Much has been written about the offensiveness of the Wall Street Journal’s Epstein opinion piece on Dr. Jill Biden. It lacks respect for Dr. Biden, a veteran teacher, deeply committed to her profession and community college students, but it’s also meant to ridicule teaching and public education. First, it’s never wise to criticize intellectual pursuit, […]
6 Concerns: Are “Community Schools” Paving the Way for School Choice and Digital Instruction?
Here is how the Coalition of Community Schools defines their concept of community schools. A community school is both a place and a set of partnerships between the school and other community resources. Its integrated focus on academics, health and social services, youth and community development and community engagement leads to improved student learning, stronger […]
Killing Teacher Prep During a Teacher Shortage: A Mystery? (Maybe Not)
Are you in the mood for a mystery? Education Secretary John King recently came out with the intent to kill university teacher prep programs. His predecessor Arne Duncan, who never taught a day in his life, cheered him on. They will do this by denying future teachers TEACH grants to go into teacher preparation programs. […]
More on Memphis School Cuts and the Broad and Gates Foundations
The Blues City is earning its name when it comes to public schools. Both the Broad and Gates Foundations have seen to it. The other day I posted about cuts to Memphis (Shelby County Schools). I was quickly reminded, rightly so, that these were proposed cuts—like maybe there would be some kind of rollback in […]
Using Teacher Shortage Talk to Justify Online Instruction
A few weeks ago Nick Morrison wrote an article for Forbes titled “Sleepwalking Our Way into the Teacher-Less Classroom.” He insists that technology, specifically the takeover by online instruction in schools, is not the real danger facing education. Instead, he claims it is a teacher shortage. According to Morrison, teachers leave due to pressure, and […]
H.S. Future Teachers Being Prepped for Common Core and Competency-Based Education
We hear we have a serious problem finding teachers for America’s classrooms. One solution is to encourage students in high school to become career teachers. Young people are full of vibrant ideas and high school should be considered a valuable place for teacher recruitment. I am not saying we should push students to be teachers, […]
TeachingWorks (or Doesn’t) at the University of Michigan: The Corporatization of Teacher Education
It is with concern that I write about the Gates influence on the University of Michigan’s College of Education and the new program called TeachingWorks. The Gates Foundation is giving $6.8 million to the U of M to influence how they will transform teacher preparation. The Helmsley Charitable Trust Grant also provided $1.1 million. This […]
Professional Teachers—Click, Click! Poof! You’re Gone!
The attack on teacher education is fast and furious. Privatizing America’s public schools means getting rid of career teachers who support instruction geared to a child’s needs. A way to purge the country of real teachers is to extinguish their teacher education programs and make teaching look like a regimented practice that any drill sergeant […]
University Teacher Education Takeover in Memphis
What Relay is doing largely breaks the mold. Its students are full-time elementary and middle-school teachers, almost all of them fresh out of college, almost none of them with a traditional teaching degree. June Kronholz, Education Next At the University of Memphis there are professors disturbed about a rather secret plan, one that college officials […]