The irony of charter school innovation

Post lifted from Katie Newmark

Feeling pressure from charter schools, one Arizona school district is starting a new "traditional school"

The Cartwright Elementary School District was once considered one of the fastest-growing areas in west Phoenix.

But the district seems to have peaked at about 20,000. The challenge now, administrators say, is to retain that enrollment number despite competition from charter, parochial or other public schools outfitted with special magnet or traditional programs....

"Traditional-school models is part of our strategy of different ways to attract more families," Garcia [the president of the district's governing board] said. "We have over 1,200 students that are in the charter schools; many of those students are former Cartwright students. I believe that we are offering so much more now than before that we can attract some of those students we lost."

This example is good anecdotal evidence that charter schools are inspiring improvements in the regular public schools, as charter advocates promise, but it's sad and ironic that the great innovation sparked by the charter schools is a "traditional school [that] ... will focus on the basic instructions of reading, writing, and math". Ironic that traditionalism is now innovative; sad that regular public schools needed the pressure of school choice to realize that teaching the basics is a good approach to education.

Link via EducationNews.org







GENOCIDE TEACHING EXPANDED

At least it might give some relief from seeing America as the source of all evil

Illinois public schools are now required to teach about genocides around the world, under a bill signed Friday by Gov. Rod Blagojevich. The measure expands the previous requirement that elementary and high school students learn about the Holocaust to include lessons on genocides in Armenia, Bosnia, Cambodia, Rwanda, Sudan and Ukraine. School districts have the entire academic year to meet the requirement, State Board of Education spokeswoman Becky Watts said. "As we teach our kids the important lessons of history, we have to be sure that they understand that racial, national, ethnic and religious hatred can lead to horrible tragedies," Blagojevich said in a statement.

Glenn "Max" McGee, superintendent of schools in the Chicago suburb of Wilmette and a former state schools superintendent, said learning about genocide and other tragedies should be part of the curriculum. "I think it is important for boys and girls to learn about these tragic events so that maybe they can make contributions that will truly change the course of history in the future," he said. But McGee worried that the requirement could become an unfunded mandate from the state. "I hope and trust that the State Board of Education will provide resources and some training in teaching these and it won't fall in the district's lap to develop units," McGee said.

The law says the State Board of Education may give instructional materials to districts to help them develop classes. Local school districts will set specifics on the classes for each grade level. Richard Hirschhaut, project and executive director of the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center, praised the law. "The new law affirms the continuing relevance of applying the universal lessons of the Holocaust to the tragedies of genocide in our world today," he said in a statement.

Source





One consequence of now meaningless High School diplomas: "These days, even perfect grades may not be good enough to get students into the best colleges and they certainly aren't enough to win scholarships. Ivy League schools reject hundreds of valedictorians every year in search of students who have not only good grades but packed resumes to boot. The eight-page application to the Barrett Honors College at Arizona State University now asks as many questions about activities and community service as it does about grades and test scores. 'Everyone is a 4.0 (grade-point average) or above,' says Mark Jacobs, the college's dean. 'It stops being a meaningful way to judge.'"

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For greatest efficiency, lowest cost and maximum choice, ALL schools should be privately owned and run -- with government-paid vouchers for the poor and minimal regulation.

The NEA and similar unions worldwide believe that children should be thoroughly indoctrinated with Green/Left, feminist/homosexual ideology but the "3 R's" are something that kids should just be allowed to "discover"

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