University president: Can anyone differ with Arne Duncan ‘without being dismissed as silly’?
U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan has been in the news lately for his fervent defense of the Common Core State Standards and simultaneous criticism of those who oppose it and some of his other education initiatives, including a proposal for the Education Department to create a collegiate rating system. Here is a look at Duncan’s […]
UDC drops psychics, history but keeps money-losing sports program. Really.
This isn’t a joke: The University of District of Columbia, which was desperate to cut costs, is eliminating 17 low-enrolled academic programs — including physics, history and economics — but is keeping for now an NCAA Division II athletics program that cost $3 million more last year than it generated in revenue. That was the decision of the […]
JFK’s Harvard application (with essay) and other school records
The 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy this Friday has prompted an avalanche of coverage about his life and death, including today’s visit to his graveside at Arlington Cemetery by President Obama and former President Bill Clinton. Here’s a look at something that hasn’t got much attention: his education. The John F. Kennedy […]
Surprising new research on school funding
Matthew P. Steinberg and Rand Quinn, assistant professors in the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania, are giving testimony on Wednesday to the Philadelphia City Council Committee on Education about new research findings about the Philadelphia public schools and how they have performed in the face of extreme underfunding from the state. Here’s […]
If math gives you anxiety, watch this
Does math scare you or your child? Here’s a four-minute pep talk by an engaging math major who goes by “Mathematigal” First she amusingly runs down the reactions she gets when she tells people she studies math “on purpose,” including ”Oh, my brain’s just not built for that,” or “I’m more creative,” or “Oh, wow.” Then […]
A debate: What do international test scores tell us?
I published a post last week, headlined “The fetishization of international test scores,” that, as the title suggests, discusses how school reformers inappropriately obsess about international test scores. Some people in the education world took issue with with my views, including Marc Tucker, president of the non-profit National Center on Education and the Economy, an internationally […]
Nine ways to improve schools in the nation’s largest district
The election of Bill de Blasio, a progressive Democrat, as the next mayor in New York City could mean big changes in the nation’s largest school district, which for 12 years has been the subject of corporate-influenced and standardized test-based school reform. A group of New Yorkers recently got together to start to set an […]
11-19-13 The Answer Sheet
The Answer Sheet: ‘White suburban mom’ responds to Arne DuncanParent Ali Gordon has written an open letter to Education Secretary Arne Duncan that starts like this: I am a white suburban mom, and I’m reaching out to you in an effort to explain what seems to be very confusing to you. Gordon’s letter (see below) is part of backlash that resulted from Duncan’s remarks on […] 100+ by Valerie Straus