MoCo Supt. Starr calls for online civility after being targeted by obscene tweets
Montgomery County Superintendent Joshua Starr just released an open letter to parents (see text below) about starting a communitywide conversation about online civility after he and his family were the target of threatening and obscene tweets this week when he was deciding whether to close schools because of the bad weather. Starr also is creating a […]
Education Dept. to recognize same-sex marriages for federal financial aid purposes
The U.S. Education Department announced Friday that the federal government will now recognize all legal same-sex marriages for the purposes of applying for and receiving federal financial aid. Here’s the statement from the department: As part of the U.S. Department of Education’s ongoing efforts to implement inclusive policies that reflect the diversity of American families, […]
Washington state judge draws key distinction between charter, traditional public schools
A Washington state judge just ruled that part of the state’s new charter school law is constitutional and part of it isn’t. The most interesting part of the decision isn’t which is which, but why there is a distinction in the first place. The case on which King County Superior Court Judge Jean Rietschel ruled […]
Mike Huckabee walks back his support for Common Core
Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee has now put himself on the list of potential Republican candidates for president in 2016, which explains, perhaps, why he is backing off his once outspoken support of the Common Core State Standards initiative — even while insisting that his original backing made sense. Huckabee wrote a letter dated June 3, […]
How U.S. schools misteach history of racial segregation
Here’s an important post by Richard Rothstein about how the United States fails to face up to its racial history — in and out of schools — an issue underscored by the late Nelson Mandela’s insistence that reconciliation in South Africa be underpinned by truth-telling about the nation’s past. Rothstein is a research associate at […]
Let them eat grit
For some time now “grit” has become one of the new mantras of education reform and schools are somehow supposed to teach students how to have more. Here’s a piece on why this is nonsense, from Joe Bower, a teacher in Red Deer, Alberta, Canada, who seeks to explore progressive forms of education. This appeared on his blog,” […]
12-12-13 The Answer Sheet
The Answer Sheet: Secret policymaking on school reform is on the riseEducation reform policy around the country is increasingly being made in secret or without public input — and with a lot of private philanthropic money. A number of recent stories reveal the extent to which policy makers and school reformers are going to push their reform agenda to expand charter schools and vouchers in an […]