Teacher: One (maddening) day working with the Common Core
This *was written by Jeremiah Chaffee, a high school English teacher in upstate New York for the last 13 years. It’s long but worth reading*. By Jeremiah Chaffee The high school English department in which I work recently spent a day looking at what is called an “exemplar” from the new Common Core State Standards, and then working together to create our own lessons linked to that curriculum. An exemplar is a prepackaged lesson which is supposed to align with the standards of the Common Core. The one we looked at was a lesson on “The Gettysburg Address.” Read full article >> [imag...more »
The Answer Sheet - 3 hours ago
Why not Race to the Top for political reform?
This *was written by Julie A. Gorlewski, assistant professor of secondary education at the State University of New York at New Paltz.* By Julie A. Gorlewski Why should schools have all the fun? If the policies undergirding the Race to the Top education reform are good enough for learning, shouldn’t we use them to improve other public systems? Let’s start with political reform. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
What standardized tests should assess
This *was written by Marion Brady, veteran teacher, administrator, curriculum designer and author. * By Marion Brady If you fly, thank Myron Tribus for helping make your flight safer. He played a major role in the development of the equipment that keeps airliner wings free of ice. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
Student mocked by teacher for missing state standardized test
A middle school student who didn’t take the writing portion of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test because he was sick at home was later forced by a teacher to wear a sign that said: “I decided to come to school today, but I didn’t come to school during the FCAT.” Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
Best part of ‘schools-threaten-national-security’ report: The dissents
The most interesting part of the new Condoleezza Rice-Joel Klein report, which bemoans how American national security is threatened by the poor state of public education, is not in the body of the document itself. The real story is in the dissents at the end of the report. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
A million teachers may be on the march — out of the classroom
This *was written by educator Anthony Cody, who worked for 24 years in the Oakland schools, 18 years teaching science at a high-needs school and six years as a mentor and coach of teachers. He is a National Board-certified teacher. You can follow him on Twitter at @anthonycody. A version of this post appeared on his Education Week Teacher blog, Living in Dialogue *. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
Condi Rice-Joel Klein report: Not the new ‘A Nation at Risk’
*Correction: One of the five names of task force members marked with an asterick below wrote an additional comment rather than a dissent, like the other four did. An earlier version said all five wrote dissents.* Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
Bribing students: Another ‘magical solution’ that doesn’t work
This *was written by Larry Ferlazzo, who teaches English and Social Studies at Luther Burbank High School in Sacramento, California. He writes a popular blog for teachers and a weekly advice column for Education Week Teacher, as well as several books on education*. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
Teacher: I dare you to measure my ‘value’
This was *written by Donna McKenna, an elementary ESL teacher who is passionate about language learners and language learning, and a new mom trying to raise her daughter in a bilingual/bicultural home. This first appeared on her blog, No Sleep ‘til Summer. * Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
Teach for America’s new partnership with largest for-profit charter network
Teach for America loves to expand its reach, and so it has again, this timepartnering with the controversial Imagine schools, the nation’s largest for-profit charter school network. That’s an interesting pairing. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
Fourteen reasons schools are troubled (and no, it’s not all about teachers)
This *was written by Ronald Willett, a former university professor, researcher and administrator, and former corporate executive, entrepreneur and CEO. For the last decade, as an avocation, he has tracked and researched U.S. K-12, and advocated its legitimate reform and pursuit of innovation.* Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
Survey: Teachers work 53 hours per week on average
This was *written by Francie Alexander, chief academic officer for Scholastic, Inc. She has has taught at all levels, was a district reading consultant for Pre-K through high school, and has authored numerous professional articles for educators and dozens of books for children.* Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
A new poverty-doesn’t-really-matter-much argument
-- *Correction: In an earlier version, one letter in Paul E. Peterson’s name was incorrect. It is correct in this version. * And so the poverty-doesn’t-really-matter-in-student-achievement drumbeat keeps getting louder, most unfortunately. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]