What Matters More Than Test Scores?
A reader comments: “I do the alumni newspaper for Normandy High School in suburban St. Louis, a school which has lost its accreditation and gotten nothing but grief from the state education folks and certainly no realistic help. I think, however, that is about to change. The state people finally brought in experts who told them no school district serving needy communities anywhere in this country
Should Duncan Meddle in Local Issues?
On January 1, the Washington Post reported that Arne Duncan and at least one other aide pressured NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio not to choose Joshua Starr as the schools’ chancellor because of his opposition to high-stakes testing, the centerpiece of the Bush-Obama “reforms.” Politico reports the story and notes that this is not the first time Duncan has interfered in purely local decisions. It writes
Idaho: TFA Should Not Teach Students with Disabilities
Levi Cavener wrote this article about why young college graduates with only five weeks of training are not qualified to teach students with disabilities. Levi B Cavener is a Special Education teacher at Vallivue High School, Caldwell, Idaho. He wrote it after attending a local school board meeting, where a TFA representative claimed that TFA recruits are well prepared to teach students with high
Timothy Pratt: The Walmarts of Higher Education?
Over the past decade or more, we have seen and heard a lot of duplicitous rhetoric about rhetoric: we have heard politicians speak about the importance of education as they cut the budget and increase class size and slash the jobs of teachers, librarians, social workers, and others. We have learned to live with cognitive dissonance as our “thought leaders” say one thing but mean something else, of
Anthony Cody: A Remarkable Statement by a Chinese-American Student on Common Core, Testing, Pearson, and Standardization
Please open the link and read Anthony Cody’s blog about Kenneth Ye, a high school student in Tennessee who spoke to his local school board in Knox County against Common Core, PARCC testing, Pearson, and standardization. Kenneth pointed out that he has aced all the tests that have come his way. He has extraordinary scores. But he sees no value in making the American system like the test-driven Chin
Mercedes Schneider Eviscerates Fordham Grading System
Back in the 1990s, when I was on the board of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation (now the Thomas B. Fordham Institute), we began rating state standards and assigning letter grades to the states. Much to our surprise and delight, the media ate up the ratings. Whenever we released our grades for the states, there would be big stories in the newspapers in almost every state, and it helped to put TBF on
LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 1-1-14 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all
Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: Reflections on the Year That Was—from a Personal Point of View2013 had some surprises for me, both good and bad. This blog turned out to be a huge preoccupation. I spend 4-5 hours on it every day. You help me write it, as many of the blogs are your comments, explaining your experience as a teacher or parent or principal or superint