Latest News and Comment from Education

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Answer Sheet 6-10-14

Answer Sheet:






One sweet video: Soldier back from Afghanistan surprises son at school
My Post colleague Ovetta Wiggins wrote this story about an Army  soldier who returned from Afghanistan to surprise his son at a school Career Day at a school in Prince George’s County, Maryland. Watch Dellion Sitladin, Sr., who hadn’t seen his son for almost a year, walk in on Career Day event at Langley Park-McCormick Elementary. […]
Gates Foundation backs two-year delay in linking Common Core test scores to teacher evaluation, student promotion
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation issued an interesting letter (see below) on Tuesday saying that it now supported delaying by two years using student standardized test scores in high-stakes consequences on teacher evaluation and student promotion while schools are learning how to implement the Common Core State Standards and new Core-aligned standardized tests. Coincidence […]


Why math fills so many of us with dread
If you are someone who suffered from math anxiety, you may not believe that it does not have to be a permanent condition. That’s what author  Annie Murphy Paul, who concentrates on how we learn and how we can do it better, explains in the following post. Paul is a contributing writer  for Time magazine, writes a weekly […]
There are no miracle schools, but there are a lot of really good ones
For two decades,  Ellie Herman was a writer/producer for television shows including “The Riches,” “Desperate Housewives,” “Chicago Hope” and “Newhart.” Her fiction has appeared in literary journals, among them The Massachusetts Review, The Missouri Review and the O.Henry Awards Collection. In 2007, she decided “on an impulse” to become an English teacher. She got a […]


Answer Sheet 6-9-14
Answer Sheet: Ravitch: Time for Congress to investigate Bill Gates’ role in Common CoreThe critical role that Bill Gates played in the creation and implementation of the Common Core State Standards initiative is the subject of this story by my Post colleague Lyndsey Layton. She explains how Gates was persuaded  in 2008 by  Gene Wilhoit, then-director of the Council for Chief State School Officers,