Gov. Jerry Brown Blasts Data-based School Reform...

[YvonneCa]

... WAPO, Answer Sheet, including link to letter:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/gov-jerry-brown-blasts-data-based-school-reform/2011/10/09/gIQAZff2XL_blog.html#pagebreak





Excerpt from Gov. Brown's letter:


The criticism of the API is that it has led schools to focus too narrowly on tested subjects and ignore other subjects and matters that are vital to a well-rounded education. SB547 certainly would add more things to measure, but it is doubtful that it would actually improve our schools. Adding more speedometers to a broken car won’t turn it into a high-performance machine.

Over the last 50 years, academic “experts” have subjected California to unceasing pedagogical change and experimentation. The current fashion is to collect endless quantitative data to populate ever-changing indicators of performance to distinguish the educational “good” from the education “bad.” Instead of recognizing that perhaps we have reached testing nirvana, editorialists and academics alike call for ever more measurement “visions and revisions.”

A sign hung in Albert Einstein’s office read “Not everything that counts can be counted and not everything that can be counted counts.”

SB547 nowhere mentions good character or love of learning. It does allude to student excitement and creativity, but does not take these qualities seriously because they can’t be placed in a data stream. Lost in the bill’s turgid mandates is any recognition that quality is fundamentally different from quantity.



Thank you, Governor! :)

[NYC_SKP]

1. Einstein: "Everybody is a Genius"...

..."But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid."



And he's right...

[KamaAina]

2. W00t! Another masterpiece from Brown!

The previous winner:

http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2011/09/jerry-brown-takes-another-jab.html

Gov. Jerry Brown has again used the power of the governor's pen to take a shot at a Senate Republican over the state budget.

The latest missive came in a signing message attached to Senate Bill 707, legislation by Sen. Anthony Cannella, R-Ceres, to enact a 1 percent fee on the sale of olive trees.

"The author vouches for this fee by stressing the need to ensure that olives are 'healthy and viable for California farmers.' I agree. Perhaps the author and his colleagues might apply the same solicitude - and revenue - to ensure the health and viability of our schools?" Brown wrote.

"Just a thought," he concluded.

:rofl:

[YvonneCa]

3. Isn't he ...

...great? :)

[KamaAina]

4. If only he had shown that kind of moxie during the legislative session

the repukes might not have been able to impose their austerity budget on us. :grr: