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Monday, September 17, 2012

Schools Matter: In Search of An Accountable Education Editor at the New York Times

Schools Matter: In Search of An Accountable Education Editor at the New York Times:


In Search of An Accountable Education Editor at the New York Times

Brent Staples has long been the education editorialist at the New York Times, and his function as a rubber stamp for corporate education reform has assured his continuing tenure there.  His opining never fails to parrot the Business Roundtable talking points on education,  a subject for which the privatizers are the least prepared to talk about sensibly--other than ethics, of course.  Staples does so in a unique patronizing fashion that assumes his audience is as dumb on education issues as he pretends to be.  His conscious and willful neglect of the facts makes the New York Times a laughingstock among informed readers and a misleading yellow rag for those who are not.

His latest on the unscientific and discredited scheme of teacher evaluations based on test scores offers no surprises.  It is presented here with my reactions interspersed for those who may, out of no fault of their own, believe the postulations of a disingenuous parrot. 
The Chicago teachers’ strike was prompted in part by a fierce disagreement over how much