Why don’t top private schools adopt corporate-driven reforms?
This was written by Bruce D. Baker, a professor in the Graduate School of Education at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. This first appeared on his School Finance 101 blog.
By Bruce D. Baker
Lately it seems that public policy and the reformy rhetoric that drives it are hardly influenced by the vast body of empirical work and insights from leading academic scholars which suggests that such practices as using value-added metrics to rate teacher quality, or dramatically increasing test-based accountability and pushing for common core standards and tests to go with them are unlikely to lead to substantial improvements in education quality, or equity.
Read full article >>Common Core won’t likely boost student achievement, analysis says
A new analysis on the Common Core Standards Initiative by the Brookings Institution says it is wrong to believe that the effort will do much of anything to improve student achievement in coming years. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
Why don’t top private schools adopt corporate-driven reforms?
This *was written by Bruce D. Baker, a professor in the Graduate School of Education at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. This first appeared on his School Finance 101 blog.* By Bruce D. Baker Lately it seems that public policy and the reformy rhetoric that drives it are hardly influenced by the vast body of empirical work and insights from leading academic scholars which suggests that such practices as using value-added metrics to rate teacher quality, or dramatically increasing test-based accountability and pushing for common core standards and tests to go with the... more »
Jon Stewart tries to talk to Arne Duncan
Jon Stewart tried to engage Education Secretary Arne Duncan on *“The Daily Show*” Thursday night, but the effort was an exercise in the futility of conversing with someone who won’t deviate from his talking points. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
How to stop cheating on standardized tests
In light of repeated cheating scandals on standardized tests in school districts across the country, the Education Department recently asked members of the public for ideas on how to prevent, detect and respond to irregularities on completed tests. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
In defense of NAEP
I published a guest post that was highly criticial of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, an exam sometimes referred to as the nation’s report card and the gold standard of standardized assessment. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
Are public schools unfairly blamed for America’s economic woes?
This *was written by Mark Naison, professor of African and African American Studies at Fordham University in New York and chair of the department of African and African-American Studies. He is also co-director of the Urban Studies Program, African-American History 20th Century. A version of this first appeared on the blog With A Brooklyn Accent.* Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
Parent Trigger proposal would convert failing charters to neighborhood schools — Amazing report
Here’s the lead “story” from the new spring edition of a satirical Onion-esque publication designed for those of us who religiously follow education policy and choose to laugh rather than cry about it. The publication is called Education Tweak and it’s anonymously authored and published. The latest issue is the 21st; this and all the back issues are available at edtweak.com. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
Principal forced out in Dallas and D.C. says she is innocent
A principal who was forced out of a Dallas school for “unethical” behavior and then hired and subsequently fired by D.C. school officials has now issued a statement (see below for text) saying she was unfairly accused in Dallas and should be allowed to work in the District. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
Parent Trigger proposal would convert failing charters to neighborhood schools — Amazing report
Here’s the lead “story” from the new spring edition of a satirical Onion-esque publication designed for those of us who religiously follow education policy and choose to laugh rather than cry about it. The publication is called Education Tweak and it’s anonymously authored and published. The latest issue is the 21st; this and all the back issues are available at edtweak.com. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
Seven misconceptions about how students learn
Will Rogers once said, “It isn’t what people don’t know that hurts them. It’s what they do know that just ain’t so.” That’s the introduction to a list of seven myths about learning on the Web site of the Independent Curriculum Group, which is part of a movement of leading private college preparatory schools with teacher-generated curriculum. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
Chris Brown, the Grammys and the message sent to teens, kids
At a time when schools across the country are struggling to figure out how to stop kids from bullying each other, and educate teens about dating violence, it seems fair to ask why producers of the 2012 Grammy Awards thought it was an acceptable message to young people to allow Chris Brown to perform just three years after he famously beat up his then-girlfriend, Rihanna. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
Whitney Houston Elementary School pays tribute — and her former principal remembers her
The students and staff at New Jersey’ Whitney E. Houston Academy of Creative and Performing Arts, paid tribute to the late singer today, reciting poems on the lawn, flying the flag at half mast and walking down the street to the house she lived in as a youth. 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
Ravitch: Why states should say ‘no thanks’ to charter schools
This *was written by education historian Diane Ravitch, a research professor at New York University and author of the bestselling “The Death and Life of the Great American School System,” a critique of the flaws in the modern school reform movement. Ravitch was an assistant secretary of education in the administration of former president George H.W. Bush. This first appeared in the Montgomery Advertiser *. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
An ADHD controversy in the mental health community
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]
Virginia school district may ban cross-gender dressing
Here’s a problem that has somehow been ignored by nearly every school district in the country: Cross-gender dressing. But now a Virginia school district is considering a ban against it and that could start a whole new trend. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
Eulogy for a brilliant mentor and teacher
Here is a eulogy for a pioneering scientist that says more about the lifelong effects of a dynamic teacher on his students than any “value-added” formula ever could. The eulogy was delivered by Jeffrey Ravetch, head of the Leonard Wagner Laboratory of Molecular Genetics and Immunology at Rockefeller University in New York, at a memorial service last week for his former teacher and mentor, Norton Zinder, a ground-breaking geneticist and microbiologist. Zinder, who was my brother-in-law’s father, died this month at age 83. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add ... more »
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]