Thursday, February 4, 2010

Governor sets education-progress bar unacceptably low

Gov. Steve Beshear said in the meeting at East Jessamine High School that while the state has made "significant, measurable progress" in education since the Kentucky Education Reform Act became law 20 years ago, there is still room for improvement.

How about some more aggressive adjectives that address the need for system "change" and "reform?"

President Obama said in the 2010 State of the Union address: “Instead of funding the status quo, we only invest in reform – reform that raises student achievement, inspires students to excel in math and science, and turns around failing schools that steal the future of too many young Americans, from rural communities to the inner city.”

So just what is "significant, measurable progress?" Thousands upon thousands of young Kentuckians have had their future stolen during the past 20 years!



If there are this many troubled schools after 20 years, then just how many years at this rate of "significant, measurable progress" is it going to take to close the learning gaps?

The young folks who are getting their futures stolen desire an answer now.


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's about time someone challenged this 'significant, measurable progress' line. 20 years is a long time.

The status quo supporters in education always take any challenge and turn it into an attack on teachers.

This is NOT an attack on teachers but on the system teachers must perform in. It is unfair to a teacher to have 5 kids in a class that can't do the work one grade back. The teacher is not given the flexibility to close that gap and get the kid in the right materials. Until teachers get the flexibility to deal with reality and the system provides a real support structure for closing the gaps, we will go another 20 years creating more failing schools.

Without change there is no change. There is no change on the horizon.

Anonymous said...

Right on. Thank you from the teachers.