It is not what reformers say; it is what educators (and students) hear

05-04-2011

Opinion by John Thompson/Education Week

John Thompson has a doctorate from Rutgers University and was an award-winning historian before teaching in the inner city for eighteen years.

To improve our toughest schools, a common language for practitioners and researchers must be developed. We must recognize that educators tend to be two peoples divided by the same language. The best example is the word, "Standards." It sounded too much like "standardized." So, a movement to teach fewer concepts for mastery morphed into a rush to cover standardized test questions. I saw that dynamic during a bipartisan effort to raise taxes and reform schools in Oklahoma City. Our coalition, MAPS for KIDS, anticipated the Broader Bolder agenda, promising early education and a respectful learning culture, stating that the purpose was not raising test scores but increased learning, measured in part by test scores. To avoid "the blame game," MAPS said that our district had many excellent "random acts of improvement." Our goal was "aligned acts of improvement." (more...)

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It is not what reformers say; it is what educators (and students) hear

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