The Answer Sheet:
School reformer Vallas to run for Illinois lieutenant governor
Just days after voters in Bridgeport, Conn., elected a school board seen as being more likely to fire Paul Vallas as superintendent than to embrace him, it was announced that the well-known school reformer will run for lieutenant governor in Illinois. He wants to be on the same 2014 Democratic ticket as Gov. Pat Quinn. […]
Teacher to Gov. Christie: Enough already
The state of New Jersey just got some good news about its students: On the newly released 2013 National Assessment for Educational Progress scores, they were at or near the top in fourth and eighth grade math and reading — and low-income students did either better or near the top when compared to poor students […]
Why young kids are struggling with Common Core math
Common Core critics argue that some of the standards are not developmentally appropriate for young students. Earlier this year I published this post by Edward Miller and Nancy Carlsson-Paige about how the standards smack in the face of what we know about how young children learn. Here’s is a new post with concerns about the […]
Starr, Alonso: Candidates for NYC schools chancellor?
Two education leaders in the greater Washington region — which for the purposes of this post includes Baltimore — are believed to be among those under considering to become the next chancellor of the largest school district in the country, New York City. Mayor-Elect Bill de Blasio has said he will hire someone who has […]
Where 4th graders are forced to take 33 standardized tests a year
When you hear people talk about the explosion of standardized testing in public education in the No Child Left Behind/Race to the Top era, it may be hard to understand just what that means to a student sitting in a classroom. This may help explain: Fourth graders in the Pittsburgh Public Schools will take 33 […]
Common Core implementation called ‘worse’ than Healthcare.gov launch
Whether you support the Common Core State Standards or don’t, it’s hard to argue that the implementation so far has been smooth. I’ve posted some pieces about just bad the implementation of the Common Core State Standards and related testing has been going in New York (for example, here) but here’s a comparison that will make […]
Teacher: What I can’t do for students
We hear a lot about the responsibility of teachers in the effort to help students achieve, but what about students themselves? In this post, a public school teacher (who asked not to be identified because she fears she could be targeted by her bosses), writes about the complexities of her job and what frustrates her […]
NOV 07
Christian college’s student leader ‘comes out’ as atheist
“My name is Eric Fromm. I am Senior at NCU majoring in communications, and I am an atheist.” That’s the start of a surprising column co-written by Eric Fromm, student body president in the Northwest Christian University’s student publication, the Beacon Bolt, that sparked an unusual online discussion about students and their beliefs at the […]
The biggest weakness of the Common Core Standards
Here’s a different look at the controversial Common Core State Standards, from Marion Brady, a veteran classroom teacher, who has written history and world culture textbooks (Prentice-Hall), professional books, numerous nationally distributed columns (many are available here), and courses of study. His 2011 book, “What’s Worth Learning,” asks and answers this question: What knowledge is absolute
NOV 06
Teachers union leader urges Chris Christie to apologize to teacher he yelled at
American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten sent a letter to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), asking him to apologize to a teacher whom he yelled at during a campaign event a few days before he won re-election this week and saying that he had no right to “bully her in such a hostile […]
D.C. teacher spins basketball on pen while grading papers — video
The power of video: David Hovan, a physics teacher at St. John’s College High School in Washington D.C., starred in the video below in which he literally spins a basketball on a pen while he grades papers. The Harlem Globetrotters were somehow alerted to the video, and on Thursday, team star Handles Franklin is scheduled […]
What DeBlasio’s win in New York City means for school reform
If the man New York City residents just elected as their new mayor does what he promised to do about reforming public schools, the country’s largest school system could take on a far different look than it has had for the last dozen years under Mayor Michael Bloomberg — and that could have an important effect […]
120 business leaders urge Congress to increase pre-K funding
A group of 120 business leaders from across the country have sent a nonpartisan letter to Republican and Democratic congressional budget leaders urging them to boost funding for early childhood education. Earlier this year President Obama called on Congress to greatly expand quality early childhood education preschool programs around the country. The letter was organized […]
If a 6’5, 312-pound Miami Dolphin can be bullied…
Jonathan Martin, the 6-foot-5-inch, 312-pound Miami Dolphin offensive lineman who left the NFL team because he was being bullied by at least one other player, has done a favor for school kids everywhere. How can such a big guy get bullied? Because bullying behavior isn’t about physical intimidation. It’s about mind control and creating fear — […]
If Sen. Rand Paul were in school, he’d probably be expelled
Schools don’t take plagiarizing lightly. Penalties depend on what, how much and how often “borrowing” has occurred, but multiple instances of stealing material and using it without credit would likely lead to expulsion. Which brings us to Sen. Rand Paul. Last week Paul gave a speech at Liberty University in Virginia that lifted lines from a Wikipedia […]
What Arne Duncan said in Haiti
You are never too poor, apparently, to want for data. U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan went this week to Haiti, the most impoverished nation in the Western Hemisphere and one of the poorest in the world, and talked to education officials there about the great value in collecting data to improve schools. He was quoted […]
NOV 05
The school data problem: what we have vs. what we need
It’s the backbone of the modern school reform: data. And a lot of it, it turns out, isn’t any good. Here’s a post about the problem of the data we have vs. the data we need, by Jack Schneider, an assistant professor of education at the College of the Holy Cross, who confronted the issue […]
School forbids kindergarteners from touching at recess
Granted the month is still young, but this sounds like it will be high on the list for the month’s dumbest ideas hatched at a school: An elementary school in Canada has decided to forbid kindergarten students from touching each other at recess as a way to prevent injuries from, well, playing. Say goodbye to […]
Are private schools better than public schools? New book says ‘no’
It is often assumed that private schools do a better job educating children than public schools, but a new book, “The Public School Advantage,” which is being published this week, shows this isn’t the case. Here’s a piece the authors, Christopher Lubienski, a professor in the Department of Educational Organization and Leadership at the College of […]
NOV 04
A warning to Virginia’s next governor
The next governor of Virginia needs to pay careful attention to this. More than 35 school boards across Virginia have passed resolutions calling on education officials to revamp the Standards of Learning testing system in what amounts to growing pushback to Gov. Robert F. McDonnell’s school-reform agenda. Many more of the 134 school districts in […]
Why is Arne Duncan visiting Haiti?
Education Secretary Arne Duncan travels a lot around the country as the Obama administration’s school reform chief, visiting classrooms and talking up federal education policies. There’s nothing unusual about that — but a trip he began on Monday is. Duncan is visiting the impoverished country of Haiti, at the invitation of the education minister there, […]
Stanford’s strange kissing tradition – and 5 other unusual college customs
Stanford University is known for many things: its interdisciplinary curriculum, a heavenly campus, super-smart students – and the annual kissing event. Yes, Stanford is famous for its annual ”Full Moon on the Quad,” which – as the Stanford Web site explains – is an event in which “freshmen are kissed at midnight by seniors under the […]
Viral video: dad reacts to report card
Here’s a video that went viral showing a father in Britain reacting strongly when he learned that his son had gotten a ‘C’ in math — which is a passing grade — after first flunking it. The dad is Farnoosh Shahrokhshahi and it was his son, Aria, who set up a camera just before he told his […]
NOV 03
Gov. Chris Christie yells at a teacher
And the rally ends, inevitably, with Christie arguing with a teacher pic.twitter.com/YyLsoJVTWQ — daveweigel (@daveweigel) November 2, 2013 (Twitter picture above used with permission) “Why,” a New Jersey teacher asked Gov. Chris Christie (R), “do you continue to spread the myth that our schools and teachers are failing?” The teacher who asked this […]
NOV 02
Catholic scholars blast Common Core in letter to U.S. bishops
About 130 Catholic scholars around the country have signed a hard-hitting letter to U.S. Catholic bishops denouncing the Common Core State Standards as doing “a grave disservice to Catholic education” and urging the bishops to ignore the standards or, in the more than 100 dioceses that have already adopted them, to give them up. The letter […]
The ‘congenital optimist’
Michael Feuer, the dean of George Washington University’s Graduate School of Education & Human Development, was just inducted as president of the National Academy of Education, an organization made up of 200 elected members that advances high-quality education research and its use in policy formation and practice. Here is an abridged version of remarks he made […]