Why 'Educational Reform' Sends Educators Running for Cover--And How We Can Change That

By Cathy Davidson. When someone says "educational reform," most teachers want to duck and run for cover. No wonder. The history of education, K-12, has been regulation and regulated change:  every decade or so, another politician or corporate "visionary" or educational theorist (i.e. moi) decides "everything has to change" and produces a pilot program and then the wheels grind and it becomes a "standard" and teachers around the country have to tear up the old lesson plans and do it all over again.   Typically the reform comes from someone else (typically a college prof, policy maker, or someone affiliated with a for-profit or non-profit educational enterprise) outside K-12 and is delivered to K-12 teachers. More...