Thursday, May 21, 2009

Progressive Education's Feeble Casio

The nomination of Thelma Melendez de Santa Ana to be Deputy Secretary of Elementary and Secondary Education smells to me like a clear victory for those of us who support what I guess you could call inclusive, democratic, public school reform. As opposed to privately-driven, autocratic, exclusive school reform. For example, compare this vision (sorry, no permalink) to TFA:

Last week, state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell said that we, meaning all of us in education, need to think about new ways to recruit and keep good teachers. I agree. And we at PUSD have thought of new ways. We put out a news release that pointed out that PUSD is having recruiting success by sticking close to home.

Today, almost 20 percent (about 300) of our certificated teachers and administrators are PUSD alumni. We try to encourage graduating seniors who intend to go into education to come back home to teach. Why? Because there's an immediate comfort level when they return to a community they know, and maybe even to a school they attended, and there's also an immediate sense of loyalty. I think it also says something very positive about PUSD that so many graduates come back to us to teach. I guess sometimes you can come home - and in our case it's students who benefit.

Can we have a little bloggy love for Ms. Melendez, our new K-12 Blogger in Chief?

See also Mighty Wurlitzer.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It's nice to, from time to time, read a comment that makes sense...

Same approach would be positive in other urban districts... And I think some suburban districts already make it a habit (for a minority of their positions, but for a non-zero minority)

Jonathan