Countering Mayoral Control of Public Schools:
Building a Movement for a New and Just Educational System
This event took place at the Brecht Forum on November 18. A panel discussed mayoral control in public schools and the panel members were either members of progressive education and/or human rights groups.
Each member of the panel had a chance to address the audience about how mayoral control affected the public education and they also spoke about their views of public education as it pertains to their organization.
A few highlights of the problems with mayoral control include the amount of testing that is required of students in the public school system. Not only are they required to undergo a lot of testing, some of these tests are "exclusionary" to certain groups of people, which creates an unfair advantage for some and systematic disadvantages for others.
I walked away from this event with multiple questions concerning the role of teachers in the society. Teachers not only give their students access to information and resources but they also inform them about issues that are affecting them and their community. The city is trying to keep the achievement levels of students up, but are students really learning anything of substance or are they merely learning how to pass tests?
It would be nice if teachers were not to be concerned with test scores but with actual learning. Testing is a restrictive form of evaluating students and doesn't do anything to highlight individual characteristics as a student and a learner.
I think as a teacher it will be hard for me to avoid the issue of testing in the school but I do hope to in some way still make quality education available for my students with adequate and in-depth analysis and reflection of the work they are doing and what they are learning.
Tests might not be the answer but it is an easy way for the city to "keep track". If it is working to the detriment of many student's education.....I think it is. But as future teachers it is important to not be the kinds of teachers that are only adamant about passing tests rather they should be focused on actual learning and growing.
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1 comment:
Vanya
This is really interesting. I never really thought about how important, or how much of an impact mayoral control had. By mayoral control do you mean the mayor? And does the mayor impact the teacher because the mayor impacts the school board?
It makes me wonder about the trickle down affect with the school board. Once the government changes on a national level; will changes on the state level and then on a local level mean school testing on a local level mean less standardized testing?
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