A longer (21-hour?) school day?
Sent to the Telegraph (UK), Jan. 7It is inspiring to read about Education Minister Truss' desire to lengthen the school day ("Schools should adopt Chinese-style lessons, says minister," Jan. 3). Her proposal to add an extra 30 minutes for "enrichment" and an extra hour for homework, however, fall far short of what is needed.Let's push ahead and consider an even longer day.A stu
Quantitative Research of 2013 that Reflects Reality, Part II
The inherent flaws of attaching stakes to value-added estimates of teacher effectiveness were obvious from the beginning. Even if a statistical model magically found a way to control for poverty, race, and other factors, there was no guarantee that systems would adopt the model that was most fair. Even if an algorithm was devised that was reliable for all types of schools across the country, there
Behind the Advocacy: TFA Remains Mostly Spin, Distraction
Teach for America: A Return to the Evidence, by Julian Vasquez Heilig and Su Jin Jez, may be too optimistic in its subtitle (not sure we've ever lingered at all with the evidence in order to return to it), but that aside, this report offers yet another clear message that TFA is far more agenda- than evidence- driven."The number of TFA corps members has grown by about 2,000% since its inceptio
YESTERDAY
Wake County Resegregationists' New Strategy: Charter Schools
It took a concerted effort by Wake County citizens to reclaim their school board after it was hijacked by anti-diversity candidates with money from the Koch Bros. Some of that history can be found here (reverse chronological order), and it speaks to the determination of local citizens who remained insistent on protecting one of the great school experiments in socioeconomic diversity.Even though D
1-6-14 Schools Matter
Schools Matter: A Reality-Based Review of 2013 Market-Driven ResearchTeachers unions exist to protect teachers and to do so they must work collaboratively within the system so it will better serve all stakeholders. The Shanker Istitute's Matt DiCarlo exemplifies our unions' willingness to listen to all sides.But, where is the Matt DiCarlo of corporate reform? Where is a reformer who is will break