Schools Matter:
Schools Matter All Week
PUBLISHED in the Christian Science Monitor Weekly Magazine, September 15, 2014Common core doesn't fix the real problem of education– poverty.Arguments for opposing the common core presented by Gov. Jindal ("Common Core: Bobby Jindal says Obama forcing a national curriculum," August 27) do not include the reasons many professional educators and researchers oppose it. A central argument
The "middle skills" shortage: The common core will make it worse
Sent to the Wall Street Journal, Sept. 11, 2014"German robots school U.S. workers" (Sept. 10) is the most recent of a series of reports in the Wall Street Journal on the substantial shortage of job applicants with "middle skills," requiring less than a college degree but more than high school. Instead of increasing apprenticeships and investing more in vocational education for
SEP 10
BC Unions Rally Behind Teacher Strike
British Columbia Teacher's Union (BCTU) Stands FirmB.C. unions rally behind teachers' strikeANDREA WOOVANCOUVER — The Globe and MailPublished Wednesday, Sep. 10 2014, 10:28 PM EDTLast updated Wednesday, Sep. 10 2014, 10:28 PM EDTCash-strapped teachers who have so far lost four weeks’ pay to the strike will be able to apply for a loan from their union after workers from across the province agreed t
Huffman and Barbic Targets of Lawsuit in Tennessee
Kevin Huffman took just one month after his appointment as Commissioner of Education in April 2011 to choose former CEO of YES Prep Charter Schools as Superintendent of Tennessee's new Achievement School District, the State office that would coordinate the charterizing of Memphis and Nashville schools. At that time, the betting started on how many months it would take for Yes Prep, where Barbic ha
SEP 09
Outraged at the core
Sent to the Washington Post, September 9, 2014The Post says that progressives are "uncomfortable with the role of the Gates foundation and new tests associated with the (Common Core) standards" ("Common Core 2.0: Common Core by another name," Sept. 10).Uncomfortable? More accurate would be "outraged." Outraged not only at Gates' role in the Common Core, but also becau
SEP 08
John Oliver's Takedown of Online Diploma Mills
Must see!!from the Consumerist:What would it look like if you condensed all our hundreds of stories about student loans and for-profit colleges into a profanity-filled, hilarious rant that takes a brief detour to discuss Lyndon Johnson’s scrotum? John Oliver answered that question on Sunday night.Just like it’s recently done with the payday loan industry, Dr. Oz, and net neutrality, Last Week Toni
Florida Charters Corrupt as Jeb Bush
By Michael Mayo Sun Sentinel Columnist 12:23 p.m. EDT, September 8, 2014 OK class, time for a pop quiz. If you want to open a charter school — a privately run school that gets public money — which of the following will you need to get approval?a) A suitable building for classesb) A proven background in education or business c) A past with no bankruptcies or major blemishesd) A computer with
NAEP, Common Core, and the Continued Production of Failure
For those who never knew Gerald Bracey's work, all I can say is you have a lot of catching up to do. It was his writing in the Kappan in the 1990s that caught my attention, and then came his books. He was a master at using his steel trap logic and his delightfully sharp pen to pop all the gas bags floating over the education policy centers of Washington, DC. One of his favorite subjects was NAE
SEP 07
Meritocracy, Chinese and American Style
The biggest difference in Chinese and American education is that the Chinese only offer their best test scores in international comparisons. Otherwise, the systems operate on the same principles of corruption and inequality, and they produce similar results based on a caste system sustained by instituionalized racism and classism.China’s Education GapBy HELEN GAO SEPT. 4, 2014BEIJING — EVERY Sept
Duncan's Civil Rights in Black Face Tour
The major civil rights initiative of the Obama Administration has been to re-segregate poor black and brown children into corporate education reform schools where they can be culturally sterilized and behaviorally neutered by white middle class missionaries with no experience. Duncan's Civil Rights Minstrel Tour will continue this coming week:"The trip will include stops in Georgia, Alabama
Gates Civ 101: The Antiseptic History MOOC Comes to High School
Some reporters for the New York Times pretend to be stupid enough to believe Bill Gates is out to simply make his favorite history course available to every high school student in America. The bigger assumption by the New York Times is that the American people are as stupid as their "reporter" pretends to be.Actually, the Times didn't choose a real reporter but, rather, a CNBC Wall Stre
SEP 06
OECD's Efficiency Zealots Say Cutting Teacher Pay and Raising Class Size Would Be Good Policy, But Don't Do It
For my academic friends who are engaged in a new revisionism to write out effects of a hundred years of social efficiency domination in education policy, you may want to have a look at this. The OECD, the outfit that brings us PISA every so often, has taken to sub-contracting its nastier statistical tasks to other "research" firms. The latest example is the Efficiency Index, contracted