By John Thompson. Diane Ravitch observes that “reformers almost always have a soft landing in a cushy job, even when their previous endeavor was a dud.” Chris Barbic failed in leading the Achievement School District in Tennessee but, “No matter. Barbic now works for the John Arnold Foundation in what must be …
By Anthony Cody. This particular teacher appreciation week we seem to be getting an especially hard sell on the virtues of John King, who left behind a state full of angry parents and teachers in New York in order to seize the reins of President Obama’s Department of Education, just as the administration …
By Educators for Shared Responsibility. In 2012, concerned that accountability for US student outcomes was being unfairly characterized as the sole responsibility of classroom teachers, a group called Educators for Shared Accountability emerged from the classrooms of the heartland and made a bold statement with a …
By John Thompson. Perhaps because I’m an incorrigible supporter of President Obama on almost every non-education issue, I grasped at straws hoping that his and Arne Duncan’s staffing of the Education Department with former Gates Foundation true believers in market-driven reform would not create a mess. …
By Anthony Cody. Yesterday President Obama surprised us all by once again speaking out against standardized tests. In his speech, he spoke of the true role of education, to uplift and inspire. He said, When I look back on the great teachers who shaped my life, what I remember isn’t the way they prepared me to …
By Anthony Cody. In May of 2011, as the NEA and AFT participated in planning a major protest of the Obama administration’s education policies, the NEA leadership announced they were endorsing President Obama for re-election, more than a year prior to the election in November, 2012. It was never revealed …
By Paul Horton. A couple of years ago I had the privilege of listening to the late Nobel Economics laureate Gary Becker speak at my school. Professor Becker won the Nobel Prize for his book Human Capital that argued that the marketplace provides consumers with “rational choices” that rational people will …
by Stephen Stollmack, Ph.D. My life now seems to be on Fast-Track – so much more to learn about what’s going on in the world each day and more and more suspicion that the government has been hiding important things from us for years. Now that I am back to living alone, no longer having the responsibility of …
By Anthony Cody. It is a bit hard to recall where we were five years ago, but this re-post might help jog your memory, as it did mine. At the time, my blog had been running for a little less than two years at Education Week, and I had started a project called “Teachers Letters to Obama.” Here is what I …
By Anthony Cody. Wisconsin governor Scott Walker made headlines recently when he tried to change the mission of the state university system there, removing the “search for truth.” In its place, the university’s mission was changed to “meet the state’s workforce needs.” This blatant attack …
