The Answer Sheet: how to reform a school


Posted at 04:03 AM ET, 05/17/2013

The revolution is here
By Valerie Strauss
The revolution is against corporate-based education reform.

By Valerie Strauss  |  04:03 AM ET, 05/17/2013 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Tags:  Against Corporate-Based Reform, School Reform

Posted at 01:01 PM ET, 04/03/2013

Following the school reform money
By Valerie Strauss
Just how well-coordinated and far-reaching is the intersection of school reform and politics?

By Valerie Strauss  |  01:01 PM ET, 04/03/2013 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Tags:  Intersection of Politics, It's Coordinated, Money in School Reform, Reform, School Reform

Posted at 10:00 AM ET, 02/25/2013

'You can't have that data': 19 months of stonewalling by ed bureaucrats
By Valerie Strauss
In state after state, critics of education reform try to get data from state education departments to see for themselves how well the reforms are working but often get stonewalled. Here's one such story.

By Valerie Strauss  |  10:00 AM ET, 02/25/2013 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Tags:  Education Reform, School Reform, So Much For Transparency

Posted at 12:26 PM ET, 02/06/2013

Students can't Google everything: Why knowledge matters
By Valerie Strauss
If you mistake advocacy for a knowledge-based curriculum as wistful nostalgia for a better time, or as "old fashioned" you just don't get it, writes Daniel Willingham, in this piece about a school reform debate in Britain that resonates here as well.

By Valerie Strauss  |  12:26 PM ET, 02/06/2013 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Tags:  School Reform, School Reform Debate

Posted at 12:35 PM ET, 12/10/2012

Moco schools chief calls for three-year moratorium on standardized testing
By Valerie Strauss
Montgomery County Superintendent Joshua Starr, solidifying his role as a prominent critic of President Obama's education policies, says the country needs a three-year moratorium on standardized testing and needs to "stop the insanity" of evaluating teachers according to student test scores because it is based on "bad science."

By Valerie Strauss  |  12:35 PM ET, 12/10/2012 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Tags:  Montgomery County Schools, Problems With Reform, School Reform

Posted at 10:11 AM ET, 11/07/2012

Results in key education races
By Valerie Strauss
School reformers sustained some big upsets around the country but also had some wins. Here's what happened.

By Valerie Strauss  |  10:11 AM ET, 11/07/2012 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Tags:  Election Results, Future of Reform, School Reform

Posted at 03:31 PM ET, 10/08/2012

Next on school reformers’ agenda
By Valerie Strauss
Principals can expect to be in the

By Valerie Strauss  |  03:31 PM ET, 10/08/2012 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Tags:  Education Policy, School Reform; School Choice, What's Coming

Posted at 11:00 PM ET, 01/10/2011

Has American education peaked?
By Valerie Strauss
Educator Marion Brady argues that our current reform road will do nothing to fix our school system, and he offers a way to imagine real alternatives.

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:00 PM ET, 01/10/2011 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers | Tags:  21st century skills, arne duncan, marion brady, obama school reform, president obama and school reform, school curriculum, school reform

Posted at 12:02 PM ET, 01/07/2011

What really helped Florida's test scores
By Valerie Strauss
Florida, which is increasingly being looked to as a school reform model did achieve considerable improvements in student achievement during the last decade. But it is important to see when, where and why the gains occurred. The real answer, it turns out, is not the one often given.

By Valerie Strauss  |  12:02 PM ET, 01/07/2011 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers | Tags:  florida reform, jeb bush, jeb bush and school reform, naep scores, national assessment of educational reform, school reform

Posted at 04:25 PM ET, 12/15/2010

What Rhee wrought
By Valerie Strauss
Anyone who thinks that Michelle Rhee was a whiz as chancellor of D.C. public schools and should be heading a national "reform" movement ought to read about a high school she attempted to “transform” in the nation’s capital.

By Valerie Strauss  |  04:25 PM ET, 12/15/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  D.C. Schools, D.C. Schools, D.C. Schools | Tags:  d.c. schools, dunbar, dunbar high, dunbar high school, friends of bedford, michelle rhee, rhee, school reform, school transformation, transformation schools

Posted at 11:39 AM ET, 12/07/2010

Ravitch to Gates: Let's talk
By Valerie Strauss
Education historian Diane Ravitch invites Bill Gates to a public discussion on education reform, and explains why public schools must remain public.

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:39 AM ET, 12/07/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers | Tags:  bill gates, checker finn, diane ravitch, education policy, federal control of schools, local control of schools, obama and school reform, republicans in congress, school reform, school reform policies, wall street journal

Posted at 08:59 AM ET, 11/28/2010

Why non-educator school chiefs aren't the answer
By Valerie Strauss
Historian Larry Cuban looks at how big-city school systems decided to reach into the corporate ranks to find school superintendents, and why they are no silver bullet to improving schools.

By Valerie Strauss  |  08:59 AM ET, 11/28/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Educational leadership, Educational leadership, Educational leadership | Tags:  cathie black, cathleen black, educational leadership, qualifications for superintendents, school reform, school superintendents, schools, superintendents

Posted at 05:00 AM ET, 11/23/2010

A new mess at Central Falls High in Rhode Island
By Valerie Strauss
Things aren’t going well at Central Falls High, the Rhode Island school that became famous last spring when all of the teachers were fired and President Obama praised the “accountability” move.

By Valerie Strauss  |  05:00 AM ET, 11/23/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  School turnarounds/reform | Tags:  arne duncan, central falls, central falls high school, president obama, school reform, school transformation, school turnaround, teachers

Posted at 11:30 AM ET, 09/24/2010

Meier: White knights and false villains in education
By Valerie Strauss
Prominent education reformer Deborah Meier writes: "We're now entering the age when "tough love" is the plot when it comes to teachers and parents. Only it's they who we need to be tough on. It's all those smart young people who went into teaching in the late 1960s and '70s (some to avoid the draft) with their permissive spoiled-brat histories who become the villains of the new wave of school-based romances. Neither tough-love imposed by elite Ivy League grads nor the generous-love imposed by elite draft-dodgers—forgive the unfair labels—will do."

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:30 AM ET, 09/24/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Deborah Meier, Deborah Meier, Deborah Meier | Tags:  deb meier, deborah meier, diane ravitch, ivy league, school reform, school reformers, tough love, waiting for superman

Posted at 11:00 AM ET, 09/08/2010

School board president: Ed reformers ‘just don’t get it’
By Valerie Strauss
A school board president blasts current education reformers, saying "They simply just don’t get it. They don’t realize what true education is and they have no clue the challenges we face in helping students engage in it."

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:00 AM ET, 09/08/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  School turnarounds/reform | Tags:  charlotte hummel, education reform, school reform, william penn school district

Posted at 06:30 AM ET, 08/16/2010

The problem with favoring high schools in turnaround grant program
By Valerie Strauss
The Obama administration has doled out a disproportionate amount of school turnaround funds to high schools, even though no one knows exactly how to improve them.

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:30 AM ET, 08/16/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers | Tags:  Tier 1, Tier 2, obama and education policies, obama and school reform, school improvement grants, school turnaround grants, school turnarounds

Posted at 07:25 AM ET, 07/21/2010

Primer for ed reformers (or, it’s the curriculum, stupid!)
By Valerie Strauss
A curriculum expert says school reformers are ignoring this truth: "I say the familiar “core curriculum” in use in America’s schools and colleges is a problem-plagued, dysfunctional,19th Century relic that fits the 21st Century about as well as the first Model T Ford fits into I-75 traffic." And here's how to fix it.

By Valerie Strauss  |  07:25 AM ET, 07/21/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers | Tags:  changing the curriculum, common core standards, curriculum reform, how to design curriculum, how to reform a school, marion brady, national standards, primer for reforms, race to the top, school reform, the answer sheet

Posted at 06:30 AM ET, 07/02/2010

Reality check on school accountability movement
By Valerie Strauss
A teacher writes about how off-base today's accountability movement has become.

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:30 AM ET, 07/02/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Guest Bloggers | Tags:  obama and school reform, school reform

Posted at 11:30 PM ET, 06/24/2010

Principal: How to REALLY turn around a school
By Valerie Strauss
A principal talks about how he and his staff successfully improved a school--but not in the way advocated by today's school reformers.

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:30 PM ET, 06/24/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Teachers, Teachers, Teachers | Tags:  obama and school reform, race to the top, school reform, school restructuring, teachers, turning around schools

Posted at 11:30 AM ET, 06/10/2010

Reformers: Stop doing these 4 things
By Valerie Strauss
An expert on classroom instruction explains the four things school leaders have to stop doing immediately to improve teaching and student achievement.

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:30 AM ET, 06/10/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Learning | Tags:  block scheduling, great instruction, improving classroom instructions, john o'connor, mistakes in education reform, school reformers