The Answer Sheet:
Gov. Chris Christie’s strange definition of ‘equality’
All Week @ The Answer Sheet
Gov. Chris Christie’s strange definition of ‘equality’
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has a strange definition of “equality.” Shortly before the November election in which Christie was seeking a second term, he decided that undocumented young people who were brought to this country illegally as children and who graduated from New Jersey high schools – commonly referred to as DREAMers — should […]
‘This is the story of a broken romance’
Lisa Alva Wood is a Los Angeles teacher who was working with school reformers at the same time she belonged to the United Teachers Los Angeles, a union that has been a target of those same reformers. In this post, she tells the story of how a single phone call caused her to fall out […]
‘Duck Dynasty’s’ Phil Robertson: A former teacher with a master’s degree
“Duck Dynasty’s” Phil Robertson, now famously suspended from his family’s popular cable reality television show for making shockingly offensive remarks about blacks and gays in a GQ interview, once taught in Louisiana schools, has a bachelor’s degree in physical education and a masters degree in education, with an English concentration. He even “kinda liked” Shakespeare. […]
Colorado university terminates popular prostitution lecture
A tenured sociology professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder is leaving the school after being told by school officials that she could no longer teach a lecture on prostitution — which includes a voluntarily skit in which students portray the lives of prostitutes as they speak to an interviewer — in a long-popular […]
Evaluating the evaluations of teacher education programs
Donald E. Heller is dean of the College of Education at Michigan State University who, in this post, describes a recent written encounter with the National Council on Teacher Quality, an organization created by the conservative Thomas B. Fordham Foundation in 2000 in order to promote alternative teacher certification and try to diminish the influence of […]
Five basic — but misinterpreted — keys to creating a cool classroom culture
Here’s an excerpt from a new book about American education by veteran teacher David Greene called Doing the Right Thing — A Teacher Speaks. Greene taught social studies and coached in New York City schools for 38 years, worked as a field supervisor for Fordham University, mentored Teach For America Corps members in the Bronx and […]
Why grade inflation (even at Harvard) is a big problem
The Harvard Crimson, the university’s student newspaper, recently published a story about the continuing problem of grade inflation at the elite institution. Here’s a piece about why it matters, from Diane R. Dean is associate professor for higher education administration and policy at Illinois State University. Arthur Levine is president of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship […]
DEC 19
Pittsburgh school board drops $750,000 Teach For America contract
Here’s some education news that you don’t hear every day: The Pittsburgh school board is rescinding a $750,000 contract with Teach For America, and keeping open an elementary school slated to be shuttered. The board’s four new members, taking a new reform tact, drove the decision to drop the contract by a 6-2 vote with […]
Maryland takes on new Common Core role as ‘favor’ to Obama, Gov. O’Malley says
How’s this for messy? Top Maryland officials approved a contract making the state the “fiscal agent” for one of two multi-state consortia developing standardized tests aligned with the Common Core State Standards despite objections that the contract has no minority business participation and concerns about testing obsession. Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) acknowledged the lack of […]
DEC 18
What does rise in D.C. test scores really mean? Not much.
Public schools in D.C. just saw larger gains on 2013 math and reading tests on the National Assessment of Educational Progress — which is sometimes called “the nation’s report card” — than any other major urban school system in the country. Impressive, right? Well, maybe not so much. One of the central educational goals of […]
Arapahoe High student: ‘How does one go back to school now?’
(Update: Adding complete text of student essay) A student named Brett Stewart was in psychology class at Arapahoe High School in Colorado on Dec. 9 when an armed student entered the building and critically wounded a classmate before killing himself. In an essay he wrote about what happened, published in a student arts magazine, Stewart wrote […]
What’s wrong with this headline?
The New York Times published a story on Hanna Skandera, New Mexico’s highly controversial education secretary-designate (she’s been “designate” for three years because Democrats refuse to hold a hearing to confirm her) under this online headline: “A Push for Teacher Accountability Meets Resistance in New Mexico.” What’s wrong with this headline speaks to what’s wrong with a lot […]
DEC 17
Coalition to Duncan: Stop backtracking on teacher equity
A coalition of 95 civil rights, disability, parent, student, community and education organizations has sent the following letter to Education Secretary Arne Duncan expressing deep concerns about what they see as the department’s backtracking on ensuring that the country’s neediest childrenhave access to highly qualified teachers as part of the process of renewing waivers to No […]
DEC 16
Texts of exchange between Catholic educators in war of words over $1 million Koch gift to university
Catholic educators are feuding over a $1 million gift that the right-wing billionaire Koch brothers have given to Catholic University in Washington D.C. A tough letter, signed by 50 Catholic educators from across the country, says Catholic University should not have accepted a $1 million gift from the the right-wing Koch Brothers because they support […]
School named after KKK grand wizard to be renamed — finally
Following a petition drive that garnered more than 160,000 signatures, a Florida school district will rename a high school whose current name commemorates a Confederate general and the first “grand wizard” of the Ku Klux Klan. Nathan B. Forrest High School in Jacksonville will soon be known as something else after the community made clear to the […]
U.S. academic group votes to boycott Israeli universities
Academic institutions generally promote the free expression of idea and unfettered cooperation among scholars and schools. But the membership of the American Studies Association, the nation’s oldest and largest association devoted to the interdisciplinary study of American culture and history, has voted to back an academic boycott of Israeli universities. The Web site of the […]
Study: Test-score gains don’t mean cognitive gains
In a finding that should give pause to backers of standardized test-based school reform, a new study by neuroscientists at three major universities shows that students who achieved the highest gains on standardized tests did not show the same gains in the ability to analyze material and think logically. The research, conducted by scientists from the Massachusetts Institute […]
What’s right — and very wrong — with the teacher education debate
This is the second of three parts of a series on the critically important — and currently hot — topic of teacher education, from scholar Mike Rose. He is on the faculty of the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies and author of books that include Back to School: Why Everyone Deserves a […]
DEC 15
How much teachers get paid — state by state
How much do teachers across the United States get paid? Here is data, state by state, collected from the National Center for Education Statistics by Jon Boeckenstedt, associate vice president at DePaul University in Chicago. The data are for 2013 and represent the estimated average annual salary of teachers in public elementary and secondary schools. Boeckensted’s […]
Did Shanghai cheat on PISA?
Everybody knows (or should) by now that Shanghai’s 15-year-old students ranked No. 1 on the most recent Program for International Student Assessment for the second time, which, if you believe the recently released results, means that a representative sample of kids got the best scores in the world in reading, math and science. And 15-year-olds […]
DEC 14
Why it’s (long past) time for social and emotional learning
Sacramento City Unified School District Superintendent Jonathan Raymond, who is leaving his job at the end of the month after four years, wrote the following response to a recent column by New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman on the average performance of U.S. 15 year olds in reading, math and science on the 2012 Program […]
The person de Blasio is likely to tap to run NYC schools
The list of names that New York City Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio has considered for chancellor of the country’s largest school district has been long, but it appears that he has settled on one — at least for now. Knowledgeable sources say that de Blasio is likely next week to name Carmen Farina, a close […]