Six Years Under the Masthead: Farewell to Ed Week
This post marks my last appearance at Education Week, after six eventful years. The summer of 2008 was the beginning of Living in Dialogue, launched with the help of John Norton. In that first year, I wrote about the presidential candidates, including Barack Obama, and once President Obama was elected, suggested he select either Linda Darling Hammond or Pedro Noguera to serve as Secretary of Education.
In the summer of 2009, I wrote about the process underway to write Common Core standards, in a post called "The Secret 60 Prepare to Write Standards for Fifty Million." That fall, after seeing the launch of the misguided Race to the Top contest for billions, I wrote an open letter to President Obama, and invited others to do the same. We wrote of the continuation of the worst aspects of No Child Left Behind, the overemphasis on test scores and school closures. I used Living in Dialogue as a place to collect letters, and started a Facebook group as well, to discuss the issues, and galvanize action. Living in Dialogue ran dozens of letters, and a collection of more than a hundred was sent to the president and his Secretary of Education. In the spring of 2010, arepresentative group had the chance for a phone call with Secretary Duncan. We worked hard to develop the points we wanted to make, but when the call came, we were disappointed. We did not feel heard, and our concerns were never seriously addressed by the administration.
In 2011, frustrated by this direction, Living in Dialogue helped build for the Save Our Schools March in Washington, DC. I was involved in organizing the march, and ran interviews with activists and leaders like John Kuhn, Alfie Kohn, and Pedro Noguera. The protest was attended by more than 5000 activists, and was the largest such demonstration of the decade.
In February of 2012, I pointed out that President Obama had attacked his own policies in remarks at a town hall, where he said we "test too much," and perhaps should only test every Six Years Under the Masthead: Farewell to Ed Week - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher: