Monday, November 28, 2011

School Choice, Vouchers, Charter Schools and Follow The Money

Governor Rick Scott appears to like all private options -- vouchers, charter schools, virtual schools and the results can be good or very bad.

Read about this one -- there are more examples that will make you cry.

One wonders if we put the same amount of time, money and effort into imprhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifoving public schools, wouldn't we help the whole country.

I believe charters and/or vouchers are necessary to wake up the public school world -- Houston, we have a problem.

Public schools are failing our students, and not until parents, committed citizens and our leaders reject the status quo will we be able to refocus on one of the top priorities of State Government -- transforming public schools into the schools we need them to be

There are some who argue we need to abandon public schools and others who argue all is fine -- I would reject both as fundamentally flawed strategies. The Gates Foundations investment in places like Sarasota, Zuckerberg's investments in Newark Schools, are the beginning of what could be a real change in public schools.

When considering the two choices of privatization and the status quo, I hope prevailing wisdom shifts towards reinventing public schools

Saturday, November 5, 2011

Public School Are Addressing The Issues

Cara Fitzpatrick from the Sun-Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale recently wrote an article on Parents Finding Schools Unfriendly.

The great thing was that the Broward Public Schools were hosting a forum to listen to what parents have to say.

The first two steps in addressing the problem with public schools are to acknowledge the problem and then listen.

Parents then responded by saying positive things about their schools, which is awesome.

Kudos to Cara Fitzpatrick, the Broward County School Board and the parents who speak up -- about their schools strengths and challenges

Re-inventing public schools will require a massive effort, and this is a great start. I will be at the forum and hope to see many others there too.

Friday, November 4, 2011

Jay Greene on Global Report Card -- Test Mania Fails Our Best Students

Re-inventing public schools is necessary for our at-risk population. It is just as necessary for our Gifted and Talented Students.

Jay Greene, an outspoken critic of public education, discussed in The Global Report, that our suburban students are just average when compared to students in the countries at the top of the International Rankings.

This follows three calls from parents of Gifted and Talented students here in Florida complaining that their children were challenged and motivated by school until ...

the orders came down to focus on the test. Now there is precious little time for critical thinking and experiments, as they devote their time to worksheets and test prep.

I understand it is necessary to get our most at-risk students focused on reading and writing, but we need to engage and motivate our Gifted and Talented students with work that allows them to be as strong if not stronger than their international peers.

or, we will pay the consequences

The time to Re-invent public schools is now -- and we must balance our focus on the most at-risk students, the average students, and the Gifted and Talented Students