Donald E. Heller, the dean of the college of education at Michigan State University, had to make a tough — and controversial — decision about his daughter’s education: He agreed to let her drop out of high school in order to attend an early-college program. The reason? Public school was not meeting his daughter’s needs, especially in this era of high-stakes testing. Education Week reports:
We knew she was not as engaged as well, and to understand why, we talked to her, spoke with her teachers and counselor, and examined the curriculum in her school. What we came to realize was that her high school did not meet her needs as a learner. While she was an interdisciplinary thinker and was intellectually curious about a number of different creative areas, her school was highly traditional in its structure and curriculum. We concluded it had largely a singular focus: to improve performance of students on the state tests rather than to encourage them to grow intellectually and to develop a breadth of learning. Our daughter was performing well on tests, but she understood that she was not reaching her full potential as a student.
Although Heller says that in some ways he is to blame for this situation, a good many colleges of education (perhaps most) do not overwhelmingly focus on “traditional” schooling. The contemporary attention to standardized testing is mostly of a political, not pedagogical, nature.
Also worth a read is Michael E. Lopez’s reaction to Heller’s decision over at Joanne Jacob’s blog (to whom goes the h/t for our own post).
Like The College Fix on Facebook / Follow us on Twitter
Please join the conversation about our stories on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, MeWe, Rumble, Gab, Minds and Gettr.