http://blog.coreknowledge.org/2008/03/14/yes-we-can/ Closing the Achievement Gap: Teaching Content Sun, 21 Mar 2010 11:24:30 -0500 hourly 1 http://blog.coreknowledge.org/2008/03/14/yes-we-can/comment-page-1/#comment-497 tmwillemse Sat, 15 Mar 2008 15:54:58 +0000 http://www.coreknowledge.org/blog/2008/03/14/yes-we-can/#comment-497 "This might mean a thorough-going charterization program in which every school effectively becomes an "independent" school *competing* for teachers, funding, and students." And who would this competition be aimed at? And how would it do this without using market principals? The idea of education reform reminds me of that game Pachinko. One or more balls (reform ideas) are shot pin-ball style onto the play field. Then the balls hit a series of pin obstacles (name your interest group) to fall harmlessly without scoring. Occasionally, a ball (phonics) will make it through a gate and score a point. However, unlike Pachinko, in the real world of education, even the ball that makes it through can be picked up by a disgruntled vendor and thrown back, and funding for subsequent balls pulled by a back-pocket legislator. But I digress. Mike Petrilli, Rick Hess, and I agree, the choice/curriculum bifurcation is a "false dichotomy." With apologies to E.D. Hirsch, like love and marriage, you can't have one without the other. (Yes, I'm old enough to remember when they really did go together.) “This might mean a thorough-going charterization program in which every school effectively becomes an “independent” school *competing* for teachers, funding, and students.”
And who would this competition be aimed at? And how would it do this without using market principals?
The idea of education reform reminds me of that game Pachinko. One or more balls (reform ideas) are shot pin-ball style onto the play field. Then the balls hit a series of pin obstacles (name your interest group) to fall harmlessly without scoring. Occasionally, a ball (phonics) will make it through a gate and score a point. However, unlike Pachinko, in the real world of education, even the ball that makes it through can be picked up by a disgruntled vendor and thrown back, and funding for subsequent balls pulled by a back-pocket legislator.
But I digress.
Mike Petrilli, Rick Hess, and I agree, the choice/curriculum bifurcation is a “false dichotomy.” With apologies to E.D. Hirsch, like love and marriage, you can’t have one without the other. (Yes, I’m old enough to remember when they really did go together.)

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