Petrilli Reports on Common Core Wars
On the eve of his ascension to the top spot at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, Michael J. Petrilli wrote a post to reflect on the current state of the "Common Core Wars," a term which in itself demonstrates Petrilli's gift for precision in language (see, it's the Common Core that is embattled, not American public education).He hits a couple of points on his Update from the Front, all wo
Can't vs. Won't
A million years ago, when I was student teaching at Wiley Jr. High in Cleveland Heights, my co-operating teacher told me that there are two rules in teaching: 1) Some students will not learn. 2) There is nothing the teacher can do to change Rule #1.Pedagogical reform reliably returns to the issue of Can. If we've heard it once, we've heard it a million times-- all students can learn (most
The Permanent Politicizing of Education
It's completely predictable that in the wake of CCSS, other problems will arise. Folks who think that we can chase the Common Core away and afterwards go back to How Things Were Before are kidding themselves-- even if CCSS were to vanish tomorrow, it has already changed the educational landscape in ways we can't fully grasp yet.One sign is in Lyndsey Layton's Washington Post article about a wave o
8-2-14 Curmudgucation Week
CURMUDGUCATION:Curmudgucation WeekWriting News Re: MeI have a bit of news to share.You may have heard that Anthony Cody I leaving behind the world of Education Week blogging to pursue other projects and spin "Living in Dialogue" onto some new platforms. That should be going live sometime this week. You can stay caught up with his progress at the Living in Dialogue page on Facebook. I thi