The new school reform model: ‘dumping the losers’
Since 2011, the state-run Philadelphia public school district has adopted what is called the “portfolio model” of school reform as its “theory of change.” The model is a move away from the traditional school district, in which a centralized administration controls a set of public schools, to an arrangement in which a group of different […]
An infuriating admission
What’s going on here? Last September, Bill Gates admitted that he doesn’t know if the school reform initiatives that he is massively funding will work. To be precise, he said during an interview at Harvard University: “It would be great if our education stuff worked, but that we won’t know for probably a decade.” And shortly […]
‘We refuse’
Liz Rosenberg and Takiema Bunche Smith, educators who have worked in New York City’s public and private schools for nearly twenty years, are also public school parents. Kemala Karmen formerly taught at the City University of New York. All three have children who attend PS 146 (Brooklyn New School), where a year-long, parent-led awareness campaign […]
One unconventional factor to consider when choosing a college
Anyone lucky enough to have choices for college has a list of things that are important to them: price, size, location, quality. But here’s an unconventional factor that students may want to start considering at a time when graduating from college with good grades may no longer be enough to get a job. It was […]
4-10-14 The Answer Sheet
The Answer Sheet: What does Jeb Bush call public schools? (Hint: not ‘public schools’)Jeb Bush, as much as anybody, is the pioneer of corporate-influenced school reform. When he was governor of Florida from 1999-2007, he introduced many of the changes in education policy that have become common across the country — including high-stakes standardized testing — and since then he has been a leading