The phony education reform that is privatization of public education was pretty scathingly exposed throughout 2014. Didn't notice? Here's your chance to catch up:
Higher Ed TransformationNew Degrees Challenge “Time Served” Model
The University of Michigan is now on course to become one of the first public higher education institutions to offer a degree that can be achieved not through credit hours but on demonstrated proficiency in the subjects studied. According to Inside Higher Ed, Michigan’s regional accreditor has just approved a competency-based Master’s of Health Professions Education. The program is designed to give health professionals training in “carry out the full range of responsibilities of a scholarly educator-leader.”
This is a small but significant step toward one of the most important higher education reforms currently on offer, alongside MOOCs. NPR provides some excellent background, noting that the current system measures “not how much you’ve learned, but how long you’ve spent trying to learn it.” More:
The conventions of the credit hour, the semester and the academic year were formalized in the early 1900s. Time forms the template for designing college programs, accrediting them and — crucially — funding them using federal student aid.
But in 2013, for the first time, the Department of Education took steps to loosen the rules.
The new idea: Allow institutions to get student-aid funding by creating programs that directly measure learning, not time. Students can move at their own pace. The school certifies — measures — what they know and are able to do.
This kind of approach shifts higher education from what we at the AI have called a “time served” to a “stuff learned” model, allowing students to learn what they need to learn and then graduate without spending unnecessary time in a program or racking up unnecessary debt. According to NPR, the DoE attempt to “loosen the rules” means that as many as 350 schools nationwide can now try out competency-based degrees without risking their eligibility for federal financial aid. Read the whole thing for an overview of the current status of those programs and their prospects for success. The more schools have the freedom to grant degrees on the basis of proficiency rather than “time served,” the more relevant to the demands of today’s economy higher education will become.
This is a blog from an experienced teacher alarmed by the trend in mechanization of education.
I don't think where this guy is going is all bad—it at least recognizes that every student learns differently and that one size doesn't fit all. I think they're in for some nasty shocks when they try and apply these psychometric models to actual humans tho.
Students are not interchangeable but it's worse than that: students aren't even the same student from day to day. This approach treats teachers as technicians and leaves no room for creativity in curriculum or inspiration in teaching.
Behind the data generating-and-collecting behemoth that is Pearson is a company called Knewton. And here's a video from the November 2012 Education Datapallooza (a name that I did NOT make up, but was officially given the event by the Dept of Education, because they are so hip. I believe they also listen to the rap music). In just under ten minutes, Jose Ferreira, Knewton CEO, delivers the clearest picture I've ever seen of the intentions of the Acolytes of Data. (H/T to Anne Patrick.) He opens with the notion that in the next few decades, we will become a totally data mined world. There are plenty of reasons to be concerned about that, but that's another post. He may well be right. He believes that has big implications for education, because while everybody is just collecting data in dribs and drabs, education is the Great River O'Data.
No problem; I know you don't go for the demagogue stuff, but that pine marten was a little miffed. It's just one of those provocative headlines; the sort which then get linked and ultimately show up on every social media feed as well as ultra right-wing sites. I blame the internet...and Obama.
The startup, funded by security tech magnate Mati Kochavi, adapts technology used by hedge funds and intelligence agencies to find news all over the world.
Agnostic, relatively unbiased search parameters to monitor the web for hidden news is the big idea behind Vocativ, which launches today. (Vocativ has been in not-so-stealth mode, with a different site design, for much of the year.) Employees of the digital news agency come from Vice, Huffington Post, ABC, The New York Daily News, and more, and they speak a wide variety of languages. Vocativ is based in New York with outposts around the world. One of its big goals is to use the deep web as a primary source.
"Their data-searching software was originally marketed as a tool for law enforcement and government agencies."
No problem; I know you don't go for the demagogue stuff, but that pine marten was a little miffed. It's just one of those provocative headlines; the sort which then get linked and ultimately show up on every social media feed as well as ultra right-wing sites. I blame the internet...and Obama.
my other half is a montessori teacher (early childhood) in the state school system (inner city no less) which had fantastic results
following/tracking her students revealed a very noticeable difference/performance
the program was recognized with honors and awards
so the state did the obvious
they cancelled the program
now she's dealing with other programs (high scope or something like that)
admittedly she still uses as much montessori as humanly possible in the new curriculum
bureaucrats in action...can't have anything nice
Mine was greatly modified eventually. Looking back I'm amazed at the freedom we had and the creative thinking/individuality it built. I can't imagine many places getting away with what we did today though.
One of our camping trips was to Lake McConaughy in Nebraska. 50+ early teen coed kids on a bus to a lake for a week with 4 or 5 adults. We had canoes. We made our own groups (usually 5-10 kids) that were responsible for our gear, our meal plan and our activities. On the way up we stopped at a store and were turned loose with ~$50. One of the other groups had neglected to bring a cooler. So there was an impromptu negotiation and replan. They wound up buying all the ice and everyone else let them use space in our coolers. My group used the extra ice money to get lots of chocolate which was a big boon at s'more making time.
There were problems, there were injuries (sometimes serious), there was occasional chaos. But we thrived, and I can't imagine an environment where you would learn more. I'm truly grateful I got to experience it.
The comments: Garry all you ever talk about are Katrina refugees. Why the grudge? Did your wife run off with one?
