History is not kind to idlers. ~The Reagan administration’s A Nation at Risk (1983, p.7) In What Happened to Recess and Why are our Children Struggling in Kindergarten, Susan Ohanian writes about a kindergartner in a New York Times article who tells the reporter they would like to sit on the grass and look for […]
Dear Dr. Cardona: Punitive Student Assessment is Meant to Privatize Public Schools!
Education Secretary Miguel Cardona recently wrote to tell state education departments not to use test data punitively after the pandemic. He doesn’t seem to understand the history of high-stakes testing and its use to privatize public schools. From Cardona: The purpose of this letter is to remind all who report and interpret student outcomes this […]
“High Expectations” and the Criminalization of America’s Students
By now most of us have seen the video of the resource officer using brute force to yank a female student out of her desk. Appalling, most agree. But this country has been criminalizing students, if not violently, inhumanely and subtly, in their schools for a long time. Why do Americans put up with it? […]
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 […]