If you read my recent blog concerning itself with the 1983 report, "A Nation at Risk," you will understand that this commissioned report has had much to do with events currently taking place in the classrooms of America. Be it standardized testing, the creation of charters or the accountability factor, it is clear that the report has had a profound influence on today's education.
Where to start. Well, first of all President Reagan refused to commission the report. His Secretary of Education, T.H. Bell set up the commission. In fact, President Reagan, as one of his goals, actually wanted to abolish the Department of Education. No wonder he didn't commission it!
It's general outcome was that America was "was not meeting the need for a competitive workforce." The thinking was that we were becoming less competitive because something must be wrong with primary, secondary and post secondary education.
I think this is an important point because it seems to assume that the goal of education is to prepare our citizens to be workers while seemingly ignoring the other crucial roles that education plays in the lives of its citizens. So, it appears that the mission of the report almost completely ignores other crucial roles that education has played throughout the course of America's history and which has helped to advance our society
The report came up with five content areas that need to be addressed. These include; content, standards & expectations, time, teaching, and leadership & fiscal support. In the coming days I will comment on these areas and do my best to demonstrate the relationship between these and what is currently taking place on the American education scene.
Dick
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment