PrintApril 19, 2010
Obama Education Reform Rhetoric
Our local newspaper, the Salt Lake Tribune, ran an editorial today on an Obama school improvement program.
I did some checking on a few phrases contained in the editorial. For example: "comprehensive curriculum reform, professional development, extending learning time and other strategies". A simple Google search gives dozens of word-for-word hits on this phrase. Checking further, I ran down the origin. It's boilerplate from Learning Point Associates, an organization based in Chicago Illinois.
So, it appears that the Obama administration will dole out money to schools if they are willing to undergo extreme changes (outlined in the Salt Lake Trib editorial) and the guidance will come from Learning Point Associates (LPA).
A bit more searching found that one of LPA's board of directors, Nínive Clements Calegari, is a contributor to an education pamphlet "The New Press Education Reader" along with William Ayers. The "guide" offers this sort of thing:
"These outstanding contributors discuss the most pressing and challenging issues now facing us, including schools and social justice, equity issues, tracking and testing, combating racism and homophobia, closing the achievement gap, children in poverty, faculty retention and recruitment, multicultural and bilingual education, re-thinking history, and the effects of consumerism on children."
"Re-thinking history"!
