Commentary
Zuckerberg 2.0: Cami Anderson and Newark
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.
Commentary
Snyder Doing What's Best For Michigan, But Young Teachers Will Suffer
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.
Commentary
Who's to blame for the pension shortfall?
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.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction
Alfie Kohn: Read your Lisa Delpit
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.
Commentary
Save the interns: Part 2
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.
Commentary
Crisis update
?Today's NAEP results confirm that we have a crisis on our hands when it comes to civics education,?
Commentary
Education news nuggets
Although some adults do a disservice to students on Facebook, college applications, and
Commentary
Quotable & notable
?We tend to provide less funding, have fewer outstanding teachers and principals, and require less rigorous coursework in schools that serve lower-income students.
Commentary
Charter Schools
A pedagogy of practice
I've already weighed in on Alfie Kohn's ?pedagogy of poverty? article that appeared in Ed Week last week.
Commentary
Safeguard democracy first: School boards will fix themselves
Though I thought the recent Fordham discussion about whether school boards were a ?vital?
Commentary
Charter Schools
What are markets for?
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):
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction
Save the interns: Part 1
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.
Commentary
Education news nuggets
Yes, things are changing. Wiki's are certainly making the grade?even 5-year olds get i-Pads to ensure success.
Commentary
Quotable & notable
?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
Commentary
Squaring the Teacher Salary Circle: It Can be Done
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,?
Commentary
Maintenance of effort requirement too expensive for Montgomery County
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:
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction
Osama bin Laden: What our children need to know
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.
Commentary
Quotable & notable
?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...
Commentary
Commentary
New Jersey governor visits Harvard School of Education: Sparks don't fly
According to today's New York Times Chris Christie went to ?the heart of liberal darkness? yesterday ? and kept his cool.?
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction
Pedagogy of the lost: Alfie Kohn strikes again
Alfie Kohn is the latest to weigh in on ?the pedagogy of poverty,? as he calls it, with his ?How Education Reform Traps Poor Children? commentary in Education Week ?
Commentary
The next generation
Mopati Morake will graduate shortly from Williams College. He was born in Botswana but finished high school in Hong Kong.
Commentary
Education news nuggets
There will be no more crying over spilled strawberry and chocolate milk in some schools, but at least you can get
Commentary
The problems of education governance in the 21st century
[caption id="" align="alignright" width="250" caption="Click to watch a video of this commentary, as part of Fordham's recent event Are School Boards Vital in the 21st Century?"]
Commentary
A sharper focus on education governance
Education ?reforms? abound today, yet the sluggish pace of actual changes wrought by those new policies, programs, and practices demands a fresh look at public education's basic structures and operating arrangements. What America needs in the twenty-first century is a far more fundamental approach to ?re-forming? K-12 education. Our ?marble cake?
Commentary
Quotable & notable
?It's not about giving up on public schools but it is about acknowledging that right now, when you step back, [only] 8 percent of low-income kids can expect to get a bachelor's degree by the time they're 24. ...
Commentary
Charter Schools
A lesson from KIPP
Andrew Rotherham turns in a nice column for Time magazine in which he reports on the findings of a study of the rates of college completion by graduates of the Knowledge is Power Program.
Commentary
Education news nuggets
Great news! There is a new honorable title for schools?a ?Green Ribbon' school.
Commentary
Podcast: Education policy: 0; royal wedding: 1
Mike and Janie look into the crystal ball of edu-policy, making predictions on the sustainability of the local school board, potential backlash to reform, and the market's role in education. Amber blows holes in the teacher-quality-gap line of reasoning and Chris gets salty about pepper spray. [powerpress]
Commentary
Quotable & notable
?There is not a single school factor that has more of an effect on student learning than teacher quality. It's more important than shrinking class sizes or building state-of-the-art science labs.''*