The Politics of Education and Special Interest Groups

One group that I will be reading about under the umbrella of special interest groups is the think tank. Here's a little humor for you as I do my weekend reading. Enjoy!

Educational Malpractice

During my reading this week, I saw the phrase “educational malpractice” in a number of different articles. This was most often used in cases dealing with IDEA and high school graduation. I thought more about this phrase when we were talking about growth models last night in class. I really fear that there will be a whole new level of litigation once we finally reach the critical year of 2013-2014 and whether or not any children were in fact, left behind. I wonder if school divisions have started to think about this. Couldn’t there also be cases of malpractice where parents contend that we are doing too much testing and not enough teaching?

You Don't Work for the School Board - You Work for Me

This statement was spoken by a local superintendent to his staff. He felt that he needed to say this since many of his employees were jumping off the chain of command by bypassing administrative supervisors and instead going straight to school board members with issues. One reason the superintendent felt the need to make this statement is because this caused a change in dynamic between the superintendent and school board. The school board now has been alerted to issues and it has brought them into the day to day operations. This undermines the vision of the superintendent and his administrative staff since now there is an extra step of “checking in” with the school board before any instructional decisions can move forward.

Coming Soon: School Corruption at a State Near You

This week we are studying the state’s role in education. It was just a coincidence that I happened to be in New Jersey while researching this topic. As I opened up the Sunday paper I saw that starting next weekend, in selected theaters, the movie The Cartel will be shown. This movie has already been screened at a number of film festivals in New Jersey and Philadelphia. This documentary takes a hard look at the relation between educational spending and the achievement of the students throughout the Garden State. You can visit the website for the film at www.thecartelmovie.com

The website contains a number of clips from the movie that are hosted by YouTube. I have attached the link to the trailer here.

I realize it will probably be some time before I get to see the full movie, but as a former New Jersey teacher, I am very interested to see the film. One group that I know will be portrayed in a negative light will be the teacher unions. After viewing the trailer, however, I have a feeling that there won’t be many groups that will emerge unscathed.