School of One

UPDATE II: The "new documentary 'Waiting for Superman' for ratcheting up the interest level" in education. But charter schools are not the whole answer. A "study by the Center for Research on Education Outcomes found that only 17 percent did a better job than the comparable local public school, while more than a third did 'significantly worse. . . The best charter schools are laboratories for new ideas. But the regular public schools are where American education has to be saved. " Read The New York Times, Waiting for Somebody.

And Randy, the article also notes that "there’s no evidence that teachers’ unions are holding our schools back. Finland, which is currently cleaning our clock in education scores, has teachers who are almost totally unionized. The states with the best student performance on standardized tests tend to be the ones with the strongest teachers’ unions. "


UPDATE: And another article about education. Read The New York Times, Studying Engineering Before They Can Spell It.

For Randy, and anyone else concerned about modern education. Listen to Freakonomics Radio, How Is a Bad Radio Station Like the Public School System?

It reviews the New York City Department of Education pilot program 'School of One,' which "re-imagines the traditional classroom model. Instead of one teacher and 25-30 students in a classroom, each student participates in multiple instructional modalities, including a combination of teacher-led instruction, one-on-one tutoring, independent learning, and work with virtual tutors."

Choose your modality!