By John Thompson. Part 1: Holding Diane Ravitch and Corporate Reformers Accountable Part 3: Countering “Reform Nonsense” with Common Sense. This is a second post reviewing The Wisdom and Wit of Diane Ravitch. Part one summarized Ravitch’s essays from 2010, which was the time when corporate …
By Monty Neill. I came to FairTest in October 1987 as a movement activist and an educator. Over the years I’d worked in anti-war and black liberation support campaigns, wrote for underground newspapers, engaged in community organizing, edited the newspaper of the New England Prisoners Association, and for …
By John Thompson. What would it take for Oklahoma to provide every student the opportunity to learn at the national average? Oklahoma is one of the states heading for a teachers walkout. Because of a complicated set of reasons, the political challenge facing Oklahoma educators is more formidable than the problems …
By John Thompson. The morning presenters at the recent American Enterprise Institute’s conference, Bush-Obama School Reform: Lessons Learned, were scholars who mostly documented the failures of test-driven reform. The afternoon panelists were policy people for the Bush and Obama administrations and, as …
By John Thompson. The morning presenters at the recent American Enterprise Institute’s conference, Bush-Obama School Reform: Lessons Learned, were scholars who mostly documented the failures of test-driven reform. The afternoon panelists were policy people for the Bush and Obama administrations, and they …
By John Thompson. Should teachers be allowed to bargain for 12 days of medical and personal leave per year? The teaching profession is 77% female, meaning that they are disproportionately required to find ways to take time off to care for their children or parents. Moreover, many teachers aren’t provided …
By John Thompson. It’s sure fun to watch corporate school reformers forming a circular firing squad. For a generation, conservative and neoliberal reformers sang from the same hymnal, even as they privately suppressed their many internal disagreements. Now, accountability-driven, charter-driven neoliberal …
By John Kuhn. The following is a speech delivered on March 5, 2017, to the Association of Texas Professional Educators Legislative Action Weekend. I have three older sisters who are all teachers. When I became a teacher too in 1997, the first advice they gave me was, “You need go join ATPE.” And …
By John Thompson. There are so many reasons why anyone interested in public education should read Marta Jewson’s latest expose of the high profile New Orleans SciTech Academy’s shenanigans when providing – and not providing – special education services. Readers should follow Jewson’s links and read …
By John Thompson. In the aftermath of the Trump election, and as our “post fact” politics becomes even worse, it will be interesting to see what school reformers do. Will they double down on their truth-challenged spin on charter schools, or will they become more circumspect in using evidence? The latest …
