I recently returned from a trip to Europe. In Berlin, I spoke at an international education research conference. Researchers from Europe, Asia, and Latin America were very alarmed by the current “reform” movement in the United States, fearful that the same trends—the same overemphasis of standardized testing, the same push for privatization and markets, and the same pressure to lower standards for entry into teaching—might come to their own countries, says Diane Ravitch, for her Bridging Differences blog. The highlight of my trip was visiting schools in Finland. Of course, Finland is much in the news these days because of its success on the PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) examinations…
Podcast Series: Innovations in Education
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Calif gay history referendum faces uphill battle
At churches, shopping centers, schools, and local tea party meetings in California, fired-up volunteers have started gathering signatures for a ballot referendum that would repeal the nation’s first law requiring public schools to include prominent gay people and gay rights’ milestones in school lessons, the Associated Press reports. Organizers of the Stop SB48 campaign—Senate Bill 48 was the law approved by the California Legislature and signed by Gov. Jerry Brown in Jul —are telling would-be voters the new mandate would inappropriately expose young children to sex, infringe on parental rights and silence religion-based criticisms of homosexuality…
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