With A Brooklyn Accent:
With A Brooklyn Accent Go BATs All Week
On the Hunt for "Bad Teachers"
The percentage of "Bad Teachers" in our public schools is probably no higher than Bad Principals, Bad Superintendents, Bad Commissioners, Bad Politicians, and Bad Philanthropists. Yet people in every walk of life seem obsessed with getting rid of them. This isn't a well thought out policy position. it is more like a form of communal Magic, a ritual to rid to rid ourselves of Demons, real
APR 30
As NY's Math Tests Begin- Let Us Honor the Test Resistors
Today, another awful round of testing begins in NY State, this time for Math. Our third graders face three days of testing that are more time consuming than the tests applicants take for Medical School, Business School, Law School or admission to college. How our education policy makers and elected officials signed off on this is a mystery to me. Even if the tests were well designed, which they ar
APR 29
Ras Baraka, Newark and the Future of Public Education
Friends of public education. The most important election in the nation regarding the future of public education is happening right now in Newark New Jersey. On one side is Shevar Jeffries, a lawyer and a huge charter school supporter getting millions of dollars in contributions from Hedge Fund advocates of school privatization and on the other side is Ras Baraka, a high school principal who has be
APR 24
Time to BREAK THE CHAINS! School Reform is Not Civil Rights
All over the country, inner city parents and teachers are being deprived of their rights to have community input into management of public schools, while their children are moved from pillar to post by school closings, and then pushed into charter schools which often impose zero tolerance discipline policies.That this is promoted as Civil Rights is a travesty. It is in fact the opposite. Here are
APR 21
Join "Heal for America!" Coming to Your Campus This Spring!
It's time to announce the amazing new program " Heal for America" coming from the folks who brought you TFA. Starting this spring, recruiters for HFA are going to be scouring the nation's top colleges for brilliant, idealistic students who are willing to go through a rigorous five week summer program to prepare them to be doctors in inner city health clinics starting September. Mayors an
APR 20
Game On!!! How Common Core Changed the Face of Education Activism in the US
Teachers never were treated with much respect in the United States, but until recently they weren't demonized or singled out as responsible for the nation's problems and weaknesses. What has changed? That public education is now viewed as a major opportunity for profitable investment if it can be privatized or reorganized to allow for continuous testing and assessment. When the housing market tank
APR 13
Another Reason Why Public School Teachers are Silenced: They Might Expose the Wounds of Poverty
A disinterested observer, coming from another place or time, would find it odd that the voices of American public school teachers are systematically excluded by those making education policy. No better example of this is the "Education Reform" gathering sponsored by NY Governor Andrew Cuomo- Camp Philus- where the admission fee is $1,000, guaranteed to assure that public school teachers
APR 12
A Committee to Restore Childhood- Some Principles
Everywhere we look, self-titled "School Reformers" are driving every ounce of joy and spontaneity out of the childhood years.*They are evaluating teachers as early as Pre K and Kindergarten on whether their pedagogy contribute to their charges "college and career readiness."*They are putting so much emphasis on testing in rating schools and teachers thatrecess is disappearing i