Source Form #24

 

Title:  Michigan’s Schools:  More of the Same

 

http://brigitteknudson.wordpress.com/2009/03/01/michigan-schools-more-of-the-same/

 

Summary:  Brigitte Knudson writes this blog in an attempt to open people’s eyes to the inefficiency of assessments and accreditation—calling out for a deeper change beyond surface criteria as the stimulus money is being allocated.

 

Topic:  http://msaraceno.wordpress.com/question/

 

Category:  This is a citizen source.

 

What is it?  This is a personal level of writing addressing the new stimulus money moving into education.  This is a blog to allow others to read into the ideas of the writer.

 

Publication Information:  The entry was published on wordpress.com.  Published on March 1, 2009. 

 

Author:  Brigitte Knudson, working towards a PhD in English Education at WSU.  Knudson has eleven years of full time teaching.

 

Location: http://brigitteknudson.wordpress.com/2009/03/01/michigan-schools-more-of-the-same/

 

Accessed:  March 2, 2009

 

Support:  Detroit Free Press.  This source is hyperlinked and used to provide an example of the new proposals by schools looking to move along the same line of agenda as before with little attempt at a dramatic change.

 

Michigan education officials.  This source is hyperlinked and used to show a new system Michigan is planning to put into action.  The new system would switch from A-F grading to a 3-tier grading scale of accredited, interim accredited, and unaccredited.  Knudson uses the source to argue against assessment tests and anything related to such because it is too small of a piece to be important.

 

The author pulls these two sources together to provide a place of information in regards to where her view to argue is coming from.  They work together in providing a relevance of a system moving towards supplying nothing innovative but instead the same stale bread that led education to be hungry in the first place.  The blog provides numerical values without sources which takes away from the credibility of the author; however, the idea behind the paper fits in line with much of the other sources I have been reading—actual change needs to happen first and foremost.

 

Audience and Agenda:  The audience for this entry is specific to people in Michigan—when considering the title of the entry and sources given.  The audience is also people who are interested in what the stimulus package is affecting across the nation—specifically people interested in education on this platform.  The author has a lot of other entries relating to education and reform ideas around such.  Since the author is a blogger, Knudson’s funding is not an element of the reason behind what she writes.  WordPress.com is a free blog site where anyone and everyone can post something.

 

Usefulness:  This blog precedes the NPR interview that took place March 5, 2009 with Arne Duncan.  It was interesting to read this blog before listening to the interview because it held value in many of the callers who had questions for Secretary Duncan.  This blog is a hesitation to submit to giving money to an unfixed system.  It clearly states in the article that it is a good idea to give education as much money as they did but the money needs a very precise direction—not giving more to broken programs.  Knudson is looking for more reform beyond a scope of fixing assessment tests to be “better” marks of intelligence.  She is asking the government to take the time to go very deep into the education issues on the table and fix the system as a whole instead of staying focused on such a small piece of it.  This article is useful in that it gives a voice of a teacher involved in education (for quite some time) who knows what may or not work based on a place of real experience.  Of course Secretary Duncan has a good deal of experience in education, which would give a strong place of conversation based on two different ideals of what may or may not work.  I think a combination of people are going to give the pieces of the puzzle needed to put it all together—not just one.  This is a very important piece as it relates a teacher’s view of what seems important and what does not.

 

Works Cited: http://www.onpointradio.org/shows/2009/03/education-secretary-arne-duncan

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