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Things teachers learn in their first year
Here is a lovely video from BuzzFeed Video featuring teachers talking about the things they learned during their first year on the job. Excerpts: You think right off the bat you’re gonna be this amazing teacher and you kinda have to come and realize that you’re not. – You don’t know the life of your students […]
A ‘Dear John’ letter to Florida — from 2010 state Teacher of the Year
Megan Allen is a veteran English teacher who was the 2010 Florida Teacher of the Year and a finalist for National Teacher of the Year. She is also a National Board Certified Teacher. But she left Florida with her morale extremely low because of a series of reforms that she felt were targeting teachers in ways […]
Chicago students pulled out of class for questioning over test boycott
Some Chicago public school students were taken out of class and questioned by district investigators who are looking into a boycott staged by teachers of the mandatory Illinois Standard Achievement Test earlier this month — and their parents, who weren’t asked for permission — are angry. Chicago teachers at two public schools — Drummond Montessori […]
Teachers: ‘sit and stare’ policy is ‘spiteful’
Believe it or not, some school administrators are forcing kids who are opting out of taking high-stakes standardized tests to sit in their chairs and stare while their classmates complete the exams. (You can read about it here.) Here’s a resolution by the Buffalo Teachers Federation against this policy, which I am publishing because it […]
Hillary and Jeb: Clinton to appear at Bush education conference
Hillary and Jeb? I’m not talking about the 2016 presidential race — at least not yet. For now, Hillary Clinton has accepted an invitation from former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush to appear at a conference in Texas that he is co-hosting next week on higher education. Education Secretary Arne Duncan will be there, too. The […]
5 striking facts from new civil rights education data
New data released by the federal government on Friday from the Education Department’s Civil Rights Data Collection shows a lot of what we already know — many minorities don’t have access to high school courses they need for college, for example, and there aren’t enough school counselors — but perhaps the most striking is that […]
A defense (of sorts) of the SAT
Somebody had to do it. Here’s a defense of sorts of the SAT, written by Patrick O’Connor, associate dean of college counseling at Cranbrook Kingswood School, and counselor educator at Oakland Community College. By Patrick O’Connor After College Board updated the SAT in 2005, critics called the test user unfriendly and irrelevant. The 2005 […]
MAR 20
Weird list of topics ‘avoided’ on California high school exit exam
How’s this for slightly strange? Here’s a list of topics deemed to be “potentially biased, sensitive, or controversial” that are “avoided” on the California High School Exit Examination, as listed on the California Department of Education Web site. Look at the list. In California, subjects deemed too controversial for high school seniors to deal include […]
Who (Obama, Gates, etc.) is speaking at 2014 graduation ceremonies
President Obama will speak at the 2014 University of California, Irvine commencement on Saturday, June 14, in Angel Stadium of Anaheim, heading an all-star list of speakers for the upcoming graduation season at colleges and universities around the country. Here are some of the announced speakers: George Washington University, Washington D.C. — José Andrés, renowned chef and […]
So how overblown were No. 1 Shanghai’s PISA results?
In December, I wrote a post questioning the No. 1 ranking of Shanghai in the most recent Program for International Student Assessment, known as PISA. Shanghai came out with the No. 1 international ranking in the 2012 administration of PISA in math, reading and science, while 15 year olds in the United States performed no better than average […]
Avoiding the most common financial aid application errors
If you have kids in college, or kids who are going to be in college, you want to read this advice on how to get financial aid without making big mistakes. It was written by Mark Kantrowitz, senior vice president and publisher of Edvisors.com, a group of web sites about planning and paying for college. […]
Everybody else has seen this. It’s your turn
In 2006, Sir Ken Robinson, an author and expert on innovation and creativity in education and business, gave a TED talk titled “How Schools Kill Creativity” that became the most watched in TED’s history with more than 25 million views on the TED website and more than 6 million on YouTube. If you haven’t watched […]
MAR 19
A different way to give college admissions tests
Now that the announcement about big SAT changes is behind us, it’s time to look at what it all means. Not so much, apparently. To explain why, and suggest a better way to give a college admissions test is John Kaztman, founder of Princeton Review, a test prep and college admissions services company; 2u, which […]
School reformers love ‘choice,’ except when …
School “reformers” love to promote “choice.” Charters. Vouchers. Tuition tax credits. It’s all about giving parents choices, right? Well, not always. Reformers don’t actually like choice quite so much when: * Parents decide they want to opt their children out of taking a high-stakes standardized test that has little or no value. – In many […]
MAR 18
Florida moves toward school voucher expansion — but with no accountability
Florida’s legislators appear to be on their way to passing legislation that will greatly expand the state’s Tax Credit Scholarship Program — a voucher-like scheme that allows public money to be used for private school tuition. A Miami Herald editorial said the plan will “please the few” but undercut “the many,” while Frank Cerabino, a writer for […]
Russia’s plagiarism problem: Even Putin has done it!
Russia has a really big plagiarism problem. So many businessmen, academics and high-ranking government officials — President Vladimir Putin included — have been found to have plagiarized their college and doctoral theses that Russia’s education minister just denounced the revelations, saying they were hurting Russia’s reputation. “People not versed in this topic will get the […]
50 myths and lies about public schools
A valuable new book called “50 Myths & Lies That Threaten America’s Public Schools” takes a stark look at some of the worst ideas being promoted by school reformers around the country as ways to improve the public education. The book — from which I am going to run a series of excerpts — […]
MAR 17
Wyoming is first state to officially reject new science standards
This time the ruckus wasn’t as much about evolution as man-made climate change, but whatever the reason, Wyoming has become the first state to legislatively block the Next Generation Science Standards, an initiative aimed at boosting science education across the country. The standards were developed over years in a process that involved the National Research Council, […]
Billionaires are privatizing science too — not just public education
One of the distinguishing features of the modern school reform movement is the extent to which super-wealthy private philanthropists are leading the drive to privatize the public education system. Some of them believe the public system is inefficient, while others simply don’t believe in the public sector — but whatever the motive, the vast amounts […]
Are American students grossly unprepared for college?
It has become a common refrain from school reformers that a very large percentage of high school graduates must take remedial classes when they get to college. Are they right? Award-winning Prinicipal Carol Burris of South Side High School in New York looks at this issue in the following post. She has been exposing the […]
MAR 16
Parent to officials: ‘if you know it’s wrong but remain silent, you’re complicit in educational malpractice’
Here’s a letter from Massachusetts parent Ricardo D. Rosa to the New Bedford School Committee and Superintendent Pia Durkin about high-stakes standardized testing. Rosa explains why he wants to opt his children out of this month’s Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) exams and all upcoming high-stakes test, including the Common Core-aligned tests being designed by […]
Town judge — and ‘spiritual’ weight loss consultant — elected to NY Regents
This is a good example of why it is important to do your homework before you vote. On anything. New York legislators elected — and last week the entire body confirmed — four new members of the state Board of Regents, which makes and oversees education policy and has been under attack for the botched […]
How three teachers are dealing with Common Core in class
Love them or hate them, the Common Core State Standards in math and English/Language Arts are being implemented in classrooms in most of the country — in some places better than others. A nonpartisan organization called Young Education Professionals asked a few teachers how they are dealing with the new standards, and their reports are […]
MAR 15
Teacher: What it feels like to be evaluated on test scores of students I don’t have
Julie Hiltz is a media specialist at Lutz Elementary in Hillsborough County, Florida, and a National Board Certified Teacher with 12 years of experience. She is also a 2013-14 Center for Teaching Quality Teacherpreneur, who is spending half of her workweek this school year engaging colleagues across the state in teacher evaluation and Common Core reforms. Recently, Florida […]
Ten clueless things people say to teachers — and comebacks to throw right back
People say the craziest things to teachers about their profession. Like what? Like how easy their jobs are, and how anybody can do it. Here is a list of some of the common idiocies along with some useful comebacks, compiled and written by Cindy Long and originally published in NEA Today, a publication of the National […]