Instructions

As a group I would like us to create an educational proposal that we can actually send to one or several presidential candidates. NCLB actually started as such a candidate's proposal (George W. Bush). Many have said that the Bush proposal was clearer and more appealing to the public than the one from the Gore team. Some have actually attributed to the election result to this proposal.

In effect we would be suggesting a successor plan to NCLB. It would have to be educationally sound, of course, but also something that is comprehensible to the public. It has to touch real political and educational nerves!

What would this entail? Everyone would have to commit to one of work each week on the wiki. You can choose to do this at any point 24/7, in a single chunk, or in mini-parcels. This would become an "asynchronous" class hour of instruction. Work would include writing or revising the document and making comments on the evolving product.

In exchange for this online work we will end our classes one hour earlier each week. Again, your commitment would be: (1) one hour of work on this project each week on your own time and (2) a group commitment that we actually complete the proposal by the end of the course.

Q&A: 1. What kind of research does this project require? //I don't see this as requiring research. This is a gut-feeling type of project. What will make our country's educational system really work in the upcoming election? I will be working side-by-side with everyone to work on the project.//

2. Will we will get enough time to work things out in class? //This project __is__ classwork, it is online classwork rather than seat classwork. We can certainly take some class time to discuss the technology or if something pressing comes up but for the most part everyone would work on this as stipulated--one hour each week--at your own convenience.//

3. Will we be able to use this for internship hours? //No, this is classwork for 590 so it would not be suitable to use for internship hours which is an independent course.//

4. Will those of us who have never written a proposal (that's me) be guided to make meaningful contributions? //Have no fear. This is a class project, not an individual project. We will work on this together and everyone's input will make this happen.//

5. Can we realistically get this done in time? (I guess I'm having a hard time wrapping my brain around what this looks like.) //Yes, watch what happens!//

[|Official NCLB Website] [|2000 Republican Platform]

Commenting on th 2000 Republican Platform To get started, I copied the section of the Republican Platform on education. Then, as I read through them I added my comments. My comments are italizied. (I originally tried make my comments red but this didn't copy past from Word.) I hope it will be clear to all what part of this page is the Republican Platform and which are my comments on it. :) Eva