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Nancy Bailey's Education Website

Revive, Rally and Recover Public Schools

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Reading Instruction—Same Old Ugly Story

December 30, 2013 By Nancy Bailey 7 Comments

A conversation on Facebook about reading became touchy yesterday, reminding me that you only need to scratch the surface to find serious differences when it comes to education and public policy. While many come together against Common Core State Standards, yesterday’s arguing resulted from the same old differences about how to approach reading…phonics or whole […]

Filed Under: Common Core, Reading, Special Education Tagged With: books, Common Core, community libraries, credentialed librarians, credentialed teachers, dyslexia, fiction, learning disabilities, nonfiction, phonics, reading, school libraries, small class sizes, whole language

Before Common Core—IDEA and Aligning IEPs to Regular Standards

December 26, 2013 By Nancy Bailey Leave a Comment

While Common Core’s focus on math and English language arts does nothing to address the needs of students with disabilities, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) re-authorizations weren’t great either. Much of IDEA (the changing of PL-94-142) was to make students with disabilities over into normalized regular ed. students. Individual Educational Plans were to […]

Filed Under: Common Core, Special Education, Technology Tagged With: Assistive Technology, Common Core, IDEA, IEP, Individual Educational Plan, individualized, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, personalized attention, standards

If You Feel Like Grandma Who Got Run Over By a Reindeer—Don’t Despair!

December 21, 2013 By Nancy Bailey Leave a Comment

If your child is doing well and you are happy about public school you probably don’t need to read any further. If your house is decorated well enough to win a Martha Stewart contest, and your Christmas dinner was cooked and frozen in neat Zip Lock bags and Rubbermaid containers weeks ago, then you can […]

Filed Under: Common Core, Special Education Tagged With: children with disabilities, Christmas, Common Core, community, high-stakes testing, hope, opting out of the test, public schools, support, Teach for America

It’s Not A Wonderful Life for Millions of School Children

December 18, 2013 By Nancy Bailey Leave a Comment

“…I know right now, and the answer’s no. No Doggone it! You sit around here and you spin your little webs and you think the whole world revolves around you and your money! Well, it doesn’t, Mr. Potter! In the, in the whole vast configuration of things, I’d say you were nothing but a scurvy […]

Filed Under: Common Core Tagged With: AFT, American Library Association, budget cuts, Common Core, Coporatists, Council for Exceptional Children, George Bailey, high-stakes testing, National Council of Teachers of English, National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, NEA, poverty, PTA, school reform, Scrooge

The Destruction of Special Education

December 15, 2013 By Nancy Bailey 8 Comments

The firing of a special education supervisor and the subsequent elimination of the position, in Wilson County, Tennessee prompted me to address concerns about a concerted effort underway to dismantle special education. There are signs all over. Most likely you have noticed them too. In the case of Wilson County, Director of Schools Tim Setterlund […]

Filed Under: Common Core, Popular Featured, Special Education Tagged With: ADHD, Assistive Technology, Autism, budget cuts, Child Study Teams, Common Core, gifted students, inclusion, Learning Disabilities Association, New Orleans, NYS Lawsuit, Response to Intervention, Teach for America, The Council for Exceptional children, the destruction special education, TN, Wilson County

To the Pretenders Atop the Ed. Ladder–This is How You Spell D-I-S-C-O-N-N-E-C-T

December 6, 2013 By Nancy Bailey 1 Comment

One wonders what sort of alternative universe the so-called education leaders live in these days—most whom only taught a year—if they taught at all, and who most likely never bothered to lower themselves to take one of those silly courses about child and adolescent development. Across the country parents and teachers are rallying in their […]

Filed Under: Common Core Tagged With: Common Core, disconnect, NAEP, Teach for America

Great Public Schools Focus on Student Interests

December 3, 2013 By Nancy Bailey Leave a Comment

I wonder how many parents out there remember when anyone at their child’s school asked these questions: What are your child’s interests? Does your student have any hobbies? How do they like to spend their free time?      I am reading an interesting book called Tough Liberal: Albert Shanker and the Battles Over Schools, Unions, […]

Filed Under: Common Core Tagged With: Boy Scouts, Common Core, curriculum, Girl Scouts, student interests, student strengths, testing

What Part of Individual Educational Plan Don’t They Understand?

November 27, 2013 By Nancy Bailey 4 Comments

A recent Ed. Week article, “Common Core’s Promise Collides with IEP Realities,” claims, “Special Education teachers struggle to make sure individual education programs align with standards.” Wow! You could have fooled me! I thought IEPs were tailored to student needs, not to the Common Core State Standards. But really, aligning IEPs to the standards—has been […]

Filed Under: Common Core, Special Education Tagged With: Common Core, gifted and talented students, Individual Educational Plan, individualism, Students with Disabilities

“Coaching” Applied to Teaching–Why I Don’t Like It

November 21, 2013 By Nancy Bailey Leave a Comment

“Teaching Coaches” have become commonplace as public school curriculum is converted to Common Core. The plan is to enlist teachers, lots of them, to coach other teachers how to instruct using Common Core. In most places these teaching coaches get a stipend of $5-6,000 to help transform a school district into a Common Core wonderland. […]

Filed Under: Common Core, Teaching Tagged With: A Nation at Risk, coaching, Common Core, Sandia Report, teaching

What Really Scares Parents IS Arne Duncan!

November 18, 2013 By Nancy Bailey Leave a Comment

Yesterday we learned what Arne Duncan said—in support of Common Core State Standards. At first I didn’t think I could write about it because it made me sick. But then I decided I had to write about it. From The Washington Post: Duncan said, “It’s fascinating to me that some of the pushback is coming […]

Filed Under: Common Core, Special Education Tagged With: Arne Duncan, Common Core, disabilities, gifted and talented

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