Do school reformers use threats to drive agenda?
Education reformers haven’t been able to persuade everybody to their point of view, so increasingly, they use threats, the Washington Post reports.
Washington Post
Blind, severely disabled boy forced to take standardized test
There are many distressing stories about high-stakes standardized tests, but this may be the most hideous I have heard, says Valerie Strauss for the Washington Post.
AP good for high school, bad for college?
I complained recently that college professors too often wrongly dismiss high school teachers as being unsuited to teach college-level classes such as the Advanced Placement courses so popular…
Magical thinking about technology in education
To hear some people talk, you’d think technology is going to save public education. Really? Asks the Washington Post.
Sixty percent of adults who took standardized test bombed
The bottom line: Sixty percent bombed the test. Translation: Of the 50 accomplished adults who took an exam made up of questions from the New England Common Assessment…
Confessions of a black school reformer
Here’s a post about a new book on school reform — “The Garden Path: The Miseducation of a City — by Andre Perry — that smacks opposing sides…
A telling tweet from Finland
Finland is always held up a model for education reform, the Washington Post reports.
The problem with high-tech ‘personalized’ learning tools
SWSXedu was a big hit in Texas last week, where technology companies (such as Rupert Murdoch’s Amplify Education) hawked their new education gadgets that they promised would help…
Opinion: Arguing about school reforms that go nowhere
In the 1990s, Las Montanas High School (a fictional name for a real place) throbbed with excitement over technological advances in California’s Silicon Valley where it was located,…
Randi Weingarten, AFT leader, arrested
The Philadelphia School Reform Commission voted tonight to close 23 public schools at a meeting where American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten was arrested along with 18…
Opinion: How social networking rules for teachers go too far
Teachers are expected to do a lot of things in the classroom — but what about outside? Asks the Washington Post.
Opinion: Why the ‘learning pyramid’ is wrong
A lot of people believe that the “learning pyramid” that lists learning scenarios and average student retention rates is reliable, says the Washington Post.
Principal: Promise of Common Core is dying
Here’s a powerful piece about how an award-winning principal went from being a Common Core supporter to an opponent, says the Washington Post.
Michelle Obama links movement to better test scores
First lady Michelle Obama, in an interview with SiriusXM host B. Smith being aired to mark the third anniversary of her “Let’s Move” campaign, said that allowing students…
Five habits of great students: Lessons from top-ranked STEM school
Many factors affect how well students do in school, but among them are how the students themselves approach their work and learning, the Washington Post reports.
If students designed their own school… it would look like this
“It’s crazy that in a system that is meant to teach and help the youth there is no voice from the youth at all.” That’s the opening line…
How many ineffective teachers are actually out there?
Getting rid of ineffective teachers is pretty much the focus of school reform these days but pinpointing who really should go isn’t as easy as it seems, the…
2013 Presidents’ Day quiz
Presidents’ Day is something of an odd holiday, given that there is no universal agreement on which presidents are being honored, on the actual name of the holiday…
More high school may be bad for this student
Is Laura Linder’s son Chris being pushed out of Thomas Stone High School? Asks the Washington Post.
Open letter to Arne Duncan from Chicago teachers
A coalition of teachers from public and private schools — including the school that Education Secretary Arne Duncan attended as a child and where President Obama’s daughters were…
Why introverts shouldn’t be forced to talk in class
Suddenly there is a lot of talk about introverts and the power of silence, in part because of a popular new book by Susan Cain called “Quiet: The…
A teacher evaluation session out of ‘Star Wars’
Think “Star Wars.” That’s how award-winning Principal Carol Burris of South Side High School in New York frames her newest post on Year Two of New York’s controversial…
College Board markets midweek SAT testing to schools
The ACT college admissions test overtook the SAT for the first time as the most popular college admissions exam by a margin of a few thousand students, the…
Duncan to Senate panel: No more invisible children under No Child Left Behind waivers
Under the Obama administration’s education policies, thousands of elementary and secondary schools are being held accountable for the academic performance of students who had been “invisible” under No…
Bill would make cheating on standardized tests illegal
Cheating on standardized tests in the District would be illegal under a bill introduced in the D.C. Council, and a teacher or principal found guilty of violating the…
How online class about online learning failed miserably
In the you-can’t-make-up-this-stuff category, here’s an amusing piece about the failure of a MOOC (massive open online course) that was designed to teach more than 40,000 students the…
‘Tebow bill’ would let home-schoolers try out for public school teams
This could be Micah Fitz’s first spring without soccer. The 14-year-old has been playing since he was 3, but because he’s home-schooled, he can’t try out for the…
The Vietnamization of public education
Here’s an interesting look at the false metrics of success that characterized the Vietnam War, and now, school reform, by Steve Cohen, a senior lecturer in education at…
The real problem with multiple-choice tests
One of the biggest complaints about standardized tests is that the multiple-choice questions don’t measure deep thinking skills, the Washington Post reports.
Report: Popular study strategies called ineffective
Researchers who evaluated 10 learning techniques believed to improve student achievement found that five of them—including highlighting or underlining, are not very effective, the Washington Post reports.
Mom pays for armed guard at child’s school
And now, a privately funded deputy guarding elementary school kids, the Washington Post reports.
Top 10 skills children learn from the arts
You don’t find school reformers talking much about how we need to train more teachers in the arts, given the current obsession with science, math, technology and engineering…
Opinion: Why all high school courses should be elective
The rise of the Common Core State Standards has fueled a long national debate about what courses students should be required to take and when, the Washington Post…
Martin Luther King: ‘Intelligence is not enough’
Martin Luther King Jr., was prescient on a lot of things, including education. Here are some things he wrote decades ago that sound contemporary, the Washington Post reports.
How test anxiety affected a young boy
In this era of high-stakes standardized tests, a subject that gets short shrift is test anxiety and how it affects young students, the Washington Post reports.
Why U.S. Education Department has 27 12-gauge shotguns
Back in 2010, the Office of Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Education purchased 27 new Remington Brand Model 870 police 12-gauge shotguns. Why? Asks the Washington…
Superintendent: Reforms could ‘wreak havoc’ on great schools
Here is a letter sent to the New Jersey State Board of Education from Michael A. Rossi Jr., superintendent of Madison Public Schools, about the state’s school reform…
What English classes should look like in Common Core era
The recent controversy over how much fiction and non-fiction high school students are supposed to read under the Common Core State Standards begged the question of where the…
Five key questions about the Common Core standards
The Common Core State Standards are inexorably coming to the 46 states and the District of Columbia, which have approved them, the Washington Post reports.
Column: Why schools used to be better
It’s one of the ironies of education reform that despite wave after wave, schools are seen by many as in worse shape as before all the changes, says…