Meredith Ely: Blaming Teachers or Finding Solutions?

Meredith Ely: Blaming Teachers or Finding Solutions?

Meredith Ely

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Posted: October 21, 2010 01:14 AM

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Blaming Teachers or Finding Solutions?

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Read More: Achievement Gap , Blame , Education Reform , School Accountability , Teacher Quality , Teachers ,Education News

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Education pundits are championing the creed, "education is the civil rights issue of our generation," to bring a sense of urgency to a broken public education system. Individuals that propose bold restructuring of schools, like Michelle Rhee, Arne Duncan, and a myriad of other reform-minded leaders, are calling the public to rethink longstanding norms in education. Common themes have risen from this progressive dialogue; holding teachers highly accountable for student achievement, using data to drive instruction and assessment, reworking or weakening tenure laws, and providing economic incentives for positive academic results seem to be priorities as we look at changing how schools function.

One of the most popular criticisms of this reform movement is that we are blaming teachers for the downfall of a huge national system. Parents and school staff are speaking out, demanding that we

The Answer Sheet - Afterschool programs in funding jeopardy

The Answer Sheet - Afterschool programs in funding jeopardy

Afterschool programs in funding jeopardy

This open letter was written by Jodi Grant, executive director of the nonprofit Afterschool Alliance, a nonprofit organization that works to ensure that all children have access to affordable, quality afterschool programs. Grant writes about the danger that afterschool programs now face because of a move to shift federal money currently spent on these programs to extend the school day. That may seem like sound policy, but it isn't. Research doesn't support the notion that kids automatically learn more if they sit longer in a classroom each day. Quality after school programs that engage kids in learning in ways different from the regular classroom experience have been shown to work wonders. By Jodi Grant Today, more than 7,500 communities across America will celebrate the afterschool programs that keep kids safe, inspire them to learn and help working families. Afterschool programs are an innovative, yet practical and proven way to expand

Diane Ravitch: public education in danger � peoplesworld

Diane Ravitch: public education in danger � peoplesworld

Diane Ravitch: public education in danger

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by: JOHN RUMMEL

october 21 2010

tags: education, children

DETROIT - School reform is not a new topic but the nature of the debate has changed. In decades past, education critics mainly wanted to make public schools better. They sought more training for teachers and increased funding for schools.

But now, says educator and author Diane Ravitch, the question is, "Will public education survive? Will we continue to have a public education system that is bound by law to accept all children? Or will we have children enter a lottery to see if they get accepted by a charter school? Will public schools be the default option for those that didn't make it into public schools?"

Few can break it down the way Ravitch does. She once saw strict government mandates and charter schools as the impetus for reforming public education. She's changed her mind. Now she sees

New York City plans to release ratings of teachers based on test scores

New York City plans to release ratings of teachers based on test scores

GALLERY

The chancellorship of Michelle A. Rhee

Controversial D.C. schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee will announce her resignation on Wednesday, nearly four years after she was brought in by Mayor Adrian M. Fenty to improve the city's languishing public education system.

» LAUNCH PHOTO GALLERY

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By Nick Anderson

Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 21, 2010; 1:14 PM

A battle that erupted in Los Angeles this summer over the public release of teacher ratings is flaring in New York this week and could become prominent in thedebate over school reform efforts nationwide.

New York City education officials announced Wednesday that they had decided to provide news organizations ratings on teachers that are derived from calculations on how much year-to-year progress their students make on standardized tests.

Natalie Ravitz, a city education spokeswoman, said the information, including names of about 12,000 teachers, would be given as early as Friday to outlets that requested it formally under public records law.

"We think the public has a right to the information,"

Forget What You Think You Know About How To Study : NPR

Forget What You Think You Know About How To Study : NPR

Forget What You Think You Know About How To Study Find a quiet location, keep a routine, focus on one subject at a time. It all seems like sound advice for students who need to study, but research indicates the conventional wisdom is all wrong. Recent studies debunk several myths about studying, and ...

Latino Achievement Gap Narrows In Higher Education Hispanic college students have, for years, performed and graduated at lower rates than white students. Many institutions of higher learning have been working to reduce that achievement gap. A new study has found that a number of universities have not ...

Fight Back! Stop those Parent Volunteers

Fight Back! Stop those Parent Volunteers

Fight Back! Stop those Parent Volunteers

by Rob Manwaring

Education cuts in California have been deep, and more cuts are likely in the near future as districts go over the fiscal cliff when federal stimulus funds and Edujob funds run out. So it is not surprising that districts are eliminating positions that they would like to maintain like librarian assistants, playground monitoring, and other cuts away from the classroom. One Northern California district near where I grew up is fortunate enough to have a group of parent volunteers to pick up some of the slack. Most schools would be jealous of such support. But, in this case the classified employee union is fighting hard to get those parents off campus (here). According to Loretta Kruusmagi, president of the local classified employees union.

“They are not going to have volunteers there at all. I can’t cite the exact thing, but there are state

Democratic (Little ‘d’) Education and Opinion Polls

by Forrest Hinton

With Election Day just around the corner, a lot of people are starting to take closer looks at public opinion polls—casual newspaper readers, journalists, policy wonks, and, especially those vying to be the next representative of District X. Two major problems (out of many) with polls that try to gauge the public’s attitudes and feelings toward contemporary policy issues are: (1) There are rarely options to select answers like ‘I don’t know enough to answer this question’ or ‘I don’t really have a strong preference here.’ (2) The questions asked of the public are generally vague, mostly abstract, and often unhelpful

DN! on Whittier Elementary Occupation � occupy california

DN! on Whittier Elementary Occupation � occupy california

DN! on Whittier Elementary Occupation

by *

CHICAGO, Illinois – For the past 37 days, parents have occupied La Casita, a fieldhouse at the Whittier Elementary school in protest over its proposed demolition and the lack of resources available to schoolchildren, including a library. Parents have transformed the space into a library by keeping the doors open to children and with the help of the community. More information a

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Louder Than A Bomb

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Louder Than A Bomb

Louder Than A Bomb

by Mike Klonsky

This review also appears in The Huffington Post

If like me, you're burnt out on all the Waiting for Supermanhype, I've got the perfect antidote. Go see Louder Than A Bomb, a brilliant and powerful documentary that is nothing less than eye poetry. I was lucky enough to score a couple of tickets to a sold-out showing at Chicago's International Film Festival but had to watch from the packed theater's second row. However, the tears running down my face weren't caused by my proximity to the screen, but from the power of spoken-word poetry and the stories behind the Chicago high school kids performing it.

No, there are no superheroes in this film, no Michelle Rhee or

The Answer Sheet - On school reform, by Philadelphia's mayor and superintendent

The Answer Sheet - On school reform, by Philadelphia's mayor and superintendent

On school reform, by Philadelphia's mayor and superintendent

This post was written by Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter and Philadelphia Superintendent Arlene Ackerman. By Michael Nutter and Arlene Ackerman To read the news coming out of Washington, D.C., you’d think the only way to reform public schools is by firing teachers, closing schools, and battling it out in the media. Not so. The aggressive strategies in D.C. led to some laudable gains in minority students’ academic performance. But it is clear that some members of the community may have felt alienated or left out of the process. In Philadelphia, we believe there’s a different way—engage the entire community, collaborate with union colleagues, and focus on instruction.

More Actions at the University of Puerto Rico � Student Activism

More Actions at the University of Puerto Rico � Student Activism

More Actions at the University of Puerto Rico

by Angus Johnston

The Rio Piedras campus of the University of Puerto Rico, whose Humanities division was shuttered by student protesters on Tuesday, has now seen that shutdown spread to the divisions of Education and Social Sciences (article | translation).

Students in all three divisions have shut down classroom buildings, leaving them barricaded against entry. So far,

HechingerEd Blog | Are charters holding students back at high rates and, if so, how might that affect their outcomes?

HechingerEd Blog | Are charters holding students back at high rates and, if so, how might that affect their outcomes?

Are charters holding students back at high rates and, if so, how might that affect their outcomes?

by Sarah Garland

In an article published in the November 2010 issue of The American Prospect, The Hechinger Report takes a look at whether charter schools tend to hold students back more often than regular public schools do, and what that might mean for student outcomes. The research on retaining students – particularly if they’re older – has linked the practice to lower achievement and higher dropout rates. But it could be that charters are different than large districts that choose to end “social promotion,” the practice of passing students to the next grade level even if they’re low-performing, in order to keep them with peers of the same age. We looked in detail at the research and at what is happening in two charter schools in New York City.

Education Research Report: NASBE Study Finds Teacher Training and Evaluation are Left Behind in Scramble to Deliver 21st Century Education to Students

Education Research Report: NASBE Study Finds Teacher Training and Evaluation are Left Behind in Scramble to Deliver 21st Century Education to Students

No Time to Wait: Creating Contemporary School Structures for Students Today and Tomorrow, Ω NASBE's new policy report, No Time to Wait: Creating Contemporary School Structures for Students Today and Tomorrow, concludes that for the U.S. to prosper and compete in the 21st century, the education system will need to change its goals and ...

NASBE Study Finds Teacher Training and Evaluation are Left Behind in Scramble to Deliver 21st Century Education to Students The current education model in the United States, a relic of the Industrial Age, is increasingly out of touch with the needs of society and the students it serves. In addition to the continued use of dated models of educating students, our systems for ...

A New Investigation of the Kent State Shootings � Student Activism

A New Investigation of the Kent State Shootings � Student Activism

A New Investigation of the Kent State Shootings

by Angus Johnston

I’ve been asked about this a couple of times, so here’s my take…

A new analysis of an audiotape recorded at the time of the May 4, 1970 Kent State shootings suggests — to at least one researcher — that pistol shots were fired not long before National Guard troops opened fire on antiwar protesters on the Ohio campus, killing four students.

In my experience, acoustic analysis is as much art as science, and any one expert’s claim should be taken with a grain of salt. What’s on the tape may be gunfire, and it may not.

Representative Dennis Kucinich is promising to lead an investigation into this new evidence, and that seems

The Answer Sheet - Kudos for D.C. school meal program but hold applause for Congress

The Answer Sheet - Kudos for D.C. school meal program but hold applause for Congress

Kudos for D.C. school meal program but hold applause for Congress

D.C. public schools officials deserve an ovation for a new program to feed dinner to about 10,000 students in an effort to help improve childhood nutrition and ensure that kids don’t go hungry. But let's hold the applause for Congress. As my colleague Bill Turque reported here, the D.C. schools are now serving dinner in 99 of its 123 schools, reaching nearly a quarter of the students in the district, many of whom now eat three meals a day at school. The program is an acknowledgment that the effects of poverty and food insecurity are significant and can affect a child’s ability to do well in school. The irony in this is that the city’s soon-to-be-departed schools chancellor, Michelle Rhee, has repeatedly downplayed the role of poverty in student achievement gaps and has even called it “an excuse” for bad teaching.

Schools Matter: White Billionaire Boys' Club to Save Poor People of Color with Apartheid Schooling?

Schools Matter: White Billionaire Boys' Club to Save Poor People of Color with Apartheid Schooling?

White Billionaire Boys' Club to Save Poor People of Color with Apartheid Schooling?

by Jim Horn

Email notice from Rethinking Schools:

In the article “Ultimate $uperpower: Supersized dollars drive Waiting for Superman agenda,” investigative journalist Barbara Miner looks at the money behind the movie, its promoters and those who will benefit from the movie. She writes, “In education, as in so many other aspects of society, money is being used to squeeze out democracy.” After examining the role of hedge funds,

School Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Now Dinner Too? - District 299: Chicago Public Schools Blog

School Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Now Dinner Too? - District 299: Chicago Public Schools Blog

School Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Now Dinner Too?

by Alexander Russo

Free and reduced price lunch has long been part of federal and some state school meal programs, and breakfasts and weekend supplements are increasingly common. Now Washington DC is expanding a pilot dinnertime meal program at its schools, according to this Washington Post article (D.C. schools dinner program aims to fight childhood hunger). "The District is going a step further in 99 of its 123 schools and reaching nearly

8:00 AM (12 minutes ago)

PFAD: Pay To Play Principal

by Alexander Russo

The Tribune is reporting that this year's PFAD form includes a $1000 donation requirement (CPS Principal for a Day): The registration form for the Thursday event asked participants to pledge at least $1,000 in cash or services to their assigned schools, a move that has prompted 40 to 50 calls to CPS headquarters. CPS has responded as follows, claiming that it was a suggestion not a requirement: "In response to feedback received last year, CPS this year slightly altered the format of PFAD to allow participants more time in schools and more clearly define the nature of the partnerships. The forms PFADs were asked to fill out