Can we stop asking what Martin Luther King Jr. would do?
Can we stop asking what Martin Luther King Jr. would do? You can’t escape it, on television, on Twitter, on Facebook, everywhere. What would King do about education reform, or the economy, or the huge income gap, or, well, you get … Continue reading →
‘Perfect storm’ threatens Philadelphia schools
The Philadelphia public school system is in a financial and leadership crisis so severe that writer Aaron Kase said in this article on Salon.com that the district is in its “death throes.” While that may be premature, there is no … Continue reading →
Six ways the arts help prepare kids succeed in life
Here’s something a little different. Some time ago I published a post titled “Top 10 skills children learn from the arts” and it turned out to be highly popular. Here is a related post by the same author, Lisa Phillips, … Continue reading →
YESTERDAY
Transcript: Obama’s remarks on college affordability plan
Here are remarks that President Obama made on Thursday when announcing his new college affordability plan at the State University of New York in Buffalo. This transcript is from the White House. REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT ON COLLEGE AFFORDABILITY … Continue reading →
D.C. charter schools to give standardized tests to young children
The use of standardized tests to measure very young students keeps expanding. Now public charter schools in Washington D.C. will soon be giving new standardized tests to very young children — aged 3, 4 and 5 — for the purposes … Continue reading →
AUG 21
Poll: Most Americans sick of high-stakes standardized tests
(Correcting description of AP poll) The results of a well-regarded annual poll show that most Americans don’t like the high-stakes standardized testing that dominates education reform today and have never heard of the Common Core standards, which are currently being … Continue reading →
How Common Core Standards will succeed — even if they don’t
What does success mean when it comes to evaluating the Common Core State Standards? Here to explain is Larry Cuban, a high school social studies teacher for 14 years, a district superintendent (seven years in Arlington, Virginia), and professor emeritus … Continue reading →
How the ‘reading wars’ are being reignited
This is a new piece about an issue raised in this post last week, titled “Literacy experts say reformers reviving ‘reading wars.’” Both of these refer to ratings published in June by a group called the National Council on Teacher … Continue reading →
AUG 20
Student test scores now linked to teachers’ licenses
We should have seen this coming. School reformers who love using student standardized test scores as the chief accountability measure in education have found yet a new way to use them against teachers. It’s not enough that many teachers’ salaries … Continue reading →
How distracting are laptops in class?
Here’s a piece looking at how distracting laptops can be in class by cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham, a professor and director of graduate studies in psychology at the University of Virginia and author of “Why Don’t Students Like School?” His … Continue reading →
AUG 19
What we know about schools — but choose to ignore
Here’s an important piece on school reform by P.L. Thomas, an associate professor of education at Furman University in South Carolina. He edited the 2013 book “Becoming and Being a Teacher,” and wrote the 2012 book, “Ignoring Poverty in the … Continue reading →
Why teachers feel so alone
Intended or not, school reform has left many teachers feeling isolated and alone. Here’s a post on this by Hillary Greene, who has taught middle school for three years in independent, public, and public charter settings in Massachusetts and New … Continue reading →
What’s the ‘most pernicious cliché of our time’?
According to a new piece in The New Republic by the magazine’s science editor, Judith Shulevitz, the term “disruption” is, as the headline says, “the most pernicious cliché of our time.” That’s almost right. Shulevitz makes important points about the … Continue reading →
AUG 17
Maryland university buying bulletproof whiteboards
A sign of the times: The University of Maryland Eastern Shore is planning to buy $60,000 worth of special whiteboards that can be used as writing pads — and as protection against bullets should there be a need. The historically … Continue reading →