By Anthony Cody. The Central Committee of the Washington State Democratic Party has passed a resolution that roundly condemns the Common Core standards. This is the first time a statewide Democratic Party committee has taken a public position against the Common Core, and it happened in the back yard of the Gates …
By Anthony Cody. Bill Gates sounded surprisingly defensive when asked about the Gates Foundation’s work in education, in a video interview made available this week by the Wall Street Journal. His statement suggests he is unaware of much of what his money is buying in the field of education. Here is the exchange …
By Anthony Cody. In recent weeks we have heard something new from Bill Gates and the new CEO of the Gates Foundation. A bit of humility regarding their overseas work. It remains to be seen if this sort of reflection will be applied to their domestic work in the field of education. A month ago, Bill Gates hosted …
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 Anthony Cody. Towards the end of his press conference today, President Obama was asked about the state of African Americans and race relations in the country. Part of his answer related to education. He stated: We’ve seen some progress, in the education reforms that we’ve initiated are showing …
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 Anthony Cody. When the history of modern education reform is written one of the most shameful chapters will be the continued embrace of various forms of “Value Added Models” for purposes of measuring the effectiveness of teachers in raising test scores. This month, the Department of Education is asking for …
By Anthony Cody. New York principal Carol Burris’ latest post is infuriating. In it, she describes the inaccurate data that the New York state Department of Education has published which fails to show the true number of students attending college. The Department of Ed published the faulty data by district …
By Anthony Cody. The following terms have taken on special meaning as the religion of test-worship has taken over our schools. Those not raised in the church of Father Coleman might benefit from a translation into plain English. This lexicon reflects a complete worldview. The enthusiastic embrace of these meanings …
