in Education Week, "First, Do No Harm"

The November 7th, 2007 issue of Education Week, four scholars share share their ideas about the reauthorization of NCLB. One of the articles is Peter Hiebowitsh's "First Do No Harm."

"The sad reality is that when it comes to school reform, the cure can be, and sometimes is, more harmful than the ailment it addresses."

The four scholar's essays are all worth a lookover...

Tags: Heibowitsh, NCLB, reform

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Permalink Reply by Edwin Wargo on November 10, 2007 at 2:43pm

Hi Connie,

Thanks for sharing this. Very interesting points about NCLB.

There was just a piece in The Economist about innovation. It would be nice to some of the themes of the 21st century skills - new literacy, collaboration, knowledge-centric culture, and innovation (as The Economist report points out) - into NCLB's reauthorization. Otherwise, I think we're going to continue to have two competing priorities - NCLB and 21st century skills.

While good has certainly come out of NCLB, I think children are going to be left behind if we just focus on "traditional" math and language arts literacy approaches. At least that's what the numerous reports, research, and comments about 21st century learning that I've read suggest. I'm actually preparing a couple of blog entries around this topic now. I'm really interested in hearing what others think.

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Permalink Reply by Connie Weber on November 10, 2007 at 3:44pm

Hi Edwin,

The Economist article is interesting. I like this definition of innovation: "fresh thinking that creates value."

How will that fit into a multiple choice test?

And while we're looking for things that are "good" in education and might be legislated in, how about "joyful learning"? Teams of really savvy psychologists could come visit schools to observe and record "incidences of happiness." Ok, let me keep going: the psychologists also look for "connections of caring" between students. And even more: they look for resourcefulness and participation in problem-solving by the learning community as a whole--the degree to which knowledge is shared all around. Those are some of the ways I'd like to "measure schools."