As the curtains close on 2011, take a moment to remember the year that was on Flypaper by revisiting the most-read posts:
1. The Obama Administration’s war on Stuyvesant and Thomas Jefferson
Mike explained how ED’s crusade for racial diversity may have some unintended and unfortunate effects on America’s best magnet schools.
2. Osama bin Laden: What our children need to know
Checker took a moment to reflect on Osama bin Laden’s death and the lessons we should draw from the post-9/11 decade.
3. The qualities of a good teacher: A student’s perspective
Penelope Placide, a ninth-grade student at Don Bosco Cristo Rey High School who worked at Fordham last spring as part of her school’s Corporate Work Study Program, explained what she found when she surveyed her classmates on what it takes to be a good teacher.
4. K12 Inc. CEO Ron Packard responds to NYTimes’ criticism
The final months of 2011 witnessed a flurry of scathing articles on the merits of online learning from The Nation, the Washington Post, the New York Times, and others. In this post, the head of the nation’s largest online learning company made his defense.
5. The ends of education reform
Mike tried to bring a sense of realism to what we might expect in terms of improved student achievement for the 1 million poor students entering Kindergarten this fall.
6. Fordham responds to the Common Core “counter-manifesto”
Mike and Checker teamed up to defend the Common Core and counter the counter-manifesto published by Jay Greene and Bill Evers, among others, in response to May’s Shanker Institute manifesto on a common curriculum. (Confused? Read on.)
7. Understanding upper-middle-class parents
Mike wondered what it would take to get all parents fired up for education reform…and whether leaving NCLB alone might be the surest route.
8. Dealing with disingenuous teachers unions: There are no shortcuts
Asking if teachers unions’ political influence has made local control untenable earned Mike plenty of feedback from across the political spectrum.
9. Alfie Kohn: Read your Lisa Delpit
Mike argued that, despite what Alfie Kohn may say, what works for affluent kids may not be right for students growing up in poverty—a point Lisa Delpit made 25 years ago.
10. What Kevin Carey didn’t say about Diane Ravitch, but should have
Disagreeing on policy is one thing, but Mike explained that Kevin Carey crossed a line when he questioned Diane Ravitch’s personal integrity.
…and, to make it an even (odd?) 11 for 2011, the most tweeted post of the year:
11. A Pedagogy of Practice
Kathleen followed up Mike’s take on Alfie Kohn’s “pedagogy of poverty” commentary by arguing the achievement gap is “really little more than a practice gap.” But most critically, she included the following factoid, which quickly went viral on Twitter: “By the time s/he starts Kindergarten, the average middle class student has been exposed to 1,700 hours of one-on-one reading. Do you know how many hours of reading the average disadvantaged student has been exposed to by Kindergarten? 25. That’s 1.4 percent of their middle class peers.”
Get ready for more insightful and entertaining commentary in 2012...and a new look for the blog. Happy New Year!
