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Sidwell Friends School (where Obama girls attend) is getting new head
Who runs any particular private school isn’t exactly news outside the school community, but the elite Sidwell Friends School in Northwest Washington draws attention because of its famous students, especially Sasha and Malia Obama ( as well as a few of Vice President Joe Biden’s grandchildren). So the news at Sidwell is that a new […]
YESTERDAY
Chicago Teachers Union passes resolution opposing Common Core
The Chicago Teachers’ Union House of Delegates has passed a resolution opposing use of the Common Core State Standards in teaching and testing, and it plans to lobby the Illinois Board of Education to reverse approval of the Core and ask its parent union, the American Federation of Teachers, to consider it at its upcoming […]
MAY 08
Report: Right-wing extremists use Common Core attacks to undermine public education
A year ago I wrote about how extreme right-wing rhetoric against the Common Core State Standards was clouding a substantive debate about the Common Core State Standards initiative. Now a report by the Southern Poverty Law Center details how right-wing extremists are using Core opposition are using conspiracy theories and misinformation to undermine the very […]
How students will be affected by federal revocation of Washington’s NCLB waiver
I recently published an open letter by a school board member in Washington named David Iseminger to Education Secretary Arne Duncan about the Education Department’s revocation of the state’s waiver from onerous parts of No Child Left Behind. Congress was supposed to rewrite NCLB seven years ago but it hasn’t. Recognizing NCLB’s problems — such as […]
MAY 07
Teacher fired for using broom to stop student fight wants her job back
Two students started fighting violently in a Detroit high school classroom, knocking over desks, and a teacher grabbed a broom to try to break it up. She struck one of the fighting boys and was fired for her action. Now she wants her job back — and she’s getting a lot of unexpected support. According […]
8th grade assignment: Write essay about whether Holocaust was real or made up
This is a story about some school district leaders who need some education — fast. In an effort to have students meet Common Core standards relating to critical thinking, a group of eighth grade teachers in the Rialto Unified School District designed an assignment (see document below) that asked students to write an essay arguing […]
You have no clue what school nurses really do
School nurses matter enormously, though you couldn’t tell by the amount of attention they get from policy-makers (and even parents when it comes time to distribute end-of-year gifts). School districts that cut their budgets have no problem eliminating school nurses or forcing a single nurse to cover a number of schools, and increasingly teachers and […]
A rather unusual ‘thank you’ to teachers
Here’s a rather unusual appreciation of teachers for Teacher Appreciation Week, an annual event started back in 1984 by the Parent Teachers Association. The PTA offers a number of suggestions about how to appreciate teachers, including writing letters of thanks to them and tweeting at #ThankATeacher, though a number of teachers I know would feel more […]
U.S. judge: It’s ridiculous to judge teachers by test scores of students they don’t have, but it’s legal in Florida
“Justice? You get justice in the next world, in this world you have the law.” ― William Gaddis, A Frolic of His Own A federal judge in Florida said that it is wildly unfair that the state evaluates many teachers on the standardized test scores of students they don’t have or subjects they don’t […]
MAY 06
‘Do You Wanna Go To Starbucks?’ (or ‘how to get through finals’) — a musical parody
If you or anybody you know is suffering through finals, here’s some relief: a mini-musical parody on the song from the movie “Frozen” called “Do You Wanna Build a Snowman?” Done by two students from Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego, it is called, ”Do You Wanna Go To Starbucks?” Music and acting by […]
A Common Core math quiz. See how you do.
As the Common Core State Standards are being implemented in most states and the District, new aligned tests are being designed for students to start taking next year. Right now, millions of students around the country are taking field tests on these exams, and by many accounts, the questions are a lot more difficult than […]
U.S. lawmakers thank their favorite teachers: ‘She flunked me — and rightly so!’
Thanks to all the teachers out there who are helping students #ReachHigher and achieve their dreams. You’re incredible! #ThankATeacher –mo — The First Lady (@FLOTUS) May 6, 2014 In honor of National Teacher Day on Tuesday, a number of U.S. lawmakers from various states tweeted about their favorite teachers at #ThankATeacher. Here’s a list of […]
New report cites $100 million-plus in waste, fraud in charter school industry
A new report (see below) by two groups that oppose reforms that are privatizing public education finds fraud and waste totaling more than $100 million of taxpayer funds in 15 of the 42 states that operate charter schools. The report, titled “Charter School Vulnerabilities to Waste, Fraud, & Abuse,” and released by the nonprofit organizations Integrity […]
A history of Pearson’s testing problems worldwide
Now that Pearson, the worldwide education company, has won a huge contract with PARCC, one of the two multi-state consortia designing new Common Core-aligned tests with federal funds, it seems like a good time to review problems Pearson has had with previous projects. I’ve run one of these before but this is an updated list […]
What ‘setting high expectations’ for all students really means
How many times have you heard that schools need to create “a culture of high expectations” for all students? What exactly is that? Esther Quintero, a research associate at the nonprofit Albert Shanker Institute, explains in this post, which first appeared on the institute’s blog. By Esther Quintero What exactly is “a culture of […]
MAY 05
‘There are common hypocrites. There are spectacular hypocrites. And then there are Florida legislators.’
“There are common hypocrites. There are spectacular hypocrites. And then there are Florida legislators.” That’s how John Romano, a writer for the Tampa Bay Times, started this column expressing his disgust over legislation that the Florida legislature just rammed through with procedural tricks that expands the state’s controversial voucher program. What got him so exercised? […]
Virginia’s SOL exams: what students need to know to pass (and graduate on time)
Today is the day when Virginia students will start running what teacher Mary Tedrow calls the state’s ” testing gauntlet” which seems to test endurance at least as much as knowledge. In this post, Tedrow looks at the sample questions of Standards of Learning tests and explains what students need to know about these exams […]
Pearson, of course, wins huge Common Core testing contract
I noted recently that two years ago the nonprofit group FairTest predicted that despite promises by policymakers that competition and innovation would result from school reform, it would be the same old education firms that would wind up with the big Common Core-related contracts. FairTest got that right. Pearson, the largest education company in the world, […]
What teaching is and isn’t
The first week in May is Teacher Appreciation Week, so declared back in 1984 by the Parent Teachers Association, and the 2014 observation of this is upon us. It couldn’t have come at a better time, given that teachers aren’t feeling especially appreciated these days, what with school reform policies targeted right at them. In […]
MAY 04
Arne Duncan can keep his cynical NCLB waiver — Washington school board member
Last month the U.S. Education Department for the first time rescinded one of the waivers it gave to states that exempts them the most onerous parts of the flawed No Child Left Behind law. It was Washington’s, and as a result, the state will have to comply with all parts of No Child Left Behind — even though […]
‘Today was the first day I was ever ashamed to be a teacher’
Students around the country are taking high-stakes Common Core-aligned standardized tests now and some teachers are expressing unhappiness about having to administer them. Some are refusing to administer them and others are going public with their concerns about the nature of the tests and the emphasis being placed on them by policymakers. Numerous problems have […]
MAY 03
Actually, Louis C.K. was right about Common Core — Ravitch
Louis C.K., the multi-talented entertainer, has suddenly found himself in the news for an unlikely reason. It has nothing to do with any of his projects but, rather, his comments on Twitter and the “Late Show With David Letterman” about how standardized testing and the Common Core State Standards are affecting his daughters, who attend […]
Teaching is harder than working in high tech — by a teacher who worked in high tech
After spending 25 years in high-tech — primarily in the wireless and Global Positioning System (GPS) industries – Dave Reid became a high school mathematics teacher and is now in his third year of teaching. It didn’t take him long to realize just how hard teaching really is — and how much harder it is than his […]