Philadelphia Photographer Captures School Closings
From Newsworks:Photo exhibit opening this week chronicles the 'decline and destruction' of Philly public schools"It's like a visual documentation of what was once a public-school system. This is the beginning of the decline and the destruction of it."--Harvey Finkle, photographer, Philadelphia School Closings Photo Collective and Public School NotebookThe display's 20, mostly color photo
Technologies Foster Conformity
In a college essay circa 1837 on the "pleasures and privileges" of a literary life, Henry David Thoreau begins with a quote out of Horace stating that every writer loves the grove and flees the city...This love of retiring from the hurry and bustle of the world has, in all ages, closely adhered to those minds most devoted to study and elevated by genius. Such an one "will gladly sna
Remembering Columbus
from Glen Brown's blog:Celebrating "Free Market" Style with Christopher ColumbusFrom Columbus’ first expedition log: “They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword; they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance. They have no iron. Their spears are made of cane… They would make fine servants… With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them
creative sales techniques to "move" students to higher levels of achievement
Somewhere down the road we will look back on this era of efficiency fixation in the same way we now view the eliminators of waste of the early 20th Century schools, who took principles of "scientific management" and tried to map them onto schools, thus elaborating a system of education based on the efficient transmittal of info bits.Today's example for the future history books on educati
Should Diane Ravitch Be More Careful to Not Hurt Reformers' Feelings?
By now, I’m about the only slowpoke who hasn’t taken a stand on Diane Ravitch’s Reign of Error. Those who object to her indictment of “corporate reform” have had time to catch any possible error of fact or logic. If there is a rebuttal to Ravitch’s statement that “it is difficult to find education organizations that have not been funded by the Gates Foundation,” surely it would have been made by n
10-13-13 Schools Matter
Schools Matter: Value-Added Testing and the Masking of InequalityThis article was previously posted at The Answer Sheet on October 4.This post is comprised largely of excerpts from The Mismeasure of Education that have been re-arranged to answer this question: “Will value-added testing do as little for the nation as it has for Tennessee?”By Jim Horn and Denise WilburnAs White House staff, congress