The End Of Education Reform, Or A New Beginning?

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The End Of Education Reform, Or A New Beginning?
Natalie Wexler, Forbes, 2019/12/31
I have to confess that my main question on reading this Forbes article was to wonder who is funding all those articles that say the cure to all the nation's educational problems is direct instruction. This is Yet Another Article where direct instruction is offered as the solution to sagging test scores (this time placed in the context of explaining why a decade of 'reform' has failed). And it's deceptive - it begins by arguing that things like rock star teachers, charter schools, 'back to basics' and endless testing have all failed, but then shifts gears, blaming the failure on critical thinking and constructivism, offering direct instruction as the cure. The only consistent explanation for test schools that I've seen is that they measure for social equity. Countries with wide divisions between rich and poor have lower scores, and poorer countries fare less well overall. More...