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7.22.2008
"College" Does Not Equal "Smart"
I read this with equal parts head-nodding-agreement and shame-faced-embarrassment:
The first disadvantage of an elite education, as I learned in my kitchen that day, is that it makes you incapable of talking to people who aren’t like you. Elite schools pride themselves on their diversity, but that diversity is almost entirely a matter of ethnicity and race. With respect to class, these schools are largely—indeed increasingly—homogeneous. Visit any elite campus in our great nation and you can thrill to the heartwarming spectacle of the children of white businesspeople and professionals studying and playing alongside the children of black, Asian, and Latino businesspeople and professionals. At the same time, because these schools tend to cultivate liberal attitudes, they leave their students in the paradoxical position of wanting to advocate on behalf of the working class while being unable to hold a simple conversation with anyone in it.["The Disadvantages of an Elite Education", The American Scholar] Relevant personally as the issue of "where are the kids going to school" has raised its ugly head, but I'm curious as to what the rest of the dc readership thinks. I have some individual predictions; let's see if I'm right. Thoughts? [via kottke] Labels: education, essay, schools 3.29.2007
No Child Left Somewhere
Buckeye State Blog uncovers an interesting bit of legislation in the Ohio Revised Code regarding required standardized testing for community schools and suggests that it's actually intended to reduce competition among charter schools, rather than encourage it.
The leap of faith you have to make in buying the argument is, of course, the cost of standardized testing; assuming that it truly is staggeringly expensive, as BSB suggests, then I can see how this would reduce the number of new charter schools by increasing their fixed costs. Anyone have any actual data or info regarding the costs of administering standardized testing? While I'm sure it does cost the State "millions of dollars" to pay for tests for public schools, how much would it cost one private school? Aside from some amusing anecdotes I've read lately, I haven't been following the charter school kerfluffle in Ohio very well. Guess it's time to start. Labels: blogs, legislation, ohio, schools
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