The idea that someone can parachute into a district and suddenly reverse years of problems (including problems they ignore) quickly and easily is either naivete or a cynical mask for a hostile takeover.
Read MoreBurnout is a stress-related state of exhaustion and often leads to feelings of isolation, low accomplishment and even depression. Although research has long shown that burnout affects employees, we now know burnout also affects students.
Read MoreWriting-intensive courses where students are learning to write and not just being assigned essays are also demanding because many times students must rethink their behaviors, less like traditional students and more like writers.
Read MoreIn general, I think we have become too reliant on technology in schools. We’ve welcomed and incorporated it without testing it, or even reflecting upon whether it promises to offer better pathways toward student comprehension and discovery or whether it merely offers flash and novelty devoid of substance.
Read MoreYou can’t raise expectations while taking away resources, union protections, and fair ways to evaluate their work. And to his credit, state Sen. Ryan Aument seems to have finally seen the light.
Read MoreDespite years of government desegregation efforts and the proven benefits of integrated schools, our recently published research shows that U.S. school segregation is higher than it has been in decades, even if there are no longer overt laws requiring racially segregated schools.
Read MoreAs I visit schools these days, I worry that the trusting relationship between supervisors and teachers is being undermined by policies that encourage a “gotcha” mentality, rather than a growth mentality.
Read MoreState standards, state high-stakes testing, school choice, charter schools—these policies have been reframed repeatedly. Instead of misguided education reform beneath misleading political rhetoric, SC should take a different path, one shifting not only policies but also ideologies.
Read MoreIf Hanauer and President Obama and other wealthy citizens who have impacted public education in a negative way through corporate reform want to right the wrongs of such reform here are some ways they can do it.
Read MoreThe explanation that phonics and related basic reading skills in the early grades is the answer for overcoming the impact of deficient socio-economic conditions on students’ academic achievement is an old story that begins in the post-World War II years.
Read MoreThere is a certain karmic irony to the rise of public intellectuals who start to drive outside their lane—actually who take over all the lanes—only to prove that, in fact, they do not know everything.
Read MoreI work in a little suburban school district just outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, that is slowly being destroyed by privatization. It’s charter schools, voucher schools and the pro-corporate policies that enable them to pocket tax dollars meant to educate kids and then blame us for the shortfall.
Read MoreIn this talk author and singer Barry Lane shows how songs can create a greater degree of self-awareness that helps students and schools move past a compliance model of kindness, to one where students are encouraged to act from a place of intrinsic nobility.
Read MoreWhen you want an expert on health, you go to a doctor. When you want an expert on law, you go to a lawyer. So why is it that when the news media wants an expert on education they go to themselves?
Read MoreHumanities professors wading into the public debate and their “dull litanies of fact” are simply not the problem facing us today.
Read MoreIt was interesting to see in last week’s Tory leadership voting that both you and your schools minister Nick Gibb had backed Michael Gove to be prime minister.
Read MoreLead affects children’s brain development and results in reduced “intelligence quotient,” or IQ. It also leads to behavioral changes, such as shortening of attention span, restlessness, conduct disorders, aggression and reduced educational attainment.
Read MorePrivatized schools are sometimes great at boosting standardized test scores, but when it comes to authentic indicators of student learning, they often fall well behind their traditional public school counterparts.
Read MoreNext time you see an article with a negative title about teachers and their education schools, skim through the report and see if you can spot the corporate fingerprints.
Read MorePennsylvania's legislature is currently having Version 2,433,672,127 of the same argument that emerges every five minutes in the places where charter schools and public schools bump up against each other.
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