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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.
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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
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That's where standardization could actually deliver some benefits. If just one teacher could produce some supplemental materials and accompanying curriculum, the existence of standards means that every other teacher could use it. What's more, any adaptations that teachers make to that unit to make them suited to their kids would also work for the other teachers in the USA.
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And because the instruction is so rigidly standardized, all of these materials could be keyed to metadata that precisely identified the units they belonged to.
The closest thing we have to this are "marketplaces" where teachers can sell each other their supplementary materials.
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As far as I can tell, the only people making real money from these marketplaces are the grifters who built them and convinced teachers to paywall the instructional materials that could otherwise form a commons.
Like I said, I've got a completely overfull plate, but if I found myself at loose ends, trying to find a project to devote the rest of my life to, I'd be pitching funders on building a national, open access portal to build an educational commons.
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@[email protected] there are attempts at some sort of commons at least for college (which is another can of worms) and some attempts to get this to the schools. However with different states having all kinds of different standards (NGSS and other national standards notwithstanding), it's tough - and pushes the onus on to teachers a lot. A lot of this is piecemeal supported by foundations
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@[email protected]
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At CMU I know of and am learning to use the Open Learning Initiative online modules (and have used it for my #homeschool kids)
Not shilling - it's hardly optimal.
In US there is a vast inequity - for students, teachers, the whole system.
Tbh - if learning was a priority - school wouldn't start so early (this is known); it's more to get the parents to work to 'fuel the economy'