Academic ‘walkthrough’ teams: Surreally real
This *was written by Andrew Ganim, a Philadelphia resident who shared a version of this story as testimony to the School Reform Commission last month. This first appeared on the * * The Philadelphia Public School Notebook blog. * * * Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
How to attack the growing educational gap between rich and poor
My *guest is Richard D. Kahlenberg, a senior fellow at The Century Foundation, a nonprofit public policy research organization, writes about education, equal opportunity and civil rights. This appeared on thefoundation’s blog .* Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
Why Obama’s NCLB waivers aren’t what he says they are
President Obama sounded like the king of flexibility when he announced that his administration was granting 10 states the right to ignore the most onerous requirements of No Child Left Behind. “Sounded” is the key word in that sentence. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
The loss of solitude in schools
This was written by Diana Senechal, the 2011 winner of the Hiett Prize in the Humanities. She is currently a curriculum advisor and teacher at Columbia Secondary School for Math, Science & Engineering in New York City. Her new book is * Republic of Noise: The Loss of Solitude in Schools and Culture. * Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
Taking a stand for ‘the whole child’ approach to school reform
This was* written by Sean Slade, director of Healthy School Communities, a program of the ASCD, an educational leadership organization.* By Sean Slade The White House recently launched their *We The People* initiative that gives Americans a “new way to petition the Obama administration to take action on a range of important issues facing our country.” At ASCD, we are taking President Obama up on his offer and are asking people to sign our petition to make “a whole child approach” to education reform a national priority. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add ... more »
Education Department’s obsession with test scores deepens
Apparently it’s not enough for the Obama administration that standardized test scores are now used to evaluate students, schools, teachers and principals. In a new display of its obsession with test scores, the Education Department is embarking on a study to determine which parts of clinical teacher training lead to higher average test scores among the teachers’ students. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
Reasonable doubt on teacher evaluation
* My guest is Aaron Pallas, professor of sociology and education at Teachers College, Columbia University. He writes the Sociological Eye on Education blog—where this post first appeared—for The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, non-partisan education-news outlet affiliated with the Hechinger Institute on Education and the Media. * Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
Sex abuse probe leads to removal of school’s entire staff
The entire staff of a Los Angeles elementary school — teachers, administrators, janitors included — is being removed from the campus and replaced this week after the arrest of two of the school’s veteran teachers who have been accused of sexually abusing students. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
Texas schools chief calls testing obsession a ‘perversion’
The Republican education commissioner of Texas, Robert Scott, might not be the first person you’d think would find common ground with California’s Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown, but Scott has savaged high-stakes testing in language that would make Brown smile. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
Badges: A solution to our teacher evaluation disaster?
This *was written by Cathy N. Davidson, a Duke U niversity professor and author of Now You See It: How the Brain Science of Attention Will Transform the Way We Live, Work, and Learn . * * By Cathy N. Davidson * Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
The sexualization of children and what schools can do about it
This *was written by Mark Phillips, professor emeritus of secondary education at San Francisco State University and author of a monthly column on education for the * *Marin Independent Journal* * . * By Mark Phillips Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
The Answer Sheet - 3 days ago
Bottom 5 percent of economists face dismissal — unbelievable report
Plenty of school reformers say that if 5 to 10 percent of teachers in the United States are fired each year, then U.S. standardized test scores would compete with the top-achieving nations. It’s not true, but that doesn’t stop them from saying it. Well, now we learn that teachers are no longer the only professionals who are being targeted for wholesale firing. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
The difference between good schools and effective schools
This was *written by Joanne Yatvin, a longtime public school educator, author and past president of the National Council of Teachers of English. She teaches part-time at Portland State University and is writing a book on good teaching in high poverty schools. * Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
Tom Brady vs. Eli Manning: Who’s smarter?
Even NFL teams use a standardized test to assess whether athletes are smart enough to draft. And given that today is the Super Bowl pitting the New York Giants against the New England Patriots, did Pats quarterback Tom Brady or Giants quarterback Eli Manning score higher? Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
How real school reform should look (or explaining water to a fish)
This *was written by Marion Brady, veteran teacher, administrator, curriculum designer and author. This first appeared on truth-out.org *. By Marion Brady Imagine the present corporately promoted education reform effort as a truck, its tires nearly flat from the weight of the many unexamined assumptions it carries. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
DCPS fires principal forced out of Dallas school (updated)
*Update: D.C. schools strengthening hiring process, more details * D.C. school officials have now fired a principal they had recently hired without knowing that she had been accused of “unethical” behavior when she was a principal in Dallas, a district spokeswoman said Friday. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
Criticizing (common criticisms of) praise
This* was written by Alfie Kohn, the author of 12 books about education and human behavior, including The Schools Our Children Deserve, The Homework Myth, and Feel-Bad Education . . . And Other Contrarian Essays on Children & Schooling. He lives (actually) in the Boston area and (virtually) at www.alfiekohn.org. * Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
Ellen DeGeneres: Public education’s new funding stream
* Correction: Money given by Ellen from J.C. Penney * Ellen DeGeneres just hosted on her television show a teacher from a Pennsylvania public school district that ran out of money — prompting unionized teachers to vote to work without pay — and handed her a $100,000 check for her school donated by J.C. Penney. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
Value-added teacher evaluation goes on trial — literally
This was written by David B. Cohen, who has been a teacher since 1993 and is in his 13th year of teaching in California public high schools. He is National Board Certified, and is associate director of the Accomplished California Teachers group. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]