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Long ‘waiting list’ for Florida vouchers doesn’t actually exist
This belongs in the you-can’t-make-up-this-stuff category. The short version: Florida’s lawmakers are considering expanding a voucher-like tax credit program because, legislators keep saying, there is a huge waiting list of families who want to participate. It turns out that there is no waiting list. The long version: The Florida legislature has been considering legislation that […]
‘You can’t expect much success on standardized tests when students don’t even have basic supplies’ — editorial
The editorial board of a big-city newspaper, the Philadelphia Inquirer, has gone on record as not only supporting the right of parents to have their children opt out of high-stakes standardized tests but also saying they are “right to protest” in this manner. The editorial (below), refers to this news story in the Inquirer that […]
The Koch brothers’ influence on college campus is spreading
There’s been a flurry of recent stories (here, here and here, for example) about the role the billionaire Koch brothers are playing in politics by backing conservative political candidates through a number of organizations that they fund. My Post colleague Matea Gold wrote in this story: The political network spearheaded by conservative billionaires Charles and […]
Muriel Bowser’s muddled message about D.C. schools
We know what D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray would do with the city’s public education system if he wins reelection: more of the same. But now that new polls show that D.C. Council member Muriel Bowser (Ward 4) is the most serious challenger to Gray in next week’s Democratic mayoral primary, the question is what she […]
MAR 27
March Madness: Millions of kids being used as Common Core testing guinea pigs
If you think a bunch of college basketball teams facing off in a tournament is March Madness, consider this: Starting this week and going into June, more than 4 million students in 36 states and the District of Columbia are “field testing” (read it: being used as human guinea pigs) English and math standardized tests […]
The 13-step college admissions process — Onion-style
You think you know how the college admissions process works, right? Well, you are wrong. Here, from our friends at the hilarious Onion, are the 13 steps that tell us how the process really works. From The Onion: This week hundreds of colleges across the country will be notifying applicants whether they’ve been accepted, waitlisted, […]
MAR 26
The White House’s useless Race to the Top report
The White House this week released a report applauding the Obama administration’s $4.3 billion Race to the Top program, but it was so devoid of any actual substance that it makes you wonder why anybody thought this was a good way to promote the president’s signature education initiative. It’s hard to give a better description […]
One more thing there isn’t time for in kindergarten anymore
I’ve published a number of posts about the transformation — some would say the destruction — of kindergarten in this era of standardized test-based accountability. Play has been replaced with academic work, and young kids are tested ad nauseam and given little or no time for fanciful things like recess or art. But as bad as […]
Who should decide who is college material and who isn’t?
College, of course, isn’t for everybody, but who should decide — and how and when — which students should go and shouldn’t? In this post, Kevin Welner and Carol Burris ask whether the decision should be made by policy makers and school officials or parents and students after young people have had equitable opportunities to […]
MAR 25
Arne Duncan heads to New Zealand, Hawaii with gaggle of staffers
This post has been updated. My Post colleague Lyndsey Layton asked the Education Department about Secretary Arne Duncan’s trip this week to New Zealand and Hawaii — which will round out his visits to all 50 states during his tenure. Here’s what she learned: On Tuesday, Duncan jetted off to Wellington, New Zealand, to participate […]
Resistance to standardized testing growing nationwide
Every week a nonprofit organization called the National Center for Fair and Open Testing, which is dedicated to ending the misuse and abuse of standardized testing (and is better known as FairTest) sends out an e-mail with a list of stories from around the country about resistance to high-stakes tests among teachers, students and parents. […]
The new extremists in education debate
A member of the Ohio House of Representatives, Republican Rep. Andrew Brenner, wrote a post on his blog under this headline: “Public education in America is socialism, what is the solution?” He wrote in part: Parents send their children to public schools throughout the United States, to school districts funded by taxation. Most of the […]
Why teachers’ salaries should be doubled — now
(McKinsey, “Closing the Talent Gap” September 2010) NÃnive Calegari is a former classroom teacher who founded and serves as the president of The Teacher Salary Project, an organization aimed at improving the salaries of America’s teachers. She is also the co-producer of American Teacher, an award-winning film narrated by Matt Damon that documents the lives of […]
MAR 24
Ex-Yale president to head Coursera MOOC site
Former Yale University President Richard C. Levin is taking on a new role in education. The man who lead Yale for 20 years will in mid-April become the chief executive officer of the two-year-old online MOOC provider Coursera. Coursera offers free online access to classes from more than 100 institutions of higher education — including […]
Jeb Bush: Common Core critics care too much about kids’ self-esteem
While Republican Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa is trying to get the Common Core State Standards initiative defunded in Congress, other Republicans, especially former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, keep doing everything they can to promote the Core. Bush’s latest: He said in an interview with the Miami Herald that critics of the standards and of […]
The brainy questions on Finland’s only high-stakes standardized test
Much has been written in recent years about Finland’s vaunted education system, which has consistently scored at or close to the top in international test scores and has the distinction of operating under policies very different from those that drive U.S. corporate-based education reform. In Finland, teachers are respected and students don’t take a mountain […]
Ravitch: The best reason to oppose the Common Core Standards
The growing opposition to the Common Core State Standards does not all stem from the same criticisms or even from the same political wing. Included in the anti-Core camp are conservatives, moderates and liberals who don’t offer identical critiques of the initiative. Some don’t like it academically; some don’t like it politically. In this post, […]
MAR 23
Sen. Grassley seeking to defund Common Core in Congress
Having tried unsuccessfully last year to persuade his colleagues in Congress to defund the Common Core program, Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) is at it again. Grassley is circulating a “Dear Colleague” letter asking legislators to sign on to a separate missive that will be sent early next month to Senate education budget appropriators, asking […]
Kindergarten teacher: My job is now about tests and data — not children. I quit.
Susan Sluyter is a veteran teacher of young children in the Cambridge Public Schools who has been connected to the district for nearly 20 years and teaching for more than 25 years. Last month she sent a resignation letter ( “with deep love and a broken heart”) explaining that she could no longer align her understanding […]
MAR 22
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 […]