State Chiefs to Arne Duncan: We Won’t Share Student Data
Graphic by Betsy L. Angert | AngertAesthetics By Catherine Gewertz | Originally Published at
YESTERDAY
Turnarounds Face Challenges In Keeping Top Leaders In Place
In every child’s life there is a parent and for most school age children, a Principal. Being either is significant. While styles may be different there is a need to be consistent. A child is more likely to stumble and fall if the ground beneath her is […]
Students Should Be Tested Less, Then Not at All
Photograph; Bebeto Matthews/AP Images By Paul L. Thomas, Ed.D. | Originally Published at The Becoming Radical. January 22, 2014 Students Should Be Tested More, Not Less by Jessica Lahey is not a compelling case to test students more, but another example of journalism failing to represent accurately […]
JAN 23
Muscle Cramps, Evidence, and the Public Education Reform Debate
By Paul L. Thomas, Ed.D. | Originally Published at The Becoming Radical. January 15, 2014 For almost thirty years, I have been a serious recreational and competitive cyclist. Despite my goals as a cyclist focusing primarily on endurance events—such as English centuries (100 miles) over mountain courses […]
JAN 21
The Danger of Telling Poor Kids That College Is the Key to Social Mobility
Photograph; Matt Rourke/AP Images By Andrew Simmons | Originally Published at The Atlantic. January 16, 2014 A 12th-grader wrote a college admissions essay about wanting to pursue a career in oceanography. Let’s call her Isabella. A few months ago, we edited it in my classroom during lunch. […]
Education on the Move
The perpetual question is when is progress progressive. When is a following a trend to an earnest desire to bend? Intellectually we know that nothing happens in an instant. Change, while constant, is incremental. There is a need for constant vigilance. So we ask, who can we […]
JAN 19
In Age of School Shootings, Lockdown Is the New Fire Drill
Photograph: Students walked to safety after a shooting in Roswell, N.M. Mark Wilson/Roswell Daily Record, via Associated Press By JACK HEALY | Originally Published at The New York Times. January 16, 2014 The bomb threat was just a hoax, but officials at Hebron High School near Dallas […]
How Close to Poverty Are You?
Photograph; New York Times | Mapping Poverty in America By John Light | Originally Published at Bill Moyers HQ. January 7, 2014 But in less-prosperous cities, the poor aren’t similarly out-of-sight. One residential area near downtown Cleveland shows a poverty rate of 80 percent. Other cities across […]
JAN 18
Landlords for 2 Proposed Chicago Charter Schools have ties to Emanuel
Photograph; Mayor Rahm Emanuel joins over 200 members of the faith-based community to discuss the importance of providing Chicago Public School students with a longer school day and year. Thursday, August 25, 2011 | Brian Jackson~Sun-Times By Becky Schlikerman And Dan Mihalopoulos | Originally Published at The […]
JAN 17
Should Mayor de Blasio Unravel Bloomberg’s Reforms?
Photograph; Mayor Bill de Blasio and his new schools chancellor, Carmen Fariña, tour the Bronx School of Young Leaders. Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times Originally Published at The New York Times. January 15, 2014 One door closes and another opens. In every life change comes. We know […]
Here’s Exactly How Much the Government Would Have to Spend to Make Public College Tuition-Free
Mister President, we thank you for addressing the need to expand college opportunities. As you noted, currently, inequity and inequality are replete. “[T]he United States still has a long way to go to open the door to college for low-income Americans….We have to make sure there are […]
JAN 16
Operators of Failed Wisconsin Voucher School Move to Florida
We at EmpathyEducates would like to thank Stop Special Needs Vouchers for putting it all together. The caution in context is instructive. We are aware of the need to learn from history. Within this treatise, there are lessons to be learned. By Joanne Juhnke | Originally Published […]
Newark Still Not Making Progress Serving Children With Disabilities
By | Originally Published at Education Justice. January 14, 2014 Nearly two years since the Newark Public Schools (NPS) agreed to a court-ordered Settlement to improve the delivery of special education services, the latest compliance report filed by NPS shows little progress in meeting deadlines for serving […]
JAN 15
Americans With and Without Children Can Get Similar Life Satisfaction
All things being equal – they are not. Happiness is not satisfaction, contentment, or fulfillment. Failure is not a fiasco; nor are you a flop if you do not pursue as others think will take them to the top. Indeed, some people like apples; others do not. […]
JAN 14
Smagorinsky on Authentic Teacher Evaluation
By Paul L. Thomas, Ed.D. | Originally Published at The Becoming Radical. January 14, 2014 At mid-nineteenth century, public schools were under attack by the Catholic church; Bishop John Hughes “described the public schools as a ‘dragon…devouring the hope of the country as well as religion’” (Jacoby, […]
JAN 12
Columbus Has 17 Charter School Failures In One Year
Photograph; Sam Greene | Dispatch | The school on S. 6th Street is one of four Olympus schools shuttered. Felony theft, filth, and failure to meet payroll, and still, the public funds keep coming. A sponsorship is all you need and regardless of your record you too […]
JAN 11
Racism May Accelerate Aging in African American Men
Photograph; A homeless African-American man in Southern California isolated on white. [Copyright: Russell Shively] Cower in the corner. Worry and walk on eggshells. Look behind you. Be alert. There are certain standards that you need to comply with…Do not flirt with possibilities or ever fail. Most every […]
JAN 10
The Truth About Charter Schools
(Photograph Credit; RonTech2000 via iStock) By Jeff Bryant | Originally Published at Salon. January 10, 2014 Imagine your 5-year-old boy went to a school where he was occasionally thrown in a padded cell and detained alone for stretches as long as 20 minutes. Or you sent your […]
JAN 09
Standards Won’t Change Inequity: A Reader
By Paul L. Thomas, Ed.D. | Originally Published at The Becoming Radical. January 8, 2014 The new Common Core and related tests are likely to continue a three-decade pattern of traditional schooling either integrating the new standards and tests into the existing structure of schools or using […]
What’s the Matter With Kansas’ Schools?
Illustration By David Biskup. New York Times Once upon a time every state in the Union, unequivocally guaranteed a free public education in its Constitution, but that soon may end. Within the month we will know more. The Kansas Supreme Court is expected to decide what Governors […]
JAN 07
Protected: The Other “Common Core”
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
JAN 06
Dumbing America Down
Photograph; Graduating students at commencement ceremony at Ohio State University on May 5, 2013.By Susan J. Douglas | Originally Published at In These Times. January 3, 2014 Among the many visionary goals of our nation’s right wing—impoverish older people, starve the poor, deny climate change, outlaw abortion […]
Be the Change Charter School: Questions and Answers
Photograph; Sonia Wang, a founding member of the prospective Be the Change Charter School, said some local parents support the school’s bid to open in Bridgeport. [Facebook/Be the Change] “Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive.” It happens without a word. […]
JAN 03
A Brief History of Reform!
Originally Published at Deb Meier. December 31, 2013 Dear readers, It’s been a while since I’ve written in this space. But I’m mending my ways. What set me off? My granddaughter just came across something interesting—and not new. In 2001 PBS put together a video called School: […]
JAN 02
Education, Exigency and Empathy; A Lesson For the New Year
There are teachers, who never were. And lessons yet to be. There are those we refuse to see and perhaps, the memory of these lingers. In 2013, there was one – the person, the personification, and her position. Antoinette Tuff was the mentor who never was and […]