembly line and was a member of the United Auto Workers. My dad was a fireman and a member of the International Association of[Read More…]
Who should manage the growing diversity of learning options in public education?
Editor’s note: This is the second installment of “A Choice Conversation,” an ongoing dialogue between Doug Tuthill, president of Step Up for Students and a redefinED host, and John Wilson, a former NEA leader who writes the Unleashed blog at Education Week. Doug Tuthill: John, in our last exchange you[Read More…]
More time, money, customization can narrow the opportunity gap in education
I have spent more than 35 years working to help public education fulfill the promise of equal opportunity, but two recent New York Times articles illustrate how far we are from achieving that moral and societal imperative. David Brooks, in a recent column entitled “The Opportunity Gap,” reviews the research[Read More…]
More customization in public education can ease tensions over testing, accountability
Discussions about how best to improve student learning often get contentious, so at redefinED we try to make a positive contribution by identifying areas of possible common ground and clarifying the historical record when we see errors or omissions. Rita M. Solnet’s recent Huffington Post column on how Florida might[Read More…]
Building an upside-down pyramid in a pyramid structure
Education Week follows the development of more and more teacher-led schools in an age of reform and today brings us the latest example in Detroit. A system as troubled as the Motor City’s probably stands to gain the most from such an experiment, but we should be careful to avoid[Read More…]
We have an ethical obligation to find the right school for students
A recent New York Times article about the practice of “counseling out” students from private schools has renewed a debate over how private and public schools differ, but I caution against drawing too sharp a contrast. In my previous work in public schools, I both denied students admission and removed[Read More…]