"A child's learning is the function more of the characteristics of his classmates than those of the teacher." James Coleman, 1972

Thursday, August 07, 2014

Listen to teachers, read the research

Sent to the Jewish Journal, August 7, 2014

Ellie Herman ("To save education, listen to teachers," August 6) points out that many of those driving education policy in the US have never taught. The situation is even worse: Education policy makers are also ignorant of educational research: They are unaware that scientific studies published in professional journals provide no support for the massive amount of testing done in schools today, and that study after study shows that the most serious problem facing American education is our high rate of poverty, not the lack of tough standards. 
Educational practice should be influenced by the insights of experienced professional educators, as well as competent educational research. Policy makers today are ignoring both of these sources of wisdom.
Stephen Krashen
Professor Emeritus, University of Southern California

original article: http://www.jewishjournal.com/education/article/to_save_education_listen_to_teachers

Some sources:
No support for massive testing: Nichols, Sharon L., Gene V. Glass, and David C. Berliner. 2006. “High-Stakes Testing and Student Achievement: Does Accountability Pressure Increase Student Learning?” Education Policy Archives 14 (1). (accessed October 14, 2013).
The US ranks second out of 34 economically advanced countries in level of child poverty: UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre (2012), ‘Measuring Child Poverty: New league tables of child poverty in the world’s rich countries’, Innocenti Report Card 10, UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre, Florence.
The impact of poverty: Carnoy, M and Rothstein, R. 2013, What Do International Tests Really Show Us about U.S. Student Performance. Washington DC: Economic Policy Institute. 2012. http://www.epi.org/). Payne, K. and Biddle, B. 1999. Poor school funding, child poverty, and mathematics achievement. Educational Researcher 28 (6): 4-13; Bracey, G. 2009. The Bracey Report on the Condition of Public Education. Boulder and Tempe: Education and the Public Interest Center & Education Policy Research Unit. http://epicpolicy.org/publication/Bracey-Report;

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