Defining the Good School

Jeff Swensson; Michael Shaffer

doi:10.5771/9781475856224

Summary

The deck is stacked against educators and parents/caregivers looking for educational adequacy in contemporary US education. Too often, satisfactory quality in the good public school is identified based on opinion, the dubious value of standardized test results, and marketing ploys. Moreover, the contemporary purpose of US education and the definition of educational adequacy are wild cards that prevent most from playing a winning hand.

Finding the good public school is left to chance. This book initiates a search to transform this state of affairs. All students deserve a comprehensive public education that invests in the original power of education, dynamic instruction, and principled reasoning.

This discussion tackles the barriers—the eye of the beholder, the tyranny of either/or, and standardized testing—that hobble the capacities of educators and students. Once these barriers are removed, the determinants of comprehensive public education—power, policy, and instruction—emerge.

From these discoveries implications are derived that indicate how comprehensive public educationengages educators and students with a transformed definition of educational adequacy. The good public school depends on this and a complete readjustment of the purpose of US public education. This search enables educators and parents/caregivers to identify and establish the good public school without taking any chances.

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Bibliographic data

Copyright year: 2020
ISBN-Print: 978-1-4758-5620-0
ISBN-Online: 978-1-4758-5622-4
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 153
Product type: Book Titles

1. Contents No access
2. Preface No access
3. Introduction No access
1. The Contemporary Purpose of Education No access
2. The More US Education Changes, the More It Stays the Same No access
3. A Selfie Puts Education’s Purpose and Educational Adequacy to the Test No access
4. What Do We Have Here? Implications from the Selfie No access
5. A Future for US Public Education No access
6. Beginning to Search with the End in Mind No access
1. True North and Socialization No access
2. Socialization and Moral Obligation in Public Education No access
3. The Troubled History of Moral Obligation No access
4. Moral Obligation and the Absence of Critical Habits of Mind No access
5. The Capacity for Moral Obligation in Public Education No access
6. Interpretations of Moral Obligation No access
7. Students and Self-Mastery and Principled Reasoning No access
8. Choices and the Future of Moral Obligation No access
9. Standing in the Way of Moral Obligation No access
10. Precepts of the Moral Obligation of US Public Education No access
1. This Search and Its Barriers No access
2. The Perspectives and Publics of Contemporary US Public Education No access
3. Major Perspectives about US Public Education No access
4. Two Publics in US Public Education No access
5. Barriers Arise Where None Should Exist No access
6. Taking This Search beyond the Eye of the Beholder No access
1. The Synergy of Struggle No access
2. The TEO Barrier: School Attached or School Detached No access
3. Dismantling the Tyranny of Either/Or No access
1. The Authority of Conventional Wisdom No access
2. The Baleful State of Educational Adequacy No access
3. How Educational Adequacy Becomes Conventional Wisdom No access
4. Educational Adequacy: A Dead End No access
5. Reconsidering Educational Adequacy No access
1. I-P-O and Measurement: Standardized Testing No access
2. Measurement and Its Misnomers No access
3. The Fog of Certainty No access
4. Measurement and the Illusion Called Gap-Gazing No access
5. The Case for Effective Evaluation No access
6. The End of Measurement Inadequacy No access
1. The Presence of Power in Education No access
2. The Rationale for the Future of US Public Education No access
3. Power: Abuse and Potential of a Steady State No access
4. The Minor Leagues: Purpose, Power, and Education No access
5. Why the Original Power of Education Is Vulnerable No access
6. The “What,” “Who,” and “Why” of Power in Education No access
7. Power and “I Identify as . . .” Statements No access
8. Avoiding the Absolutes: Power + Corruption No access
9. Freedom: The Original Power of Education No access
1. Setting the Stage for Dynamic Instruction No access
2. Dynamic Instruction No access
3. Act I: Exeunt All No access
1. Student Engagement and Satisfactory Quality No access
2. Pedagogical Agency No access
3. Languaging and Student Engagement No access
4. The Reviews Are In: Dynamic Instruction No access
1. The Idiocy of Contemporary Educational Policy No access
2. The Wreck of the Good Ship Educational Policy No access
3. Locally Sourced Policy No access
4. Removing Idiocy from the Policy Menu No access
5. Common Ground: Policy for the Good Public School No access
1. The Shared Circumstance of “public” in Education No access
2. Common Ground: “public” No access
1. Transforming Educational Adequacy No access
2. Commitments about Comprehensive Public Education No access
3. Choices, Weaving, and Philosophy No access
4. The Good Public School: Indicators and Objectives No access
1. The Second Implication No access
2. The Third Implication No access
3. The Fourth Implication No access
4. The Fifth Implication No access
5. The Sixth Implication No access
6. Learning from the Implications of This Search No access
1. We Have Met the Enemy and He Is Us No access
2. The Benchmarks for 21CPE No access
3. Promises Empower 21CPE No access
4. Dealing with the “If” of 21CPE No access
5. Welcome to the Good Public School No access
References No access Pages 143 - 150
Index No access Pages 151 - 152
About the Authors No access Pages 153 - 153