Latest News and Comment from Education

Monday, September 8, 2014

9-8-14 Schools Matter

Schools Matter:








John Oliver's Takedown of Online Diploma Mills
Must see!!from the Consumerist:What would it look like if you condensed all our hundreds of stories about student loans and for-profit colleges into a profanity-filled, hilarious rant that takes a brief detour to discuss Lyndon Johnson’s scrotum? John Oliver answered that question on Sunday night.Just like it’s recently done with the payday loan industry, Dr. Oz, and net neutrality, Last Week Toni


Florida Charters Corrupt as Jeb Bush
By Michael Mayo Sun Sentinel Columnist  12:23 p.m. EDT, September 8, 2014 OK class, time for a pop quiz. If you want to open a charter school — a privately run school that gets public money — which of the following will you need to get approval?a) A suitable building for classesb) A proven background in education or business c) A past with no bankruptcies or major blemishesd) A computer with


NAEP, Common Core, and the Continued Production of Failure
For those who never knew Gerald Bracey's work, all I can say is you have a lot of catching up to do.  It was his writing in the Kappan in the 1990s that caught my attention, and then came his books.  He was a master at using his steel trap logic and his delightfully sharp pen to pop all the gas bags floating over the education policy centers of Washington, DC.  One of is favorite subjects was NAEP










9-7-14 Schools Matter All Week
Schools Matter: Gates Civ 101: The Antiseptic History MOOC Comes to High SchoolSome reporters for the New York Times pretend to be stupid enough to believe Bill Gates is out to simply make his favorite history course available to every high school student in America.  The bigger assumption by the New York Times is that the American people are as stupid as their "reporter" pretends to be.