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A Response to Marc Tucker’s Response to Diane Ravitch and Anthony Cody on Fixing Our National Accountability System By Yong Zhao. I was very impressed with Marc Tucker’s indictment of the test-based accountability system that has been in place for over a decade: The test-based accountability system now universally mandated in the United States—a system that reflects in every way the blue-collar co
Yong Zhao Slays the Authoritarian Testing Dragon
By Anthony Cody. For progress to occur in China – or the US, the dragons of educational authoritarianism must be slain. Chinese-American professor Yong Zhao has been a bit of a contrarian regarding education reform in the United States. He comes at the subject with a unique perspective. He experienced the Chinese educational system himself, and has a deep understanding of its fundamental limitatio
SEP 16
When Teachers Lose Rights, They Must Raise Test Scores or Go
By John Thompson. I do not question the sincerity of most former Obama administration officials and other liberals who support Vergara v California and its spawn. Some have long and loudly blamed teachers for education underperformance, saying that it is our “low expectations” and not the legacies of generational poverty, trauma, and discrimination that produced the achievement gap. The standard r
SEP 14
Time For a New Conversation Indeed: PUBLIC Education Nation is Here
By Anthony Cody. In 2014, most of the communications media is carrying messages sponsored or controlled by the wealthy. When speech is redefined by the Supreme Court to include the spending of money, then those with unlimited money have a nearly unlimited ability to speak via the airwaves. This week I described how that money, often funneled through “philanthropies,” has been used to create recent
Rebel Girl: Fighting for Student Rights
Rebel Girl from Schoolhouse Live on Vimeo. Newark Student Union leader Kristin Towkaniuk, injured last week by police during a student walkout, has long been a thorn in the side of Gov Christie. From leading walkouts to mixing it up at the state legislature, she is a force of nature for student rights. Here she speaks at the EmpowerEd conference at USC last March on student voice and political pow
Making the Grade: What is Our Goal?
By Larry Graykin. My son Alec, a junior at Concord (NH) High School, shared a fascinating tidbit with me recently. His school has shifted to a new way of grading. Homework’s value in this new system? 0%. That’s not to say that the school has abolished homework. On the contrary; he has as much or more assigned as ever…it just doesn’t count — at all. His teachers insist the homework is very importan
SEP 13
Reimagining Education ‘Accountability’: Asking the Right Questions
By Chris Thinnes. We seem to have forgotten there could be any other way to hold ourselves accountable. - Steve Seidel ‘WE MIGHT WELL HAVE VIEWED IT AS AN ACT OF WAR’ I remember Sir Ken Robinson recounting, a few years ago, the challenges of his family’s adjustment to American culture when they moved to Los Angeles several years beforehand. He said he had been told by European friends, time and ti