When children face pressure to learn to read early in kindergarten and run into trouble, will they be diagnosed with learning disabilities when they only need more time? Creating one-size-fits-all, high-stakes standardized tests demanding children read by first grade creates pressure on the child, parent, and teacher. Higher-than-usual expectations have existed since 2001, and NCLB […]
10 Years Later: The Continuing Intentional Unraveling of America’s Public Schools
School reform continues to privatize and destroy public schools. August marks ten years since I began blogging. Within that time I have written two books and co-authored a third with Diane Ravitch. I’m proud of all this writing but Losing America’s Schools: The Fight to Reclaim Public Education is the book title that especially stands […]
Acceleration: The Meaning Behind the Buzzword
Acceleration is the new pandemic buzzword brought to you by pro-privatization school reformers. Students may have missed some in-person schooling, even though most learned remotely or in person. Still, the frenzy surrounding learning loss is mounting. The pandemic has given rise to a new way to reframe the old learning gap talk, with new terminology, […]
The Haunted Third Grade Classrooms Children Fear: Enter and… Stay Forever!
Children fear third grade retention. It doesn’t motivate them to learn. They don’t read earlier because of it. Retention is not effective. It’s scary and could haunt a child forever. Third grade retention laws are real for children in nineteen states. NEA Reports noted in 2017 that 16 states and Washington D.C. make it mandatory that […]
Oregon’s Deputy Superintendent of Public Instruction Rob Saxton Calls Himself an SOB: I Concur
While many of us focused on New York’s Ed. Commissioner John King this past weekend, I also watched two YouTube videos that were deeply disturbing from the other side of the country. They both involve Oregon’s Deputy Superintendent of Public Instruction Rob Saxton. Saxton’s background consists of being a teacher (I can’t find what he […]