The Answer Sheet - Willingham: Close to a magic bullet in education

The Answer Sheet - Willingham: Close to a magic bullet in education

Willingham: Close to a magic bullet in education

My guest today is cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham, a psychology professor at the University of Virginia and author of “Why Don’t Students Like School?” By Daniel Willingham No one talks about “magic bullets” in education, except to warn that something is not one. Recent work in social psychology may bring us as close to a magic bullet at we’re likely to get. The intervention concerns gender and achievement gaps, those groups of students who persistently perform worse than we would expect. For example, women represent only about 25% of the PhDs in the physical sciences. There’s no evidence that they are any less capable than men, but they earn worse grades in college physics courses, and thus are less competitive for spots in graduate school. Many are likely discouraged from even applying.

ASCD Inservice: Merit Pay: Logic Turned on Its Head

ASCD Inservice: Merit Pay: Logic Turned on Its Head

Merit Pay: Logic Turned on Its Head Merit-pay debates smack of something out of Alice in Wonderland. Merit-pay advocates want to make it about money—until they don't want to make it about money. If teachers could get a deal like Wall Street bankers, bonuses would look good...

Why Merit Pay Won't Cost Us More One of my great frustrations of late is hearing reporters or policymakers ask, "How in the world can anyone afford merit-pay proposals in today's strapped budget environment?" The query always leaves me banging my head on my desk because it...

Report: Rhee starting advocacy group

Report: Rhee starting advocacy group

GALLERY

The chancellorship of Michelle A. Rhee

Controversial D.C. schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee will announce her resignation on Wednesday, nearly four years after she was brought in by Mayor Adrian M. Fenty to improve the city's languishing public education system.

» LAUNCH PHOTO GALLERY

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By Nick Anderson

Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, December 6, 2010; 9:59 AM

Former D.C. schools chancellor Michelle A. Rhee will take another step Monday to build her brand as an education reformer.

THIS STORY

• Report: Rhee starting advocacy group
• Answer Sheet: Extent of Rhee's new role unclear
• Your Take: Is Florida a good choice for Rhee?

View All Items in This Story

Word from Politico is that Rhee will soon unveil a national advocacy group related to parents, teachers and students via "Oprah" on television, then Newsweek.

Rhee could not be reached Monday morning for comment.

But a source close to Rhee and the new organization told The Post there would be an announcement on

The Circular Logic of Quality-Based Layoff Arguments « School Finance 101

The Circular Logic of Quality-Based Layoff Arguments « School Finance 101

The Circular Logic of Quality-Based Layoff Arguments

by schoolfinance101

Many pundits are responding enthusiastically to the new LA Times article on quality-based layoffs - or how dismissing teachers based on Value-added scores rather than on seniority would have saved LAUSD many of its better teachers, rather than simply saving its older ones.

Some are pointing out that this new LA Times report is the “right” way to use value-added as compared with the “wrong” way that LA Times had used the information previously this year.

Recently, I explained the problematic circular logic being used to support these “quality-based layoff” arguments. Obviously, if we dismiss teachers based on “true” quality measures, rather than experience which is, of course, not correlated with “true” quality measures, then we save the jobs of good teachers and get rid of bad ones. Simple enough? Not so. Here’s my explanation, once again.

This argument draws on an interesting thought piece and simulation posted a

University of Puerto Rico Heating Up Again « Student Activism

University of Puerto Rico Heating Up Again « Student Activism

University of Puerto Rico Heating Up Again

by Angus Johnston

A student was arrested — and reportedly assaulted by cops — as she and two friends attempted to block an entrance to the Rio Piedras campus of the University of Puerto Rico this morning. (Link | Google Translation)

UPR was closed for two months this spring by a massive student strike. At the time, students were able to negotiate a settlement on extremely favorable terms, but administrators have since reneged on one of their major promises — an abandonment of planned fee increases.

With plans in place for a tuition hike of $800 in the coming semester, students have approved a plan for a new

It’s a cold day for working folks. And kids. « Fred Klonsky's blog

It’s a cold day for working folks. And kids. « Fred Klonsky's blog

It’s a cold day for working folks. And kids.

by Fred Klonsky

In Chicago the temperature was 6 degrees when I rolled out of bed at 5AM this morning.

When the kids walk into my room it may get up to 9 degrees.

Park Ridge isn’t a poor town. But our building is 60 years old and so is the boiler that heats it. The board of education is having trouble figuring out how to pay for a new boiler.

In preparation for a morning like this the custodian has to come in on Sundays to crank the old thing up so that the building will be tolerable today.

Even then, some days in January kids have to wear their coats and gloves until about noon on Mondays because the rooms are so cold. We have no AC, so in August and June the rooms are so hot that we take the kids outside to cool off. When it rains in the Spring, some hallways are covered with worms that flow in with the rainwater that seeps in under the doorways. The swings haven’t been in the playground for several years

Schools Matter: Rethinking Schools Has Important Piece by Stan Karp

Schools Matter: Rethinking Schools Has Important Piece by Stan Karp

Rethinking Schools Has Important Piece by Stan Karp

by Jim Horn

From Rethinking Schools:

Dear Friends of Rethinking Schools,


As Waiting for "Superman" makes its way across the country, the "reform" agenda it promotes is producing both problems and pushback. In a new article now available at NOTwaitingforsuperman.org, Rethinking Schools editor Stan Karp looks at how "Superhero School Reform" is playing out in New Jersey and heading your way:
"In New Jersey, an odd alliance of Oprah Winfrey, Facebook billionaire Mark Zuckerberg, Republican Gov. Chris Christie, and 'rock star mayor'

Schools Matter: Stop Wishing: Obama Must Go!

Schools Matter: Stop Wishing: Obama Must Go!

Stop Wishing: Obama Must Go!

by Jim Horn

It is one thing for Frank Rich to say it, but quite another for Dr. King's personal counsel to make the case for dumping Obama in 2012.

A clip from a very important commentary at HuffPo by Clarence Jones, Scholar in Residence, Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University (my bolds):

. . . . However, nothing influenced me more to write this blog than listening, again, carefully to some of the lyrics of Bob Dylan's "Blowin in The Wind."

How many roads most a man walk down Before you call him a man? Yes, how many times must the cannon balls fly
Before they're forever banned?
The answer my friend is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind.

Yes, how many times can a man turn his head
Pretending he just doesn't see?
The answer my friend is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind.

Damn Good Education Daily

Damn Good Education Daily

Damn Good Education Daily

Walk Up And Donate Yourself — The Jose Vilson

thejosevilson.com - Local HeroOut of the hundreds of e-mails I get every day, I always catch one that I thought had a shred of authenticity, but ends up just annoying the hell out of me. This time, I came across an e-...

TheJLV

Teacher Common Sense takes on Education "Reform" Nonsense - Living in Dialogue

blogs.edweek.org - The past decade we have seen drastic changes affecting our schools, and many of these changes defy what we know as teachers and parents to be in the best interests of our children. We have allowed ...

TeacherReality

What do you want to talk about during this week's (12/7) #edchat? (via @web20classroom)

twtpoll.com - Total: 24 votes 1) What does constructivism looks like in different subjects? Can we find specific examples? [ 17% (4 votes) ] 2) What are the real versus imaginary dangers of technology? [ 33%...

tomwhitby

Schools likely on Schwarzenegger’s hit list

toped.svefoundation.org - $1.7 billion deferral could be a fat targetBy Democrats aren’t likely to pay much attention to the midyear budget cuts and ideas for closing a $25 billion deficit that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger i...

jfenster

Fewer fancy tests, less hiding of exams

pheedcontent.com - Besides this Monday Metro column, I write my Class Struggle column every Thursday for the Local Living section. It focuses on parents. When I move to California next year I hope to rename it “The S...

Half Moon Bay conference explores ideas for school reform - San Jose Mercury News

Half Moon Bay conference explores ideas for school reform - San Jose Mercury News

Half Moon Bay conference explores ideas for school reform

By Neil Gonzales

ngonzales@bayareanewsgroup.com

Posted: 12/05/2010 03:55:38 PM PST

Updated: 12/05/2010 11:12:49 PM PST

About 200 educators, students, researchers and others have converged in Half Moon Bay to explore and develop innovative ideas to improve education.

The Big Ideas Fest tackles such challenging questions as: How can we ensure that new technologies flourish, and how can we make education relevant to all today's students at all levels of learning?

The event started Sunday and runs until Wednesday at the Ritz-Carlton hotel. It's produced by the Half Moon Bay-based nonprofit Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education and sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and other organizations.

"Our education system is at a crossroads," said Lisa Petrides, the institute's president. "We need big change, but

10 Things Charter Schools Won't Tell You - Spending - Rip-offs - SmartMoney.com

10 Things Charter Schools Won't Tell You - Spending - Rip-offs - SmartMoney.com

10 Things Charter Schools Won't Tell You

RELATED ARTICLES AND VIDEOS

• 10 Things Your School District Won't Tell You
• 10 Things 529 Providers Won't Tell You
• 10 Things Graduate Schools Won't Tell You

1. We're no better than public schools.

For all the hype about a few standout schools, charter schools in general aren’t producing better results than traditional public schools. A national study by the Center for Research on Education Outcomes at Stanford found that while 17% of charter schools produced better results than neighborhood public schools, 37% were significantly worse, and the rest were no different. (Not that public schools are perfect, as many parents know. See our earlier story, “10 Things Your School District Won’t Tell You,” for more.)

A host of other studies on charter school outcomes have come up with sometimes contradictory results. As with traditional public schools, there are great charters – and some that aren’t so great. “There’s a lot of variation within charter schools,” points out Katrina Bulkley, an associate professor of education at Montclair State University who studies issues related to school governance. “In fairness to organizations that are running high-performing schools, many of them are very frustrated with the range of quality, because they feel that it taints charter schools as a whole,” Bulkley says.

2. Our teachers aren’t certified.

According to data from the National Center for Education Statistics, charter-school teachers are, on average, younger and less likely to hold state certification than teachers in traditional public schools. In a 2000 survey, 92% of public school teachers held state certification, compared to 79% of charter school teachers. A 2008 survey found that 32% of charter school teachers were under 30, compared to 17% of traditional public school teachers. Charter schools often recruit from organizations like Teach for America that provide non-traditional paths into the profession, and more-experienced teachers who already have jobs in traditional public schools may have little incentive to give

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