THE BECOMING RADICAL
Radical Scholarship
NCTQ’s Free Pass in an Era of Press-Release Journalism
In Memory: Sandy Hook Elementary, One Year After
AJC Guest Column: Children who are poor need slack, not grit
NCTQ’s Free Pass in an Era of Press-Release Journalism
What Are Tests Really Measuring?: When Achievement Isn't Achievement
the becoming radical
A Place for a Pedagogy of Kindness
by
remnant 44: “I make my own announcements. Into the garbage can, so it echoes.”
remnant 44: “I make my own announcements. Into the garbage can, so it echoes.”.
Faith-Based Education Reform: Common Core as Standards-and-Testing Redux
Let’s start with irony: Compelling research suggests that the public in the U.S. is unique in its commitment to belief, often at the expense of evidence—leading me to identify the U.S. as a belief culture. Additionally, while I remain convinced that the U.S. is a belief culture, I also argue that, below, the political cartoon posted at Truthout captures another important dynamic: Many committed to
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NCTQ’s Free Pass in an Era of Press-Release Journalism.
I fear that we have become either callous or numb—either is a tragic consequence of mass shootings, even those at schools, becoming commonplace. Here, I invite you to read from a group of pieces I wrote after and about the mass school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newton, CT, one year ago, December 14, 2012: “They’re All Our Children” (AlterNet) Alongside discussions of mental health and gun control, we must use the lessons of Sandy Hook to reframe the debate around education reform. Remembering Sandy Hook: Protecting Guns, Sacrificing (Some) Children Misreading the Right to Bear Arms
AJC Guest Column: Children who are poor need slack, not grit (December 2, 2013)
YESTERDAY
REVIEW: De-Testing and De-Grading Schools, Bower and Thomas
Reviewed by J. Spencer Clark, Utah State University, which concludes: The purpose of this book was to offer a map of the high-stakes accountability and standardization landscape, and more importantly to provide ways to navigate this landscape in positive ways. Bower and Thomas are successful in this regard and have provided a powerful critique that equally identifies powerful alternatives to high-
GUEST POST: Continu—what? Sara Newell
Continu—what? Sara Newell How do you derive meaning from a number? Should a parent or student respond differently to a 97% than to a 99%? What about a 75%? How do you know what number to assign to a student created product you’ve never seen before? As a 5th grade teacher at the Charles Townes Center for highly gifted students in grades 3-8, I felt these questions were a constant thorn in my side.
DEC 12
What Are Tests Really Measuring?: When Achievement Isn’t Achievement
High-stakes standardized testing must be the most resilient phenomenon ever to exist on the planet. Joining high-stakes standardized testing in that (dis)honor would be the persistent but misleading claim that test scores are primarily achievement (and a growing future candidate for this honor is the claim that test scores by students, labeled “achievement,” are also credible metrics for “teacher
CALL FOR PROPOSALS: Pedagogies of Kindness and Respect: On the Lives and Education of Children
CALL FOR PROPOSALS Pedagogies of Kindness and Respect: On the Lives and Education of Children Edited by P. L. Thomas, Paul C. Carr, Julie Gorlewski, and Brad Porfilio Peter Lang USA Rethinking Childhood Series, Gaile Cannella, series editor Call and Submission Requirements Submit a proposal of about 300 words by February 28, 2014, to paul.thomas@furman.edu. Chapter initial drafts due July 15, 201
Thomas: Charter schools not a smart investment for S.C.
Charter schools not a smart investment for S.C. See full data tables and analysis HERE.
DEC 11
Our Real-World Dystopia
As a science fiction (SF) fan, partial to dystopian SF, and writer, I would have a great novel on my hand if this weren’t simply the way things are. How to create a real-world dystopia: Identify “privilege” as “achievement” using a mechanism that you label “scientific” and “standard.” Use “achievement” to create the authority class. Repeat. Sounds easy, but some may call this outlandish. So let
DEC 10
VAM Fails Test, Again: The Bizarro World of Education Reform
The great state of South Carolina (and for full effect, you should hear that with “great” and “state” rhyming, sort of, with “pet” because that is how the good ol’ boy patriarchy says it around here) continues down a path all too familiar across the U.S.: adopt any and all education reform policies that other states are rushing to implement, even (and maybe especially) when research fails to suppo
DEC 08
“He knows, or thinks he knows”: It’s Still a Man’s (Hostile) World
During the spring of 2006 when members of the Duke lacrosse team were first accused of rape (later to be dismissed by North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper), I was teaching a freshman English course that focused on Kurt Vonnegut. Although my university is composed of a female majority, this class was mostly male students; since the university is a small, selective liberal arts university, the
Mandela: Dishonored by Passive Radical Myth
Early in February 1990, my daughter, born March 11, 1989, spent an entire night vomiting. My wife and I were new parents, and we called our pediatrician multiple times, always urged to be patient and wait it out. By the morning, we were in the emergency room, followed by our tiny child, a month shy of a year old, being admitted to the hospital. After a few sleepless days for my wife and me, my dau
DEC 07
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NCTQ’s Free Pass in an Era of Press-Release Journalism
What Are Tests Really Measuring?: When Achievement Isn't Achievement
DEC 12
Thomas: Charter schools not a smart investment for S.C.
Charter schools not a smart investment for S.C.See full data tables and analysis HERE.
DEC 11
Schools Matter: Seeking Equity: Not “If,” But “How” and “Why”
Schools Matter: Seeking Equity: Not “If,” But “How” and “Why”: Fiction offers avenues to Truth, often hard Truths, that remain closed or less often traveled otherwise. While many people associate Middle...
DEC 10
VAM Fails Test, Again: The Bizarro World of Education Reform
VAM Fails Test, Again: The Bizarro World of Education Reform
DEC 09
"He knows, or thinks he knows": It's Still a Man's (Hostile) World
"He knows, or thinks he knows": It's Still a Man's (Hostile) World