Latest News and Comment from Education

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

UPDATE: Can schools really reform society?

Can schools really reform society?:

Answer Sheet




Holding Broad Academy and Bush Institute ‘accountable’


Jeb Bush is holding his fifth annual national summit on school reform next month in Washington D.C. According to the agenda, one of the

strategy sessions is called “Transforming Colleges of Education,” and the writeup says in part: “Nine out of every ten teachers graduate from traditional teacher prep programs at colleges of education. Should these colleges be held accountable for the caliber of students they admit into their programs and the teachers they send into the classroom?”
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Can schools really reform society?



It’s not uncommon to hear people say that schools are the best way to transform society. But is this really true? In the following post the issue is considered by Larry Cuban, a former high school social studies teacher (14 years, including seven at Cardozo and Roosevelt high schools in the District), district superintendent (seven years in Arlington, VA) and professor emeritus of education at Stanford University, where he has taught for more than 20 years. His latest book is “As Good As It Gets: What School Reform Brought to Austin.” This appeared on his bl og.
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Who is Abigail Noel Fisher?



The Supreme Court is hearing arguments on Wednesday in a case involving a young woman who sued the University of Texas. The woman alleged that she was denied admission to the system’s flagship in 2008 because she is white and the school’s affirmative action policies resulted in the acceptance of African American and Hispanic students with lesser credentials. She was offered admission to a different UT campus with the possibility of transferring later, but she opted to go out of state to attend college.
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Nobel Prize winner in medicine flunked biology


Nobel Prizes: Which schools have won the most?



 It’s that time of year again when the Nobel Prizes are bestowed on the world’s brilliant, accomplished and lucky in the fields of physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, economics, literature and peace.
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Eleven year old: ‘Ridiculous’ to use my test to grade my teacher


In the out-of-the-mouths-of-babes category, here’s a post about the flaws of modern teacher evaluation that are evidence to an 11-year-old but,

apparently, not to school reformers. It was written by Sean C. Feeney, principal of The Wheatley School and president of the Nassau County High School Principals Association.
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School libraries without books

 Imagine a newly modernized school with a built-in library/media center — but no books to put on the shelves. Actually, you don’t have to imagine.
Read about what’s going on with libraries in D.C. public schools (DCPS) in this open letter to Mayor Vincent Gray from D.C. resident and school library advocate Peter MacPherson. He’s been fighting a move by DCPS to cut funding for dozens of school librarian positions.
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