The morning of New Year’s Eve is an excellent time to reflect on the top education related news stories of 2012. Here is my top ten in no clear order
1. The shooting in Connecticut
The shooting of elementary grade school children rocked the country. I still react with teary eyes when hearing the news reports on this tragedy. This incident is on the list for so many reasons. It has the capacity to reshape our countries relationship with firearms. It causes leaders and faculty to re-imagine our role in keeping schools safe. As important, it highlights the heroics, true heroics, of a group of administrators and teachers who sought to shield their students and died as a result. We should all hope to act so honorably in a crisis.
2. The MOOC
This was the year that the Massive Open Online Class rose to the national consciousness. It will likely be years (if ever) before this method of curriculum delivery becomes “respectable.” It will obviously shape future conversation and course/curriculum development. Any PhD program in education that is not adding coursework on the development of online content will soon be left behind. Any future educator who is not learning at least something about networking and software development should seriously consider another profession.
3. The invention of free
While some schools with VERY large endowments have offered free coursework before, 2012 was the first year in which some educational institutions seriously began creating business models around tuition free content delivery. Educational leaders should prioritize reading Chris Anderson’s book, Free: The future of a Radical Price.
4. The HELP committee delivers
their report on private sector education after a two year investigation. This exhaustive report has already delivered substantial reforms which have helped to shape an industry.
5. The budget crisis
Many states continue to cut budgets in local schools. Districts have eliminated staff, summer school programs, electives, music and art, school counseling programs, and other things. Space at state schools has shrunk to alarmingly low levels and we may be sacrificing America’s future competitiveness as a result. When will we stop funding schools on property taxes and lotto? When will we seriously look at the mission statements and make some solid choices about what these institutions can really do?
6. Teachers Union
The battle in Wisconsin has wide reaching ramifications. Limiting the role of the union and the passage of “Right to Work” legislation was not new, but redrew the discussion about the role of collective action and the role of teachers.
7. Teacher Evaluation
Several states have begun to look at evaluation of teachers. Academic freedom and tenure have long ruled in academia. As budgets strain, governments are seeking to test, validate and improve various accountability measures. This discussion will be ongoing.
8. Affordable Care Act
While this is technically a healthcare bill, it has wide-ranging implications on education. Most notably, it re-affirms most Americans belief that the free market is not sufficient to safeguard those of us who are the most vulnerable. This affirmation by one of the most conservative courts in modern history underscores this.
9. The nation decides
President Obama’s second term has wide reaching implications. Continued movement on immigration reform (Post dream act) will pose dramatic new challenges to education in this country. A focus on higher education affordability and outcomes is likely to continue. Gun control of some sort will likely be addressed. Finally as the troop withdrawal from Afghanistan continues more veterans will come into the school house.
10. The Changing demographic
One of the reasons for the Obama victory was the changing demographic in the United States. The increasing political power of Latinos/Latinas is unquestionable. How we will (and we will have to) respond to the needs of an increasingly bi-lingual electorate is to be seen. But as we know, politics is local. While Spanish language may be important in some districts, Hmong, Arabic, Ukrainian may be bigger issues in your area. How we address the new globalism will likely be the deciding factor which determines America’s greatness in the coming Century.
Education and Empowerment 