StickWithANose

The very serious thinkers running our Banana Republic are all aflutter today over the AP/Stanford University poll which finds that a large majority of Americans think we should make it easier to fire ‘bad’ teachers and pay ‘good’ teachers better wages. Couple of points: First, the take away from this poll is that 30 years [...]

Through the course of my research, I’ve reached the conclusion that the primary task of public schooling should not be to impart a fixed curricular package of ‘knowledge’ but should instead be focused on imparting the skills required to build knowledge. It is no small distinction. If I had my way the primary goal of [...]

It’s hard not to draw parallels between the militarized charter schools being pushed by ‘progressives’ and ‘conservatives’ alike here in the early 21st century and the American Indian schools of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Of course, there are differences, but not as many as you might think. Both target[ed] subordinate groups with [...]

As Larry Cuban and countless other educational historians have noted, there has been a common thread running throughout public debate over public schooling since its creation over a century ago… There has always been well-organized groups seeking to reform the institution, and they have sought to do so by fostering a common belief that public [...]

Hey policy-makers and pundit class! In the age of austerity, if your goal is to free up finite resources for instruction then why not turn to open source software for administrative and instructional use? EdWeek
The marriage of low-cost netbooks and open-source technologies to create 1-to-1 computing programs is a relatively new development. [...]

Excellent video on the need for a new education paradigm… [h/t]

One of the most frustrating aspects of our current push for high academic standards and achievement [masquerading as a push for educational equality] is the expansion of ’schooling’ to the early years of childhood and with it the increasing fetishization of assessment. It is now commonplace for policy-makers and politicians to establish their educational street-creds [...]

Now that Tennessee has taken its bribe money the children of the urban poor are being set up for yet another un-controlled experiment in quasi-privatization and the intellectual bounty that is “drill and kill” test-prep academies. In my own little slice of the Southern Appalachians, the first institution to get the ax is a school [...]

One of the frustrating narratives now common in policy circles is that traditional teacher training is ineffective and does not make a positive contribution to student learning. As I’ve noted previously, this is one of the key narratives behind the Teach for America program and other alternative credentialing programs, however it is a narrative that [...]

The tide has been turning on integrated schooling for the past three decades, and now it appears as though one of the most successful integrated school districts in the South will follow the lead of urban districts all over the nation. Funny how the re-segregation of a school district in a Southern city finds its [...]