Dr. Pope is quoted extensively in the movie Race to Nowhere, and in this book looks at the educational experience at a well-regarded California public high school from the students' point of view. She "follows five highly-regarded students through a school year and discovers that these young people believe getting ahead requires manipulating the system, scheming, lying and cheating." She writes:
Dr. Pope believes we need "a new vision of what it means to be successful in school" and that student voices are a key component of any conversation on school success.These students explain that they are busy at what they call "doing school." They realize that they are caught in a system where achievement depends more on "doing" - going through the correct motions - than on learning and engaging with the curriculum. Instead of thinking deeply about the content of their courses and delving into projects and assignments, the students focus on managing the work load and honing strategies that will help them to achieve high grades.
her research was with 5 kids.. she got people all over the world saying - that's my school...
larry cuban and david hayek - city reform
linda darling hammond - national reform
hard to change a school culture and teacher behavior when there's not buy in from all the stake holders
fans of more local control
majority of schools need this..
palo alto unified finally just got finals to before time - but took 4 years
have helped 20 schools move to finals before break
pdf - play time, down time, family time
her site at stanford
challenge success
worries about innovation trying to scale it up, ie: kipp
there's not one way to do school right.. that's why school as community rocks.. :)
we are all natural learners and the school is shutting that off..
you have a kid who wants to write a model - is there really no way in our system to acknowledge that
kids need to feel like they belong to do anything worthwhile.. trust..
said she really likes democratic schools - but that that is hard to do on a large scale
not against homeschooling - just no way she could do it.. used to be no social outlet, just don't think it's a large scale answer
john dewey - finding the balance of the adult experience and student voice, within a prescribed tract
epfield - leading 2.0
we bubble wrap kids way to early, we take over and make their choices for them - teach parents how to let go
good models found here -for project based learning
coalition for essential schools
edutopia