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Justifying Richard Sherman by his GPA at Stanford
With the Super Bowl nearly upon us, here’s an interesting take on the recent media spectacle surrounding Richard Sherman of the Seattle Seahawks, his behavior and his excellent record at Stanford University. It was written by P.L. Thomas, an associate professor of education at Furman University in South Carolina, writes in this post about the […]
Harvard business dean apologizes for sexism on campus
In a rather remarkable admission, the dean of the Harvard Business School apologized for the way the school has treated female students and teachers over its 50-year-old history and promised to remedy the problem. According to Poets & Quants, Business School Dean Nitin Nohria was speaking at a gala titled “50 Years of Women at […]
The trouble with calls for universal ‘high-quality’ pre-K
Whenever policymakers talk about universal preschool — and that is happening more frequently these days — they always say that it must be “high quality,” but they never explain what that actually means. Here author Alfie Kohn explains why the absence of definition may be troubling. Kohn is the author of 12 books about education […]
YESTERDAY
For school choice-loving Democrats to consider
This has been National School Choice Week, complete with thousands of events around the country to promote school choice. It was quite an organizational feat: The Education Department released new guidance on charter school lotteries, legislation was introduced in Congress to expand choice, papers were released, rallies were held, and much, much more took place. […]
Why Common Core isn’t the answer
The Common Core State Standards have become targets for criticism from all corners of the political spectrum for various reasons. Here’s a different take, from Marion Brady, a veteran classroom teacher, who has written history and world culture textbooks (Prentice-Hall), professional books, numerous nationally distributed columns (many are available here), and courses of study. His 2011 […]
JAN 30
Text of Maryland superintendents’ document on school reform
Here is the text of a document approved by 22 of Maryland’s 24 local schools superintendents expressing concern about how federal and state officials are forcing school districts to implement specific school reforms. You can read more about the document and why the superintendents, through the Public School Superintendents Association of Maryland, decided to make public […]
Md. superintendents criticize implementation of school reforms
Nearly all of the superintendents of Maryland school districts have signed a statement that criticizes federal and state education officials for forcing them to implement several major reforms, including the Common Core State Standards, on what they say is an unrealistic timetable. The document, approved by 22 of Maryland’s 24 superintendents from districts educating more […]
21 wealthy donors had decisive impact on charter law in Washington state — analysis
A new analysis of how charter school legislation passed by popular vote in 2012 in the state of Washington — after voters had rejected similar measures three times earlier — concludes that 21 vastly wealthy people, including Bill Gates, and their philanthropic organizations had a disproportionate influence on the outcome by donating millions of dollars to […]
U.S. Education Dept. decides Politico Pro costs too much
The U.S. Education Department wanted to buy an annual subscription to POLITICO Pro to read its education coverage but decided that it was too expensive. According to this solicitation, (which I found from a tweet by ed blogger Alexander Russo) the department’s Office of Communications and Outreach (OCO) wanted to “purchase a subscription to POLITICO Pro, […]
JAN 29
Education Department changes charter school lottery rules
The Education Department on Wednesday released new guidance that allows charter schools receiving federal funds to change their student admissions lotteries so that low-income and educationally disadvantaged students can have more weight in an effort to create more integrated schools. Explaining the changes in this post are Richard D. Kahlenberg and Halley Potter, both of […]
Civil rights hero launches ‘American Child’s Education Bill of Rights’
Calling modern school reform “catastrophically misguided and ineffective,” civil rights icon James Meredith is launching what he calls the American Child’s Education Bill of Rights, a 12-point declaration of obligations that he says the nation owes every public school child. The 80-year-old Meredith was the first black student to graduate from the University of Mississippi. […]
Why snow days matter: Kids slept in schools because of late cancellation call
Next time you think a school district is being overly cautious about cancelling school because of bad weather, remember this: Thousands of students in Georgia and Alabama were forced to spend the night Tuesday in their schools — and some on buses — while their parents got stuck in traffic jams for more than 12 hours because […]
JAN 28
Obama on education: Rhetoric vs. reality
There’s nothing new about President Obama giving speeches in which he talks about school reform in ways that have little to do with reality (see, for example, here and here), but there was something especially disconnected about the education rhetoric in his 2014 State of the Union speech. He managed to criticize standardized tests in which kids […]
Obama on education in SOTU — text
Here’s the part of President Obama’s 2014 State of the Union address that deals with education, from prepared remarks provided by the White House: Today in America, a teacher spent extra time with a student who needed it, and did her part to lift America’s graduation rate to its highest level in more than three […]
Pete Seeger: ‘Do you know the difference between education and experience?’
The great Pete Seeger has passed away at the age of 94. Here are some of the things he said and/or wrote in relation to education and the human condition: “Do you know the difference between education and experience? Education is when you read the fine print; experience is what you get when you don’t. […]
The hype and reality of ‘school choice’
In case you missed any of the endless streams of announcements, it’s National School Choice Week, and advocates are staging thousands of events across the country to talk it up. There is even a school choice train making a whistle-stop tour across the country for rallies and other such goings-on to draw attention to a movement that has been […]
The reform mess — an open letter to NY education officials
Here is an open letter to New York state education officials from Richard C. Iannuzzi, president of the New York State United Teachers, and Carol Burris, the award-winning principal of South Side High School in Rockville Centre, NY. Last Saturday, the Board of Directors of the teachers union voted to withdraw support from the Common Core State […]
First-year teacher: 4 things that prepared me for my job
What are the key things that first-year teachers need to know to be successful? Kate Miller, a first-year physics teacher at Washington-Lee High School in Arlington, Va., explains the four that worked for her. By Kate Miller In recent years, much time, effort, and money has been spent attempting to address one of the […]
JAN 27
Why support for Common Core is sinking
Over the weekend, the Board of Directors of the New York State United Teachers, a union with more than 600,000 members, passed a resolution withdrawing support for the Common Core State Standards “as implemented and interpreted” by the state Education Department and also declaring “no confidence” in the policies of State Education Commissioner John King. Why […]
How do we know what/when young kids are ready to learn?
How do we really know when young children are ready to learn specific material? Here to explain is cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham, professor and director of graduate studies in psychology at the University of Virginia and author of “Why Don’t Students Like School?” His latest book is “When Can You Trust The Experts? How to […]
JAN 26
NY teachers union pulls its support from Common Core, urges removal of state ed chief
The Board of Directors of the New York State United Teachers, a union with more than 600,000 members, has approved a resolution that withdraws its earlier support for the Common Core State Standards ”as implemented and interpreted” by the New York Education Department. It also declares ”no confidence” in the policies of State Education Commissioner John King and calls […]
Poverty and the education opportunity gap: Will Obama step up in SOTU?
President Obama is expected to talk about the issue of wealth inequality in his State of the Union speech on Tuesday. The question is whether he will advocate policies that actually address it or continue to push education policies that ignore the real problems facing poor children. The following was written by Kevin Welner, director […]
JAN 25
13-year-old: ‘What if we based education on the study and practice of being happy and healthy?’
A 13-year-old boy named Logan LaPlante gave a talk at a TEDx conference at the University of Nevada last year that now has more than 4 million views on YouTube. The speech is about his unusual method of becoming educated through a process he calls “hackschooling.” Logan’s parents pulled him out of traditional school at the […]
Will this become the new sickening normal at school?
Here’s some news from just the past 11 days: Friday, Jan 24: DENVER (AP) – Five of the state’s largest school districts have investigated more than 400 threats by students this school year and put 40 of them at the highest levels of concern, according to records obtained by The Denver Post. Friday, Jan. 24: […]