Deja Vu all over again
Study Finds Success in NYC's 'Small Schools'
Wait a minute. Didn't I read this same headline 20 years ago? Or maybe I wrote it?
George was yesterday's guest on Valerie Strauss' Answer Sheet. Thanks to Valerie for taking risks and giving voice to the real school reformers and educators.
Here's what they DIDN'T do at Federal Hocking High School:
Wait a minute. Didn't I read this same headline 20 years ago? Or maybe I wrote it?
At a time when reformers and philanthropists have largely turned their back on the “small schools” movement, a major study of New York City high schools has found that students are more
Principal George Wood: How to really turn a school around
Here's what they DIDN'T do at Federal Hocking High School:
...we did not do all the stuff that the new ‘reformers’ think is vital to improve our schools. We did not fire the staff, eliminate tenure, or pay teachers based on student test scores. We did not become a charter school. We did not take away
What's the real deal at this D.C. high school?
They restructured Anacostia H.S. into small academies, good. But they fired 85% of the teachers, Michelle Rhee style. They even got Michelle Obama to come and give the commencement speech to the school's few grads. So where's the heralded "rebirth," asks visiting teacher/writer Dan Brown.
I visited the Sojourner Truth Academy for ninth-graders on Friday, June 18. What I saw and heard didn't match the hype. When I asked a student who gave me a tour of the building what the best part of school was for him, he told me: "the teachers... but they're all leaving." ... Possibly worst of