Bloggers are describing their interpretation of The Every Child Achieves Act of 2015. I wanted to add my concerns. Here is the summary of the Act. Here is the long version. First, I am not a fan of what states and even the local school districts have done to public schools. So I don’t get […]
Blaming Teachers While Students Self-Destruct
Two recent articles, and published comments, unfairly incriminate teachers as those who fail students. One comes from The Independent today, “‘Exam Factories’ Conditions at School Causing Children to Self-Harm, Says New Research” and is about the serious issue of students there harming themselves due to the high pressure of exams. The other article, from yesterday, […]
How to Grow Good Teachers
Here is how those who have power could help teachers in public schools if they really wanted to. They are in no special order. I included these in the post about Nancie Atwell the other day, but I think they are worthy of standing alone. I didn’t want them overshadowed by the Nancie Atwell discussion. […]
Bill Gates’s Double Standards and High Tech High K-12 Schools
Here is a good example of what I would call double standards relating to traditional public schools and charter schools–more specifically the High Tech High K-12 Schools. High Tech High Charter Schools, computer/project driven schools, dot the landscape in California. They started out as one charter in 2000, run by San Diego business leaders and […]
The End of the Road for PUBLIC SCHOOL Teachers? I Don’t Think So!
Is it the end of the road for public school teachers? It seems like a bad sign when a respected teacher wins an award for teaching, and during a conversation afterwards on CNN, tells young people to go into teaching only if they enter the private sector. Last week Main teacher Nancie Atwell became the […]
The Stealth Campaign Against Public Schools and the Public Space
By Sheila Resseger, M.A. Instead of seeing these children for the blessings that they are, we are measuring them only by the standard of whether they will be future deficits or assets for our nation’s competitive needs. Jonathan Kozol Our children, our families, our neighborhoods, our public schools, and our democracy itself have become pawns […]
Arrogant Columnists Who Love High-Stakes Tests
I probably would have ignored a recent smug opinion piece by Beth Kassab in the Orlando Sentinel, who scoffs at parents who choose opting their children out of the tests. But another snotty write-up in a similar vein by Mike Thomas, from Jeb Bush’s Foundation of Excellence, followed quickly on its heels. I’ll start with […]
“Peeping Pearson” and Depersonalizing A Student’s Understanding of Right from Wrong
The superior man understands what is right; the inferior man understands what will sell. ― Confucius Hidden within this past weekend’s Peeping Pearson spying incident is a problem that is pervasive and increasing across the country—student cheating. Bob Braun, former education reporter and news editor for The Star-Ledger, blogged about a student being monitored on […]
Making Schools the “Best in the World”
Words of wisdom from across the pond. By Leah K. Stewart You know those fist-pumping speeches that invariably include the line, make this nation’s schooling the best in the world! Almost without exception we hear this wherever national schooling exists: US, UK, Canada, Australia… Am I the only one who shudders at this wholly accepted […]
Special Education Vouchers Likened to “Puppy Mills”
Mississippi Rep. Cecil Brown (D-Jackson) said, in reference to vouchers for students with disabilities, “You are getting ready to open the equivalent of puppy mills for children.” Brown expressed concern that parents would be scammed and would lose out on services for their children. Mississippi politicians are trying to pass a voucher bill for students […]