bubbleover - what could it become?

[Wade Tillett]

Just wanted to say a few words about where I think I can put my efforts
and get a strategy discussion going.

I guess I see CORE working on school organization, PURE is working on
parent organization, FairTest obviously has the assessment piece.

I think I see bubbleover as an attempt to make a progressive curriculum
attractive (to parents, but also teachers, students, others). I think it
needs to be positive, show an alternative that is better than what the
privatizers and standardizers are offering. I'm not trying to invent
this alternative - there is a long line of researchers and theorists who
have articulated it. I'm just trying to advertise it. To show parents
something they desire for their children even more than "success" - a
meaningful life. And that can be the organizer for education.

NCLB manufactured a crisis, just like they always do (NDEA, etc.), to
organize a power grab. They told parents how awful their school was in
order to create a desire for private offerings. They failed to provide
these when it counted, and turned many against the whole idea. Now they
are chipping away at it by brute force. But parents want more than test
scores, they know their children have personality.

And neighborhood schools have a unique opportunity to connect each child
and the community together. That being said, we cannot deny that entire
neighborhoods and the schools within them, are being sabotaged (as
George Schmidt said today). Education is not the cure-all, but an
integral part of a social system. The change that is needed is holistic,
involving far more than schools. Neighborhood schools should be a
primary catalyst for these changes, instead of being blamed and torn
down.

I think it is a mistake to say no change is needed. Instead we want
change in the other direction. The business model has died of it's own
corruption, let's kick it to the curb. Positive change not pocket
change.

So, how to stoke desire for equitable neighborhoods and the schools
within them? For creating citizens rather than consumers? For finding
meaning in life, rather than acquiring the right answer?

In other words, how can we change the frame so that parents will measure
and desire a good school not by test scores, but by deeper qualities?

I don't mean this rhetorically, I'm hoping to get a real discussion
going. Bubbleover is just a preliminary attempt, and of course I'm not
pretending like I've just come up with this idea. I know many of your
receiving this email have worked far harder and longer than I to get the
desires of parents and others on our side.

So, what do you think?

[Parents United for Responsible Education]

Wade, I think you have identified a useful niche for bubbleover. We
don't hear enough or talk enough about the good things that happen in
classrooms and the good things that should be happening.

I don't have a lot of experience with effective internet discussion
groups but one idea would be to share stories of what we as parents and
teachers know are successful teaching (and assessment) practices. We can
also share articles and news. And there are schools with web sites that
share some of these good practices. We could link to them.

Maybe an important focus for us could be to thoughtfully link the best
teaching experiences with how they are assessed.

That's my response so far!

Julie

[Wade Tillett]

Julie, Thanks for the ideas and feedback. Sounds like a good start.

I think I've found a similar group, or more, here:
http://definegreat.ning.com/forum/topics/forumforeducationorg-similar
Though I don't know exactly the politics behind it, I recognize some of
the names on a flyer they are making.

I've got lots of curriculum I can add as I teach my UIC middle school
curriculum course this spring (it's a night-class - I'm working on my
doctorate in curriculum studies at UIC).

I'm also wondering though, how to build it with parents at schools,
rather than just the internet. The bubble event was fun (would be more
fun in warm weather). But I think a repeat would be better suited at a
neighborhood school with lots of children and parents (and warm
weather). Keep it positive, show what's good about neighborhood schools
and teachers, and how they could be even better if they focus on things
even more important than what can be measured with bubbles. With the
other message being that they are in danger, and the curriculum is too
tightly controlled from outside the community it serves.

Or maybe there is another way entirely.