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I mentioned in the comments of my previous Open for Questions: Education post that the set-up for reviewing questions over at change.gov is very cumbersome. You must scroll through the questions in the order they were posted and with more than 5,000 submitted at last count, most people aren't going to get very far. The result of this is that only the initial questions really get voted on. This is a shame considering the Obama transition team is supposed to be using this data to gauge the issues of interest.
What questions would you ask? Here are some of mine:
1) Balanced literacy (whole language) is failing to effectively teach children to read. As it stands, children are learning to guess words and memorize lists- they are not learning to decode language. When will phonics regain its proper place in the classroom?
2) Will you act upon the National Mathematics Advisory Panel’s findings? Among other important recommendations they stated that math courses must be streamlined, focusing on a 'well-defined set of the most critical topics' taught to mastery.
3) In this economy, we need to learn how to do more with less. Throwing more money at the problem is not an option. Shouldn’t we be looking at successful models? KIPP, Green Dot, Cristo Rey and many charter, magnet, and private schools do more with less.
4) Why have liberal arts all but disappeared from our classrooms? Such study develops strong minds, ordered intellect, and teaches students how (not what) to think. We need a renaissance in our schools- we need to value our freedom by creating great thinkers.
5) Isn't our obsession with 21st century skills somewhat short-sighted? The liberal arts better prepare students to be creative and think critically by calling upon important content knowledge. It takes more than media literacy and computer skills to do that.
6) Will you encourage schools of education to revisit Project Follow Through, Precision Teaching, and Direct Instruction? How will you assure that we study and apply what cognitive and behavioral science has taught us about how children learn?
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3 comments:
I'm going to be asking all of these questions.
I love this one:
Why have liberal arts all but disappeared from our classrooms? Such study develops strong minds, ordered intellect, and teaches students how (not what) to think. We need a renaissance in our schools- we need to value our freedom by creating great thinkers.
I like that one too. Ironically, it's the one with the least number of votes (not that any of them have a large number).
It is interesting to see my questions ranked (against each other). The National Math Panel one has the most votes and the liberal arts and doing more with less ones have the least.
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