Portland State University Assistant Professor Jennifer Schuberth has an Oregonian letter-to-the editor titled “School Reform in Oregon: Movement is not equivalent to progress.” In part, it reads (here):
I've been attending OEIB meetings and read the proposed plans. I've also watched the Oregon Legislature and the OEIB, like many other groups across the nation, promote high stakes testing and virtual education that benefits testing companies rather than our children. More technology and more meaningless compacts aren't going to move us forward.
I'm waiting for someone in Oregon's leadership to step up and tell Oregonians the truth they already know: You can't educate kids on the cheap. Unless we start having that conversation, unless we start making simple changes like instituting smaller class sizes, the governor and his board are simply rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. I want to see Oregon students do better, but movement is not equivalent to progress. What I see at OEIB meetings and within the proposed education legislation is opportunities for private entities such as K12 Inc. and Western Governors University to make money while our children sit in larger classes and take more tests that make them hate learning.
I do agree with her that there is a general over emphasis on narrow testing and that the proposed achievement compacts are unlikely to move Oregon forward. I do disagree with her about online education. She is against it. I am for much more of it (I previously disagreed with her about Western Governor University here). She does not mention either more foreign language immersion programs or high school study abroad programs. She wants to move right on to the “real conversation we need to have about funding.”
I am ready for that conversation. I flat out do not support any (not one dollar) more in funding for education unless there is, at minimum, a pilot high school study abroad program paying for at least five Oregon high school students to study abroad for a school year each.
Beyond that, I’d like to see many more foreign language immersion programs (especially Mandarin) and more independent online learning opportunities in the upper grades and universities. Without these changes, I cannot get excited about putting more funds into the existing educational system.
Give me an educational system I can support and I’ll push for more funding. Just asking for more money for the same old system, perhaps with smaller class sizes, will not cut it with me.
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