Citizen/Interview #3
Title: Interview with Alisa Blocker
Summary: Alisa Blocker is in the College of Education at the University of Oregon. She will be pursuing her Masters degree at Portland State University with the intent of becoming an elementary teacher in the Oregon school system. Alisa acknowledges that there are a lot of sad things going on in schools today but believes that the teacher colleges are not necessarily the place to look for reform.
Topic: Accrediting all school of education
Category: Citizen, Stakeholder/Interview
Publication Information: Interview took place on Mar. 13, 2009
Author: Rachel Gillette, interviewer; Alisa Blocker, interviewee
Accessed: Mar. 15, 2009
Support:
- College of Education at the University of Oregon, on how their teaching program is ran
- President Obama, on his education reform plans
Usefulness: Alisa Blocker is afraid of the conflict of interest in a for-profit agency accrediting schools based on their revenue value rather than their quality of education. Alisa is also wary of NCATE’s standard that imposes dispositions on teachers. She thinks that some of them incorporate an interpretive element of “morals” that have no place in the classroom. Alisa’s overall opinion of President Obama’s plan to accredit all schools of education is that with the current state of our economy we should not be spending money on a form of reform that has not been proven to work. Alisa presents a large critique of accreditation by experts and witnesses alike. Why implement a system that has no evidence to attest to its success?
