It's All About Learning: The Struggle in Choosing Traditional Public Education or Privatization is a reckoning with the contemporary struggle over choice about learning in public education. The future for learning depends on choice aligned with one of two major perspectives: traditional public education or privatization education. The profound implications of this struggle are too important to focus on gadgets, technology, and adult-centric intentions, also known as "chasing rabbits." Instead, this book examines the purpose, intentions, and consequences of the perspectives battling for control of learning and teaching. When this conflict is resolved, a choice for learning will emerge: how to think or what-to-think. Who will write the narrative for the history of the future of US public education that best serves all students and the democracy in which they live? A reckoning with the struggle over choice about learning is past due. This book makes it clear that the time has come for traditional public educators to bypass the marketplace of privatization education and prioritize student-centric learning in traditional US public education.

It's All About Learning: The Struggle in Choosing Traditional Public Education or Privatization is a reckoning with the contemporary struggle over choice about learning in public education. The future for learning depends on choice aligned with one of two major perspectives: traditional public education or privatization education. The profound implications of this struggle are too important to focus on gadgets, technology, and adult-centric intentions, also known as "chasing rabbits." Instead, this book examines the purpose, intentions, and consequences of the perspectives battling for control of learning and teaching. When this conflict is resolved, a choice for learning will emerge: how to think or what-to-think. Who will write the narrative for the history of the future of US public education that best serves all students and the democracy in which they live? A reckoning with the struggle over choice about learning is past due. This book makes it clear that the time has come for traditional public educators to bypass the marketplace of privatization education and prioritize student-centric learning in traditional US public education.

An undetected thief lurks in America's classrooms: funding for public education. Dynamic instruction, robust learning, and student futures are stolen when funding for public education is inadequate and inequitable. The devastating impact of this thievery is examined throughout this book. Student engagement with the potential and promise of traditional public education is stolen by funding formulas crafted by state legislatures. Theft in the classroom results when these funding schemes misdirect and disconnect the resources required to educate all US students. Called upon to deal with an ever-changing cascade of mandates, standards, legislation, and counterproductive testing marathons, but provided with funding so inadequate that instruction is often little better than anemic "test prep," public educators in pursuit of the common good are robbed by insufficient funding. Although funding for public education is a topic unlikely to command frequent public discussion, no topic is more consequential for achievement, adequacy, and social justice in the learning, lives, and futures of America's children and young people.

Trapped between an encroaching tide of privatization and a rocky theoretical shore, educational leadership in America's public schools is ardently researched and professionally practiced, but frequently besmirched and poorly understood. Despite the intentions of public educators to engage all students with the original power of education, disconnections caused by mandates, ideologies, and theoretical fuzziness render educational leadership unreliable. The capacities necessary for school leadership to function reliably on behalf of all students are well within the grasp of present-day public educators. But, the action or agency sufficient to enacting educational leadership reliably is on hold. Educational leadership throughout US public schools is submarined when disconnections and ideological misdirection impede the primary purpose and the moral obligation of public education. To fulfill the promises of public education and restore the intentions of educational leadership requires that educators, policymakers, and proponents of US public education reimagine the interconnections that yield the primary purpose and moral obligation of public education. Functional educational leadership is examined throughout this book as the agency necessary and sufficient for public education to discard the forces and factors that impose unreliability.

Trapped between an encroaching tide of privatization and a rocky theoretical shore, educational leadership in America's public schools is ardently researched and professionally practiced, but frequently besmirched and poorly understood. Despite the intentions of public educators to engage all students with the original power of education, disconnections caused by mandates, ideologies, and theoretical fuzziness render educational leadership unreliable. The capacities necessary for school leadership to function reliably on behalf of all students are well within the grasp of present-day public educators. But, the action or agency sufficient to enacting educational leadership reliably is on hold. Educational leadership throughout US public schools is submarined when disconnections and ideological misdirection impede the primary purpose and the moral obligation of public education. To fulfill the promises of public education and restore the intentions of educational leadership requires that educators, policymakers, and proponents of US public education reimagine the interconnections that yield the primary purpose and moral obligation of public education. Functional educational leadership is examined throughout this book as the agency necessary and sufficient for public education to discard the forces and factors that impose unreliability.

An undetected thief lurks in America's classrooms: funding for public education. Dynamic instruction, robust learning, and student futures are stolen when funding for public education is inadequate and inequitable. The devastating impact of this thievery is examined throughout this book. Student engagement with the potential and promise of traditional public education is stolen by funding formulas crafted by state legislatures. Theft in the classroom results when these funding schemes misdirect and disconnect the resources required to educate all US students. Called upon to deal with an ever-changing cascade of mandates, standards, legislation, and counterproductive testing marathons, but provided with funding so inadequate that instruction is often little better than anemic "test prep," public educators in pursuit of the common good are robbed by insufficient funding. Although funding for public education is a topic unlikely to command frequent public discussion, no topic is more consequential for achievement, adequacy, and social justice in the learning, lives, and futures of America's children and young people.

The time has come to focus on teaching and learning that all American students deserve. Quality instruction that engages all students with thinking skills that create successful intelligence for the future of all students is offered throughout traditional public education in the US. But, an adult-centered perspective about schooling-free market theory-stands in the way of sustaining and improving the comprehensive teaching and learning offered by traditional public education. Traditional public education in the US is under attack. This book details the effects of this assault by the proponents of free market schooling and uses data-based research to fend off the attack. Key aspects of traditional public education that benefit all of America's students are compared with the adult-centric, exclusionary, intentions of choice schooling or privatization. The critical importance of traditional public education to the future of US democracy is explored. A primary purpose of traditional public education-how to think-and examples of quality day-to-day instruction are shared. On behalf of all US students, this book develops concepts including points of practice, function, and mediated identity. The value of comprehensive traditional public education deserves a vigorous defense and this book is written to provide it.

Traditional public educators in the US have too little information about the free market of schooling, otherwise known as privatization/choice education. As a result, traditional public education colleagues have lost sight of where they are and how they got there. In this primer, educators, parents/caregivers, and policymakers are offered an examination of the forces and factors that undercut traditional public education and an inquiry into the primary purpose and quality instruction that distinguishes traditional public education from free market schooling. Without knowing about the educational misdirection fostered by free market schooling, traditional public education in the US cannot invest in continuous improvement necessary to enrich the futures of all students and our nation’s democracy. The time has come for traditional public educators to study how we got out on a limb. This book explores the nature of free market schooling and discusses the information that traditional public educators need to muster a defense of purpose, quality, social justice, and how to think. Practical and theoretical insights throughout this book focus on professional practice in traditional public education as the means by which colleagues can assert excellence on behalf of all students while thwarting the negative impacts of free market schooling.

Traditional public educators in the US have too little information about the free market of schooling, otherwise known as privatization/choice education. As a result, traditional public education colleagues have lost sight of where they are and how they got there. In this primer, educators, parents/caregivers, and policymakers are offered an examination of the forces and factors that undercut traditional public education and an inquiry into the primary purpose and quality instruction that distinguishes traditional public education from free market schooling. Without knowing about the educational misdirection fostered by free market schooling, traditional public education in the US cannot invest in continuous improvement necessary to enrich the futures of all students and our nation’s democracy. The time has come for traditional public educators to study how we got out on a limb. This book explores the nature of free market schooling and discusses the information that traditional public educators need to muster a defense of purpose, quality, social justice, and how to think. Practical and theoretical insights throughout this book focus on professional practice in traditional public education as the means by which colleagues can assert excellence on behalf of all students while thwarting the negative impacts of free market schooling.

The deck is stacked against educators and parents/caregivers looking for educational adequacy in contemporary US education. Too often, satisfactory quality in the good public school is identified based on opinion, the dubious value of standardized test results, and marketing ploys. Moreover, the contemporary purpose of US education and the definition of educational adequacy are wild cards that prevent most from playing a winning hand. Finding the good public school is left to chance. This book initiates a search to transform this state of affairs. All students deserve a comprehensive public education that invests in the original power of education, dynamic instruction, and principled reasoning. This discussion tackles the barriers-the eye of the beholder, the tyranny of either/or, and standardized testing-that hobble the capacities of educators and students. Once these barriers are removed, the determinants of comprehensive public education-power, policy, and instruction-emerge. From these discoveries implications are derived that indicate how comprehensive public education engages educators and students with a transformed definition of educational adequacy. The good public school depends on this and a complete readjustment of the purpose of US public education. This search enables educators and parents/caregivers to identify and establish the good public school without taking any chances.

The deck is stacked against educators and parents/caregivers looking for educational adequacy in contemporary US education. Too often, satisfactory quality in the good public school is identified based on opinion, the dubious value of standardized test results, and marketing ploys. Moreover, the contemporary purpose of US education and the definition of educational adequacy are wild cards that prevent most from playing a winning hand. Finding the good public school is left to chance. This book initiates a search to transform this state of affairs. All students deserve a comprehensive public education that invests in the original power of education, dynamic instruction, and principled reasoning. This discussion tackles the barriers-the eye of the beholder, the tyranny of either/or, and standardized testing-that hobble the capacities of educators and students. Once these barriers are removed, the determinants of comprehensive public education-power, policy, and instruction-emerge. From these discoveries implications are derived that indicate how comprehensive public education engages educators and students with a transformed definition of educational adequacy. The good public school depends on this and a complete readjustment of the purpose of US public education. This search enables educators and parents/caregivers to identify and establish the good public school without taking any chances.

The time has come to focus on teaching and learning that all American students deserve. Quality instruction that engages all students with thinking skills that create successful intelligence for the future of all students is offered throughout traditional public education in the US. But, an adult-centered perspective about schooling-free market theory-stands in the way of sustaining and improving the comprehensive teaching and learning offered by traditional public education. Traditional public education in the US is under attack. This book details the effects of this assault by the proponents of free market schooling and uses data-based research to fend off the attack. Key aspects of traditional public education that benefit all of America's students are compared with the adult-centric, exclusionary, intentions of choice schooling or privatization. The critical importance of traditional public education to the future of US democracy is explored. A primary purpose of traditional public education-how to think-and examples of quality day-to-day instruction are shared. On behalf of all US students, this book develops concepts including points of practice, function, and mediated identity. The value of comprehensive traditional public education deserves a vigorous defense and this book is written to provide it.