Innovation in Education Comes From the Bottom Up, Not The Top Down

What is a likelier source of innovation in education?  The educational bureaucracy?  The community?  In a recent op/ed at The Cedar Rapids Gazette,  Iowa State Board of Education President Rosie Hussey wrote:

The sense of urgency for educational innovation is receiving more attention now than ever before. All of us, including parents and the entire community, have a role in supporting the change that is happening as Iowa heeds the call to help our schools and teachers prepare every student for their future.

Apparently, to Hussey, parents and the community have a backseat role since her op/ed was extolling the virtues of the Iowa Core Curriculum which puts the Iowa Department of Education in the driver’s seat.  This curriculum is based on the philosophy of educational bureaucrats via the U.S. Department of Education with encouragement from the National Governor’s Association.

If Hussey is really concerned about actual innovation she would encourage more local control and innovation at the local level from the people who actually work with the youth.  The state should be supportive local efforts by allowing for more local control and choice in education.  Parents and the local community are the primary stakeholders in their children’s education so they should be listened to, but instead they are shut-out.  Instead we’re called to support what the state wants to do via the U.S. Department of Education which is in reality is better suited to indoctrinate youth rather than educate them.

That is counterproductive to true educational innovation.

Originally posted at American Principles in Action.

Tags: Iowa Core Curriculum, Iowa State Board of Education, Rosie Hussey

Category: Education Espresso, Iowa Grounds