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Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Jersey Jazzman: Why Are We Listening To Joel Klein?

Jersey Jazzman: Why Are We Listening To Joel Klein?:


Why Are We Listening To Joel Klein?

If Ben and Jerry chaired a task force that concluded that American children needed more rich, chocolaty swirls in their diets, would anyone take them seriously?

So why does anyone care about what Joel Klein has to say about education? The man is paid millions to make Rupert Murdoch boatloads of money off of the privatization of American schools. Guess what his prescription for our made up eduction problems is?
The Klein-Rice report makes three broad recommendations to fix the stated problem.
It calls for:
* expanding the Common Core State Standard initiative to include subjects beyond math 


Do Older Teachers Suck?

Mitt Romney seems to think so:
The former Massachusetts governor continued his criticism of unions on Sunday at a town hall meeting in Vernon Hills, Ill. "We should pay our beginning teachers more," he said, according to Crystal Lake Patch. "The national unions are too interested in benefits for the older teachers."
I don't know why they would be: younger teachers pay the same dues as older teachers (at least, they do in New Jersey). The implication here is that the hated unions are protecting burned-out older teachers, who aren't nearly as effective and able to "connect" with their students as younger teachers.

I've tried to find some academic studies about this, but my first look has come up blank. Is there any evidence