The common core does not address the real problem
Sent to the Washington Post, August 20, 2014The Post has reported that according to a recent PDK/Gallup poll, the "Common Core educational standards are losing support nationwide" (August 19). The poll asked those opposed to the Common Core why they were opposed, giving them several possible reasons. The options did not include the reasons many educators oppose the Common Core: There is
Tennesse's Soars to 43rd in ACT National Standings
Tennessee's now in its 22th year of a failed experiment that began in 1992 to use value-added assessment to improve Tennessee schools. In 2013 Tennessee ranked 46th among states for composite ACT scores.This year Tennessee is 43rd for the ACT composite score, but the state still ranks 48th in math, with only Mississippi and Hawaii behind the proud home state of the Sanders Model. The other long-
Poem by Doug Storm
TreeThe girth and grip of the tulip trunk thrustWrist deep into the soil of the school playgroundFronts an edifice risen only to crumble.Unfallen and aged, escaping the steel chain,Your crown unbestowed, no body bendssupplicant to you, though all are at base abject.You seek no fealty but stand resoundingagainst the proclamations of pretenders.When your reign ends so all succession.
8-19-14 Schools Matter
Schools Matter: Workforce Investment Act Becomes $3 Billion Handout to Predatory "Colleges"No bills get through Congress these days without an overwhelming amount of money to be made by both sides of the corporate aisle. Such a bill sailed through last month without so much as racial slur at the President, something quite unheard of in the age of an ostensibly-black Commander in Chief.