Readers: These 10 education policies need to go

Readers say seat-time requirements, policies than ban the use of personal technologies are some of the many rules that need to change

By Meris Stansbury, Online Editor
Read more by Meris Stansbury

"Remove the idea that all children learn at the same rate and dismantle K-12 grade concepts," suggested one reader.

As education stakeholders continue to debate various school reform ideas, many have targeted specific policies they see as outdated, cumbersome, or standing in the way of real progress.

We recently asked readers: “If there was one policy/rule that you’d like to have waived for your school/district/state, what would it be and why?” Here are our readers’ top responses.

What do you think of these education policies—and do you have any suggestions of your own for policies you’d like to waive or change? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

10. Creating a single, statewide student information system

“If there is one rule … I would stop or have waived, it is what the state of Wisconsin is doing by trying to create a single, statewide student information system. This, on the surface, looks great. But once you start to pull it apart and analyze it, both from a technical and functional perspective, there is not much good about it. It is being billed as a way to save money, but it hardly does that because schools will still have to run other systems. Wisconsin thinks that by forcing all schools to use this system, [state leaders] will finally have access to all student data, anytime. However, they would have this information available to them if they would use the existing infrastructure of SIF (the Schools Interoperability Framework).”  —Tom Hafemann, director of information systems and technology, Campbellsport School District, Wis.