Questions about whether America’s high schools should drop Advanced Placement (AP) classes, created a debate on social media. The fact that AP is driven by an outside money-making nonprofit, sometimes bothered parents and teachers, but not enough to end AP. Or, it did not seem to matter to some. The overriding question could be why […]
Why Not Ditch Advanced Placement (AP) Classes?
If you have a high school student with college on their mind, chances are you are saving to pay for the myriad of standardized Advanced Placement (AP) tests they will need to take at the end of their classes. Each test, one for each subject, is $93. Students in U.S. Department of Defense Dependents Schools […]
DeVos and False Claims of Failed Schools: How School Reform Hurts Children
The conviction that the best way to prepare children for a harsh, rapidly changing world is to introduce formal instruction at an early age is wrong. There is simply no evidence to support it, and considerable evidence against it. Starting children early academically has not worked in the past and is not working now. —David […]
Where Are the Celebrities Supporting Democratic Public Schools?
The Oscars are over and I wonder where the celebrities are when it comes to supporting public schools. Especially when so many dislike President Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, you would think at least one movie star would champion democratic public schools. Hello out there! Hey Hollywood and beyond! All of you who love […]
A For-Profit Charter ALTERNATIVE School?
A confusing article was just published by USA Today using the term “for-profit charter alternative school.” I’ve never seen a charter school described this way before. Charter schools and alternative schools are two different schools. And since Betsy DeVos is crookedly selling school choice to America, it is important to understand the difference. So I […]
Finland’s School Reforms are Troubling: 4 Reasons Why
Finland’s new curriculum means that schoolchildren will no longer need to sit down quietly in classrooms, since they will instead be able to choose where and how they study. In future there will not necessarily be any traditional enclosed classrooms. —“The Truth About Finnish Schools” This is Finland Finland’s schools have been admired for years. […]
How to Protest Against Betsy DeVos
Our schools are being starved into failure in order to justify mass privatization. —Timothy Meegan, Chicago Sun Times A while back, I attended a meeting at the University of Memphis where many of us were against the Relay Graduate School of Education—a reform group that recruits students out of their chosen careers and supplies unqualified […]
Educating Betsy DeVos
Betsy DeVos does not understand what it is like to teach in any school let alone poor public schools. She does not understand what the lives of real teachers and students are like. She does not understand the problems facing many of America’s children. These problems won’t be solved with a voucher. They also won’t […]
Dyslexia, The DeVos Vote, and a Senator’s Lost Credibility
There were several senators who I expected would change their vote on Betsy DeVos. In the end none of them did, and I think they need to called-out. Their votes for DeVos were especially unethical due to their past positions, or where they are from. I will write today about one, William Cassidy, M.D., who […]
Betsy DeVos, Democrats, and Good Theater
You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it. —Maya Angelou Betsy DeVos I think one thing Betsy DeVos has done is wake […]