ICYMI: Sunday Reading from the Interwebs
Some reading for your Sunday afternoon leisure (if you have such a thing)
The Investment
Jose Vilson went to New Jersey to talk to teachers there. This is a piece of what he had to say.
EngageNY Math, Now Eureka, a Common Core Dropping
One feisty teacher's journey into the land of pre-packaged, not-so-great math curriculum.
Plutocrats in Plunderland
Many of us took a swipe at the TeachStrong rollout this week. This piece gives us a good look at some of the connections being worked behind the curtain.
I also recommend this take on TeachStrong from Daniel Katz.
The Strange, True Story of How a Chairman at McKinsey Made Millions of Dollars off His Maid
This piece from The Nation is not directly related to education. But it is a well-researched story about corruption in New York and how the folks in the 1% just kind of roll over the rest of us. If you've been following the reformster world, you know the name McKinsey, the consulting group responsible for growing so much of the reformster careers. Here's a good hard look at just what sort of people we're talking about.
Dear Mark
Emily Talmage is a Maine blogger with an interesting story. As an Amherst grad she fell into the arms of Teach for America, and then decided that she's like to be a real teacher. But before Amherst, she prepped at Phillips Exeter, where her time overlapped with that of Mark Zuckerberg. Here she is, writing a letter to her old classmate about his sudden interest in "personalized" learning.
The Investment
Jose Vilson went to New Jersey to talk to teachers there. This is a piece of what he had to say.
EngageNY Math, Now Eureka, a Common Core Dropping
One feisty teacher's journey into the land of pre-packaged, not-so-great math curriculum.
Plutocrats in Plunderland
Many of us took a swipe at the TeachStrong rollout this week. This piece gives us a good look at some of the connections being worked behind the curtain.
I also recommend this take on TeachStrong from Daniel Katz.
The Strange, True Story of How a Chairman at McKinsey Made Millions of Dollars off His Maid
This piece from The Nation is not directly related to education. But it is a well-researched story about corruption in New York and how the folks in the 1% just kind of roll over the rest of us. If you've been following the reformster world, you know the name McKinsey, the consulting group responsible for growing so much of the reformster careers. Here's a good hard look at just what sort of people we're talking about.
Dear Mark
Emily Talmage is a Maine blogger with an interesting story. As an Amherst grad she fell into the arms of Teach for America, and then decided that she's like to be a real teacher. But before Amherst, she prepped at Phillips Exeter, where her time overlapped with that of Mark Zuckerberg. Here she is, writing a letter to her old classmate about his sudden interest in "personalized" learning.
Guest Post: No Excuse
Emily Kaplan is an elementary school teacher in the Boston area. She's currently teaching in a public school, but her previous experience is with one of the region's high-achieving charter chains. She has written here about both her experience and some lessons from it, and I'm pleased to publish this here with her permission.
NO EXCUSE: AN ARGUMENT AGAINST DECEPTIVE METRICS OF SCHOOL SUCCESS
Sixteen seven- and eight-year olds sit in a circle on the floor. On the wall to their left— the first thing they see upon entering and exiting the classroom, always done in complete silence— is a list of individual “Assessment Goals.” (This “no excuses” charter network creates its own high-stress tests, which all students take at least five times per month, beginning in kindergarten.) One student´s math goal reads, “I only use strategies that I know.” All are written in the teacher’s handwriting. Others include, “I read my work over so I don´t make careless mistakes.” “I begin each sentence with a capital letter.” “I draw base-ten blocks to show my work.”
On the wall to their right is a list of the class averages from the last six network assessments (taken by all second graders across the charter network´s three campuses), all of which are in the 50s and 60s. Even though these two-hour tests are designed by network leaders to be exceptionally challenging— a class average of an 80% is the holy grail of teachers, who use their students´ scores to compete for status and salary increases— this class´s scores are the lowest in the school, and the students know it.
The teacher speaks to them in a slow, measured tone. “When I left school Guest Post: No Excuse