We moved to America in 2015, in time for my kid to start third grade. Now she’s a year away from graduating high school (!) and I’ve had a front-row seat for the US K-12 system in a district rated as one of the best in the country. There were ups and downs, but high school has been a monster.
–
If you’d like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here’s a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/16/flexibility-in-the-margins/#a-commons
1/
We’re a decade and a half into the “#CommonCore” experiment in educational standardization. The majority of the country has now signed up to a standardized and rigid curriculum that treats overworked teachers as untrustworthy slackers who need to be disciplined by measuring their output through standard lessons and evaluations:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Core
2/
This system is rigid enough, but it gets even worse at the secondary level, especially when combined with the #AdvancedPlacement (#AP) courses, which adds another layer of inflexibile benchmarks to the highest-stakes, most anxiety-provoking classes in the system:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Placement
3/
It is a system singularly lacking in grace. Ironically, this unforgiving system was sold as a way of correcting the injustice at the heart of the US public education system, which funds schools based on local taxation. That means that rich neighborhoods have better funded schools. Rather than equalizing public educational funding, the standardizers promised to ensure the quality of instruction at the worst-funded schools by measuring the educational outcomes with standard tools.
4/
But the joke’s on the middle-class families who backed standardized instruction over standardized funding. Their own kids need #slack as much as anyone’s, and a system that promises to put the nation’s kids through the same benchmarks on the same timetable is bad for everyone:
https://pluralistic.net/2021/11/28/give-me-slack-2/
5/
Undoing this is above my pay-grade. I’ve already got more causes to crusade on than I have time for. But there is a piece of tantalyzingly low-hanging fruit that is dangling right there, and even though I’m not gonna pick it, I can’t get it out of my head, so I figured I’d write about it and hope I can #lazyweb it into existence.
6/
The thing is, there’s a reason that standardization takes hold in so many domains. Agreeing on a common standard enables collaboration by many entities without any need for explicit agreements or coordination. The existence of the ANSI/SAE J563 standard automobile auxiliary power outlet (AKA “car cigarette lighter”) didn’t just allow many manufacturers to make replacement lighter plugs.
7/
The existence of a standardized receptacle delivering standardized voltage to standardized contacts let all kinds of gadgets be designed to fit in that socket.
Standards crystallize the space of all possible ways of solving a problem into a range of solutions. This inevitably has a downside, because the standardized range might not be optimal for all applications.
8/
Think of the EU’s requirement for USB-C charger tips on all devices. There’s a lot of reasons that manufacturers prefer different charger tips for different gadgets. Some of those reasons are bad (gouging you on replacement chargers), but some are good (unique form-factor, specific smart-charging needs).
9/
@[email protected]
Very much in favor of getting #LazyWeb trending.After all, that’s where nearly ALL my righteous anger is focused. Bitching into the cold, uncaring void that is #SocialMedia.
@[email protected] Former teacher who is not a fan of College Board.
Say you decide to do a biochemistry degree and get AP bio and AP chem credits. It encourages the student to skip those courses in the first year. Was the AP content in high school sufficient to cover all of the first year content? How much will you remember 2 years later when you’re starting the more advanced courses?
How can you standardize your education program as a college if people can skip the intro courses?
