By John Thompson. Dale Russakoff’s 2014 New Yorker profile “Schooled” is a wonderful account of Mark Zuckerberg’s $100 million investment in Newark school reform, and how and why it failed. Perhaps the best new revelation in “Schooled” starts with the lesson Russakoff learned …
By Bill Cole. As another school year has started, one thing is certain, a vocal coalition of education reformers, market-based advocates and policymakers will continue extolling the virtues of school choice initiatives, such as private school vouchers and charter schools. These groups enthusiastically note that …
By Michelle Gunderson. We sit under the trees at Dyett High School yet again on Sunday night. The Dyett 12 hunger strikers sit in a tight circle while a crowd of over a hundred of Chicago’s activists listen in. I know almost every face in this crowd. They are people who understand struggle and know what the word …
By Michael Finn and Michael Jones. As it has every fall since it opened in 1931, the stately campus of John Marshall High in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Los Feliz sits ready for the upcoming school year: new classes, new students, new hopes, new challenges. We’ve witnessed this cycle for over 20 years, as …
By Michelle Gunderson. A circle of ten people sit outside Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s office demanding a meeting with the mayor. They have not taken solid food for 12 days. The Dyett hunger strikers ask that a decision be made regarding their proposal to keep the only open enrollment high school in the Bronzeville …
By Michelle Gunderson. Twelve people sit in a circle under the trees outside Dyett High School in Chicago on a hunger strike. They share stories of their experience with Chicago schools – teachers they have loved, principals they have battled, the times they have been arrested fighting for equity in our schools. …
By John Thompson. Teachers have other things to do rather than criticize reforms that help students. For instance, we welcome the extra counselors who helped raise graduation rates across the nation. Educators oppose the hastily implemented silver bullets that have backfired, damaged public schools, undermined our …
By Anthony Cody. A new documentary will be released in community-based screenings across the country on August 14th. This film could provide a powerful boost to local efforts to organize resistance to the corporate takeover of public schools. It is called Education Inc, and it tells the tale all too familiar to …
By Anthony Cody. This coming week I will be back in Seattle, a few months shy of the third anniversary of my first visit to the Gates Foundation. I will give a talk at the University of Washington, introduced by Jesse Hagopian and several Teachers of Conscience from the area, who have refused to give high stakes …
By Leah Putnam. If you participated in the 2012 Chicago Teachers Union Strike, you might recognize my sign (I’m the “union thug” holding it). After 10 years of teaching 5th grade for Chicago Public Schools, I recently moved to Indiana and began teaching 2nd grade. Moving from the third largest public school …
