George Schmidt: How to Manufacture a Budget Crisis and Impose Harsh Remedies
George Schmidt, who taught for many years in the Chicago Public Schools but was fired by Paul Vallas for releasing test questions, edits Substance News. Here is his analysis of Chicago’s perennial budget crisis: Sorry this is very long, but I have a hunch that many people will want to know how the “austerity” lies that feed all those “necessary school closings” and teacher layoffs are created in t
What the New York Times Article Left Out
Yesterday, the New York Times published an article about my forthcoming book that turned out to be a profile of me. The reporter, Motoko Rich, did a good job of describing me, my dog Mitzi, and the basic facts of my unusual philosophical and political journey over the past few decades. The headline was wrong, however, and I know that reporters don’t write headlines. Whoever wrote it is out of touc
Can “Reform” Produce Illiterate Literacy?
In this letter, the executive director of the Tennessee Council of Teachers of English reflects on what literacy means in the age of “reform.” Is literacy the goal? Is literacy possible? Can we ignore “reform” and just talk about Frost and Whitman and literature? Or does “reform” require something else? The unspoken here, if I may interpret, is that the future of literacy is at stake; that “reform
Corporate Reform Has New Setbacks
A great article in Politico.com by Stephanie Simon acknowledges that the primary election in New York City was a rejection of Bloomberg’s education policies of the past decade. Similarly, the election of the insurgent slate in Bridgeport, Connecticut, showed that the public was reclaiming public education from the corporate reform crew running the state. Jeffrey Henig of Teachers College, Columbia
How Many Teachers Leave the Profession and Why?
A regular reader has posted several comments that seem to imply that not enough teachers are being fired. Or that a system with a small number of teachers fired was not up to par, assuming that there are many “bad” teachers who have not been found out yet. This seems to be the assumption behind Race to the Top and the Gates’ approach to evaluation: stack ranking, from top to bottom. Fire the botto
Arthur Camins: What Matters Most?
Arthur Camins is director of the Center for Innovation in Engineering and Science Education at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey. When Camins read Paul Thomas’s latest commentary about the lack of evidence behind reform strategies, he wrote the following: “Over the past several years I have read countless articles and books all saying basically the same thing: The foundati
Barbara Miner: The Voucher Boondoggle in Milwaukee
Barbara Miner is a veteran journalist and photographer who has been writing about education and Milwaukee for many years. Her most recent book tells the history of public education in Milwaukee: Lessons from the Heartland: A Turbulent Half-Century of Public Education in an Iconic American City. In this blog, she explains the history of vouchers in Milwaukee. Milwaukee is the poster district for vo
Is There a STEM Shortage?
We hear repeatedly about the shortage of qualified engineers and the need for more science, technology, and mathematics majors. I am all for that. I would also like to see more majors in the arts, philosophy, history, government, literature, and world languages. This reader–who signs as “Democracy”–offers thoughts about “the STEM crisis”–and examines the role of Lockheed Martin’s Norman Augustine,
Diane in the Evening 9-11-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all
Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: Breaking News: EduShyster Unmasks Herself!EduShyster is one of the most brilliant, clever, and downright funny bloggers in the pedagogic blogosphere. She is one of the very few bloggers who is consistently able to make me laugh out loud. For reasons she will explain here, she has decided to reveal her name. When I met her a year ag