Yes, we are already thinking about the sessions at Ykos2007 in Chicago. And for better or worse, it seems as if I will be involved with an education session. And what you see on the title line of this diary is deliberate,and I will not claim full credit. A number of people of suggested that we consider following the model of the Energize America folks (Jerome and company)from Ykos2006 and take a shot at drafting a comprehensive plan to totally reform American education as they didmwith their plan to totally reform America's approach to energy.
At this point we are at the exploration stage. There are certain people who I will be inviting to participate in helping me organize it. Some are participants here, more or less frequently. Some are people who have been wrestling with these issues for a long time.
For a manageable panel we will need to keep it to no more than 5 people. But we will be looking for a lot of input, as did the energy folks. That's where you come in, now, on this diary.
There have been diaries that have begun to address this issue but not in a consistent way. I have written some,as has Marion Brady and a few others. There are many people who have offered some ideas in the comments. But for now these do not matter.
What I'd like this diary to do is to encourage you to offer one key idea per comment that you think important as we rethink our approach to education. That will make it manageable to process what you write. Explain the significance of your idea. You do not at this point have to fully develop it.
I am going to ask for a little organization here. Comment on any idea by posting comments in response to it. But if you have a new idea, post it as a comment to the diary itself. That will make it a bit easier to follow the thinking.
I want to thank Devilstower and Pontificator and a few others for suggesting that we go this route. For it to work, we will need your input, lots of it.
If you have particularly expertise, or want to point at specific resources you think buttress the point you are making, feel free to contact me offline at kber at earthlink dot net.
Please note - what we produce will be the product of a group effort. The only person with whom I've had a conversation about doing this - other than the gentlemen who suggested it - is SDorn, who is an historian of education, an editor of a key policy journal in education, and one of the organizers of a key group blog of educational policy wonks in which I am also a participant. My role will primarily be that of coordinator - my ideas will carry no more weight because of my role as coordinator.
Feel free to think totally outside the box, for now. Pretend that that box has not been invented yet.
For now all of education is on the table (that is, if we have invented the table). Pre-K through postgraduate can all be considered. In fact,they probably all should be.
Obviously the key focus will be K-12 because that is the area in which governmental policy is most involved. But given moves by the current US Department of Education to get more involved with post-secondary issues,and given the arguments we often hear about how schools are not preparing students for college, clearly those issues also need to be on the table as well.
Issues that can be considered can include structure of schools,structure of school districts, certification of teachers, financing of schools, content of curriculum, aassessment of learning, issues of accountability, what students should know and be able to do, governance of schools, and anything else that floats your boat.
For this to work, this diary will have to stay visible. Those who think that merely because I wrote it the diary will magically appear on the recommended list are quite mistaken - my diary yesterday (which was far better written than this one) did not get elevated(and that's fine). For this to stay visible it will need your assistance. I am therefore asking if you consider this a useful effort to recommend it as well as make your suggestion or three of things we should consider.
I may not respond to every idea that is posted - today is a school day, and I am giving tests in all six classes, and will be using the time during them to correct those from previous classes (Hey, teacherken, why don't we do away with conventional tests and assess learning by performance? - Now there's an idea with which my students are likely to agree about 5 minutes into today's assessments!). I will, if this diary stays active, check into from time to time. If it works as I hope, I will have a lot of material to print down and consider.
Thanks in advance for your cooperation.
Now it's your turn.