New York Times: Can Charter Schools Teach Public Schools Their Secrets?
Who Needs to Learn from Whom? What Public Schools can Teach Charter Schools About Teaching All Students. The New York Times published a story about what public schools can learn fro charter schools. But the most important lesson is to be careful which students are admitted. The role of charter schools in public education continues to be a subject of heated debate. The House of Representatives rece
Chutzpah in Louisiana: Crazy Crawfish Will Run for State Board Seat
Jason France, better known in the blogosphere as Crazy Crawfish, plans to run for the seat on the state board of education now held by Chas Roemer, son of a former governor, and brother of the head of the Louisiana charter school association. Jason is one brave man. He is a Crazy Crawfish, and all those who want to see a change in Louisiana’s heedless, madcap, irresponsible privatization should su
Why the Common Core Standards for Grades K-3 Are Wrong
A group of early childhood educators explain here why the Common Core is inappropriate for children in grades K-3. This statement is an excerpt from their joint publication “Defending the Early Years.” The first mistake of the Common Core is that it “maps backwards” from what is needed for high school graduation and ignores the kind of learning that is developmentally appropriate for young child
Christine Langhoff: Massachusetts’ “Churnaround” Plan is Not Working
Reader Christine Langhoff sent the following information about some “turnaround” schools in Massachusetts. Having won “Race to the Top” funding, the state has taken Arne Duncan’s advice to fire everybody and start over, which seems to be his deep thinking on how to improve schools, not through collaboration and steady work, but through fear tactics. She writes: The state of Massachusetts has r
Peter Greene: Can We Make a List of the Things That Every Educated Person Should Zknow?
If you ever watch The Food Network or something similar, you have probably seen Chef Bobby Flay and his “throw down” with a competing chef. Sometimes Bobby goes into a little known neighborhood and challenges a local chef who is famous for a regional dish, sometimes he takes on another famous chef. And you never know who will win. In this post, Peter Greeene, Pennsylvania high school English teac
Gene Glass: The Strangest Academic Department in the World
The University of Arkansas at Fayetteville has an academic department in its College of Education & Health Professions that is one of the strangest I have ever seen. It is called the Department of Education Reform, and the strangeness starts right off on the department’s webpage: edre/uark.edu There one sees that the department is the “newest department in the College of Education and Health
Update after Knee Surgery
I haven’t been able to write before now. The pain after surgery was so bad that I was kept on various drugs to keep me sedated. I spent two days in the recovery room, then moved to a regular room. But my health remained fragile, On Sunday, the surgeon sent me for a CT scan, where I learned I had a blood clot in one of my lungs. My greatest fear about surgery was triggering a clot, which could go t
5-11-14 LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH Diane Ravitch's blog #thankateacher #EDCHAT #P2
Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: Why Empathy for Children MattersA reader posted this comment: It is obvious that the designers and supporters of CCSS do not have empathy for children. Narcissism is on a spectrum and intensifies with chronic stress. This is evident in how the Common Core Environment has created systemic Narcissism from the top down: The antith
