"Dream" Schools Sound Like a Nightmare

Standardized curriculum, unhappy teachers, fewer electives, shame, blame and lots of threats...

Only in the "through the looking glass" world of American public education could such conditions be described as "Dream Schools." That however is the Orwellian rhetoric being used by the Rochester, NY Superintendent of Schools.

...the plan calls for bundling troubled schools together in a special group to be called "Dream Schools."

Those schools would be mandated to teach a uniform curriculum, devote longer blocks of time to math and reading, offer after-school tutoring — and face closure if they fail to improve over time. Schools would be selected for the distinction based on state test scores, although a cutoff score has yet to be established.

"We are going to put them in a box and tell them what they need to do to get better," Brizard said. "After intense intervention, if there is no improvement, guess what? We'll shut them down."

The Democrat and Chronicle news article later reports, with no sense whatsoever of irony of contradiction that new Superintendent Brizard's plan, "would both strengthen and relax centralized control of schools."

Right, you have all the freedom you want at the local school-level to treat teachers like robots and teach a standardized curriculum!

Sounds dreamy, eh?