If Bill Gates had no money, who would listen to him about education reform?
In 2013, again, U.S. political leaders and the public appear disgusted with a public education system, but this sentiment has been with us since the Committee of Ten declared education inadequate in the 1890s. We must, then, come to terms with two facts: (1) We must drop Utopian claims about education because education is not the sole key to overcoming social failures, but a single element in the larger working of our society, (2) claims of crisis in education are misleading since the problems we are considering (student outcomes and drop-out rates, for example) are patterns that have existed for over a century.
Many are arguing that the new reformers must be valued since they are creating a debate about education and rattling the cage of an entrenched status quo that is failing. I find this argument weak since we have no evidence that inexpert celebrity claims are resulting in a close consideration of what is truly wrong with our schools and what should be pursued to create the world-class schools we claim
@AFTUnion Moratorium Has a Purpose: Thy Name is #PARCC
AFT’s leadership has been on quite the crusade, which is reminiscent of the crusade pushed forward by the likes of David Coleman, Exxon-Mobil, Bill Gates, Arne Duncan, and many others. It can be summed up in six words:
Current tests bad;
Common Core good.
I have 4 problems with AFT’s current rally cry, which includes the tagline, “Put the brakes on the stakes.” Randi Weingarten, who has had a successful year of pulling publicity stunts to put herself into the hero chair, is leading the charge to push the hold button on state standardized testing in order to allow states and districts to
