Austin Chronicle (Feb. 28)
The Heart of the Community
SXSWedu gathers voices on schools in communities, communities in schools
As the saying goes, it takes a village to raise a child. Yet between No Child Left Behind’s culture of high-stakes standardized testing, the reform movement’s bullish attitude to bulldozing tradition, and punitive accountability systems that treat neighborhood schools as piñatas, U.S. education policy has slowly but steadily turned that thinking inside out.
Allen Weeks, executive director of Austin Voices for Education and Youth, sees that trend finally changing, as education policy – at least on the ground – has begun considering more than just test scores. It’s hard to talk about “communities and schools” in Austin education without talking about Weeks. He’s been at ground zero for some of the most contentious conflicts in local education, like the fights to keep open Eastside Memorial and Reagan High Schools, Pearce and Webb Middle Schools, and the Allan Elementary campus. The struggles have often gotten heated – but when tempers have been raised, the tall, soft-spoken Weeks has always been a calm voice, trying to build consensus and a sense of belonging. (continued)
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