Latest News and Comment from Education

Friday, May 2, 2014

5-2-14 Schools Matter

Schools Matter:







Four years of math?
Sent to the Washington Post, May 2, 2014.Maryland will now require all high school students to take four years of math ("Maryland to require math for all years of high school; universities also adjust rules," May 2).The fourth year, moreover, must be "non-trivial," such as algebra 2, trigonometry, pre-calculus, calculus, statistics and college algebra. This is in order to preve


KIPP Teacher Asks: "Would we let this happen if the students were white middle class?"
I interviewed a former KIPP teacher I will call Keith.  Keith was highly successful at KIPP for longer than most teachers last at any KIPP, which is 1-2 years.  Keith shared a great deal, and much of it I had heard from others:  the 80-100 hour weeks, the silent lunches, the incessant chanting, the compulsive attention to detail, the straight lines of uniformed students, the clipboard for keeping


Alabama Makes Clear Parent Rights for Opting Out of State Tests
From AL.com:. . . .“There’s been a lot of concern about the amount of standardized testing that the school system does,” Cox said. “It’s not just a Baldwin County issue; it’s all over the country. Every time the children turn around, they’re being tested for something, and more and more parents have become concerned about it.”Cox stressed that it is permissible for parents to opt out of the tests:


The Prospect Heights T Party Dumps the Tests
Teachers at a New York City high school fired a shot across the bow of the concept of a nationalized education industry Thursday, becoming the first in that state to refuse to administer a standardized test tied to the controversial Common Core national standards.The boycott by teachers at Prospect Heights International School in Brooklyn comes amid a small but growing “opt out” movement in which


5-1-14 Schools Matter
Schools Matter: Notes from the Road: Some Observations about What is Wrong with the Good Fightby Doug MartinDuring my talk recently to the Southeast Education Task Force in Indianapolis, a member of the Indiana Department of Education said there wasn’t a manufactured crisis in education, that our kids were indeed, many of them, failing.  She quoted some Ph.D  who appeared with Condi Rice recently,