Latest News and Comment from Education

Friday, February 21, 2014

2-21-14 Schools Matter

Schools Matter:








Tony Bennett's Chewytrain Lands in Camden
by Doug MartinOne of the most embarrassing moments of Tony Bennett’s rein as Indiana’s corporate school chief (and there were many) was when his partner Dale Chu (better known as @chewytrain), happy as a teenage girl at a Jonas Brothers' concert (one of the Jonas Brothers, by the way, loves to perform at for-profit school Rocketship events), tweeted his admiration of the filthy rich out to privati
Our focus should be on protecting children from the impact of poverty.
Published in the Wall Street Journal, February 21.Response to: "A progressive education" (Editorial, Feb. 14)Your editorial sends the message that our public schools are failing. They aren't. When researchers control for the effects of poverty, American schools rank near the top of the world. Our overall scores are unspectacular because the child poverty rate in the U.S. is very high, 23


Parthenon Group Advises Schools, Education Industry, and Investors: How Could They Ever Lose?
The billions of ready cash from No Child Left Behind provided an  dollar-powered incubator for the birth of the modern day education industry.  State and local education agencies in search of quick solutions to meet NCLB’s impossible demands desperately turned to business solutions, ranging from direct instruction products to more expansive plans for corporatization of schools and school governanc




2-20-14 Schools Matter
Schools Matter: Meaningful work or coercion?Sent to the Oregonian, Feb. 19Joanne Yatvin's description of how "Meaningful work keeps students in school," (Feb. 18) includes small class sizes, sports teams that allowed all comers to join and play, teacher collaboration with time to meet during the school day, plays and musical events that included all interested students, emphasis on build