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Look who’s advocating for public schools
The National School Boards Association is launching a campaign in support of public education — with some unexpected help. Called “Stand Up4Public Schools,” the campaign’s goal is to persuade association members to be more forceful advocates for public schools and locally controlled school districts at a time when, in the name of reform, many school […]
How ‘data walls’ in classrooms can humiliate young kids
A long time ago I had a math teacher at West Miami Junior High School who changed the seating arrangement in my class every week according to how well each of her students did on weekly exams. Given that math was not one of my better subjects, this weekly exercise generally left me mortified with […]
How investing in paste and crayons can help save Detroit and other big cities
What will save Detroit and other ailing big U.S. cities? Here’s an idea from Conor P. Williams, a proud product of Michigan’s public schools, and currently a senior researcher in the New America Foundation’s Early Education Initiative. Follow him on Twitter: @conorpwilliams. This first appeared on the Shanker blog. By Conor P. Williams President Obama […]
Map: How much snow it takes to close U.S. schools
How much snow does it take to close schools? It depends on where you. Here’s a map put together by Reddit user Alexandr Trubetskoy which answers the question (with explanations). Caveats: *The lightest green says “any snow” but also includes merely the prediction of snow. Also, this is snow accumulation over 24 hours/overnight. *In much […]
FEB 13
Why boy born without complete brain has to take 2014 standardized test
Michael is a boy born with a brain stem but not a complete brain with cognitive ability. He can hear, but he can’t see or talk or understand basic information. Yet last year, when he was 9, he had to take an alternative version of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test — and he is going […]
‘Ice is back and the road won’t listen’ — school declares snow day by rap video
“Ice is back and the road won’t listen,” raps Michael Ulku-Steiner, the head of private Durham Academy in North Carolina, and Lee Hark, assistant head of school, as they announce a snow day for Thursday to the tune of “Ice, Ice, Baby,” by Vanilla Ice. Here’s the video:
FEB 12
At least 44 school shootings since Newtown — new analysis
There have been at least 44 school shootings on K-12 or college campuses in 24 states — an average of more than three a month — since the deadly 2012 attack at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., according to a new analysis. Twenty-eight people have died and 37 have been injured. Twenty children […]
School board defies N.C. state law abolishing teacher tenure
A school board in North Carolina just voted unanimously to reject a new state law that abolishes teacher tenure in four years and requires school districts to offer some teachers temporary contracts in exchange for their tenure through 2018. It also plans to sue the state over the constitutionality of the law. The Guilford County […]
Principal: Time to hold NY education leaders accountable for Core mess
New York Principal Carol Burris has chronicled the flawed implementation of school reform and the Common Core State Standards across the state for some time (here, and here and here and here, for example), and, in the following post, she tells us more. Burris, who leads South Side High School, was named New York’s 2013 High School Principal of the Year […]
The new push for school vouchers at state, federal levels
Liberals, Jeff Bryant notes in this post, “tend to laugh off” voucher programs “as aberrations from fly-over country.” They shouldn’t. Bryant is director of the Education Opportunity Network, a partnership effort of the Institute for America’s Future and the Opportunity to Learn Campaign. Jeff owns a marketing and communications consultancy in Chapel Hill, N.C., and has […]
FEB 11
Kids don’t learn better in single-sex classes — meta analysis
My Post colleague Ovetta Wiggins wrote in this new story about students in the Washington region and beyond learning in single-gender classrooms. The story raises the question: Do in fact students learn better in single-sex classes? In this post, cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham looks at a new analysis that provides one answer. Willingham is a professor and […]
Snow days don’t hurt student achievement, study says
The messy winter weather in many parts of the country have forced schools to close over and over, forcing school districts around the country to alter their schedule for the year to find time to make up for lost instructional time. But is that really necessary? How much do kids lose when school is closed […]
FEB 10
NY Gov. Cuomo blasts state’s top education officials over Common Core
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo blasted the state’s top education officials on Monday, saying that efforts they plan to take to correct the state’s botched implementation of the Common Core State Standards was “too little, too late.” Implementation of the standards and the rollout of aligned standardized tests has been a mess in New York, […]
How ‘field testing’ turns kids into guinea pigs — without parental permission
Testing companies like to “test” future questions for standardized tests on kids, sometimes as part of a regular standardized exam and sometimes as a stand-alone field test. Here’s a post making the case that this practice essentially turns kids in guinea pigs for corporations. It was written by Jessie B. Ramey, a visiting scholar in […]
‘The greatest line I never said’ — from college admissions counselors
Many college admissions counselors across the country communicate with each other through a listserv. Most often they share professional thoughts and advice, but every now and then, they have a little fun. Recently, one counselor, in an e-mail with the subject line “The Greatest Line I never Said,” asked others to share things they had […]
FEB 09
Is it unethical to use untested technology in the classroom?
Is it unethical to use untested technology in classrooms? Answering the question is education historian Larry Cuban, who was a high school social studies teacher for 14 years and a district superintendent (seven years in Arlington, VA). He is now professor emeritus of education at Stanford University, where he has taught for more than 20 […]
FEB 08
College professor’s post that went viral
Hamline professor’s post on student loan debt goes viral http://t.co/mY1JsdJlCw pic.twitter.com/WiK7iznGyw — ProgressiveHelpPhD (@CallOut4) February 7, 2014 The man in the picture is David Davies, an associate professor of anthropology and East Asian studies at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minn., who posted a photo on his Facebook page last week that quickly went viral, according […]
Matt Damon: ‘We would never let businessmen design warheads. Why would you cut out educators when you’re designing education policy?’
Matt Damon just had an online conversation with Reddit users to promote his new movie, “The Monuments Men,” and he touched on a number of topics, including his opposition to standardized test-based school reform and the exclusion of teachers from the shaping of education policy. The actor has been a vocal defender of teachers and […]
FEB 07
School board member vows to keep fighting for the late Ethan Rediske
Rick Roach, a member of the Orange County School Board in Florida, sent the following e-mail about the death on Friday of 11-year-old Ethan Rediske, who became known in Florida after his mother, Andrea, fought a state requirement that her blind son, who had brain damage as well as cerebral palsy, take standardized tests. I […]
How to mine Sochi Olympics for teaching and learning
View Photo Gallery —The start of Olympic competition kicked off with snowboarding, freestyle skiing and figure skating. This is an updated version of a piece that Jeffrey S. Hacker, a teacher at Beall Elementary School in Rockville, wrote years ago for The Washington Post about the possibilities that the Olympic Games provide for teaching. By […]
Wife of teacher to Obama: ‘please stop this runaway reform now’
Here’s an open letter that the wife of a public school teacher in Georgia wrote to President Obama about the reality in her husband’s school. She sent a more detailed version of this letter to the president. The author is Dana Bultman, an associate professor of Spanish at the University of Georgia. Dear President and […]