Hey, Tom Friedman, What About the Children?
This comment was written in response to a post I wrote about Tom Friedman blaming lazy students and parents for America’s education woes: “To echo everything you said about the current state of affairs and add one important thing you did not explicitly mention, there is the child; the child entering kindergarten, moving onto middle school and with great hope graduating high school and going on to
Jere Hochman on Tom Friedman’s Column in the NY Times
Jere Hochman, superintendent of the Bedford Central School District in New York responds here to Tom Friedman’s column in the New York Times: I could scream! That is my reaction to Thomas Friedman’s column, “Obama’s Homework Assignment” Mr. Friedman sees the big picture on every issue. This column is a shocker. They put in annual high-stakes testing – that didn’t work. They labeled district
Tom Friedman Is As Clueless As Arne Duncan
Most educators and even most legislators seem to recognize that No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top have failed to “reform” American education. After 13 years of test-based evaluation and school closings, no one claims success. We need what: More of the same! Congress doesn’t know what to do to change a failed status quo. Feckless Arne Duncan, having failed in Chicago, now looks for scapegoat
Diana Senechal: How NOT to Read a Poem
Diana Senechal demonstrates how the Common Core standards may be misinterpreted. She gives the example of a video lesson purporting to teach students how to interpret a poem, in this instance William Wordworth’s “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud,” familiarly known as “The Daffodils.” Students are supposed to summarize each stanza in their own words and write it on a sticky note, according to the instr
Louisiana Court Rules That 7,000 Teachers Were Wrongfully Terminated
It is always astonishing to be reminded that the rule of law still exists in Louisiana, despite the authoritarian command of Governor Bobby Jindal. But it does! Louisiana courts found the funding of the voucher program, using money dedicated to public schools, to be unconstitutional. The courts found Jindal’s law stripping teachers of all legal rights and protections to be unconstitutional becaus
Ed Liebowitz is a parent of children on the Los Angeles public schools. He describes in this article what the district really needs: not an iPad for every student but basic and essential repairs to its schools and their infrastructure. When he and other families complained about broken playground equipment, LAUSD didn’t have the money to make the repairs. When he and another family chipped in and
Colorado Parents Say “NO!” to High-Stakes Testing!
The corporate types who hate teachers’ unions and public schools have been running a billboard and mass media campaign in New York and New Jersey. But they are not the only ones who know how to frame a message. Here is a fabulous billboard posted on a major highway in Colorado by critics of the nutty testing regime imposed by No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top.
Paul Karrer: Why the Moon Is Made of Green Jade
Paul Karrer, who teaches in Castroville, California, wrote this article for the local newspaper, the Monterrey Herald. Many of the children he teaches are English learners and special education. He told me he wanted to title his article “Moon Made Jade Not Cheese and We Can Thank Bill Gates,” but the newspaper changed it to “Education’s Race to the Bottom.” He writes that the super-rich have impos
Cami Anderson and the Unaccredited Broad Superintendents Academy
In an earlier post about the indefinite suspension of several principals in Newark, who had protested the closing of their schools at a public meeting, I wrote that state-appointed superintendent Cami Anderson was a graduate of the unaccredited Broad Academy. Readers have informed me that she is not a graduate of said “academy,” but that she is associated with it through a fellow organization: htt
Paul Horton: Why We Need to Tell Stories About Our Lives
Paul Horton, who teaches history at the University of Chicago Lab School, here ponders a famous remark by David Coleman, architect of the Common Core standards. Coleman said, while giving a speech in New York that was taped, that students need to learn that no one gives a s— about what you think or feel, which was his way of saying that your opinions and feelings matter little in the world, as com
Why VAM Is a Sham
The centerpiece–and the most destructive element–of Race to the Top is the insistence that teachers must be evaluated to a significant degree by the test scores of their students, whether they go up or down. It is destructive because it makes standardized tests the purpose of education. The tests cease to be a measure and become the aim. That is wrong. It leads to a narrowed curriculum, teaching t
Schneider: A History of inBloom and Its Cozy Nest
Mercedes Schneider has turned her investigative skills to unearthing the history of inBloom. She explains what it is, why it matters, and why it is deeply embroiled in the controversy over the Common Core standards. You may be astonished by the connections among the major players in inBloom, CCSS, and every other aspect of the current “reform” agenda.
LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH ALL WEEK LONG Diane Ravitch's blog 1-18-14 #thankateacher #EDCHAT #P2
Diane Ravitch's blogLISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH ALL WEEK LONGDIANE RAVITCH'S BLOGCaleb Rossiter on KIPP and the Challenge of Educating AllWhen we talk about educating all, we usually mean educating all. But as Caleb Rossiter points out, educating all is a mighty challenge when so many children are so woefully unprepared and unmotivated. Caleb quit his job in a charter school because he was asked to ra