A Response to Marc Tucker’s Response to Diane Ravitch and Anthony Cody on Fixing Our National Accountability System By Yong Zhao. I was very impressed with Marc Tucker’s indictment of the test-based accountability system that has been in place for over a decade: The test-based accountability system now …
By Anthony Cody. For progress to occur in China – or the US, the dragons of educational authoritarianism must be slain. Chinese-American professor Yong Zhao has been a bit of a contrarian regarding education reform in the United States. He comes at the subject with a unique perspective. He experienced the …
By John Thompson. I do not question the sincerity of most former Obama administration officials and other liberals who support Vergara v California and its spawn. Some have long and loudly blamed teachers for education underperformance, saying that it is our “low expectations” and not the legacies of …
By Anthony Cody. In 2014, most of the communications media is carrying messages sponsored or controlled by the wealthy. When speech is redefined by the Supreme Court to include the spending of money, then those with unlimited money have a nearly unlimited ability to speak via the airwaves. This week I described …
By Larry Graykin. My son Alec, a junior at Concord (NH) High School, shared a fascinating tidbit with me recently. His school has shifted to a new way of grading. Homework’s value in this new system? 0%. That’s not to say that the school has abolished homework. On the contrary; he has as much or more assigned …
By Chris Thinnes. We seem to have forgotten there could be any other way to hold ourselves accountable. – Steve Seidel ‘WE MIGHT WELL HAVE VIEWED IT AS AN ACT OF WAR’ I remember Sir Ken Robinson recounting, a few years ago, the challenges of his family’s adjustment to American culture when they moved …
In 2010, a stark image was broadcast around the nation. It showed a child seated at a school desk surrounded by absolute devastation and ruin. That image was used promote the movie, “Waiting For Superman.” The movie was boosted with a $2 million advertising grant from the Gates Foundation, and was further …
This week Mark Naison took an axe to the Peer Assistance and Review program, citing research done by Brian Crowell, a math teacher in Berkeley, California. Crowell states that his research has shown that teachers who are outspoken, and those who are over 55, are of color, and those who are expensive, are the ones …
By Stephen Krashen Bill Nye (“The Science Guy”) is enthusiastic about the Common Core because he feels that there are some basic principles that students simply need to know: Everybody needs to learn “a little bit of physics, chemistry, mathematics and you got to learn some evolution. …
By Anthony Cody. In August, Louisiana teacher and investigative reporter Mercedes Schneider wrote about the dangers of having education journalism directly funded by the Gates Foundation. This morning, she followed up that post with another, pointing out that while it sounds benign to “focus on success,” this …
