School Reform

changing process of Educating Kids

esp Top Down changes to Schooling

We've had 2 flavors available:

• More Of The Same Schooling (More Pseudo Progressivism): more money, more teachers, more administrators
• Corporatized Schooling: Standardized Test-s, more HomeWork, more SchoolDays, more Top Down control

Note that

• neither of these really tosses Factory Schooling
• most Ed Tech companies are fine with either of them

I think the only true/macro/meta School Reform that matters is School Choice, so that a Diversity of approaches are allowed.

• Michael Strong: My goal is to liberate education so that thousands, or millions, of educational entrepreneurs can start whatever schools they please and thereby “Allow rich Diversity to play itself out.” But Seymour Papert does not at any point specify that we must break up the government school monopoly in order for this to take place. I’ve looked and have not found any written work in which he has endorsed any form of School Choice (let me know if he does so somewhere). Without allowing funding to follow the student, with as few restrictions as possible, School Reform IS impossible.
• context: Fractally Generative Pattern Language
• type of school I want to add to the mix: Product Oriented Unschooling.

How implement change?

Context

• We want our kids to end up as young adults capable of Making A Living, understanding the universe, dealing appropriately with their fellow humans, and being responsible citizens of an Open Society. (Goal Of Educating Kids)

Forces (esp related to School Reform - see Educating Kids for broader list)

• We have Tightly Coupled system - getting into a Good College (College Admission) typically requires good SAT (Standardized Test) scores plus good grades (Class Ranking as Zero-Sum Game) from a known-good High School.
• Because we treat Public School-s as a Utility Company rather than a Market of diverse offerings, we end up trying to guarantee consistent product/quality so we standardize curricula and tests.

Solution: One scenario - for College Prep

• at the level of 1 good-sized city which includes a (good) City University (NYC has CUNY)
• backed by a rich donor, like Mark Zuckerberg in Newark Nj? 2010-09-23-ZuckerbergGrant100mNewarkSchools
  • for NYC: Mike Bloomberg? How about Jack Dorsey?
• creating a number of Charter School-s (probably High School-s first) which get to break all the rules
  • some College Prep, some Vo-Tech
• principals get to pick their own staff, and select students from applicants on whatever basis they wants (grades, tests, Portfolio, custom application, Spring Break BootCamp, etc.)
• Have that City University (Community College) support some sort of alternative assessment basis besides bad Standardized Test-s for College Admission (Portfolio? BootCamp audition Summer Camp?)

Solution: Acknowledge/embrace Non-College Prep track (Vo-Tech)

• Embrace School Choice for Diversity
• Have public tracking database for all students so that aggregate outcomes can be seen (Reputation Management) so that parents can make informed choice of school.
  • big Gaming The System problem here....
• Have strong non-grunt ApprenticeShip program

What about reform at the College Education level?

Key point: fewer people need a College Education (except for Signalling power, which is pretty ZeroSum at the society-level).

• Employers need to start recognizing Alternatives To A College Degree

Have to do more thinking here.