scholarly journals Political Agendas for Education: From Race to the Top to Saving the Planet

2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 49
Author(s):  
Daniel Diego
Keyword(s):  
No Child Left Behind ◽  
Education Reform ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Merit Pay ◽  
The United States ◽  
Race To The Top ◽  
Main Stream ◽  
For Profit ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
The Impact

<em>Amidst the transition from No Child Left Behind (NCLB) to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), the book, Political Agendas for Education: From Race to the top to saving the planet by Joel Spring has discussed issues such as the impact of Race to the Top, the influence of Teach for America (TFA), teacher evaluation and merit pay, Republican reaction and rejection of Race to the Top and the education agenda of the Obama administration, and the benefits reaped by the growing for-profit industry on the United States (U.S.) education system. Simultaneously, the 5th edition has comparatively analyzed Libertarian and Green Party agendas along with the main stream political agendas which have dominated education in the U.S. Furthermore, this book has highlighted aspects of education reform which emphasize environmental sustainability, social and educational equity and freedom with the goal of human and societal health and wellbeing.</em>

Learning from failure

2018 ◽  
Vol 99 (8) ◽  
pp. 46-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jay P. Greene ◽  
Michael Q. McShane
Keyword(s):  
No Child Left Behind ◽  
Education Reform ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
State Standards ◽  
Race To The Top ◽  
Reform Initiatives ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Learning From Failure ◽  
The Common

Over the last two decades, federal and state policy makers have launched a number of ambitious, large-scale education reform initiatives —No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top, the Common Core State Standards, and others — only to see them sputter and fail. In 2017, the authors convened a number of leading scholars to explore why those initiatives failed and what can be learned from them. Participants agreed that to be more successful in the future, reformers will need to balance ambition and urgency with humility, political acumen, and the ability to recognize when it’s time to slow down or scale things back.

Cultural Narcissism and Education Reform

2011 ◽  
Vol 113 (9) ◽  
pp. 2018-2046
Author(s):  
Edward Pajak
Keyword(s):  
At Risk ◽  
No Child Left Behind ◽  
Education Policy ◽  
Education Reform ◽  
The United States ◽  
Reform Movement ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Nation At Risk ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
A Nation At Risk

Background/Context Scholars have described American culture in recent decades as narcissistic, manifested by displays of self-absorption tantamount to a pathological syndrome that has reached epidemic proportions. An education reform movement that is highly critical of public schools, teachers, and students has simultaneously emerged, espousing a wide array of seemingly disconnected innovations and punitive sanctions. Prior efforts to critically analyze these reform efforts have focused on the historical workings of power and knowledge by supporting reflective, emancipatory knowledge and action while overlooking the insights offered by psychoanalytic theory. Consequently, the impact of education policies on the identities of teachers and the personal relationships between teachers and students has not been thoroughly or sufficiently understood. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study This article represents a tentative step toward understanding the social and psychological underpinnings of education reform in the United States during the last quarter century. The reform movement is interpreted as being rooted in specific psychological processes associated with narcissistic parenting. Psychoanalytic concepts are employed to illustrate how educators and the general public have become accomplices in their own subjugation. A review of literature that addresses narcissistic parenting yielded eight characteristic behavioral patterns: expectations of perfection in children, particularly with regard to intellect; a grandiose sense of superiority and entitlement; relentless fault-finding; projection of personal fantasies onto children; an absence of empathy for children and their needs; a preoccupation with control; conditional approval; and a well-intentioned view of their own self-centered motives and insensitive actions as being beneficial for children. These conceptual formulations provided a basis for examining proposals and policies found in the National Commission on Excellence in Education's 1983 report, A Nation at Risk, and provisions of the more recent No Child Left Behind legislation. Research Design This analytic essay uses a review of the literature, including psychoanalytic research on narcissism and narcissistic parenting as well as contemporary critical theory related to education reform, to examine arguments and policies evidenced in A Nation at Risk and No Child Left Behind. Conclusions/Recommendations A prevailing “narcissistic education policy style” is posited, which denies the true learning needs of students; disempowers classroom teachers and schools by undermining trust in self and others; and reproduces narcissistic dynamics within the culture. Elements of an alternative education policy more focused on the needs of students are proposed, along with a call to recognize the right of children to be treated with the respect accorded to fully formed human beings.

scholarly journals The Impact of No Child Left Behind on Students, Teachers, and Schools

2010 ◽  
Vol 2010 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-194 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas S. Dee ◽  
Brian A. Jacob
Keyword(s):  
No Child Left Behind ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
The Impact

No Child Left Behind: The Ongoing Movement for Public Education Reform

2006 ◽  
Vol 76 (4) ◽  
pp. 461-473 ◽  
Author(s):  
ROD PAIGE
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
No Child Left Behind ◽  
Public Education ◽  
Education Reform ◽  
Education System ◽  
Academic Skills ◽  
Public Education System ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Public Education Reform ◽  
Original Goal

In this essay, former secretary of education Rod Paige depicts the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) as the culmination of more than half a century of urgent but largely unheeded calls for reform of the nation's public education system. He explains the rationale for the design of NCLB and responds to several criticisms of the legislation, including the notion that it is a one-size-fits-all mandate and that its improvement targets are unrealistic. He further argues that the nation's public schools must become more responsive to the needs of students and their families in order to remain viable. Finally, he contends that subsequent reauthorizations should stay true to NCLB's original goal of holding school systems accountable for equipping all students with the academic skills on which America's future depends.

scholarly journals A Comprehensive Analysis of High School Genetics Standards: Are States Keeping Pace with Modern Genetics?

2011 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 318-327 ◽  
Author(s):  
M.J. Dougherty ◽  
C. Pleasants ◽  
L. Solow ◽  
A. Wong ◽  
H. Zhang
Keyword(s):  
No Child Left Behind ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Human Genetics ◽  
The United States ◽  
Genetic Literacy ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Genetic Complexity ◽  
Core Concepts ◽  
Instruction And Learning ◽  
American Society

Science education in the United States will increasingly be driven by testing and accountability requirements, such as those mandated by the No Child Left Behind Act, which rely heavily on learning outcomes, or “standards,” that are currently developed on a state-by-state basis. Those standards, in turn, drive curriculum and instruction. Given the importance of standards to teaching and learning, we investigated the quality of life sciences/biology standards with respect to genetics for all 50 states and the District of Columbia, using core concepts developed by the American Society of Human Genetics as normative benchmarks. Our results indicate that the states’ genetics standards, in general, are poor, with more than 85% of the states receiving overall scores of Inadequate. In particular, the standards in virtually every state have failed to keep pace with changes in the discipline as it has become genomic in scope, omitting concepts related to genetic complexity, the importance of environment to phenotypic variation, differential gene expression, and the differences between inherited and somatic genetic disease. Clearer, more comprehensive genetics standards are likely to benefit genetics instruction and learning, help prepare future genetics researchers, and contribute to the genetic literacy of the U.S. citizenry.

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