A new corporate idea being revved up for public schools involves teachers earning badges…because there is nothing that says Free Market more than teachers competing with Girl Scouts. Here are some badges you can earn, teachers: Money Counts. Teachers, earn this badge when you spend 50% of your paycheck on materials that the school cannot […]
Better Prepared Teachers? Coffee Chat with Arne and Andrea
The other day I watched Andrea Mitchell interview Arne Duncan. It’s always difficult for me to listen to authorities on teaching who have never been teachers, or who have never even studied what it takes to be a teacher. When they bloviate what the government needs to do to make good teachers, I want to […]
Special Ed. Labels—Why We Still Need Them in the Era of Common Core
Work hard at living the idea that differentness is just fine—not bad. Your child will learn most from your example. Help him to think of problems as things that can be solved if people work at them together. ~Nicholas Hobbs from The Futures of Children (p.288) Years ago a poster circulated that said “Labels are […]
How Children Learn—Listening, Jeb Bush Et Al?
How do children learn? Why do they even bother with it? The best way to answer this question is to think back to how you learned when you were young. As a child what inspired you? When you were in school, what subjects did you like? Dislike? To borrow a term from the cooking diva […]
Arne Duncan—This is What’s “Pretty Scary” to Parents, Teachers and Students
Posted on November 18, 2013 and updated for April 2, 2014 by Nancy Bailey Last November I wrote about why parents worried about Arne Duncan, who stands in support of Common Core State Standards. It was after he said, in reference to the standards, “It’s fascinating to me that some of the pushback is coming […]
Why the Education Reformers Worry about Special Education
Posted on November 12, 2013 with updated changes by Nancy Bailey I heard someone, a parent or teacher, blurt out at an informal education meeting that education reformers are afraid of special education. I think that person is right. Many of those currently in charge of condemning public schools don’t understand anything about students with […]
High-Stakes Testing, Common Core and Students with Disabilities—What Now?
Originally Posted on October 28, 2013 by Nancy Bailey I changed the title of this old post to include high-stakes testing because it reminded me of the word “appropriate” and the situation in Florida surrounding The Ethan Rediske Act. I think it is important to revisit some of these court cases. What meaning do they […]
Mayors Go Looking for Bill Gates’ Education Pot of Gold at the End of the Rainbow
US mayors went to Washington DC the other day to talk about education issues with Bill Gates—the richest man in the world. Struggling to fiscally keep their cities alive, mayors will do anything to draw in the Gates’ dollars. And you wonder why he is in charge of education in America. It’s like Leprechauns finding […]
Platooning—Another Weird Education Word and Common Core Strategy for Elementary School
Since I already have a list of weird education words here’s a new one to add. How many of you have heard of “platooning”—which, in reference to education, means moving elementary students, subject-to-subject, teacher-to-teacher, to meet the new Common Core State Standards? Instead, of one primary teacher, students move around—subject to subject. This idea has […]
SAT Scores Damned Public Schools and Teachers for Years—Why a Facelift NOW?
We’re told the SAT needs a facelift to level the playing field and make the test more relevant for disadvantaged students. Whoa! Let’s rewind that tape a bit shall we? The SAT has been used for years to damn public schools and teachers who were unjustly accused for not preparing all students well enough for […]