Maya Angelou, the educator’s voice rang out loud and it rang out clear. Though not a credentialed teacher, she educated all of us about life’s challenges and the ability to overcome life’s difficulties. She was an inspiration to all of us. She left us with so much that can be used to teach young people […]
Common Core Camps of Confusion and Strife—What’s For Dinner?
There has been a lot of confusion and controversy over different camps and what they think about Common Core State Standards (CCSS). While everyone is posturing and arguing who is right and which political group is shaking hands with which other group, or who we shouldn’t shake hands with, students continue to be tested to […]
Butterfly in the Sky? Educational Programs for Children
There has been a lot of buzz over Levar Burton’s Kickstarter campaign, here, to bring Reading Rainbow back as an app. Sorry for you folks who don’t have access to Netflix Streaming, iPad, iPhones, Xbox, or computer internet TV. There will be no butterfly in the sky returning to PBS. If you are lucky, and […]
Au Revoir NOLA Public Schools
They can call charter schools public schools all they want. They will never be public until they accept ALL children and hire credentialed teachers, led by actual school administrators who understand children and how they learn. How sad for New Orleans. How sad for a country that was conned into thinking charters were going to […]
So Now You Can Read the PARCC and Smarter Balanced Tests to Students with Disabilities?
Ed. Week is having a live chat this Thursday afternoon, 3 to 4 ET, to discuss PARCC and Smarter Balanced accommodations for students with disabilities. They say this assessment will “offer the promise of more inclusion and self-sufficiency for students with special needs and English-language learners.” How any assessment is going to do all that […]
Can We Afford to Lay Off Public School Guidance Counselors?
Is there a movement to lay off guidance counselors, even college and career counselors, in public schools? With the “everyone should attend college” movement, you wouldn’t think so. In fact, the need would seem to be to hire more counselors. Still, there are signs…. See here in Michigan for example. Or here in California. Or […]
Always Give Students a Chance
In my freshman year in college I signed up for Art 101. The class was merry and a nice respite from all the reading and testing involved with hard core basic subjects freshmen take. Make no mistake I was no future Rembrandt. But I enjoyed the class so much that I boldly signed up for […]
The Continuing Bizarre Message That We MUST Test Students with Severe Disabilities—Say NO!
I wish I were a judge and had some of these ed. reformers who believe tests are more important than children come before me. Honestly. I’d send them to jail. Mandates written to play Gottcha with children’s services, intentionally designed to get rid of services and teachers, are wrong. America shouldn’t be the place to […]
Brown v. Board of Education—Still Further Apart than Ever Before On Its Anniversary
On the anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education I don’t believe we are working on the issue of school integration in the least when it comes to public schools. Here are the two biggest examples: 1. In 2010, the UCLA Civil Rights Project determined that charter schools “isolate students by race and class” yet charter […]
The Little Engine That Derailed—How Aligning Books to Skills Kills the Joy of Reading
It is one thing for a child to read The Little Engine That Could for the pleasure of the story and quite another for her to comprehend the inner workings of a locomotive. ~Joanne Yatvin, former public school educator, a past president of the National Council of Teachers of English, and a former member of […]