StickWithANose

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 [...]

Yesterday, the oligarch funded Center on Education Policy released another installment of its three year research project tracking the impact of the stimulus package on education. The results suggest that stimulus dollars helped to stave off the worst-case scenario of collapsing school budgets. However, as the stimulus dollars begin to run out, school budgets are [...]

I’m not well-versed enough in the particulars to offer any keen insights into the likelihood of success or failure, but the emergence of a teacher-led school in the on-going disaster that is the Detroit Public School System is certainly an encouraging sign. As I’ve noted previously, one of the key features of Finland’s successful education [...]

Brought to you by Diane Ravitch…
So, here is my alternate vision: Respect teachers as adults and professionals. Give them the time and opportunity to refresh their intellectual energy. Provide opportunities for professional development that promote their intellectual, spiritual, and professional renewal. Take concrete steps to strengthen the profession. Avoid policies and programs that imply quick [...]

With hope for an emergency education jobs bill to plug the holes in school budgets across the nation fading, it is apparent that the movement toward fiscal austerity will have a significant impact on school budgets first. However, it is also clear that the impact of austerity will be uneven. To my knowledge, the US [...]

The Washington Post is not alone in its un-critical reporting of yesterdays release of the newest KIPP report but it was so blatantly un-critical that it only reinforces the perception that owning Kaplan Inc. influences its education reporting. At least EdWeek offered some token criticism buried beneath the PR. Here’s what both missed… Education Policy [...]

For many of the international students with which I studied in graduate school, the ways in which American schools [& really American society in general] work to atomize individual students  and keep them under almost constant surveillance was shocking. They had come to this nation to study education with the expectation that the ‘home of [...]