Why Weren’t These Students Taking Tests?
Last night, I watched the PBS Frontline program and saw “Fast Times at West Philly High.” It is a wonderful documentary about the teachers and students at this inner-city high school who entered an international competition to create a hybrid car. It follows them as they build their models, then take them to the competition. Theirs is the only team of high school students. All the others in the competition are adults, and many are professionals.
This is real reform, unlike the phony schemes to privatize public schools and hand them over to for-profit entrepreneurs. This is real curriculum, instruction, teaching and learning, where students are eagerly learning and applying what they learn. This is real teaching, where the teachers are fully invested in what they are teaching and respect their students as partners in the learning.
When people ask why it is so hard to motivate high school students to care about their work, tell them to watch
This is real reform, unlike the phony schemes to privatize public schools and hand them over to for-profit entrepreneurs. This is real curriculum, instruction, teaching and learning, where students are eagerly learning and applying what they learn. This is real teaching, where the teachers are fully invested in what they are teaching and respect their students as partners in the learning.
When people ask why it is so hard to motivate high school students to care about their work, tell them to watch
What Do Romney and Rahm Have in Common?
What are the similarities between Mitt Romney and Rahm Emanuel? True, they have different party labels but their education policies are eerily alike. A writer in Chicago showed the contradictions in this brilliant and hilarious article.
Historians in the future (the future meaning maybe later this year or next, now that we live at warp speed and last week seems like 50 years ago) will puzzle out why President Obama decided to build his education program (Race to the Top) on the crumbling foundation of No Child Left Behind. They will also have to figure out why he decided to throw teachers and their unions (arguably his most ardent supporters in 2008) under the bus. And
Historians in the future (the future meaning maybe later this year or next, now that we live at warp speed and last week seems like 50 years ago) will puzzle out why President Obama decided to build his education program (Race to the Top) on the crumbling foundation of No Child Left Behind. They will also have to figure out why he decided to throw teachers and their unions (arguably his most ardent supporters in 2008) under the bus. And
A Report from The Netherlands
We have a tendency in the U.S. to think only of ourselves or to look enviously abroad to wonder what some other nation is doing that we should copy (another way of thinking only of ourselves).
Part of this is national narcissism but also incredible naiveté. As Yong Zhao has written in his books and blogs and articles, we look enviously at the test-driven schools of China at the same time that the Chinese wonder how to be more creative and entrepreneurial like us.
We can always learn from the experiences of other nations. One reader asked the question, what will happen
Part of this is national narcissism but also incredible naiveté. As Yong Zhao has written in his books and blogs and articles, we look enviously at the test-driven schools of China at the same time that the Chinese wonder how to be more creative and entrepreneurial like us.
We can always learn from the experiences of other nations. One reader asked the question, what will happen
Report Says K12 Online Charters Lag Behind Real Schools
The National Education Policy Center in Boulder, Colorado, released a report today about the performance of the for-profit online corporation K12. This is the biggest of the online operators, which has been criticized repeatedly for poor academic performance yet continues to expand. Just recently, Ohio and Pennsylvania added more for-profit virtual charters, as North Carolina rejected them and New Jersey deferred making a decision.
The new NEPC report found that students who enroll in these virtual schools do worse in academics than those
The new NEPC report found that students who enroll in these virtual schools do worse in academics than those
Good News from Florida
During the current era of educational madness, we celebrate every bit of good news.
In Florida, which is under the control of a Tea Party zealot who is under the control of former Governor Jeb Bush whose brain is fixated on defunding public education and testing everything that moves, there is a glimmer of good news.
The state board of education upheld the decision of the Miami-Dade school board to deny an application from three virtual charter schools, which were connected to for-profit behemoth K12.
For now, this profit center is off the radar. But only for now.
At the same meeting of the state board, there was a robust discussion about how to fund merit pay. When the
In Florida, which is under the control of a Tea Party zealot who is under the control of former Governor Jeb Bush whose brain is fixated on defunding public education and testing everything that moves, there is a glimmer of good news.
The state board of education upheld the decision of the Miami-Dade school board to deny an application from three virtual charter schools, which were connected to for-profit behemoth K12.
For now, this profit center is off the radar. But only for now.
At the same meeting of the state board, there was a robust discussion about how to fund merit pay. When the
Pearson Wields Undue Power in Britain Too
A recent article in the Guardian explores how the publishing giant Pearson commands the education world in Britain.
Pearson not only sells textbooks and testing, but also owns Britain’s biggest national examination system, which is operated for profit.
But that’s not all.
Pearson is now promoting itself as a policy studies outfit and think tank, studying the problems of British
Pearson not only sells textbooks and testing, but also owns Britain’s biggest national examination system, which is operated for profit.
But that’s not all.
Pearson is now promoting itself as a policy studies outfit and think tank, studying the problems of British
He Reached a Breaking Point
This reader reached the breaking point when he read this post about a planned takeover of Wisconsin education by manufacturers.
I’ve been looking at every post here for over a month, reading quite a few of them word for word. For some reason this one packed a wallop. For all the outrages in places like New Orleans and Philadelphia and Chicago, where opportunism is the norm (yes, I have Rahm Emanuel and Bobby Jindal in mind),when Wisconsin, birthplace of several progressive movements, including the Republican Ripon Society, is poised to become anExperience MattersIn my forty years or so of studying the history of American education, I have learned about fads that came and went, disappeared and returned, over the course of the past century, each time treated as an innovation. It demonstrates to me the value of studying the history of education, so as to be aware of why ideas and methods work or don’t work, and to protect children against the latest passing enthusiasm. It strikes me that people who are teaching must find it very distracting to see the mandates come rolling out of the state department of education, or now the federal government, to do what they know is wrong or what is distracting, or to do |