Reinventing schools

DallasBlog.com | Caroline Walker:

“If preparing more kids for college than ever before is what has to happen to maintain our economic edge into the 21st century, then our approach to education will need ‘not just reform, not just rethinking, but reinvention,’ says Dr. Michael Copeland, asst. professor of education at TAMU-Commerce and co-president of the Reinventing Schools Coalition.”

Ed Cognoski responds:

If the Quality Schools model is succeeding, it's probably because of the investment of time, effort, and money. Individual learning plans are labor intensive. Soliciting input from and involving parents and employers are expensive, extending school expenses into the community as a whole. It's not all that surprising that intensive investments sometimes pay dividends. It's not guaranteed, of course, but not surprising when it happens.

It's interesting that the Reinventing Schools Coalition has received funding from the Bill and Melissa Gates Foundation. Gates is using his fortune to fund experiments in education. Here is what Businessweek recently had to say about Bill Gates getting schooled himself: "Visits to 22 Gates-funded schools around the country show that while the Microsoft couple indisputably merit praise for calling national attention to the dropout crisis and funding the creation of some promising schools, they deserve no better than a C when it comes to improving academic performance."

But Gates has always been a quick study. With his fortune, he can afford many failures. Maybe by the time he releases Gates Public School 3.0, he'll have something the rest of America will want to buy. Let's hope so. Don't look to Austin for help, where the Texas Legislature sees no need to increase funding for Texas schools and the State Board of Education is more interested in suppressing sex education and introducing school prayer than in improving education.