The Answer Sheet:
All Week @ The Answer Sheet
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 […]
APR 10
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 voice in spreading his […]
The problem with evidence-based education policy: the evidence
Education policy-makers like to talk about “evidence-based” this and “evidence-based” that — but there are big questions about just how good the “evidence” actually is — and whether the people who are making big decisions in the world of education actually look at the research that we do know is solid. Looking at this issue […]
APR 09
How ‘colorblind’ education reform policies actually ignore racial inequality
A new critique of what are ostensibly “colorblind” education reform policies reveals that these initiatives are not, in fact, “colorblind,” and have the effect of perpetuating or replicating longtime patterns of race-based inequality. And it makes recommendations for policymakers that include promoting more diverse schools and encouraging inter-district transfers of students to promote diversity.
An 8-year-old talks about test prep
Here is an online conversation that a Florida mom had with her 8-year-old daughter about school, standardized testing and test prep. The mother is Sandy Stenoff, a public school advocate in central Florida who has opposed the standardized test-based education reforms imposed in the state for years. This appeared on the Web site of Opt […]
Live online education chat today
I’ll be doing a live education chat on washingtonpost.com at 1 p.m. today, so if you have any questions or comments about anything in education (or even marginally related), tune in here: http://live.washingtonpost.com/the-answer-sheet-20140409.html#submit-question Here’s a transcript of last week’s chat.
Colbert’s ‘Common Core Confusion’
Stephen Colbert took on the Common Core State Standards on his “Colbert Report” on Tuesday night, and it was hilarious. Here’s the video and below a partial transcript: The Colbert Report Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Indecision Political Humor,The Colbert Report on Facebook Here’s a partial transcript: It is no secret that President Barack […]
It just keeps getting worse
Just when you think this story can’t get any more awful, it does. Andrea Rediske’s effort to help families of children with severe disabilities has taken yet another frustrating turn. I’ve written several posts about Rediske’s long struggle with the Florida Department of Education over a requirement that her blind and severely brain-damaged son, Ethan, take […]
APR 08
Coalition of 114 education groups: Ryan 2015 budget would ‘devastate’ schools
The 2015 budget proposed by Rep. Paul Ryan’s House Budget Committee would “devastate funding for education and make college less affordable,” a coalition of 114 national education associations and institutions charged in an open letter sent to the panel. The Ryan budget would, according to this story by my Post colleague, Ed O’Keefe, cut more than […]
‘Dear public school teachers: we are sorry’
Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg is a parent living in Highland Park, New Jersey, and a member of Highland Park Cares About Schools, a nonpartisan coalition of coalition of parents, educators, and others interested in preserving public education. Here is an open letter she wrote to public school teachers in New Jersey and beyond. Dear Public School Teachers, We […]
Principals slam 2014 NY Common Core tests as badly designed
Students in New York have been taking state-mandated Common Core-aligned standard tests in English Language Arts in recent days and, for the second year in a row, educators are saying the tests — designed by the giant education company Pearson — were badly designed for the second straight year. Last year, the tests sparked controversy […]
Koch brothers help Kansas lawmakers strip teachers of tenure
The Kansas legislature just passed legislation that strips teachers of tenure and the right to due process, a move pushed by conservative lawmakers who were forced by a state Supreme Court ruling to provide more funding to poor school districts and wanted to get something out of the deal. After stripping teachers of their tenure, legislators […]
Ten concerns about the ‘let’s teach them grit’ fad
One more thing school reformers think schools should be doing these days is teaching kids to have “grit.” To explain what this is all about is author Alfie Kohn in an article adapted from the author’s new book The Myth of the Spoiled Child: Challenging the Conventional Wisdom about Children and Parenting, just published by […]
APR 07
Chicago charters do no better than traditional public schools, new study finds
An examination of every score that Chicago students earned on state-mandated standardized tests last year reveals that charter schools — which Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D) has been promoting — don’t perform any better than traditional public schools. The analysis, conducted by the Chicago Sun-Times and the Medill Data Project at Northwestern University, reviewed the 2013 […]
Student to profs: Don’t force us to take tests online
Kendall Breitman is a senior at American University in Washington, D.C. She is 22 years old and originally from Havertown, Pa., right outside of West Philadelphia. She went to school at Haverford High School (not one of the newer high schools that give their students computers to work with) and then went on to American […]
The one thing I sort of like about 2014 Most Challenging High Schools list
Every year my fantastic Post colleague Jay Mathews takes a great deal of time to assemble his list of America’s Most Challenging High Schools, and he’s just done it again for his 2014 list, which you can read all about here. And just about every year, I write something about why I find the list […]
Common Core test gives students no time to think — teacher
Travis Durfee is a teacher at Watkins Glen Middle School in Watkins Glen, New York who is administering Common Core-aligned standardized tests to students that were designed by Pearson, the education company. In the following piece, which he calls “Driving Lessons,” he looks from within the schoolhouse gates at the disconnect between the mandated exams and […]
APR 06
How New York’s mayor got steamrolled by his own governor and charter lobby
If you doubt the power of the charter school movement, consider this: New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, just slapped down New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, over the issue. Or, as education historian Diane Ravitch put it in this piece for the New York Review of Books blog: How did a privately managed […]
Michelle Rhee still doesn’t get it
Michelle Rhee still doesn’t get it. The former D.C. schools chancellor and now leader of a national organization that pushes corporate school and attacks teachers unions, just wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post that uses bad analogies and a number of straw men to argue against the growing “opt out” movement in which parents are refusing […]
APR 05
What Americans like best about their favorite teachers
What attribute do Americans find most compelling in the teacher they have identified as having the greatest impact on their lives? I learned the answer recently when I was listening to a speech by Brandon H. Busteed, the executive director of Gallup Education, about public education and what polls show about how Americans view their teachers. […]
The federal government’s short attention span
When it comes to school and neighborhood inequality, the federal government has a short attention span, discussed here by Elaine Weiss and Patrick Sharkey. Weiss is the national coordinator for the Broader Bolder Approach to Education, a project of the nonprofit Economic Policy Institute that recognizes the impact of social and economic disadvantage on many […]