By Susan DuFresne. This statement was delivered to the Renton School District Board of Education on Wednesday, January 28. (see details here.) As a kindergarten teacher I am an early childhood educator. As a professional I am responsible for their very first experience in our schools – and working with a group …
The following is the full statement delivered to the Renton School Board on Wednesday, Jan. 28, by David Spring, in conjunction with presentations by four Renton teachers who delivered statements of professional conscience, declaring their unwillingness to administer standardized tests this spring (more details …
By Anthony Cody and Susan DuFresne. Four Seattle area teachers who got to know one another in 2011, when they all attended the Save Our Schools march in Washington, DC, stood before the Renton Board of Education and read “statements of professional conscience” in which they pledged their refusal to …
By Mary Porter. Diane Ravitch puts it this way: The American Federation of Teachers and the Center for American Progress issued a joint statement expressing their agreement on what should be contained in the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (NCLB). The key point is that the AFT agreed …
By Anthony Cody. A newly independent Living in Dialogue, and my first book on the shelves made this an eventful year for me. The challenge of organizing the first annual conference for the Network for Public Education filled the first few months, and the Public Education Nation event in Brooklyn was another …
By Susan DuFresne. What will happen to us as teachers, parents, students, and democracy as we continue to struggle in our mandated race to the top of corporate education reform? Home for winter break from my work as a teacher, I find myself too exhausted the first several days to take care of anyone but myself. …
By Ed Kitlowski. This August began the commemorations of events of World War One. It also was the adoption of the Common Core Standards (CCS) in many states. One aspect of the CCS is to make connections between two ideas, events, literature or artworks. There is an expression that a person should study history so …
By Renee Carlson, Janet Foster, Enid Hutchinson, Ed Kitlowski, Amanda Koonlaba, Nancy Kunsman, Justin McGehee, Lynn Otaguro, Joy Peters, Wendi Pillars, Rachel Rich, Petra Schmid-Riggins, Jim Strickland, Rebecca Gillespie, Jamyle Kathy Acevedo and Josh Thompson – members of the Viva/NEA 360° writing …
By Anthony Cody. There is growing evidence that the corporate-sponsored education reform project is on its last legs. The crazy patchwork of half-assed solutions on offer for the past decade have one by one failed to deliver, and one by one they are falling. Can the edifice survive once its pillars of support have …
By John Thompson. The University of Pennsylvania’s Matthew Steinberg and Lauren Sartain of the Consortium on Chicago School Research (CCSR) find that better classroom observations contribute to improved student performance. This study is doubly important because it is consistent with the CCSR’s finding …
