?Time is running out. Without political leadership willing to take risks and build support for ?radical reform,? and without a citizenry willing to insist on those reforms, our schools will continue to decline.'' *
Here we go again.? The newest buzz phrase in education:? deeper thought. Or deep thinking. Or deep learning. Deep is suddenly everywhere.
At first blush, it would appear that former Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings and Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels have a lot in common. Both served as cabinet members in the George W. Bush Administration. Both are viewed as pragmatic centrists. And both hold strong school reform instincts. [quote]
Former New York Times education correspondent Gene Maeroff decided to get his hands dirty when he ran for his local school board in central New Jers
?We'll have to do more with less, and we'll see class sizes going up? the issue for me is making sure we have an effective teacher in front of the classroom'' * ?Dennis Walcott, New York City Schools Chancellor
According to The Nation, ?thousands of working people, students, seniors, people on public assistance, and community activists? will be descending on Wall Street this Thursday ?to protest ?the city's billionaire mayor's?
The jury is out?should we leave it up to the growing proportion of young people or the elderly experts?
This is a guest post from Diana Senechal, written in response to my post, Private School Idolatry and the Case of the Missing Solution.
Diana Senechal wrote a thoughtful response to my post Private School Idolatry and the Case of the Missing Solution. In it, she argues tha
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:
The New York Times reports on the creative and healthful lunches being cooked up at private schools in and near New York City.
My name is Mike and I'm a Twitter-holic. It started innocently enough. My friends were doing it, so I decided to join them. I'd send a tweet here, a tweet there, maybe retweet something funny I read.
?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.'' *
While there is certainly a debate for the best ways of teaching this particular lesson, a few things are for sure: There should be
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.
"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?
This is a guest post by Diane Ravitch, in response to "A Pedagogy of Practice" by Kathleen Porter-Magee.
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):
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,?
