October 6th, 2009: The Future of Education

Education includes such a broad spectrum of topics that it would be impossible to touch on all the changes and innovations happening in the field right now, but I've tried to pick 2 topic areas that are interesting to me.

• The first article by Paul Tough talks about early intervention, nonschool interventions, and then gives a brief introduction to the Harlem Children's Zone project, about which he recently wrote an entire book: 24/7 School Reform

• Somewhat related to that article is this article by David Whitman, about what he calls "The New Paternalism", talking about the success of schools that, along with traditional schooling, also enforce strict behavioral policies and require students to learn manners and treat one another respectfully: An Appeal to Authority

• Optional, but good and a very quick read: For some further information on these topics, here's a brief NYTimes article about the Harlem Children's Zone and paternalistic education: The Harlem Miracle

• Optional: A recent episode of the fantastic radio show, "This American Life", had a 30-minute segment on the Harlem Children's Zone, which can be listened to free online here: Going Big
  

Some questions to think about as you read these articles:

• Are significantly improved test scores a fair trade for highly structured schools that are more restrictive than traditional public schools?
• Do improved test scores equate to improved education?
  
• Is this model of education sustainable on a larger scale? Clearly this model requires more funding than is available to most schools, and requires teachers willing to be more invested than is the norm.
  

As a 2nd topic, in 2007, Utah legislators passed a private school vouchers program to provide vouchers of varying amounts (based on family income) to families who wanted to take their children out of public schools and enroll them in private schools. That voucher program never went into effect, as Utah voters voted to repeal the program that fall.

• Here's a website that does an okay job of summing up the arguments for and against private school voucher programs: SoYouWanna Learn About School Vouchers (point #3 is just a repeat of #2, not a good sign for whatever type of school the person who made this page went to)

Some questions to think about:

• What should be the government's role in education?
• Do private school voucher programs provide options to students from poor homes? or are they just a sneaky way for rich families to get more money?
  
• Would vouchers lead to more competition in the realm of education? If so, would that competition improve the overall quality of education in our country?