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FOCUS POINT: NCLB Public School Choice Requirements

Discussion List > Focus Point: NCLB Public School Choice Requirements > Comment

COMMENT: "Traditional" is not necessarily a flattering concept

Submitted by mark spyder thompson, ph.d. on 10/12/04 2:47 PM

As a retired public educator as well as a parent of children who took advantage of various alternative "non-traditional" educational opportunities including charters, I agree with most of the points made about the value of charter schools. I do however strongly disagree with the notion of including them into some heading labeled "traditional." This term has numerous negative connotations; the most obvious being that a great deal of the inherent resistance to "re-form" of public education is generated from the traditional constituency of teachers and administrators. Tradition is not a good thing; it is a begging freezing way according to most indigenous cultures.

The Lakota, along with most plains cultures, reminded themselves constantly of this in the telling of certain myths. Tradition was the grandmother way, but that grandmothers are too old to change and adapt and evolve. They need to be killed in order for the band, or society, or tribe, or nation to survive and endure. The more we try to incorporate new ideas into tradition rather than into growth and change, the more damage we do to the future. Change is good, the trees agree. And this goes for the notion of "careful replication" as well. I can't imagine where one would find identical communities.

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NCLB Public School Choice Requirements

Submitted by Todd Ziebarth on 10/12/04 05:37 AM

Problems with NCLB Choice

Submitted by David Plank on 10/12/04 06:07 AM
- choice requires a supply side
  
  Submitted by Paul Hill on 10/12/04 12:12 PM
  - Increasing the Supply
    
    Submitted by Dianne Piche on 10/12/04 12:36 PM
    - Incentives can help
      
      Submitted by David Plank on 10/12/04 01:07 PM
      - incentives to serve the disadvantaged
        
        Submitted by Paul Hill on 10/12/04 02:45 PM
  - More on Incentives and Interdistrict Choice
    
    Submitted by Dianne Piche on 10/12/04 02:06 PM
Barriers to NCLB Choice

Submitted by Susan Uchitelle on 10/12/04 06:10 AM
- Communicating to Parents About Choices
  
  Submitted by Jane Cunningham on 10/12/04 09:26 AM
  - Wanna Do Choice Right? Look at St. Louis
    
    Submitted by Dianne Piche on 10/12/04 12:23 PM
NCLB Choice Working?

Submitted by Dianne Piche on 10/12/04 06:30 AM
- NH School Choice Program
  
  Submitted by Debra Hamel-Kearney on 10/12/04 08:21 AM
  - NH rural choices
    
    Submitted by Paul Hill on 10/12/04 08:33 AM
    - Rural Mascoma Valley (NH) SAD
      
      Submitted by Frank Heller, MPA on 10/12/04 09:00 AM
      - Challenges of NCLB Choice
        
        Submitted by Susan Uchitelle on 10/12/04 09:20 AM
        
        Cyber home schools as an answer for poor children?
        
        Submitted by Frank Heller, MPA on 10/12/04 09:35 AM
        
        Cyber Learning in an Urban Environment
        
        Submitted by Dianne Piche on 10/12/04 02:32 PM
        
        Some revealing virtual school stats
        
        Submitted by Mickey Revenaugh on 10/12/04 06:02 PM
        
        Home Schoolers were early adapters of D.L. technologies
        
        Submitted by Frank Heller, MPA on 10/13/04 05:58 AM
Statewide School District to Create Choices

Submitted by Paul Hill on 10/12/04 06:44 AM
- Challenges to Providing More NCLB Choices
  
  Submitted by Susan Uchitelle on 10/12/04 09:22 AM
Unnecessary obstacles to exercising transfer choices

Submitted by Bob Nardo on 10/12/04 07:08 AM
- Change and Support for Urban Districts
  
  Submitted by Susan Uchitelle on 10/12/04 09:25 AM
- Obstacles to choice in charters
  
  Submitted by Richard Ten Eyck on 10/12/04 09:26 AM
  - Core funding and NCLB parents with vouchers for the rest?
    
    Submitted by Frank Heller, MPA on 10/12/04 10:15 AM
- A Few Words on "Recalcitrant School Districts"
  
  Submitted by Dianne Piche on 10/12/04 12:12 PM
  - Making This a Reality
    
    Submitted by Susan Uchitelle on 10/12/04 12:31 PM
    - What real enforcement means
      
      Submitted by Dianne Piche on 10/12/04 12:45 PM
      - enforce through coercion and punishment??
        
        Submitted by mark spyder thompson, ph.d. on 10/12/04 02:32 PM
        
        accountability is about fulfilling obligations to children
        
        Submitted by Paul Hill on 10/12/04 03:04 PM
        
        I respectfully disagree
        
        Submitted by Dianne Piche on 10/12/04 03:08 PM
        
        I offer a respectable apology
        
        Submitted by mark spyder thompson, ph.d. on 10/12/04 03:31 PM
        
        the look of schools?
        
        Submitted by mark spyder thompson, ph.d. on 10/12/04 03:45 PM
Maine's Democratic regime has rejected cooperation w/NCLB

Submitted by Frank Heller, MPA on 10/12/04 07:48 AM
- the politics of education...
  
  Submitted by mark spyder thompson, ph.d. on 10/12/04 02:22 PM
Reconciling research w/ policy aims...

Submitted by Luis Huerta on 10/12/04 01:28 PM
- Charters as a "Traditional" Choice
  
  Submitted by Dianne Piche on 10/12/04 02:26 PM
  - "Traditional" is not necessarily a flattering concept
    
    Submitted by mark spyder thompson, ph.d. on 10/12/04 02:47 PM
- the law requires options; charters are one means
  
  Submitted by Paul Hill on 10/12/04 03:16 PM
  - Nontraditinal and Alternative Schools
    
    Submitted by Susan Uchitelle on 10/12/04 03:29 PM
    - status of non-charter alternative schools
      
      Submitted by Paul Hill on 10/12/04 03:58 PM
      - keeping the money with the kid
        
        Submitted by mark spyder thompson, ph.d. on 10/12/04 04:08 PM
- Recent national study finds that charters improve student performance.
  
  Submitted by Michelle Godard Terrell on 10/12/04 03:53 PM
Can virtual schools help meet the capacity challenges of the NCLB choice requirements?

Submitted by Michelle Godard Terrell on 10/12/04 02:43 PM
- Virtual Schools CAN help meet some of the needs of students
  
  Submitted by Debra Hamel-Kearney on 10/12/04 03:41 PM
  - Mascoma Valley H.S. was N.H's first virtual high school
    
    Submitted by Frank Heller, MPA on 10/13/04 07:32 AM
- Making the NCLB/virtual school connection
  
  Submitted by Mickey Revenaugh on 10/12/04 06:13 PM
A Broader View

Submitted by Rebecca Wilhelm on 10/12/04 08:12 PM