Education in crisis

An article in the Washington Post this week interviews the 2013 National Teacher of the Year and gets his opinion on the new education reforms. Jeff Charbonneau, winner of the National Teacher of the Year award, says that he does not think the new proposed education reforms are not going to help anything. He feels that our nation’s educational system is not in the crisis that many citizens believe we are in. He also believes that the concept that our schools are failing is a misconception. 

If education is not in the danger that many Americans believe it is then will the new education reforms of the Obama administration put education in danger? Charbonneau says that the new reforms will only hurt education. He says that current standardized tests are not a completely valid way of seeing if students have knowledge of material, and that linking those test scores to the teacher evaluations is not a good way of rating whether someone is a good teacher or not. 

So why is it that many teachers, parents, and students do believe education is suffering if the National Teacher of the Year doesn’t think so? Charbonneau says that it is because many things that the educational system is already doing well is not recognized and celebrated; only the bad results are targeted. He says there is room for improvement in certain areas, but overall education is not in a crisis. 

Katy Jenson

4/23/2013 7:27 pm