Nevada school officials claim they can’t find 1,000 teachers to fill their classrooms. Education Week is claiming this isn’t much different than what’s found in the rest of the country. In the middle of it all you will think about Personalized Learning. Education Week won’t let you forget it. If you don’t have a need […]
Vouchers and the Destruction of America’s Public Schools
It’s hard to believe that vouchers are being promoted across the country and are once again being considered in the State of Tennessee. Voters there have made it known time-and-again that they don’t like vouchers. Here the Tennessee Momma Bears give information to speak out against vouchers. They tell us that $130 million will be […]
CBE Online is Neither Personalized Nor Higher-Order Thinking!
The issue of Competency-Based Education is very much in the news, so I thought I would revive this post. Competency-Based Education (CBE) is being promoted as the way to “personalize” education, but it is a cold impersonal method of teaching on the computer. It fails to teach to the whole child and merely provides fragmented […]
Mandating Common Sense—21 School Reforms that Need to Go
Gov. Chris Christie just vetoed a mandate for New Jersey children to get recess. A lot of people–including me–are not happy with this decision. He obviously thinks school boards should determine how much recess students should get, but does he realize the problem with recess? Recess is a heated topic with parents across the country. […]
Could Changing College Admissions Be the End of High-Stakes Testing?
Could it be that once the first domino falls the rest will follow? Leaders at eighty leading colleges and universities, including the Ivy League, are attempting to revise the application process to look at students and their personal interests! They want to focus less on the canned metrics. Are college and university leaders across the […]
Why Sen. Bernie Sanders Wins as the Education Candidate
Last night during the democratic debate, like always, there was no mention of K-12 education, so why did Sen. Bernie Sanders win the debate as the education candidate? It’s simple. Sen. Sanders’ argument against the power and influence of big corporations has huge implications in regard to public schools. It would be nice if he […]
Further Apart in Public Schools than Ever Before
In honor of Martin Luther King, I would like to revisit a post I did about public schools and race relations after I first started blogging. A democratic public school system has great potential to bring children of all colors and from every background together. This would ultimately create a better world. But in order […]
What If the Wealthy Donated to Fixing Public School Buildings?
According to a 2014 PBS report, more than half of the nation’s public school buildings are in bad shape, and it will take $197 billion to fix or rebuild them. Where will all the money come from to do this? I checked, and most of the Presidential candidates on both sides have said that they […]
Joyful or Punishing Teachers: Which is it American Media?
What do Americans want their teachers to be like? What do they really want out of their schools? Within a space of a week I saw the media send out very mixed messages. We know Americans are meant to see these reports as examples of what teachers should be like. But which is it—A or […]
Lead Poisoning and “No Excuses”
It is appalling to hear about the situation in Flint, Michigan where lead has been pouring into the drinking cups of children for months. Lead is known to cause serious health problems, including cognitive disorders and learning disabilities. The effects can last, and most exposed children will need special education. And, if the trend in […]