My name is Eliza Stein. I am a college freshman. I am a product of the public school system, but with a twist: I am the product of new public school systems. I was educated in an Expeditionary Learning school from kindergarten to eighth grade, then went on to attend a public charter high school whose mission centered around college success for underrepresented populations. That's right, folks - you are looking at a real-life product of experimentation, manipulation, and new-age education.
I currently find myself in an education course at Colorado College called Critical Perspectives in Public Education Innovations. This class captured my attention because its title combines five words which, when appearing together, trigger every impulse within me to immediately grind my heals into the ground and prepare for battle. These five words may be the basis of all conflict that humanity will ever see.
This blog will trace my thinking as I explore "Critical Perspectives in Public Education Innovations." I will spend a total of thirty hours interning at Downtown Denver Expeditionary School and Wittier ECE-8. I will also reflect as I dive into Diane Ravitch's Rein of Error (2013) and Milton Chen's Education Nation (2010), and how they apply to my first-hand experiences. My class will meet every afternoon to reflect and discuss topics prevalent in our school placements, readings, and lectures.
Throughout this blog, I will examine what it means to think "critically" about a topic. As Ravitch said in her book, it is important to avoid being "long on criticism but short on answers" (Ravitch, 2013, p. xii), balancing observation with further research, synthesis, and inference.
I will explore the various "perspectives" involved in education, in and outside of Chen's "three-legged stool of teachers, parents, and students" (Chen, 2010, p. 199) - how do each of these stakeholders influence the educational system, and how is each influenced in return? To what other valuable perspectives are we not giving credibility?
I will question the meaning and importance of "public" institutions - what defines something as "public," and how does this specific adjective play out in the debate of human rights? What does it mean for a school to be public, for its "doors [to be] open to all" (Ravitch, 2013, p. 5)?
One of the most broad and difficult topics that I will attempt to unravel is the definition and implications of the word "education." How is education defined in traditional public school models? What modifications, if any, must we make to our current models in order to address the perpetually changing "tools required for learning in this decade" (Chen, 2010, p. 2)? And what does it mean to be "educated" not only in the modern world, but in the future world?
Finally, I will present several new, "innovative" approaches appearing in the education world and attempt to weigh them against the previously discussed themes. When examining all of the above critical questions, how does innovation come into play?
Education reform is controversial, and it is an extremely high-risk area of focus. It is true that education systems today are not operating successfully; this is demonstrated by humongous achievement gaps and perpetual trends of high school drop-outs and college unpreparedness. Yet, when we approach education reform, we must remember that we hold children's futures in our hands. Like anything, school innovation requires its share of experimentation, which also means trial and error. This is why education reform is so difficult and controversial: in our search for a solution, we put our children's well-being at risk. The film The Lottery (2010) brings up one of the most important topics to keep in mind while examining education reform: access to a great education cannot be the luck of the draw, and it should not be determined by the neighborhood children are born into. Together, we must find a way to grant all children the education that they are entitled to.
I would like to formally invite you to join me as I explore education reform in Denver Public Schools, the United States, and the world.
Literature Cited:
Chen, Milton. (2010). Education Nation: Six Leading Edges of Innovation in our Schools. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Ravitch, Diane. (2013). Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America's Public Schools. NYC: Vintage Books.
Eliza - I really enjoyed what you had to say about proposing promising methods of innovation. I wonder if during your time at your placement if you will be developing skills to add to your own belt in understanding how innovation theory works in practice. I would also encourage you to challenge the innovative practices we are discussing in class as you see them play out at DDES. I would also be more than happy to answer any questions you have about my EL education and would love to compare my EL elementary experience to yours and your time at DDES.
ReplyDeleteI also love what you have to say about "The Lottery" in that education should not be left up to the luck of the draw. As a future educator, and policy maker I definitely believe that all children should have access to amazing schools, no matter how different the schools are.
I look forward to learning with you!