Tuesday, November 12, 2013

What is an "Innovative" School

I had the opportunity to attend the SCCBOE meeting tonight, and there wasn't much controversial to report from it (certainly compared to the last meeting that I attended where BCS was presenting their annual report).  One topic that was discussed a little bit, which I found interesting, was the Office of Innovative Schools, which is a growing department under the County Superintendent.  The concept, in and of itself, is not that interesting to me, because I agree with the premise, but what I did find interesting was that they needed to "dispel" the myth that this was the Office of "Charter Schools".  I'm sure that this wasn't a purposeful intention, but just that fact that this department was created, and people "assumed" that it was meant to help with charter school oversight and management just goes to show the faulty assumption that exists that it is difficult to innovate in traditional public schools.  Hopefully, someday, we will be able to break the link that people make between innovation and charters, and recognize that we should really be evaluating which schools are doing the best with the hand that they are dealt, and which schools are counting cards, stacking the deck, and otherwise manipulating the student population in order to segregate and gain a competitive advantage...

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