Styles of Education Reform

Many educators became interested in a wave of new education theories that offered new insights into the way students learn and retain knowledge. Some of these theories, including constructivism and multiple intelligence theory, continue to grow in popularity today. Yet the application of these new theories have not always gone so smoothly: as we shall later see in the debates over whole language and whole math, the enthusiastic rush to apply new theory into practice has not always met with the best results.

Professionals, schools and teachers are asserting more control over education management decisions. Non-profit charter schools and for-profit education management organizations offer students public school learning environments that break away from the traditional state-run system. Through school choice, parents can choose to take their students out of poorly run schools and place them into other institutions - including parochial schools in some cases. And an increasing number of families are choosing to reject classrooms altogether and adopt homeschooling instead.

Each attempt to take charge in school reform has come with ever-increasing calls for accountability. As will be seen, determining how to assess accountability and who should be held accountable for failing students is far from cut and dry.

source: edwebproject