A Comprehensive Overview of the Year In Public Education

[N'Zinga Shani]

The web site Salon.Com has put together A Comprehensive Overview of the Year In Public Education. It is fascinating for several reasons.

• 1) It covers an array of resources including the highly regarded Merrow Report.  This report is written by veteran education reporter John Merrow, who for decades has reported for PBS, NPR, and dozens of national publications. He is President of Learning Matters, a 501(c)(3) media production company based in New York and focused on education. He is also the author of The Influence of Teachers.

• 2) It includes results of surveys from divergent populations including parents whose main interest is that their children get a good education, and teachers who want to teach.
• 3) The results of detailed investigative reports from many sources including New York Daily News, the Center for Popular Democracy, Integrity in Education and ACTION (report) ,   the Alliance for Quality Education, ProPublica, among many others.
• 4)  In describing "The New Face of Charter Schools" the report points out:
  
• For sure there are examples of charter schools that are doing an excellent job of educating students. But rapid growth in the industry continues to come from charter operators who are not willing to run their operations like these successful charters because it doesn’t suit their “business model.”

In 2014 education news, lots of personalities came and went.

Arne Duncan, Louis CK, Michelle Rhee, Campbell Brown, ex-Mayor Michael Bloomberg, The Common Core, and education reform in a variety of shapes, forms, proposals and inconsistent practices. There have been scandals and reported cover-ups; charter schools made big news.

Since it’s the time of the year when newspapers, websites and television talk shows scan their archives to pick the person, place or thing that sums up the year in various venues, Salon has done it for education.

We heard a great deal about Charter Schools, Common Core and Education Reform.  An essential question is:

What important changes, if any, took place that will make education more effective for the millions who depend on public schools for an education? The Salon article is filled with links. Click the ones that peak your interest.  Regardless of how informed we are as individuals, about education reform and charter schools, each will find new information.  Regardless of our personal perspective on the issue of public education, in this Salon article we will find new information.  The key is to be open and objective.  Read not to dispute what is written, but to get as much information as is possible and then compare facts and look at the evidence. The author of the Salon piece is Jeff Bryant

http://www.salon.com/2015/01/01/exposing_the_charter_school_lie_mic...