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Nancy Bailey's Education Website

Revive, Rally and Recover Public Schools

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How School Reformers Try to Convince Us You Can Fly a Plane Without a Real Pilot

December 10, 2018 By Nancy Bailey 12 Comments

Spending time studying how to teach and how children learn has been replaced with fast-track programs that breed future workers. These people know little about children, but they follow the script. They will keep children focused on their computer lessons, and collect data on their progress. It’s like getting on a plane and learning the […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, Louisiana Superintendent John White, President Trump, Qualified Teachers, school reform, School Reformers, T.M. Landry Prep, teachers, Teachin Credentials Matter

Who Arne Duncan is Today Speaks To His Past Role as Education Secretary

August 12, 2018 By Nancy Bailey 12 Comments

Former Education Secretary Arne Duncan recently stepped away from his ventures to discuss his new book How Schools Work: An Inside Account of Failure and Success from One of the Nation’s Longest Serving Secretaries of Education. Few teachers were impressed with Duncan in this role. He never worked in a school. He’d never been a […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Arne Duncan, Betsy DeVos, Corporate Reform, School Privatization, school reform, teachers, Technology

The Short Rise and Faster Fall of Special Ed. in the State of Michigan

July 27, 2018 By Nancy Bailey 1 Comment

If Michigan eliminated our state-imposed special education rules, other states’ would fall like dominoes. I could not let that happen. Not without waging a war on the MDE [Michigan Department of Education] and anyone working to deny children with disabilities an education, and hope for a future of independence, and access to the American Dream. […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: IEPs, Michigan, school reform, special education, Student Rights, U.S. special education

Class Size and Its Impact on Inclusion

March 3, 2018 By Nancy Bailey 9 Comments

Parents want teachers to address their child’s individual needs. Teachers want this too. They want to be able to work with and understand the students they teach. They especially want to help the students in their classes who have exceptional differences. This is difficult to do when class sizes are too large. If elementary teachers […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: 3rd Grade Retention, Florida, gifted and talented, IDEA, inclusion, lowering class size, NEPC Study, public schools, Raising Class Sizes, school reform, special education, Tennessee STAR Study

America’s Students are Brilliant! The Cynics Can No Longer Claim Otherwise!

February 25, 2018 By Nancy Bailey 11 Comments

Beyond the sadness over the terrible event at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas, still unimaginable, there was something that stood out last week. America’s kids are smart! Really smart! They’re smarter than the school reformers who have said ugly things against them for years! President Trump referred to public schools in his Inaugural Address as an education […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: AP, counselors, Florida Legislature, Gun Control, Gun Laws, Gun Violence, Majorie Stoneman Douglas High School, NRA, public schools, SAT, school reform, special education, Teenagers

Liking Those We Don’t Like: The Dissonance Involved with Supporting Public Schools

January 9, 2018 By Nancy Bailey 18 Comments

Most teachers see the good in everyone. They go into teaching because they care about children, and they take what happens in life personally. They are usually defiantly protective of their turf. Many years ago, I started out disliking the late Benjamin O. Canada, who was superintendent of Atlanta and one of the first school leaders […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Arne Duncan, Bernie Sanders, Bill & Melinda Gates, Corporations, Corporations and public schools, Golden Globes, Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama, Oprah, President Obama, School Privatization, school reform, Technology and Schools, Tom Hanks, XQ Super Schools

Destroying Special Ed: Sliding Backwards in Time

October 21, 2017 By Nancy Bailey 3 Comments

Serious changes are occurring when it comes to special education. This post is an attempt to tie recent events together. Under the Trump administration, the Education Department said Friday, it’s rescinding 72 guidance documents to “alleviate unnecessary burdens” and get rid of “unnecessary regulation” having to do with special education and rehabilitation. They seem to […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Betsy DeVos, Bill Gates, charter schools, parents, privatization, school reform, special education, special education and the past, Technology

What’s Behind the Obsession with Kindergarten Readiness?

August 25, 2017 By Nancy Bailey 8 Comments

When I was in kindergarten, I had one line in a little play. I said, I am Patrick Potato and this is my cousin, Mrs. Tomato, and I heard laughter. I wanted to be an actress from that moment on. ~Doris Roberts, American actress, author and philanthropist. Raymond’s mom on the sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond. […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: college and career ready, kindergarten pressure, kindergarten readiness, Kindergarten readiness tests, preschool, reading readiness, redshirting, school reform, self-regulation, Social skills, summer kindergarten readiness programs

Finland’s School Reforms are Troubling: 4 Reasons Why

February 20, 2017 By Nancy Bailey 10 Comments

Finland’s new curriculum means that schoolchildren will no longer need to sit down quietly in classrooms, since they will instead be able to choose where and how they study. In future there will not necessarily be any traditional enclosed classrooms. —“The Truth About Finnish Schools” This is Finland Finland’s schools have been admired for years. […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Cross-disciplines, early childhood education, Finland's Schools, HundrED, Literacy, play, Playful Learning Center, school reform, Technology

President Donald Trump: What NOW for Public Schools?

November 11, 2016 By Nancy Bailey 5 Comments

President Trump certainly won’t be remembered as someone who “Made America Great Again” by churning the past failed public school policies of both parties. What can we expect from President Donald Trump when it comes to our public schools? Is it all doom and gloom? Can we find any silver lining? Is there a smidgeon […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: charter schools, Community Schools, Corporations, Diane Ravitch, For-Profit Colleges, President-elect Donald Trump, public schools, School Privatization, school reform, Social Justice, Stephen Krashen, vouchers

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