Education Research

The New America Foundation has a succinct and accessible description of educational challenges along with the research that drives their purpose. Access links are provided at the bottom of the page linked as a reference to this post.

But the over-arching story of the collection of web pages is far different from the purpose of each one.  And it is certainly not the story that the New America Foundation is attempting to tell.

For the story summary is of a hierarchy out of control. It is heavily weighted on the side of research (much of it ideologically driven) as opposed to experiment and trial, and all at crushing cost.

It is of growing mystery that Progressives, who supposedly favor science, are so obviously against the proliferation of multiple experiments. Is that not how science progresses?

On the contrary, charter schools across the country have in many cases provided effective learning environments that increase test scores at reduced cost for a broad range of students from a variety of social stratum. They provide excellent laboratories, but in every case Progressives have moved to shut them down regardless of their success.

Bureaucracy and hierarchy provide any number of advantages. Creativity and solutions are not among them.

The behemoth that is education would benefit greatly from a decentralized approach that empowered organizations and individuals, most of all teachers, to meet challenges and change head on in an eternal search for excellence.

In businesses and some governments around the world, hierarchies are fading away in preference of scale free networks that adapt and evolve. And those are two of the most essential qualities we need in education. 

Education, like government, is going in the opposite direction.  It is ever more hierarchical, robbing discernment and real world trial at every step.  And that is exactly what we do not need in education.  And that is exactly not the path to an enlightened, engaged student with a yearning to follow their curiosity.

Many Missing Pieces | NewAmerica.net