Guest post by John Thompson My three decades of experiences dealing with the crack and gangs era of the 1980s, and then teaching in inner city schools, taught me to keep an even keel. I’ll never forget, however, the Friday night in 1993 driving home from our football game. Stunned, I wondered if we were …
Guest post by Adam Bessie. “I support our teachers, but my daughter was traumatized by an unfirable 1st grade teacher,” so read a tweet I received after expressing concern that Vergara v. California decision – which declared K-12 teacher tenure unconstitutional for violating the civil rights …
Guest post by Paul Thomas. Before the Common Core debate reached the fevered public debates of the past year, I took a stand against standards-based reform represented by Common Core, Why Common Standards Won’t Work: A call for national standards ensures that we continue doing what is most wrong with our …
Guest post by Darcy Bedortha. In late August, 2012, I took a job in a school that is part of the largest virtual charter school chain in the nation. While I had misgivings about the nature of the school, I thought perhaps if I were diligent, I could serve my students well. In November 2013 I decided I could no …
Guest post by Paul Horton. Dear Mr. President, Like thousands of experienced classroom teachers throughout our great country, I am very concerned about how you decided to go the way that you did with your Education policies. I was recently told by a close friend of the yours that “Arne’s Team looked …
I attended the Occupy Department of Education 2.0 protest in Washington, DC, in 2013, and had a chance to spend some time with Chicago elementary teacher Michelle Gunderson. Michelle has become concerned about the myriad ways in which student data is now being used, and she shared with me this Personal Pledge for …
