Say yes to the watercress
The New York Times reports on the creative and healthful lunches being cooked up at private schools in and near New York City.
The New York Times reports on the creative and healthful lunches being cooked up at private schools in and near New York City.
?This current effort to portray teachers as fat cats, feeding at the public trough with no concern for their students, has got to stop. So, too, must the effort to spin research on the importance of quality teachers to suggest that quality teachers are the only thing that matters.'' *
I received a lot of responses to the ?Pedagogy of Practice? post I wrote the other day. Many were positive.
An article in today's Akron Beacon Journal ?about school turnaround caught my eye.
Yet more proof that to some anti-reformers, adults inside the education system are more important than everyone else ? a guest blogger at Valerie Strauss's place says reformers lack empathy:
While there is certainly a debate for the best ways of teaching this particular lesson, a few things are for sure: There should be
This is a guest post by Diane Ravitch, in response to "A Pedagogy of Practice" by Kathleen Porter-Magee.
"I like the fact that [my son] now has kids in his classes from all races, all ethnicities. Potomac was very homogeneous. I think he had maybe one African-American teacher at Hoover.'' * ?Roxana Moayedi, DCPS Parent
Mike and Rick are all sorts of punchy this week, talking civics lessons, philanthropic giving, and Arne Duncan's teacher pandering. Amber breaks the piggy bank with a look at teacher-pension plans while Chris gets meta in the Big Apple. [powerpress]
As you may know, last week we hosted a terrific event here at the Fordham Institute, Are Local School Boards Vital in 21st Century America?
Catherine Gewertz reports today that New Hampshire Republicans have introduced a bill that would, it seems, all but undo the State Board of Education's decision to adopt the Common Core last July. She explains:
Just in the nick of time, another Teach for America / Joel Klein School of Big City Reform alumnus is heading off to take the reins of a troubled city school district.
Michigan Governor Rick Snyder is a new name in education circles, but not to me. Having lived in the state my whole life, I proudly supported him from the days his popular, ?One Tough Nerd,? ads started popping on TV in early 2010.
Unions are not to blame for the severity of public pension shortfalls, but that doesn't mean that taking a hard look at collective bargaining is a bad idea. Matthew Di Carlo at Shanker Blog called yesterday for pols and commentators to stop blaming the nation's public pension issues on collective bargaining.
Alfie Kohn's Education Week commentary about the "pedagogy of poverty" has sparked a renewed debate about which kind of education is "best" for poor kids?and whether it's the same as what affluent children get.
Yesterday's post, ?Save the interns: Part 1,? noted that higher education is frequently complicit in, and occasionally precipitates, the misrepresentation as ?internships? of mundane, tedious jobs to be staffed by unpaid workers.
?Today's NAEP results confirm that we have a crisis on our hands when it comes to civics education,?
Although some adults do a disservice to students on Facebook, college applications, and
?We tend to provide less funding, have fewer outstanding teachers and principals, and require less rigorous coursework in schools that serve lower-income students.
I've already weighed in on Alfie Kohn's ?pedagogy of poverty? article that appeared in Ed Week last week.
Though I thought the recent Fordham discussion about whether school boards were a ?vital?
Markets are a tool with many uses, and we employ them broadly in our society because on balance they create a lot of good. Kevin Welner doesn't see it that way, however, especially in education (PDF):
Ross Perlin's new book Intern Nation: How to Earn Nothing and Learn Little in the Brave New Economy?removes the comedy from the tableau of the keen,?fresh-faced intern, set on changing the world yet?so far struggling to change even the toner in the office copy machine.
Yes, things are changing. Wiki's are certainly making the grade?even 5-year olds get i-Pads to ensure success.
?Teachers want to be evaluated fairly and we want to be evaluated on the things that really matter.'' * ?Michelle Shearer, 2011 Teacher of the Year
A few days ago Dave Eggers and Ninive Clements Calegari, founders, according to their official ID, of the 826 National tutoring centers and producers of the documentary ?American Teacher,?
Montgomery County, Maryland, one of the wealthiest and highest-performing large school districts in the country, is likely to reduce its level of per-pupil spending, in violation of a state maintenance of effort requirement. This means giving up an estimated $29 million in state aid in 2013:
The U.S. didn't triumph over terrorism today but its brave fighting men won a crucial battle when they rid the world of Osama bin Laden. Bravo for them?and may his soul suffer eternal damnation.
?Working together, we can transform teaching from the factory model designed over a century ago to one built for the information age. We can build an accountability system based on data we trust and a standard that is honest...