A defense of Common Core State Standards
I’ve published a number of posts critical of the Common Core State Standards (here’s one and here’s another), but but below is a piece by an award-winning teacher in support of the initiative. This was written by Sara Brown Wessling, the national 2010 National Teacher of the Year and an English teacher Johnston High School in Johnston, Iowa. She is also the Teacher Laureate for Teaching Channel and hosts “Teaching Channel Presents” on public television stations around the country.
The standards were created n an effort to ensure that students in every state are learning and being assessed on the same standards. Forty-
Why schools alone can’t cure poverty
School reformers often say that great teaching can overcome the effects of poverty. Here, Arthur H. Camins, director of the Center for Innovation in Engineering and Science Education at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, N.J., discusses problems with this reform narrative.
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How reformers (unfortunately) get captivated by experimental technology
Because teacher evaluation is such an important part of school reform and at the center of the Chicago teachers strike, I have published several pieces on the issue in the last week, here and her e and here. Below is a new historical look on the subject. It was written by Jack Schneider and Ethan Hutt.
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What research really says on teacher evaluation
The Chicago teachers strike has put the issue of teacher evaluation front and center in the education debate. The popular “value added” method of using student standardized test scores to figure out how effective a teacher is highly controversial; I wrote about it here. Here is a new important look by an education expert, Richard Rothstein.
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