The Answer Sheet - School Survival Guide for parents (and everyone else). - The Washington Post:
A caveat on reading fiction in school
The new Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts call for students to read a lot more non-fiction and less fiction than they used to, a requirement that has caused some consternation among educators. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
Why kids hate school — subject by subject
A little while ago I published a post by cognitive scientist Roger C. Schank who wrote that contrary to popular opinion, algebra is not necessary and STEM education is overrated. In this follow-up piece, Schank goes subject by subject explaining why he thinks they are useless and why so many kids hate learning them. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
What Obama said about education in speech
Here’s what President Obama said about education in his speech Thursday night to the Democratic National Convention: ... You can choose a future where more Americans have the chance to gain the skills they need to compete, no matter how old they are or how much money they have. Education was the gateway to opportunity for me. It was the gateway for Michelle. And now more than ever, it is the gateway to a middle-class life. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
The real wall of separation in public schools
Contentious battles about school prayer and how much religion should be a factor in what students learn in school are heating up across the country. These are important discussions, and here’s what’s going on in a post written by Adam Laats, who teaches in the Graduate School of Education at Binghamton University in Binghamton, N.Y., where he is an assistant professor of history and director of the university’s Center for the Teaching of American History. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
A new Finnish lesson: Why gender equality matters in school reform
Finland’s Pasi Sahlberg is one of the world’s leading experts on school reform and the author of the best-selling* * “Finnish Lessons: What Can the World Learn About Educational Change in Finland?” He also write a provocative post for this blog on what the United States can’t learn from Finland when it comes to school reform. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
Bill Clinton’s ‘big ideas’ for education
*Correction: This video is from 2008, not earlier this year as the original version of this post said.* Here’s a video of Bill Clinton talking about “big ideas” in education — here in the United States as well as internationally — at the 2008 Aspen Institute’s Idea’s Festival. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
The sad, sad school district Michelle Obama mentioned
Early in her triumphant speech at the Democratic National Convention, Michelle Obama spoke about “the very best of the American spirit” and praised a school district but did not mention it by name. That district is Chester Upland in Pennsylvania, and, unfortunately, it is in the direst of straits. School reform efforts — including opening charter schools — have done nothing but sink the district into deeper trouble. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
How Democrats have changed on school reform
You can track the changes in the way the Democratic Party views school reform and the role poverty plays in student achievement by looking at the education sections of party platforms in previous election years and comparing it to the one that was approved Tuesday. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
The ed speech Obama should give to help him win
Many of the nation’s more than 3 million teachers are unhappy with Obama administration school reform policies that they believe are using them as scapegoats for problems in failing schools. Both the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers — the two teachers unions with, collectively, more than 3 million members — have endorsed Obama because they see important differences between the Democratic and Republican investment in public education. But many teachers are unhappy with the president’s support for initiatives such as standardized test-based teac... more »
What Democratic platform says on education
Here are portions of the Democratic Party’s 2012 platform that discuss education and school reform. The platform was approved Tuesday by convention delegates meeting in Charlotte, N.C., to formally nominate President Obama to seek re-election. You can read the education portion of the Republican Party’s 2012 platformhere. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
The supplies kids really need for school
*Summer’s over and school’s here. Here’s a smart piece about the things that kids really need to be successful at school. It was written by best-selling author Madeline Levine, whose newest book is “Teach Your Children Well: Parenting for Authentic Success,” and Vicki Abeles, director of the education documentary “Race to Nowhere,” which looks at the pressurized environment in many schools and the consequences when students are over-scheduled and over-tested.* Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
Lifelong Democrat ready for fight in Charlotte over school reform
The Democrats are opening their political convention on Tuesday with hopes of rallying the troops for the fall campaign ahead — but on one issue they are getting pushback from activists within the party: school reform. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
How school textbooks distort labor history
This being Labor Day, it seems like a good time to look at the way the history of the labor movement is taught in U.S. schools. Unfortunately, it isn’t — at least, not much, and when it is, it is too often inaccurately portrayed. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
A 16-year-old’s worthwhile summer
This week students who haven’t yet returned to school will head back to class and summer will officially be at an end. Some will carry with them memories of fun in the sun, but a good number of young people will take with them lessons they learned from unusual trips/experiences. In the greater Washington area a growing number of teens are spending part of their summer in African countries working with children through one of a number of sponsoring organizations. Here’s one of the most moving stories I’ve heard about one of these trips, written by Della Turque, a 16-year-old junior... more »
Labor Day facts
For well over a century Americans have been celebrating Labor Day on the first Monday in September, yet it may be the federal holiday about which kids — and plenty of adults — know the least. Too many don’t know that it was labor activists who forced employers to stop sending kids into mines, textiles, glass factories, canneries and other places to work back-breaking jobs day and night. Because of the labor movement, child labor ended, and adult workers won better conditions, including the eight-hour work day. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] ... more »
Q & A: Chiefs of five school districts talk reform — and describe their biggest wish
With the new school year upon us, we asked a handful of superintendents of districts in the greater Washington area to answer six questions so we could get a better understanding of their vision and challenges. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
Yes, they cheat at Harvard, too
The scandal at Harvard University in which authorities are investigatingwhether nearly half of a class of 279 students cheated on a take-home final exam raises a number of questions, including this: Does everybody cheat? Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
Jeb Bush: How shopping for milk is like choosing a school
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said pretty much what you’d expect him to say about education reform at the GOP convention — schools are failing and teachers unions are bad — but you might not have expected this as his pitch for school choice: Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
Jeb Bush’s ed speech at GOP convention — text
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush addressed the Republican Convention on Thursday night, giving a speech about education reform that is likely to fuel talk that he could be Mitt Romney’s education secretary should Romney win the presidential election. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]