Kids go to school to learn stuff. Right? Not exactly, according to veteran education Marion Brady, who has long argued that public education needs a paradigm shift — though not the same one pushed by school reformers who champion the Common Core State Standards, school choice and vouchers.
Brady says schools need a complete transformation in what and how students learn. He has also been highly critical of standardized testing. Here’s his latest piece. You can see some of his earlier pieces here (Why Common Core isn’t the answer), here (One way to solve America’s major curriculum problem) and here (The important things standardized tests don’t measure.)
I’ve spent a lot of time trying to pinpoint the root cause of poor school performance. Here’s a theory: Because education policy in America is made by non-educators in state legislatures and Congress, it’s shaped by the conventional wisdom. The conventional wisdom says schooling is primarily about “delivering information.” The conventional wisdom is wrong.