This week’s PEN Weekly NewsBlast provides a look at the new alignment in education reform.
First we have an op-ed piece from Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers in which she looks to the high achieving countries on international tests as models we should be emulating.
I addressed this issue myself when Nicholas Kristoff and McKendey&Co. used Singapore’s, Finland’s, and South Korea’s strategy of allowing only the top third of high school and college classes to become teachers. Weingarten briefly mention the selection procerss :
“They place a high priority on recruiting well-qualified teacher candidates, preparing them for the profession and sparing no expense to provide continual support throughout their careers.”
She carefully avoids spelling out what “well-qualified teacher candidtaes means, i.e. top one third in academic tests.
She continues by then highlighting the collaboration between labor and management in those countries, and the fact that teaching is a highly respected profession in all three high flyers.
It seems to me if she’s willing to support the last two aspects of these programs, she needs to be on board regarding the selection and hiring processes as well. Is the camel’s nose under the tent, or the beginning of a serious shift in union viewpoint?
The second piece in the PEN NewsBlast is the refutation by Chester Finn of the Fordham Institue of the counter manifesto, opposing the original manifesto from the Shanker Institute supporting national Testing and a national curriculum. In my blog about the original manifesto I listed signees from both the right and the left of ed reform and Chester Finn was on the right.
Now it turns out there’s a far right in ed reform and Finn will have none of it.
The best I can say is that among the signees of the counter manifesto are some of my least favorite educational commenters.
Grover Norquist
President, Americans for Tax Reform, Member, Board of Directors, ParentalRights.org, Former Economist & Chief Speechwriter, U.S. Chamber of Commerce
John Silber
Dean, College of Arts & Sciences, University of Texas, 1967-70, President, Boston University, 1971-96, Chairman, Massachusetts State Board of Education, 1996-99
Jay P. Greene
21st Century Chair & Head of the Department of Education Reform, University of Arkansas, Fellow in Education Policy, George W. Bush Institute
Sandra Stotsky
21st Century Chair in Teacher Quality, Department of Education Reform, University of Arkansas, Senior Associate Commissioner of Education, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1999-2003, Member, Validation Committee, Common Core Standards, 2009-10
Abigail Thernstrom
Adjunct Scholar, American Enterprise Institute, Member, Massachusetts State Board of Education, 1995-2006, Vice Chair, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights
Stephen Thernstrom
Winthrop Research Professor of History, Harvard University, Co-Author (with Abigail Thernstrom), No Excuses: Closing the Racial Gap in Learning.
Will Fitzhugh
Founder & President, The Concord Review
(I have always had a warm spot in my heart for Siggy Engelmann but it doesn’t reach my head.)
Siegfried Engelmann
Professor of Special Education, University of Oregon, Recipient, Award of Achievement in Education Research of the Council of Scientific Society Presidents, 2002, President Engelmann-Becker Corporation (curriculum development)
This may be the Tea Party of education. It sure would be nice to reach a positive compromise between the Right and Left on what we need to do to improve schools. The original manifesto could be it.
