About Pearson, the Golden Goose State Standards, And Then Some
On December 13, 2013, Pearson, Inc., agreed to pay a $7.7 million settlement for allegedly using its nonprofit, Pearson Charitable Foundation (PCF), to assist its profit-making parent corporation in developing educational materials– including software. In this post, I would like to offer additional discussion of Pearson the For-Profit, Pearson the Nonprofit, and some friends both […]
Hypocrisy, thy name is King
As NYSED Commissioner King’s traveling Common Core forum circus makes its way around the Empire State we are seeing more and more hypocrisy from New York’s educational leader. Example #1: “Special Interests” I have watched several of the forums, read about others, and attended one. At the first forum in Poughkeepsie King called parents and […]
A warning to teachers unions from collaborators in their demise, @teachplus
Teach Plus is a leadership development program (of sorts) for teachers in urban schools. Now, good leadership to me sounds like someone who distrusts party lines and examines issues from all angles. Our faculty was visited by Teach Plus one morning for a brief presentation, a lot of which focusing, oddly enough, on Common Core. […]
Anecdotes on teacher evaluation, horror-show edition @NCTQ
The DCPS IMPACT is considered by many to be a model for the nation, or it was in its heyday just a few years ago. It is now derided, disliked, and distrusted by nearly every DCPS educator with whom I encounter. If not for the impact of IMPACT, namely performance bonuses and the keeping of […]
Do you think charter schools “know how to do middle school really well?”
According to DCPS Chancellor Kaya Henderson, charter schools “know how to do middle school really well.” When it comes to defining the phrase “really well,” are education reformers basing their narrative of quantity over quality, i.e. proficiency rates versus growth? What do you – @thechalkfacers – think? In this piece, you can compare the data […]
All Week 12-14-13 @ THE CHALK FACE
@ THE CHALK FACE knows SCHOOLS MATTER: All Week @ THE CHALK FACE mark as readNCTQ’s Free Pass in an Era of Press-Release JournalismA controversial shock-jock-type right-wing pundit spoke as a guest of a conservative student group at my university a few years ago (she has since returned with less fanfare). When I made a passing comment about her lack of credibility, a student in one of my introduc