Judy Aron sends me links to news about homeschooling and related issues. The following were all tracked down by Judy. I haven't gotten some of these up sooner because I've been distracted by Civilization IV for the last week or so.
In Government's Big Lie: The "Crisis" of Babies With Undiagnosed Mental Illness Laura Adelmann opens with: "To the federal government, many newborns, toddlers and preschoolers are undiagnosed mental cases with dire need of 'treatment' (read: drugs)." Laura gives details of the current state of the government's efforts to "diagnose" babies and children. Laura then calls on parents to be informed and stop these kinds of programs.
EdWatch has a report on Federal funding for universal mental health screening.
Judy found an effort to stop experimental mental health screening. I've signed the petition. The petition starts off talking how a young children who have never thought of suicide are being asked invasive and leading questions. The petition is up to 2838 signature right now. Here is more information on the TeenScreen survey.
Recently in Belgium a homeschooling father was threaten with jail for not signing a document. The document was a result of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Judy tracked down the URL so you can read exactly what it says.
Two boys at high school shoved each other around. They got sent to the principal's office, and then were arrested. The article explores when is it appropriate to bring the police into a public school.
At first I was going to be real scarcastic with this: a study out of Harvard starts with: "Substantial research supports family involvement, and a growing body of intervention evaluations demonstrates that family involvement can be strengthened with positive results for young children and their school readiness." I'm guessing most of the readers of this blog already knew this.
The ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) in December of 2005, published a Report Card On American Education. The PDF file is just over seven Megabytes, and is 214 pages. I doubt I'll ever read much of this, but I did find the conclusion interesting:
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The results of the year’s 2005 Report Card on American Education once again paint a relatively unpromising picture our nation’s educational system. As has been highlighted in past editions, and once again confirmed by this years results, we can not expect student academic performance to improve by simply focusing on the “inputs” into our existing public school system, such as spending more money per pupil, lowering class sizes, and raising teacher salaries.
Parents, growing increasingly frustrated with stagnant student achievement, are questioning why, despite a 70 percent increase in student spending over the past twenty years, there has been no corresponding increase in student test scores. In turn, parents are demanding solutions to these challenges and are looking to legislators to make changes in our public school system.
Although much attention in Washington has been focused on the problems in our educational system, it is a system run largely by state and local governments. In the coming years, the majority of the debate – and prospects for real reform – will take place in our nation’s state capitols.
State legislators and policymakers need to use this report – and its more than 50 tables and 25 figures that display, in various ways, more than 100 measures of educational resources and achievement – as a “jumping off” point to move the current debate past the traditional focus on educational inputs. Many states have already taken the first steps in advancing new and innovative educational initiatives like charter schools, tax credits, and educational vouchers that willincrease accountability, choice and competition in our school system.
State lawmakers must play a critical role in determining the path that our nation’s educational system will follow as we enter the 21st century. Will we continue down the same road that has condemned a generation of students to mediocrity, or will we look for a new way that will lead to educational achievement and excellence for all children? Albert Einstein once said, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and over and over again, but expecting a different result.” Let’s choose a new path for our nation’s children. One that will lead to serious fundamental reform in our educational system and real progress in student performance. A path that will give all students an equal chance at success.
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I think as long as the government keeps trying to fix the problem, we'll have a problem. It isn't until we at least get the federal government completly out of education that we have a chance. And some simple voucher approach would be a huge improvement. But I'm afraid we'll keep doing the same insane reforms over and over again.
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Technorati tags: Judy Aron, mental health, mental health screening, mental illness, Laura Adelmann, Rights of the Child, United Nations, families, public school, education, Civilization IV
1 comment:
ok, that does it. I am officially going on a rant tomorrow night that has been pent up for long enough. Just thought you'd like to know : )
This obsessive fixation on testing is absurd. Parents are concerned that all the spending increases hasn't increased test scores? Have they ever thought to stop and consider whether test scores = achievement? Have they ever stopped to think that the disaggregated testing data shows some disturbing trends? Either white, mid to upper class native born males are decidedly intellectually superior to the rest of America, or the tests themselves are culturally biased.
In college, I learned a number of things about testing which made sense. I tried to put them in practice. (You can look at the Center for Fair and Open Testing for a summary of good test practices). I found that some of my students could demonstrate knowledge through some means better than others. I thought testing was about assessing what a child knew and addressing those needs. So multiple forms of test balanced against daily observations were key. Then the adminstration informed us that if a child had an A in the class and did not perform well on the district assessment, our grading was too lenient. Aha. So education is not about teaching skills and knowledge. It is about passing the district assessment. If the student does not possess the skills to pass a district assessment, they are not sufficiently educated. All of my precious methodology coursework that those who criticize homeschoolers for not having out the window. The district assessment barred me from putting into practice any of the "best practices" I had learned.
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