We are a country that loves to rank EVERYTHING! Read any major website or USA Today and you will often find stories that rank the ten best cities, states, countries, travel spots, etc. We also love to rank schools. States rank them and various organizations rank them. I have even ranked them myself.
I don’t particularly like to rank schools for three major reasons: First, because there is only so much that data can tell you about a school. To truly know what a school is about, you have to be INSIDE the school and talk to teachers, students, parents, and administrators.
Second, rankings use only the readily available data about schools, thus tends to focus on test scores to the exclusion of other important measures. Most knowledgeable people would agree test score data don’t tell you anywhere near the whole picture about a school. Importantly, test score data such as TAKS does not tell you
I got a nice acknowledgement on my most recent blog piece from Robert Skeels in his piece for the blog “Schools Matter”. Robert liked my insight into the teaching profession being disrespected and never fully treated as a real “profession” (like doctors and lawyers) because it has historically been and continues to be a “pink-collar ghetto” dominated by women. He took great issue though with my position in support of charter schools as the “only game in town” for communities to make any sort of real educational changes in their neighborhoods. Robert wrote…
I find your stance on charters somewhat lacking nuance and I think we need to find another mechanism than charters to move in a direction of democratizing schools.
In saying that “we need to find another mechanism”, I think Robert is acknowledging that he is not aware of any other mechanisms right now for moving “in a direction of democratizing schools”.
nytimes.com - The team of six high school girls new to America sat frozen waiting for the next missing lyric, whiteboard and marker at the ready. They glanced toward their classmates, who sat nearby, in two comp...
edvox.org - By Zakiyah Ansari Next, Wednesday, August 17th is the next Panel for Education Policy (PEP) meeting at Murry Bergtraum High School, and on the agenda are contracts and the budget. Does anyone bes...
allthingsedu.blogspot.com - I will soon put up a guest post in response to Virginia Heffernan's recent New York Times op-ed about "archaic" learning tools and products such as research papers. Thinking about this, as well as ...
nytimes.com - Summer is draining from the calendar, and across the city, school principals are swallowing hard and sending out notes to their staff. They go something like this: No yearbook. No dance team. No dr...
articles.philly.com - For months, the Maven website also has highlighted Ackerman's praise for Shaw's business services in a blurb above a list of Maven's clients.Questioned about that, Ackerman's spokeswoman, Shana Kem...
online.wsj.com - Gov. Rick Perry's presidential pitch goes something like this: During one of the worst recessions in American history, he's kept his state "open for business." In the last two years, Texas created ...
schoolingintheownershipsociety.blogspot.com - Brennan"The market works in supplying a quality product in the delivery of services because failure is not tolerated by the market. If you fail, you go out of business." -- David Brennan To get a...
thenotebook.org - Two studies from Brown University look at segregation in housing and schools, and find that Philadelphia is one of the most unequal regions in the country. Daniel Denvir wrote about the study for t...
thinkprogress.org - ThinkProgress filed this report from the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines, IA. Yesterday, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) made a major gaffe on the campaign trail when he told a crowd of Iow...
guardian.co.uk - Rupert Murdoch speaks briefly to the media as he arrives at the Sun Valley Conference in Idaho. Photograph: Anthony Bolante/Reuters Americans are extremely interested in Rupert Murdoch's unfolding ...
nytimes.com - As the death toll increased from four nights of rioting and arson this week, a senior British police officer openly criticized political leaders on Friday for finding fault with the police handling...
schooltechconnect.com - The permanent pension attack is gearing back up. We're outspent, but we're not outnumbered, and as long as it's one-person*, one-vote in this country we have a chance to defend ourselves. Here's to...
preaprez.wordpress.com - Today is the final Friday of my last summer break. Next Friday my final teaching year begins with one of those Institute Days: A morning motivational speaker and an afternoon of meetings, with fold...
addictinginfo.org - Texas has, like much of the country, experienced a brutal heat wave this year. Triple digit temperatures are a mortal threat to the elderly. children and other vulnerable citizens and Texas has a s...
suntimes.com - By Rosalind Rossi Education Reporter August 12, 2011 10:50AM She’s won an Academy Award, snagged a Grammy and sung at the Superbowl. And starting next week, Chicago-born sensation Jennifer Hudson w...
miamiherald.com - TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Florida doesn't have one, or even two education commissioners earning a paycheck right now. Try three.Newly-hired Education Commissioner Gerard Robinson this month started his ...
latimesblogs.latimes.com - Los Angeles County Sheriff's officials are continuing their investigation into the rapper The Game and the tweets that sparked a "telephone flash mob" Friday night that jammed emergency phone lines...
ctpost.com - SCHENECTADY, N.Y. -- President Barack Obama, aiming to reinforce the message that the second half of his first term will be all about jobs, named Jeffrey Immelt, president and chief executive offic...
baycitizen.org - A Silicon Valley company is assembling a sprawling network of electrical contraptions across California that its investors hope will prove many seismologists wrong and become a valuable public-safe...
camajorityreport.com - by Kaitilin Gaffney, Pacific Program Director, Ocean ConservancyNo one likes to return from vacation to a pile of work. But that is precisely the situation the Senate Appropriations Committee will ...
thebureauinvestigates.com - Six-year-old Sameeda Gul was injured in a drone strike in Pakistan on October 21 2009. The Bureau has identified credible reports of 168 children killed in seven years of CIA drone strikes in Paki...
contracostatimes.com - BART on Friday released a statement explaining its actions after cellphone reception in four downtown San Francisco stations was interrupted Thursday in a move to disrupt a planned demonstration, a...
miltonramirez.org - Por si no conocen quien es ‘mashi‘ Rafael en Twitter, él es el presidente de los ecuatorianos el Econ. Rafael Correa. Como existe una gran discusión en torno a la libertad de prensa en el país suda...
guardian.co.uk - Rupert Murdoch speaks briefly to the media as he arrives at the Sun Valley Conference in Idaho. Photograph: Anthony Bolante/Reuters Americans are extremely interested in Rupert Murdoch's unfolding ...
guardian.co.uk - Rupert Murdoch speaks briefly to the media as he arrives at the Sun Valley Conference in Idaho. Photograph: Anthony Bolante/Reuters Americans are extremely interested in Rupert Murdoch's unfolding ...
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