Democracy and Education Reform in America

 
The education reform conversation in the United States is dominated by a largely conservative ethos, a movement that bemoans the consistent failure of the public school system to keep America competitive in the global marketplace. Solutions tend to be of the corporate world and are market-based, designed to create efficiencies within the system, as would any business seeking profit. Suggested reforms range from increased standardized testing in core subjects and linking those results to teacher job security and salary, to promoting various alternative pathways into the profession and establishing chartered school networks as replacements to traditional public schools.
Participants in this course will assess this movement's impact through an evaluation of reform efforts in Baltimore City Public Schools. We will work together to quash the myths and misconceptions about the so-called "reforms" currently underway, which ultimately seek to undermine public education in favor of a system based on profit. The goal of this class is to also consider action steps that can be taken by all concerned who may or may not have a direct connection to public schools. We must all understand that threats to a public system of education, which may lead to its eradication, are detrimental to everyone in our democratic society. This really is the fundamental reason why I'm proposing this course: to reach a different audience when it comes to public education. We all need to realize that every person, especially those in and around Baltimore City, has skin in this game. That is, the struggle to determine how "accountability" is defined, on whose terms, and how future generations are prepared for life in our society.
Course readings will include exemplary book chapters, brief education research articles, and journalistic accounts from both traditional and non-traditional sources (e.g., the education "blogosphere"). Authors will include (and this is not exhaustive): Apple, Friere, Goodlad, Kohl, Counts, Woodson, Payne, for example. 
The instructor for this course is a former public school teacher in Washington, DC and currently a teacher educator at Towson University. I rely heavily on seminar-style courses that include a lot of deliberation, discussion, and reflection. Participants can and will contribute further readings and suggest topics for future meetings. What I would ultimately like to do is develop an action plan with participants. That is, since we are using Baltimore City as a case study, we can actually enter the reform conversation in our local communities to recommend changes that resist the impetus for corporate-backed and privatized education reforms.