The Lee County School Board has backed out and students will get tests and tests and more tests. But I know parents will not give up. I’m hoping they will hold their Superintendent accountable for stating that she wanted to devise a plan. This plan should include parents. Perhaps there are some parent lawyers who […]
Do Public School Students Need Special Ed. Anymore?
Do we need special education anymore? Some parents might say no—that a regular class with high expectations, possibly some support, is all that is necessary. Arne Duncan has stated that students with disabilities should rise to the same level as other students. He has called for a “major shift” in how special education students are […]
Rating Common Core Math Textbooks—Isn’t THIS a National Curriculum?
A new report in Education Week discusses a “Consumer Reports-like” nonprofit group that will now evaluate math textbooks from different companies online. If you are teaching math and want to know which books are best—books aligned to the Common Core—you can go to Edreports.org and they will apparently tell you, eventually, which books, or book, […]
Teaching With Common Core Aligned Books and Ignoring the Questions of Children
Common Core aligned books and the drill to teach reading to young children, appears to ignore the real questions children might have about the stories they read. This could be serious, especially if the book is beyond a child’s development. If the teacher is forced to address things like syntax, story order, and facts surrounding […]
How Backward Reforms Waste Time and Hurt Students with Special Needs
We should be beyond this in America. Every school district should be providing parents public access to top notch regulated education services, including utilizing cutting-edge research for all students, and especially for students with disabilities and/or our gifted and talented young people. Right now many teachers and parents are fighting to get decent services from […]
Quality Teachers for Poor Students: Another Missed Opportunity to Address Real Change
This past week President Obama sat down to a lovely salmon dinner with a few teachers with inspirational stories, to discuss his new program to get excellent teachers for children in poor school districts. The problem of poor children in school is critical. Educational Week reported last fall that almost half the students in America […]
Freedom and America’s Public Schools and School Boards: They Belong to All of Us
It is difficult to find a more patriotic day than the 4th of July. While many problems face the country, and there are plenty of differences, most of us look forward to celebrating the birth of our nation. While we are free to hold different beliefs, Americans enjoy waving their flags and they love their […]
The Real Meaning Behind the Duncan/Huffman Tough Special Ed. Compliance Talk
What are they really doing? Everyone who cares about students with disabilities is troubled by Arne Duncan’s latest NPR blathering over the Obama administration’s plans to get even tougher on special ed. and to test these students more and include their scores in the National Assessment for Education Progress known as the Nation’s Report Card. […]
Should We Love Our Principals Like CEOs? Heavens No!
The Atlantic has an interesting article entitled “Should Principals Be Treated Like CEOs?” I think a more appropriate title for the article would have been, “Should Principals Be CEOs?” To me that is what they are really getting at in their report. Since this “school-to-business” ideology was foisted on public schools years ago, we have […]
STEM Preschool and Common Core—Too Much Too Soon and the Wrong Message
A friend of mine told me about STEM preschools the other day. At first I thought she was kidding. But I didn’t have to look hard. They’re everywhere! It seems that if parents are intent about making sure their children understand Science, Technology, Engineering and Math all they have to do is sign up for […]