Philadelphia's Changing Schools and What Parents Want From Them
Tom Ferrick, Jr. and Laura HorwitzPhiladelphia Research Initiative, Pew Charitable TrustJune 2010
Tom Ferrick, Jr. and Laura HorwitzPhiladelphia Research Initiative, Pew Charitable TrustJune 2010
Patrick Wolf, Babette Gutmann, Michael Puma, Brian Kisida, Lou Rizzo, Nada Eissa, and Matthew CarrInstitute of Education SciencesJune 2010
WALL-E becomes a teacher? Robotics labs around the world are experimenting with a new role for robots: educator. The concept behind it is simple, namely that interactive teaching is much more effective than the passive kind.
To oppose “results-based accountability” in education is close to a taboo nowadays, a position so antithetical to the spirit of the age that few dare mention it. Let us, therefore, declare ourselves shocked and saddened that Harvard University, in so many ways a pacesetter in education, is embracing that very position.
Minnesota, birthplace of charter schools, may soon claim another frontier: becoming the first state to allow a teachers' union to be a charter authorizer. Antithetical, you say? One of the hallmarks of most charter schools is their lack of unionization, which allows more flexibility to hire, fire, and assign staff, and to structure the school day differently.
If we were to list the lessons learned from charter schools, it would probably look like this: By breaking down bureaucratic and procedural barriers, these schools have opened the education market to innovators, fresh thinking, and experimentation. But simply unlocking the gates didn’t necessarily produce quality—good rules are different from no rules.
?There are a lot of folks on both sides who are pretty committed to keeping the debate alive on these terms, but I think on the overall balance scale, this study adds weight to the side that is suggesting that simply talking about charters versus noncharters is a distraction. There needs to be much more nuance.?