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Friday, August 10, 2012

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In China, the Cost of High Test Scores

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and billionaire Bill Gates and gadfly Michelle Rhee wring their hands over American students’ test scores. They look enviously at Shanghai and wonder why we can’t be like them.
But the Los Angeles Times had a story explaining that Chinese educators have mixed feelings about those high 


Why the Koch Brothers Are Disappointed with Corbett

A columnist in Pennsylvania reports that the billionaire Koch brothers are disappointed by Governor Tom Corbett.
They feel that he didn’t push his voucher bill hard enough, so they are planning a major advertising campaign to put pressure on legislators.
There is no reason for them to pay attention to the unimpressive results of twenty-one years of vouchers in


Aaron Pallas on Why Teachers Leave

I like to introduce readers of this blog to people I respect, to scholars and writers who are thoughtful and insightful.
Here is someone you should read.
Aaron Pallas of Teachers College, Columbia University, is one of the wisest, most perceptive observers of trends


Another Charter Disappointment

Indiana has been in the forefront of pushing school choice and ignoring the needs of its public schools.
Indiana was once known nationally for its great public schools, but now it is known as a national leader in vouchers and charters and high-stakes testing.
The news from Fort Wayne, the second largest city in the state, does not bode well for the rightwing reform agenda of Governor Mitch Daniels (soon to be president of Purdue) and his superintendent Tony Bennett.
When the state scores were released, Fort Wayne’s three charter schools were among the lowest performing


What Do Teachers Do?

One reader–obviously not a teacher–has expressed his disdain for teachers and public schools repeatedly. Apparently he thinks teachers don’t work hard enough. Since public schools have not ended poverty, he asks why we should bother to pay for them. This is a site for discussion, and several readers have responded. This teacher explains here what he does.
I appreciate that you understand that public schools cannot be run like a corporate kind of business. I’ll try to address some of your questions by describing what I do (along with the other teachers in my district). At the school that I teach at, I am evaluated