Why are strong readers being labeled remedial?
This was written by Marion Brady, veteran teacher, administrator, curriculum designer and author.
By Marion Brady
I began teaching history at the high school level in the fall of 1952. It wasn’t by choice. I hadn’t majored in the subject in college. It had always been just another required hoop to jump through.
Read full article >>NYC releases teachers’ value-added scores — unfortunately
This takes some kind of special nerve: New York City’s Education Department publicly released the rankings of 18,000 public school teachers based entirely on student standardized-test scores — after pleas from educators not to do it because it would be unfair and disparaging. And then it told the news media not to use the results to disparage teachers. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
Duncan’s equity commission and the ‘rising tide’ of avarice, hostility, testing
This *was written by John Merrow, veteran education reporter for PBS, NPR, and dozens of national publications. He is the president of the nonprofit media production company Learning Matters. Merrow’s latest book is “The Influence of Teachers.” This post first appeared on Merrow’s blog, Taking Note.* Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
A test for politicians on education (with cheat sheet)
Here are questions that education historian Diane Ravitch posed to politicans who make education policy. Ravitch, a research professor at New York University, is the author of numerous books including the bestselling “ *The Death and Life of the Great American School System* ,” a critique of the modern school reform movement. These questions first appeared on theNieman Watchdog website . Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
Memo to Santorum: Homeschooling not a viable or best option for all parents
Every time I hear Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum talk about how the real responsibility for a child’s education lies with parents and how he has homeschooled his own children, I think: “Well, how nice for him.” Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
What’s wrong with D.C.’s facilities/charter study
*In this post Michael Siegel and Mary Filardo write about a recent supply and analysis analysis released by D.C. Public Schools that focused on the lack of high-quality schools in high-poverty areas. * *Siegel, who specializes in public and environmental finance, has 35 years of experience in preparing and analyzing studies related to economic and fiscal impact analysis, project feasibility, public sector cost, revenue forecasting and demand studies, utility rates and tariffs, and public education. He has, among other education projects, advised the D.C. Council on school moderni... more »
Teacher: ‘Tis a shame (that education has become so political)
This *was written by Steve Strieker, a veteran social studies teacher in Janesville, Wisconsin. Here he writes about what many Wisconsin teachers see as an assault on their profession by the governor, Scott Walker, who last year tried to severely limit their collective bargaining rights and is now facing a recall campaign. A version of this post appeared on his blog “One Teacher’s Perspective.”* Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
College admissions: How diversity factors in
The Supreme Court just agreed to effectively consider whether affirmative action should be eliminated in college admissions via a case in which a white student claimed that she was denied admissions to the University of Texas because of race. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
Santorum’s children went to a cyber charter school
Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum has said some pretty provocative things about public education on the campaign trail recently, declaring that it is not the job of government to educate children but rather the responsibility of parents. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
D.C. charter schools: Student expulsions reveal data problem
For years the D.C. public schools system was publicly ridiculed for its inability to accurately maintain basic statistics, such as how many students were enrolled in the system. Now it’s the turn of the public charter schools — the alternative schools that were supposed to show the traditional public schools how education is done right — to have trouble with their stats. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
The Answer Sheet - 4 days ago
‘Rigor mortis ’ in teacher evaluation systems
This *was written by 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]
Presidents’ Day: The quiz
It’s Presidents’ Day Monday, but whom the holiday is meant to honor depends on whom you ask. Even the placement of the apostrophe is open to question! To the U.S. government and Virginia, the home state of George Washington, the holiday is recognized as “Washington’s Birthday.” Some states jointly celebrate the birthdays of George Washington, born Feb. 22, and Abraham Lincoln, born Feb. 12, while others honor Washington and Thomas Jefferson but not Lincoln. In some Southern states, all of the presidents are commemorated on Presidents’ Day. Read full article >> [image: Add to Faceb... more »
‘You are so smart…why did you become a teacher?’
This *was written by Carol Corbett Burris, principal of South Side High School in New York. She was named the 2010 New York State Outstanding Educator by the School Administrators Association of New York State. She is one of the co-authors of the principals’ letter against evaluating teachers by student test scores, which has been signed by nearly 1,400 New York principals.* Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]