Starr to Duncan: ‘I resent implication that we lifelong public educators are liars’
U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post on Friday that talked about school reforms and praised both Tennessee and D.C. Public Schools for increased test scores. He wrote: We don’t know all the reasons why students did better in Tennessee and the District in 2013 than in 2011. But it […]
Why there’s no excuse for ‘no-excuse’ schools
The “no excuses” brand of schooling is alive and well in this reform era. In this post Sigal Ben-Porath, an associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education, explains why that is unfortunate. Ben-Porath’s research focuses on the politics of education policy, citizenship education, and political philosophy. By Sigal Ben-Porath As any parent […]
The latest bad fad in higher education
Patricia McGuire is president of Trinity Washington University, a Catholic school of some 2,500 students just a few miles from where President Obama last week held its White House Summit on College Opportunity. She wasn’t invited. Instead the administration invited leaders of colleges and universities who agreed to pledge to take new steps to help students in […]
1-23-14 The Answer Sheet
The Answer Sheet: A challenge: Teach 8th grade Common Core before endorsing itThis post is a response to this piece by Gerald Graff, which was itself a response to this speech about the Common Core State Standards by Diane Ravitch. This was written by educator Mercedes Schneider, who holds degrees in secondary education (English and German), guidance and counseling, and applied statistics and rese