The Answer Sheet: teachers


Posted at 09:37 PM ET, 05/23/2013

Teacher's resignation video: 'Everything I loved about teaching is extinct'
By Valerie Strauss
A veteran teacher eloquently explains how and why public education is on the wrong path.

By Valerie Strauss  |  09:37 PM ET, 05/23/2013 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Tags:  'I Won't Go Into Their Cage', Teachers

Posted at 03:15 PM ET, 05/21/2013

Quiet protest staged at Teachers College graduation
By Valerie Strauss
Some students quietly protested the choice of speaker Teachers College. Here's why.

By Valerie Strauss  |  03:15 PM ET, 05/21/2013 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Tags:  Controversial Speaker, Teachers College

Posted at 11:04 AM ET, 05/18/2013

Fiery Chicago teachers union president reelected
By Valerie Strauss
Karen Lewis wins a new three-year term overwhelmingly.

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:04 AM ET, 05/18/2013 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Tags:  Chicago Teachers, Protests Beginning Today

Posted at 11:10 AM ET, 05/15/2013

Letter to Obama: We need data on 'highly qualified' teachers
By Valerie Strauss
A coalition of education organizations writes to Obama expressing concern about who the federal government considers as a 'highly qualified teacher."

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:10 AM ET, 05/15/2013 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Tags:  Highly Qualified Teachers, Teachers, Who Is and Who Isn't

Posted at 06:02 AM ET, 05/15/2013

What if Finland's great teachers taught in U.S. schools?
By Valerie Strauss
Why the U.S. emphasis on "teacher effectiveness" won't by itself really improve schools.

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:02 AM ET, 05/15/2013 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Tags:  3 Fallacies of 'Teacher Effectiveness', Teacher Effectiveness, Teachers

Posted at 12:01 PM ET, 05/11/2013

High school student tells off his teacher -- viral video
By Valerie Strauss
The following 90-second video was secretly recorded by a student at Duncanville High School in Texas as another student, Jeff Bliss, was telling off his world history teacher about the way she was teaching.

By Valerie Strauss  |  12:01 PM ET, 05/11/2013 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Tags:  In Texas, Teachers

Posted at 10:55 AM ET, 05/09/2013

Appreciating teachers (for a change)
By Valerie Strauss
Here are some thoughts through history about teachers and their impact, from Socrates to Jon Stewart.

By Valerie Strauss  |  10:55 AM ET, 05/09/2013 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Tags:  Quotes Throughout History, Some Kind Words, Teachers

Posted at 04:01 AM ET, 05/09/2013

School district closes before academic year is over
By Valerie Strauss
Teachers offered to work for free but liability issues got in the way.

By Valerie Strauss  |  04:01 AM ET, 05/09/2013 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Tags:  Financial Crisis, School District Closes, Teachers Vote to Work For Free

Posted at 06:01 AM ET, 05/08/2013

What one teacher wants for Teacher Appreciation Week
By Valerie Strauss
Guess.

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:01 AM ET, 05/08/2013 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Tags:  An Unorthodox Request, Teachers, The State of Things

Posted at 06:02 AM ET, 05/07/2013

What schools need and what they don't need
By Valerie Strauss
What motivates students and teachers, and what kills motivation.

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:02 AM ET, 05/07/2013 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Tags:  and Motivation killers, Motivation, Motivation and What Kills Motivation, Teachers

Posted at 12:24 PM ET, 04/27/2013

A dozen things teachers won't tell parents (e.g., 'Kids dish on your secrets all the time')
By Valerie Strauss
What teachers would like to say to parents but don't: Please, no more mugs, frames, or stuffed animals, and a bunch more.

By Valerie Strauss  |  12:24 PM ET, 04/27/2013 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Tags:  Teachers, We're Not Marriage Counselors

Posted at 06:02 AM ET, 04/23/2013

2013 National Teacher of Year: Public education not in crisis
By Valerie Strauss
The newly named Teacher of the Year, from Washington State, is not a big fan of all of President Obama's education policies.

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:02 AM ET, 04/23/2013 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Tags:  Disagrees With Reformers on Evaluation, Teachers

Posted at 04:50 PM ET, 04/22/2013

2013 National Teacher of the Year named
By Valerie Strauss
Jeff Charbonneau, a high school science teacher from Zillah, Washington, was chosen as 2013 National Teacher of the Year.

By Valerie Strauss  |  04:50 PM ET, 04/22/2013 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Tags:  He Teaches Science, Teachers

Posted at 12:16 PM ET, 04/21/2013

Teacher: How my job went from great to infuriating
By Valerie Strauss
Here's a call for the end of high-stakes standardized tests from a teacher who chronicles how school reform forced him to change how he taught.

By Valerie Strauss  |  12:16 PM ET, 04/21/2013 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Tags:  Effects of NCLB, No Child Left Behind, School Reform, Teachers, What School Reform Did

Posted at 08:02 AM ET, 04/15/2013

The right -- and wrong role -- for teachers
By Valerie Strauss
Put teachers in the right role and they can be effective. But even the best can't do much if they are in the wrong role.

By Valerie Strauss  |  08:02 AM ET, 04/15/2013 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Tags:  Effectiveness, Teachers

Posted at 06:02 AM ET, 04/11/2013

Teacher: Why I won't quit despite 'inane' reform
By Valerie Strauss
A teacher explains why she won't give up the classroom even though many of her colleagues are.

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:02 AM ET, 04/11/2013 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Tags:  Her Letter to Arne Duncan, School Reform, Teachers

Posted at 04:01 AM ET, 04/11/2013

What teachers need and reformers ignore: time to collaborate
By Valerie Strauss
Darling-Hammond: The reform impulse that gave rise to construction of new learning standards and assessments will only work if we invest in the capacity of educators to work together effectively.

By Valerie Strauss  |  04:01 AM ET, 04/11/2013 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Tags:  Linda Darling-Hammond, School Reform, Teachers

Posted at 04:03 AM ET, 04/06/2013

Teacher's resignation letter: 'My profession no longer exists'
By Valerie Strauss
Increasingly teachers are speaking out against school reforms that they believe are demeaning their profession, and some are simply quitting because they have had enough.

By Valerie Strauss  |  04:03 AM ET, 04/06/2013 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Tags:  'Ill-Conceived Policies', Teachers

Posted at 11:54 AM ET, 03/19/2013

New nonsense about teachers
By Valerie Strauss
There's some new rhetoric from reformers about teachers and I'm already sick of it.

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:54 AM ET, 03/19/2013 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Tags:  About Teachers, Accountability, School Reform, Teachers

Posted at 01:08 AM ET, 02/05/2013

Jon Stewart tests Michelle Rhee, defends teachers (update with video)
By Valerie Strauss
on Stewart invited Michelle Rhee on "The Daily Show" Monday night and, while he didn't skewer her the way some Rhee critics would have liked, he kept challenging her about whether her brand of school reform unfairly targets teachers. He also said what Rhee and other reformers could take to be something of a slight: There has been "no real innovation in education since John Dewey."

By Valerie Strauss  |  01:08 AM ET, 02/05/2013 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Tags:  He Challenges Reforms, He Defends Teachers, Jon Stewart, Michelle Rhee, Polite But Challenging, School Reform

Posted at 11:39 AM ET, 01/26/2013

Teacher boycott of standardized test in Seattle spreads
By Valerie Strauss
A boycott of Washington state's mandated standardized test by teachers at a Seattle school is spreading to other schools and winning support across the country, including from the two largest teachers' unions, parents, researchers and education activists.

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:39 AM ET, 01/26/2013 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Tags:  Does President Obama Know?, Garifled Teachers, Standardized Test Revolt, Standardized Tests

Posted at 04:06 PM ET, 01/24/2013

California's Gov. Brown blasts state, federal education policy
By Valerie Strauss
"We seem to think," California Gov. Jerry Brown said in his State of the State Address today, "that education is a thing like a vaccine that can be designed from afar and simply injected into our children." Here are some of the other things he said in address on education.

By Valerie Strauss  |  04:06 PM ET, 01/24/2013 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Tags:  California Gov. Brown, Calls for Trusting Teachers, Education Policy

Posted at 03:53 PM ET, 01/23/2013

Teacher may lose job over students with mouths taped shut
By Valerie Strauss
Some of you may remember when Michelle Rhee addressed a group of new teachers back in 2010 and disclosed that when she was a second-grade teacher at Baltimore's Harlem Park Elementary, her class-management skills were so bad that she taped the mouths of her students. The incident didn't have any effect on Rhee's career as an education reformer, but a teacher in Ohio isn't going to be so lucky.

By Valerie Strauss  |  03:53 PM ET, 01/23/2013 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Tags:  School Discipline, Teachers, Who Does That Sound Like?

Posted at 01:51 PM ET, 01/21/2013

Obama's three education references in inaugural speech
By Valerie Strauss
Here are the three references to education that President Obama made in his inaugural speech today.

By Valerie Strauss  |  01:51 PM ET, 01/21/2013 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Tags:  Inaugural Speech, Schools and Teachers

Posted at 01:32 AM ET, 01/07/2013

Bloomberg likens teachers union to NRA
By Valerie Strauss
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, blaming the teachers union for stalled talks on a new teacher evaluation system, expressed his anger on his radio show by comparing the United Federation of Teachers to the National Rifle Association. Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, has asked him to publicly apologize.

By Valerie Strauss  |  01:32 AM ET, 01/07/2013 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Tags:  Michael Bloomberg, teachers unions, Weingarten Demands Apology

Posted at 09:25 PM ET, 12/18/2012

Dear Gov. McDonnell: Allowing guns at school is 'a terrible idea'
By Valerie Strauss
Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell said on WTOP radio's "Ask the Governor" show that it is time to have a public discussion about allowing officials on school campuses to carry guns. Here is a letter from two Virginia residents -- University of Virginia cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham and his wife, teacher Trisha Willingham -- starting that very discussion by telling McDonnell he is wrong.

By Valerie Strauss  |  09:25 PM ET, 12/18/2012 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Tags:  Guns on Campus, Two Teachers Take on Virginia governor: Reject

Posted at 06:00 AM ET, 12/18/2012

Have teachers changed their minds about reform?
By Valerie Strauss
Where do teachers stand on the current wave of school reform? Education writer Jay Mathews says teachers are now leaning in favor of reform. Researcher Matthew Di Carlo takes a look at that claim.

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:00 AM ET, 12/18/2012 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Tags:  Like It or Not?, School Reform, Teachers

Posted at 10:34 AM ET, 11/16/2012

Chris Christie, Randi Weingarten (and Bradley Cooper) on new Newark teachers contract
By Valerie Strauss
Here's a video of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten talking -- along with actor Bradley Cooper of all people -- on the MSNBC program "Morning Joe" about the new teachers contract they negotiated in Newark.

By Valerie Strauss  |  10:34 AM ET, 11/16/2012 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Tags:  Morning Joe, On 'Morning Joe', Teacher Contract, Teacher Evaluation, teachers unions

Posted at 11:49 AM ET, 11/01/2012

Just Let Me Teach armbands taking off
By Valerie Strauss
Short summary of story

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:49 AM ET, 11/01/2012 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Tags:  Fed Up, School Reform, Teachers

Posted at 11:38 AM ET, 10/25/2012

Will teachers help decide presidential election?
By Valerie Strauss
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, there are about 3.3 million working public school teachers, more than 75 percent of them women. That's a lot of votes and a lot of campaign and get-out-the-vote supporters -- and that's why it is fair to wonder whether the education policies of President Obama and Mitt Romney could have an impact on the November election.

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:38 AM ET, 10/25/2012 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Tags:  Obama vs. Romney, Presidential Election, Teachers

Posted at 09:00 AM ET, 03/03/2011

Value-added assessment: Theory vs practice
By Valerie Strauss
Conflating the importance of teacher quality with the ability to measure it carries big risks, and can lead states, districts and the media to miss the trees for the forest.

By Valerie Strauss  |  09:00 AM ET, 03/03/2011 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Guest Bloggers, Matthew Di Carlo, Teachers | Tags:  la times, la times teacher, los angeles times, los angeles times teachers, los angeles times teachers series, teacher assessment, teacher evaluation, teachers, teachers and value-added, teachers database, value added

Posted at 03:31 PM ET, 03/02/2011

School reform through confrontation
By Valerie Strauss
Increasingly in state after state, battles over school reform have become confrontational: Wisconsin, Indiana, etc. What are the consequences?

By Valerie Strauss  |  03:31 PM ET, 03/02/2011 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Teachers | Tags:  collective bargaining rights, indiana, indiana collective bargaining, labor movement, no child left behind, teachers, wisconsin protests, wisconsin senators, wisconsin teachers

Posted at 05:00 AM ET, 03/02/2011

Obama's mistimed Miami school visit -- with Jeb Bush
By Valerie Strauss
What a tag team. At a time when Wisconsin teachers are protesting to keep their collective bargaining rights, President Obama is traveling to Florida to share a stage with the anti-union Jeb Bush, the former governor who led corporate-driven, standardized test-obsessed school reform and tried to reduce teachers union influence.

By Valerie Strauss  |  05:00 AM ET, 03/02/2011 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  School turnarounds/reform, Standardized Tests | Tags:  arne duncan, president obama, president obama and teachers, rick scott, scott walker, wisconsin protests, wisconsin teachers

Posted at 12:47 PM ET, 03/01/2011

Jon Stewart's hysterical defense of teachers
By Valerie Strauss
Jon Stewart (finally) does a hysterical bit about the preposterous attacks on the nation’s public school teachers, who have been accused by school “reformers” of being lazy, greedy and lousy at their jobs.

By Valerie Strauss  |  12:47 PM ET, 03/01/2011 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Laugh and cry, Teachers | Tags:  diane ravitch, jon stewart, school reform, the daily show, wisconsin protests, wisconsin teachers

Posted at 05:00 AM ET, 03/01/2011

Ravitch: 'A moment of national insanity'
By Valerie Strauss
Education historian Diane Ravitch writes: "The reality on the ground suggests that the corporate reform movement ... will set American education back, by how many years or decades is anyone's guess."

By Valerie Strauss  |  05:00 AM ET, 03/01/2011 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Diane Ravitch, Education Secretary Duncan, Guest Bloggers | Tags:  arne duncan, diane ravitch, gates foundation, president obama, president obama and school reform, race to the top, school reform, teachers

Posted at 11:00 AM ET, 02/27/2011

2 false claims that drive school reform
By Valerie Strauss
"Accountability" and "merit" are compelling concepts, especially when we are talking about adults who are charged with educating our children. But the concepts have been misused in school reform, writes an educator.

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:00 AM ET, 02/27/2011 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Accountability, Charter schools, Guest Bloggers, Performance pay, Teacher assessment | Tags:  accountability movement, charter schools, geoffrey canada, merit pay, michelle rhee, performance pay, school choice, teacher pay, teachers, waiting for superman

Posted at 05:00 AM ET, 02/03/2011

The VIVA Project: What teachers told Duncan
By Valerie Strauss
More than 150 public school teachers put their heads together to devise solutions to problems that most affect their profession. Then they got to do something unusual with their conclusions: present them to Education Secretary Arne Duncan.

By Valerie Strauss  |  05:00 AM ET, 02/03/2011 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Education Secretary Duncan, Education Secretary Duncan, Education Secretary Duncan | Tags:  Arne Duncan, The Answer Sheet, VIVA project, education, education secretary duncan, evaluation and teachers, performance-based evaluation, school, teachers

Posted at 05:28 PM ET, 01/31/2011

Letter to President Obama: Who is a 'highly qualified' teacher?
By Valerie Strauss
More than 50 organizations sign a letter to President Obama about legislation that would codify a Bush-era regulation that allows states to label teachers as “highly qualified” when they are still in training – and, in many cases, just beginning training – in alternative route programs. alternative route programs.Bamajoin in

By Valerie Strauss  |  05:28 PM ET, 01/31/2011 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Teachers | Tags:  continuing resolution, definition of highly qualified, education groups, h.r. 3082, highly qualified, highly qualified teacher, letter to obama, president obama, public school teachers

Posted at 05:00 AM ET, 01/31/2011

Legislation: Teachers should grade parents
By Valerie Strauss
In the you-can’t-make-this-stuff-up category, a Florida (of course) state legislator is pushing legislation that would require some elementary school teachers to grade parents on how involved they are at their children's schools.

By Valerie Strauss  |  05:00 AM ET, 01/31/2011 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Teachers, Teachers | Tags:  bill for teachers to grade parents, florida bill teachers, florida legislature, florida schools, legislation teachers parents, parents, teachers, teachers grading parents

Posted at 01:07 PM ET, 01/29/2011

Study: Most high school biology teachers don’t endorse evolution
By Valerie Strauss
The central theory of biology is evolution yet a new study shows that most high school biology teachers are reluctant to endorse it in class.

By Valerie Strauss  |  01:07 PM ET, 01/29/2011 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Science, Science | Tags:  biology, biology teachers, charles darwin, creationism, darwin, evolution, evolutionary biology, high school biology, high school science, intelligent design, study on evolution

Posted at 05:00 AM ET, 01/26/2011

Things I’m sick of hearing
By Valerie Strauss
It’s time for school reformers to find new ways to attack their critics. It’s getting tiring hearing the same old refrains, which go something like this.

By Valerie Strauss  |  05:00 AM ET, 01/26/2011 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Achievement gap, Achievement gap, Achievement gap, Achievement gap, Achievement gap | Tags:  charter schools, data-driven reform, michelle rhee, president obama, school reform, standardized tests, teachers unions

Posted at 05:00 AM ET, 01/25/2011

Teachers and nanny cams: Compliance vs. trust
By Valerie Strauss
Are "nanny cams" in classrooms a great way to evaluate how well teachers do their jobs, or are they manifestations of the notion that we simply don't trust teachers?

By Valerie Strauss  |  05:00 AM ET, 01/25/2011 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Teacher assessment, Teacher assessment, Teacher assessment | Tags:  evaluating teachers, gates foundation, gates foundation and met project, met project, teacher assessment, videotaping teachers

Posted at 12:35 PM ET, 01/21/2011

Say it isn’t so on IMPACT, Mayor Gray
By Valerie Strauss
Here’s why I was so disappointed to a plan by D.C. schools officials to have the flawed IMPACT teacher evaluation system reviewed by a Harvard think tank.

By Valerie Strauss  |  12:35 PM ET, 01/21/2011 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  D.C. Schools, D.C. Schools, D.C. Schools | Tags:  d.c. schools, edulabs, harvard research, harvard thinktank, harvard university, mayor gray, mayor vincent gray, merit pay for teachers, michelle rhee, performance pay, teacher assessment, teacher evaluation

Posted at 05:36 PM ET, 01/20/2011

Pensions for teachers vs. chancellors
By Valerie Strauss
It seems fair to note that after making a public stink about the awfulness of pensions for public school teachers, former New York City Schools chancellor Joel Klein has himself accepted a $34,000 pension check.

By Valerie Strauss  |  05:36 PM ET, 01/20/2011 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Teachers | Tags:  chancellor klein, joel klein, klein pension, new york city schools, pensions, ponzi schemes, schools chancellor, teachers pensions

Posted at 11:11 AM ET, 01/20/2011

Giving guns to teachers: A Nebraska legislator submits bill
By Valerie Strauss
It was inevitable that someone would push a plan to allow teachers to pack concealed guns, and now, someone has.

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:11 AM ET, 01/20/2011 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Student Life, Student Life, Student Life | Tags:  gun legislation, gun rights, guns, guns in schools, nebraska legislation, teachers and guns

Posted at 05:00 AM ET, 01/18/2011

Videotaping teachers the right way (not the Gates way)
By Valerie Strauss
A teacher describes what he says is the right way to videotape teachers to help them improve and explains why he thinks a Gates-funded videotaping project is taking the wrong approach.

By Valerie Strauss  |  05:00 AM ET, 01/18/2011 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers | Tags:  evaluating teachers, gates foundation, gates funded project, gates project and teachers, how to evaluate teachers, larry ferlazzo, teacher assessment, teachers, teachers and gates foundation, videotaping teaches

Posted at 12:00 PM ET, 01/14/2011

The biggest flaw in Gates value-added study
By Valerie Strauss
Were the conclusions of a major Gates Foundation study on value-added measures to evaluate teachers predetermined?

By Valerie Strauss  |  12:00 PM ET, 01/14/2011 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers | Tags:  MET project, MET study, assessing teachers, bill gates, bill gates foundation, gates foundation, teacher assessment, teacher evaluation, value-added, value-added measures

Posted at 11:01 AM ET, 01/13/2011

New analysis challenges Gates study on value-added measures
By Valerie Strauss
A new analysis challenges a Gates Foundation study said to support the validity of value-added measures to evaluate teachers by using students' standardized test scores.

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:01 AM ET, 01/13/2011 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Research, Research | Tags:  bill gates, gates foundation, gates foundation study, gates-funded research, how to evaluate teachers, teacher assessment, value-added, value-added measures

Posted at 12:00 PM ET, 01/12/2011

The big 5: A teacher's translation guide for policymakers
By Valerie Strauss
Those hoping for educator buy-in on the next big education reform idea should first consult this translation guide , which explains some catchphrases and buzzwords that set off warning bells for teachers.

By Valerie Strauss  |  12:00 PM ET, 01/12/2011 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers | Tags:  edu-speak, education buzzwords, education policy, educational rigor, failure is not an option, paradigm shift, research-based methods, rick hess, roxanna elden, teachers

Posted at 10:30 AM ET, 01/09/2011

How to be taken seriously as a reformer (don't be an educator)
By Valerie Strauss
In the current upside-down world of education policy, there's one foolproof strategy for being taken seriously as a reformer: Make sure you're not an educator. Here, an educator writes about what counts -- and what SHOULD count -- in the school reform debate.

By Valerie Strauss  |  10:30 AM ET, 01/09/2011 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers | Tags:  Illiinois schools, Performance Counts, bill gates, eli broad, jeb bush, mark zuckerberg, obama and schools, obama daughters and school, oprah, performance counts, president obama and daughters, school reform, sidwell and obama, standardized tests, teacher assessment, teachers

Posted at 11:15 AM ET, 01/06/2011

NCLB's 9th anniversary: 'Will there be anything we will need to remember after the test?'
By Valerie Strauss
Nine years ago this week president Bush signed into law the No Child Left Behind Act. Take a look at what it wrought.

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:15 AM ET, 01/06/2011 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers | Tags:  congress and nclb, esea, esea reauthorization, national education association, nclb, nclb reauthorization, no child left behind, standardized testing, teachers unions

Posted at 01:36 PM ET, 01/03/2011

America’s disdain for its children
By Valerie Strauss
Americans don’t really think very much of their children. Not really. Just take a look at the world of education.

By Valerie Strauss  |  01:36 PM ET, 01/03/2011 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Charter schools, Charter schools, Charter schools, Charter schools | Tags:  charter schools, children, poverty, standardized tests, teacher evaluation, teachers

Posted at 04:00 AM ET, 01/03/2011

The "bad teacher" bogeyman and its consequences
By Valerie Strauss
An educator dissects how the teaching profession is being attacked and what the consequences are for the country.

By Valerie Strauss  |  04:00 AM ET, 01/03/2011 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Anthony Cody, Anthony Cody, Anthony Cody, Anthony Cody | Tags:  anthony cody, assessing teachers, bad teachers, effective teachers, eric hanushek, school reform, standardized tests

Posted at 05:00 AM ET, 12/28/2010

Ravitch takes stock of education in 2010
By Valerie Strauss
Education historian Diane Ravitch looks back at the education world of 2010.

By Valerie Strauss  |  05:00 AM ET, 12/28/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Diane Ravitch, Diane Ravitch, Diane Ravitch | Tags:  diane ravitch, education policy, teacher assessment, teachers

Posted at 09:00 AM ET, 12/23/2010

Test scores can't prove whether teacher experience matters
By Valerie Strauss
People such as Bill Gates and Arne Duncan who say teacher experience doesn't matter much are relying on standardized test scores for evidence, even though the tests fail to provide adequate evidence for drawing such a conclusion.

By Valerie Strauss  |  09:00 AM ET, 12/23/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers | Tags:  arne duncan, standardized tests, teacher assessment, teacher evalution, teachers, test scores

Posted at 05:00 AM ET, 12/23/2010

Congress approves weird definition of 'highly qualified’ teachers
By Valerie Strauss
So they’ve gone ahead and done it. U.S. legislators have passed legislation that includes a provision that will turn into law a definition of a “highly qualified” teachers that would include people with only a few weeks of training.

By Valerie Strauss  |  05:00 AM ET, 12/23/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Teachers, Teachers, Teachers | Tags:  congress, continuing resolution, highly qualified teachers, teachers

Posted at 06:00 AM ET, 12/21/2010

How a teachers' union actually helped kids (not just adults)
By Valerie Strauss
You've probably heard a lot about how teacher unions are obstacles to meaningful school reforms, but you probably have NOT heard about this remarkable union-involved success story in California.

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:00 AM ET, 12/21/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Anthony Cody, Anthony Cody, Anthony Cody, Anthony Cody, Anthony Cody | Tags:  academic performance index, achievement gap, api, california schools, california teachers association, qeia, standardized tests, teachers union

Posted at 05:00 AM ET, 12/21/2010

So you want to be a teacher?
By Valerie Strauss
Student: I really want to become an elementary school teacher. Teacher: Thank God. Student: I know. There is such a shortage of good teachers. Teacher: No. I meant there is still time to save you. A video that will make you laugh and cry, and some of my favorite dialogue.

By Valerie Strauss  |  05:00 AM ET, 12/21/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Laugh and cry, Laugh and cry | Tags:  fox show, glee, glee on fox, prison break, so you want to be a teacher, teacher shortage, teachers, teachers and glee

Posted at 12:29 PM ET, 12/20/2010

A 'highly qualified' gift from Congress to Teach for America -- UPDATED
By Valerie Strauss
Is a teacher still in training "highly qualified?" Some of our legislators think so.

By Valerie Strauss  |  12:29 PM ET, 12/20/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Congress, Congress | Tags:  CR, continuing resolution, education department, highly qualified teachers, renee v. duncan, teach for america, teachers, tom harkin

Posted at 10:30 AM ET, 12/20/2010

Willingham: When teachers speak unwelcome truths about your child
By Valerie Strauss
Cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham writes about why parents should listen to their child's teachers -- especially when they don't like what they hear.

By Valerie Strauss  |  10:30 AM ET, 12/20/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Daniel Willingham, Daniel Willingham, Daniel Willingham, Daniel Willingham | Tags:  daniel willingham, parents, report cards, teachers

Posted at 10:15 AM ET, 12/19/2010

'Burn and churn' among charter school principals
By Valerie Strauss
Seventy-one percent of charter school principals expect to leave their posts within five years, according to a new study. So what’s the big deal about entering and exiting charter school principals?

By Valerie Strauss  |  10:15 AM ET, 12/19/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Charter schools, Charter schools, Charter schools, Charter schools | Tags:  charter school principals, charter school teachers, charter schools, larry cuban, principal burnout, principals, school reform

Posted at 12:00 PM ET, 12/18/2010

Will firing 5-10 percent of teachers make us Finland?
By Valerie Strauss
Michelle Rhee and Bill Gates like to say that our public schools would become high-performing if we only fired the bottom 5-10 percent of teachers. Here's an examination of that notion.

By Valerie Strauss  |  12:00 PM ET, 12/18/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Research, Research, Research, Research | Tags:  assessing teachers, bill gates, eric hanushek, evaluating teachers, finland, michelle rhee, shankar blog, teachers

Posted at 05:00 AM ET, 12/13/2010

A Felliniesque education story
By Valerie Strauss
A veteran teacher writes that if today's education debate seems Felliniesque, don’t worry; you have not lost your senses. "What is apparent, however, is that the people who run the show have."

By Valerie Strauss  |  05:00 AM ET, 12/13/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers | Tags:  david steiner, fellini, how to assess teachers, merryl tisch, new york board of education, nyc schools, releasing test scores, standardized tests, teacher assessment, teachers, test scores released

Posted at 05:00 AM ET, 12/10/2010

Valerie vs. Jay on Teach for America, KIPP, etc.
By Valerie Strauss
My friend and colleague Jay Mathews, the most knowledgeable education reporter ever, challenged me to a debate. It evolved into a discussion about Teach for America. Here it is.

By Valerie Strauss  |  05:00 AM ET, 12/10/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Teachers | Tags:  education programs, education schools, jay mathews, kipp, mathews strauss debate, teach for america, teach for america debate, teacher education, teachers, valerie strauss

Posted at 02:10 PM ET, 12/09/2010

Teachers: What we need to do to fix schools
By Valerie Strauss
Fourteen teachers from urban schools around the country worked for a year to study how to improve troubled schools. Here are the results.

By Valerie Strauss  |  02:10 PM ET, 12/09/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Teachers, Teachers, Teachers, Teachers | Tags:  larry ferlazzo, quality teachers, school reform, teacher assessment, teacher development, teacher planning, teachers, teachers leadership network, urban schools, urban teachers

Posted at 02:00 PM ET, 12/09/2010

Teachers: How much more can we take?
By Valerie Strauss
Established, expert teachers tell their personal stories about how the joy is going out of their profession and why they are thinking the previously unthinkable: getting out.

By Valerie Strauss  |  02:00 PM ET, 12/09/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Teachers | Tags:  teachers, teaching profession, urban schools, urban teachers, veteran teachers

Posted at 03:29 PM ET, 12/08/2010

Absent teachers reserve 'crisis' created by Klein, Bloomberg, union
By Valerie Strauss
A teacher explains how all sides are responsible for the mess surrounding New York City's "absent teacher reserve: "If this self-inflicted "crisis" were given to a business management class as a case study, it's likely that they would conclude that the negotiators on both sides of the table were idiots."

By Valerie Strauss  |  03:29 PM ET, 12/08/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers | Tags:  cathie black, cathleen black, joel klein, new york city schools, nyc schools, teacher assessment, teacher tenure, teachers

Posted at 05:00 AM ET, 12/07/2010

Assessing teachers without fetishizing test-based reforms
By Valerie Strauss
An educator writes that policymakers are fetishizing student scores on standardized tests and using them as a crutch rather than turning to sensible solutions to improve public schools. There are better ways to assess teacher quality, he says.

By Valerie Strauss  |  05:00 AM ET, 12/07/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers | Tags:  assessing teachers, los angeles times, no child left behind, race to the top, standardized tests, teacher assessment, teacher evaluation, test scores, value added

Posted at 01:52 PM ET, 12/05/2010

When teachers are their own worst enemies
By Valerie Strauss
An educator/author argues that teachers, however unwittingly, helped create the accountability movement that is now "choking" them.

By Valerie Strauss  |  01:52 PM ET, 12/05/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers | Tags:  accountability movement, california standards test, common core standards, common standards, criterion-based tests, public schools, school reform, standardized test, standards movement, teachers

Posted at 10:11 AM ET, 12/04/2010

Meier: Partisan mindsets and teacher collegiality
By Valerie Strauss
Veteran educator Deborah Meier writes about partisan mindset in education, and she asks whether there are institutions and publications today that are built around deep respect for the intelligence and inventiveness of teachers -- and kids.

By Valerie Strauss  |  10:11 AM ET, 12/04/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers | Tags:  collaboration, deb meier, deborah meier, diane ravitch, teach for america, teachers, teachers and collaboration

Posted at 01:30 PM ET, 12/02/2010

A system to tell how your kid is doing in school
By Valerie Strauss
Here's an assessment that can help parents figure out how well their kids are doing in school. And students can use it themselves if they are so inclined.

By Valerie Strauss  |  01:30 PM ET, 12/02/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers | Tags:  how kids learn, learning, parents, report cards, teachers, teaching and learning

Posted at 05:00 AM ET, 12/01/2010

First blame the teachers, then the parents
By Valerie Strauss
An educator warns that after teachers have been sufficiently scapegoated for the troubled public education system, parents will be next. And she offers an alternate framework for which to reform schools, one of responsibility rather than phony accountability.

By Valerie Strauss  |  05:00 AM ET, 12/01/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers | Tags:  accountability, arne duncan, department of education, school reform, teachers

Posted at 05:00 AM ET, 11/30/2010

Ravitch answers Gates
By Valerie Strauss
Bill Gates, in an article by Jonathan Alter of Newsweek, poses some questions to education historian Diane Ravitch, who Alter inexplicably calls the Microsoft founder's "chief adversary." Here she answers Gates' questions.

By Valerie Strauss  |  05:00 AM ET, 11/30/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Diane Ravitch, Diane Ravitch | Tags:  bill gates, charter schools, diane ravitch, jonathan alter, microsoft, newsweek, school reform, teachers

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

The mismatch between Duncan's words, actions
By Valerie Strauss
A veteran teacher writes an open letter to Education Secretary Arne Duncan, saying that the mismatch between Duncan's words and actions makes "a real consensus impossible."

By Valerie Strauss  |  09:30 AM ET, 11/24/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Anthony Cody, Anthony Cody, Anthony Cody | Tags:  anthony cody, arne duncan, education secretary, evaluating teachers, school reform, standardized tests, teacher assessment, value-added

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 01:16 PM ET, 11/21/2010

Teacher runs into power of Teach for America
By Valerie Strauss
A teacher writes about difficulty finding a job in an urban school district because of choosing traditional training rather than Teach for America or a similar alternative program.

By Valerie Strauss  |  01:16 PM ET, 11/21/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Teachers | Tags:  diane ravitch, teach for america, teacher training, teachers, wendy kopp

Posted at 12:46 PM ET, 11/20/2010

Why teaching experience really matters
By Valerie Strauss
Bill Gates just urged school districts and states to stop rewarding teachers for their experience in the classroom and/or advanced education degrees. Arne Duncan makes the same argument. But evidence shows that teaching experience DOES matter.

By Valerie Strauss  |  12:46 PM ET, 11/20/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers | Tags:  arne duncan, bill gates, class size, does experience matter, education department, education secretary duncan, lowering class size, raising class size, research on class size, research on teaching experience, school reform, schools, shankar blog, standardized tests, teacher experience, teacher pay, teacher quality, teacher salaries, teachers, teaching experience, value added

Posted at 05:00 AM ET, 11/18/2010

Teachers give 'Superman' director an earful
By Valerie Strauss
"Waiting for Superman" film director Davis Guggenheim asks teachers to tell him what they about his education film -- the one that scapegoats teachers -- and they let him have it.

By Valerie Strauss  |  05:00 AM ET, 11/18/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Anthony Cody, Anthony Cody | Tags:  anthony cody, attack on teachers, charter schools, davis guggenheim, superman, teachers, teachers unions, waiting for superman

Posted at 09:04 AM ET, 11/17/2010

What Ravitch told KIPP and Teach for America
By Valerie Strauss
Education historian Diane Ravitch gave a speech at Rice University about school reform in which she directly challenged officials from Teach for America and the Knowledge Is Power Program who were present -- the very people who had invited her.

By Valerie Strauss  |  09:04 AM ET, 11/17/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Diane Ravitch, Diane Ravitch | Tags:  arne duncan, charter schools, diane ravitch, finland, finland education, kipp, knowledge is power program, nclb, no child left behind, obama school reform, president obama, rice university, secretary duncan, teach for america, teachers, tfa

Posted at 05:00 AM ET, 11/17/2010

The sad story of an L.A. school labeled 'failing'
By Valerie Strauss
A teacher at a Los Angeles middle school writes about why her school was just declared to be "failing" and why the designation is patently unfair: "In today’s world of testing and sanctions, best efforts are irrelevant if scores do not increase at a fast enough rate."

By Valerie Strauss  |  05:00 AM ET, 11/17/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers | Tags:  failing schools, la schools, los angeles unified school district, public school choice, schools, teacher assessment, teachers, value-added measurement

Posted at 10:57 AM ET, 11/16/2010

Experts: How to overhaul teacher ed (and my problem with their report)
By Valerie Strauss
A major report released today calls for overhauling teacher education programs. It offers a number of strong recommendations, but, unfortunately, continues a reliance on standardized tests.

By Valerie Strauss  |  10:57 AM ET, 11/16/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Standardized Tests, Standardized Tests, Standardized Tests | Tags:  blue ribbon panel, blue ribbon panel report, education programs need overhauling, effective teachers, preparing teachers, report on clinical practice, report on teacher education, report on teacher preparation, standardized tests, teacher assessment, teacher ed, teacher education, teacher education programs, teacher education through clinical practice, teacher preparation, teacher quality

Posted at 05:00 AM ET, 11/16/2010

Teacher: ‘Maybe it is time for me to go’
By Valerie Strauss
A teacher looks back on a quarter-century in the classroom and says that, for the first time, she is being told what to teach, how to teach it and when, preventing her from helping her students in the way she knows they need. "Hold me accountable, but let me do it my way," she says.

By Valerie Strauss  |  05:00 AM ET, 11/16/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Teachers, Teachers | Tags:  literacy, literacy blocks, race to the top, teachers, veteran teachers

Posted at 11:55 AM ET, 11/13/2010

Teacher: Data, my new dirty word
By Valerie Strauss
A teacher explains how an obsession with data has led to the redefinition of teaching and learning: "Teaching itself has become redefined as generating, collecting, and using data, and learning has become redefined as the curve connecting data points. This is a fundamental shift in how educators think, talk, and go about educating our children. Unfortunately, it is not a shift that serves anyone but the data-collectors very well."

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:55 AM ET, 11/13/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers | Tags:  data, education, educational data, mad math minutes, mad minutes, nclb, no child left behind, school reform, schools, teachers, teaching and learning, test data

Posted at 09:40 AM ET, 11/12/2010

What’s wrong with releasing names and scores?
By Valerie Strauss
A teacher writing about plans by the NYC Department of Education to release teachers’ names and value-added ratings to the press, says: "Is this sheer stubbornness on the part of school leaders, or do they not understand the harm this would cause?"

By Valerie Strauss  |  09:40 AM ET, 11/12/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers | Tags:  diana senechal, la times, la times teachers, new york city schools, new york times, new york times teachers, nyc doe, school reform, schools and teachers, teacher assessment, teacher evaluation, teachers, the los angeles times, value added, value added assessment

Posted at 06:00 AM ET, 11/08/2010

A public school teacher’s distress
By Valerie Strauss
A school teacher writes a letter about why she fears for the future of public education.

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:00 AM ET, 11/08/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Teachers, Teachers | Tags:  charter schools, diane ravitch, no child left behind, school reform, tax levy, taxes, teachers, toldeo schools

Posted at 11:19 AM ET, 11/04/2010

Some good news for California teachers
By Valerie Strauss
Public schools teachers in California got some good news from the midterm elections: Their candidate won in the race for state Superintendent of Public Instruction is still good news.

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:19 AM ET, 11/04/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Teachers | Tags:  california, california teachers, cft, charter schools, dfer, diane ravitch, gloria romero, state superintendent, tom torlakson

Posted at 09:56 AM ET, 11/02/2010

What other countries are really doing in education
By Valerie Strauss
For a while education mavens keep pointing to other countries as models for education reform. Let's look at what some of them are really doing. Guess what? It's not what we're doing.

By Valerie Strauss  |  09:56 AM ET, 11/02/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers | Tags:  arne duncan, education finland, education singapore, finland, finland schools, finland teachers, singapore, teachers

Posted at 09:45 AM ET, 11/01/2010

Teacher apologizes for achievement gap: 'My fault'
By Valerie Strauss
An eighth grade Earth sciences teacher, surrounded by family and friends, tearfully admits that the achievement gap is his fault. Yes, it's fake news. You'll laugh and cry.

By Valerie Strauss  |  09:45 AM ET, 11/01/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers | Tags:  achievement gap, fake news, teachers

Posted at 03:55 PM ET, 10/31/2010

The importance of being unprincipled
By Valerie Strauss
Teacher Larry Ferlazzo writes that sometimes, sticking to our principles isn't the right thing to do, and suggests that we sometimes aim to be "unprincipled."

By Valerie Strauss  |  03:55 PM ET, 10/31/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers | Tags:  larry ferlazzo, teachers, waiting for superman

Posted at 06:00 AM ET, 10/29/2010

And now, a tragicomic conversation on 'differentiation'
By Valerie Strauss
If you liked a video I posted this week showing a funny but scary conversation about collaborative planning and teaching, here's a different one, this on "differentiation." Watch the new one even if you didn't like the first one.

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:00 AM ET, 10/29/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Tags:  collaboration, differentiation, education video, planning meeting, school reform, teacher collaboration, teachers, you tube

Posted at 01:50 PM ET, 10/28/2010

Poll: How science should be taught
By Valerie Strauss
A national survey released today shows that big percentages of science teachers and parents believe that kids should learn science with hands-on experiments but only 22 percent of teachers feel they have the resources needed to conduct them.

By Valerie Strauss  |  01:50 PM ET, 10/28/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Science | Tags:  how to teach science, parent involvement, science, science lessons, science teachers, teaching, teaching science

Posted at 03:36 PM ET, 10/24/2010

Saving public education: the 'Dolly Solution'
By Valerie Strauss
An educator proposes a new model for school reform: cloning, which, in three easy steps, is the surest route for improving public education. It makes perfect sense.

By Valerie Strauss  |  03:36 PM ET, 10/24/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers | Tags:  arne duncan, cloning, dolly parton, dolly the sheep, education department, george washington, jaime escalante, led zeppelin, no child left behind, public schools, race to the top, school reform, schools, stairway to heaven, stand and deliver, teachers, ted williams

Posted at 09:30 AM ET, 10/23/2010

Building teacher accountability from the ground up
By Valerie Strauss
Educator Anthony Cody spells out the practices that help improve instruction and that build teacher accountability into schools.

By Valerie Strauss  |  09:30 AM ET, 10/23/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers | Tags:  accountability, anthony cody, national certified teacher, school reform, teacher assessment, teacher magazine, teachers

Posted at 12:27 PM ET, 10/21/2010

On school reform, by Philadelphia's mayor and superintendent
By Valerie Strauss
Philadelphia's mayor and schools superintendent write: "To read the news coming out of Washington, D.C., you’d think the only way to reform public schools is by firing teachers, closing schools, and battling it out in the media. Not so."

By Valerie Strauss  |  12:27 PM ET, 10/21/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers | Tags:  arlene ackerman, engagement, michael nutter, parent involvement, philadelphia schools, school reform, teachers, teachers union

Posted at 06:00 AM ET, 10/21/2010

English teacher: Data can drive us down wrong road
By Valerie Strauss
An English teacher writes: "Strict adherence to data-driven instruction can lead schools to push aside science and social studies to drill students on isolated reading benchmarks.... It is difficult to teach kids to read well if they don’t learn to enjoy reading. It is impossible to teach kids to read well while denying them the knowledge they need to make sense of complex material. Following the data often forces teachers to do just that."

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:00 AM ET, 10/21/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Learning, Learning, Learning | Tags:  compare and contrast, fcat, florida comprehensive assessment test, standardized tests, teachers, teaching, test questions

Posted at 06:00 AM ET, 10/20/2010

The Chamber of Commerce's flawed 'Superman' school reform guide
By Valerie Strauss
In a shameless act of movie flacking, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce just published a guide for business leaders on school reform that is linked to and reinforces the skewed vision of public education portrayed in the movie “Waiting for Superman.”

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:00 AM ET, 10/20/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  School turnarounds/reform | Tags:  batman, business leaders, business leaders and school reform, chamber of commerce, charter schools, clark kent, davis guggenheim, effective teachers, finland and teachers, reform guide, school reform, superman, superman and clark kent, teach for america, waiting for superman, what superman would do

Posted at 04:00 PM ET, 10/19/2010

Missing from reform debate: The power of caring
By Valerie Strauss
The founder of YouthBuild programs writes: "We are woefully off the mark when the conversation is all about superintendents and principals needing power to fire inept teachers and not about using their power to create a caring, learning community."

By Valerie Strauss  |  04:00 PM ET, 10/19/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers | Tags:  curriculum, harlem schools, learning process, parent involvement, school reform, teachers development, youthbuild

Posted at 11:25 AM ET, 10/18/2010

Willingham: Should teachers be so important?
By Valerie Strauss
Cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham writes: "Teacher quality is the most important in-school factor that influences kids’ schooling. I’m not so sure that’s a good thing."

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:25 AM ET, 10/18/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Daniel Willingham, Daniel Willingham, Daniel Willingham | Tags:  daniel willingham, education, school reform, schools, student achievement, teachers

Posted at 11:34 AM ET, 10/16/2010

Supt. Ackerman's critique of 'manifesto'
By Valerie Strauss
Philadelphia Schools Supt. Arlene Ackerman writes why she doesn't agree with the "reform manifesto" approved by 15 other big city school district chiefs.

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:34 AM ET, 10/16/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  School turnarounds/reform, School turnarounds/reform, School turnarounds/reform | Tags:  arlene ackerman, charter schools, joel klein, manifesto, michelle rhee, school reform, teachers

Posted at 06:00 AM ET, 10/14/2010

Radical idea: Public schools aren't an awful mess
By Valerie Strauss
A longtime educator writes about public education: "Backed into a corner, beat up and wildly uneven in quality, yes." But an unmitigated disaster? No.

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:00 AM ET, 10/14/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers | Tags:  ariana huffington, arne duncan, gerald bracey, guest bloggers, hurricane katrina, katrina nation, nancy flanagan, pisa, public education, school reform, teachers, waiting for superman, wendy puriefoy

Posted at 11:55 AM ET, 10/10/2010

How to save schools right now: Let teachers teach
By Valerie Strauss
A teacher writes: "We don’t have to wait for Superman to save our public schools. We can save our schools ourselves. .... The answer can be stated in seven words that even a child could understand: Train teachers well -- then let them teach."

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:55 AM ET, 10/10/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Teachers | Tags:  dangerous minds, louanne johnson, superman, teachers, waiting for superman

Posted at 02:55 PM ET, 10/09/2010

The bankrupt 'school reform manifesto' of Rhee, Klein, etc.
By Valerie Strauss
There are so many things wrong with the new “school reform manifesto” signed by 16 school district chiefs -- including New York’s Joel Klein and Washington’s Michelle Rhee -- and published in The Washington Post that it is hard to know where to start.

By Valerie Strauss  |  02:55 PM ET, 10/09/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  School turnarounds/reform, School turnarounds/reform | Tags:  baltimore contract, baltimore schools, council of great city schools, joel klein, klein and rhee, michael casserly, michelle rhee, reform document, reform manifesto, school manifesto, teachers, teachers and assessment, washington post

Posted at 09:29 AM ET, 10/08/2010

Still trying to make sense of NBC's Teacher Town Hall
By Valerie Strauss
A special education teacher who attended NBC's Teacher Town Hall is still trying to make sense out of the event, saying that it did not turn out as advertised.

By Valerie Strauss  |  09:29 AM ET, 10/08/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers | Tags:  education nation, nbc, school reform, teachers

Posted at 12:03 PM ET, 10/06/2010

Down the education rabbit hole
By Valerie Strauss
David B. Cohen writes, referring to Lewis Carrol's "Alice's Adventures: "Much of the education reform debate has been down the rabbit hole for a while, but I keep expecting people to act with some common sense."

By Valerie Strauss  |  12:03 PM ET, 10/06/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers | Tags:  bush initiative, bush institute, education nation, newsweek, principals, school reform, teachers

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

Ravitch: Why teachers should never be rated by test scores
By Valerie Strauss
Education historian Diane Ravitch writes: "...Value-added assessment should not be used at all. Never. It has a wide margin of error. It is unstable. A teacher who is highly effective one year may get a different rating the next year depending on which students are assigned to his or her class. Ratings may differ if the tests differ. To the extent it is used, it will narrow the curriculum and promote teaching to tests. Teachers will be mislabeled and stigmatized. Many factors that influence student scores will not be counted at all."

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:30 AM ET, 10/06/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Diane Ravitch, Diane Ravitch, Diane Ravitch, Diane Ravitch, Diane Ravitch, Diane Ravitch | Tags:  diane ravitch, how to assess teache, l.a. times, l.a. times database, los angeles times, ravitch book, rigoberto ruelas, school reform, teacher and suicide, teacher assessment, teacher commits suicide, teacher database, teacher evaluation, teachers, test scores, value added

Posted at 03:26 PM ET, 10/04/2010

What public school teachers really need
By Valerie Strauss
A teacher at the SEED Public Charter School in Washington D.C., which was featured in the film "Waiting for Superman," explains what makes his school work for teachers.

By Valerie Strauss  |  03:26 PM ET, 10/04/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Teachers, Teachers | Tags:  center for teaching quality, certified teachers, charter schools, dan brown, davis guggenheim, guest bloggers, school reform, seed charter, seed public charter school, seed school, superman, superman film, waiting for superman

Posted at 01:03 PM ET, 09/26/2010

Will Rhee be a footnote in school reform history?
By Valerie Strauss
Like Hugh Scott, the first African American superintendent in Washington D.C., Michelle Rhee will be a footnote in a doctoral dissertation on the D.C. schools a generation from now, educator Larry Cuban writes.

By Valerie Strauss  |  01:03 PM ET, 09/26/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  D.C. Schools, D.C. Schools, D.C. Schools, D.C. Schools, D.C. Schools | Tags:  $100 million and newark, $100 million newark schools, adrian fenty, gray and schools, larry cuban, mark zuckerberg, michelle rhee, newark schools, rhee and fenty, rhee and vincent gray, school reform, teacher assessment, teachers, will rhee stay, zuckerberg and newark

Posted at 06:00 AM ET, 09/21/2010

The danger of blaming schools for economic woes
By Valerie Strauss
Principal George Wood writes: "It’s funny how the start of school also marks the unofficial start of the fall campaign season. What isn’t funny is how so many politicians running for office blame kids for our faltering economy."

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:00 AM ET, 09/21/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  George Wood, George Wood, George Wood | Tags:  a nation at risk, blaming schools, blaming teachers, george wood, gulf oil spill, public schools, schools and economy

Posted at 09:00 AM ET, 09/20/2010

What Americans really think about public schools
By Valerie Strauss
In an era of unrelenting bashing of public education by “experts,” a new poll shows that most Americans actually like their neighborhood public schools -- though they don’t seem to like public schools in general -- and they have trust in teachers. And the Obama administration’s education agenda gets mixed reviews in the 2010 Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup poll.

By Valerie Strauss  |  09:00 AM ET, 09/20/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Research, Research, Research | Tags:  content standards, failing schools, gallup poll, kappan magazine, obama and education, obama and school reform, pdk poll, phi delta kappa, public schools, school funding, standardized tests, teacher quality, teachers and pay, teachers and respect, what americans think about education

Posted at 06:00 AM ET, 09/20/2010

Has education reform jumped the shark? A teacher says 'yes'
By Valerie Strauss
A veteran teacher looks at recent events in the education world and concludes that yes, indeed, education reform has jumped the shark, and the signs of its collapse are everywhere.

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:00 AM ET, 09/20/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers | Tags:  anthony cody, arne duncan, bill gates, education nation, gates on oprah, michelle rhee, nbc education nation, oprah, race to the top, rhee on oprah, teachers and reform, teachers town hall

Posted at 05:30 PM ET, 09/16/2010

While we wait for ‘Superman,’ let's focus on teaching
By Valerie Strauss
he founding director of a center that fosters best teaching practices saw "Waiting for Superman" and writes: "Conventional thinking tells us the best way to improve teacher effectiveness is to remove the ineffective teachers and replace them with effective ones. No doubt, this strategy is needed. But if we’re going for a fundamental shift in what we expect from schools, then a wholesale cast change won’t be the fix we imagine. We’ll risk ending up with a new batch of well-intentioned, but improperly prepared players in a flawed system."

By Valerie Strauss  |  05:30 PM ET, 09/16/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Charter schools, Charter schools, Charter schools, Charter schools | Tags:  center for inspired teaching, firing teachers, how to fix schools, inspired teachers, inspired teaching, professional development, school reform, superman movie, teacher development, teachers, waiting for superman

Posted at 04:00 PM ET, 09/16/2010

Why 'Waiting for Superman' premiere was chilling
By Valerie Strauss
Something chilling happened at the Washington D.C. premiere of "Waiting for Superman" that involved Michelle Rhee and the A-list audience.

By Valerie Strauss  |  04:00 PM ET, 09/16/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  D.C. Schools | Tags:  adrian fenty, al franken, arne duncan, charter schools, d.c. schools, david axelrod, fenty and gray, george miller, melody barnes, michelle rhee, movie premiere, obama and refoms, obama reform, president obama and school reform, research and education, research on charter schools, rhee and gray, superman film, superman premiere, teachers and unions, vincent gray, waiting for superman, what will rhee do?, when will rhee leave?, who will replace rhee

Posted at 11:46 AM ET, 09/02/2010

How much power should we give to ed data?
By Valerie Strauss
A veteran teacher writes about what gets left out in today's education world where reformers are obsessed with "data" and test scores.

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:46 AM ET, 09/02/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers | Tags:  evaluating teachers, how to evaluate teachers, power of data, teacher assessment, value added, value added and teachers

Posted at 06:30 AM ET, 08/26/2010

Why the National Writing Project should be saved
By Valerie Strauss
If Arne Duncan supports classroom teachers as he says he does, then why, a highly certified teacher asks, does he want to stop funding the National Writing Project, the best professional development program this teacher has experienced in nearly 30 years of teaching?

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:30 AM ET, 08/26/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers | Tags:  arne duncan, national board certified teachers, national writing project, professional development and teachers

Posted at 06:00 AM ET, 08/25/2010

'Impossible' working conditions for teachers
By Valerie Strauss
Will Fitzhugh writes about a recent trip to Florida, where he did a workshop with teachers on student research papers -- and then realized that the teachers can't use what they learned in the classroom.

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:00 AM ET, 08/25/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Teachers, Teachers | Tags:  class loads and teachers, class size, florida teachers, history papers, research papers, right to work state, teachers

Posted at 11:00 AM ET, 08/23/2010

Willingham: 3 key factors in teacher evaluation (beyond the hype of value-added)
By Valerie Strauss
Cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham looks beyond the hype of "value added" models for teacher evaluation and pinpoints three key factors that should be considered.

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:00 AM ET, 08/23/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Daniel Willingham, Daniel Willingham, Daniel Willingham, Daniel Willingham | Tags:  daniel willingham, factors in teacher evaluation, how to evaluate teachers, no child left behind, teacher evaluation, teacher evaluation systems, teachers and value added, value added systems

Posted at 06:00 AM ET, 08/19/2010

Russo: The willy-nilly nature of teacher layoffs
By Valerie Strauss
Alexander Russo writes about the case of a highly certified, tenured teacher who is being laid off.

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:00 AM ET, 08/19/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers | Tags:  alexander russo, chicago schools, little village high school, teachers and layoffs

Posted at 11:23 AM ET, 08/17/2010

Willingham: Big questions about the LA Times teachers project
By Valerie Strauss
Cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham explains why using value-added measures to judge the effectiveness of a teacher is a mistake, and says that the Los Angeles Times writers who helped evaluate more than 6,000 teachers in this fashion, "are either uniformed or disingenuous about the status of the value-added measures."

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:23 AM ET, 08/17/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Daniel Willingham, Daniel Willingham, Daniel Willingham | Tags:  daniel willingham, la times story, la times story on teachers, los angeles times and teachers, research and value added, teacher evaluation, value added evaluation, value added measures

Posted at 11:13 AM ET, 08/07/2010

Why you should be skeptical about standardized test scores
By Valerie Strauss
A Columbia University teacher writes about the problems with our faith our standardized test scores: "Yes, we 'just' need better tests. But creating better tests is very hard and very expensive. And in a system as vast and complex as ours, it’ll be tempting to continue using tests that can be graded quickly and that don’t look very different from the ones we now use. But without a radically different approach to standardized testing in this country, we are unlikely to get different results."

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:13 AM ET, 08/07/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers | Tags:  in, obama and education, obama's education policies, rhe, rhee fires teachers, standardized test scores, using standardized tests for high stakes decisions

Posted at 06:00 AM ET, 08/05/2010

Accountability in DCPS: Details from teacher's IMPACT report
By Valerie Strauss
Aaron Pallas, an education and sociology professor and a statistician who critiqued DCPS's IMPACT teacher evaluation system last week, responds to critics of that post and looks at new data from a teacher's report as he argues that DCPS continues to publicly misrepresent IMPACT's evaluation methods.

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:00 AM ET, 08/05/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  D.C. Schools, D.C. Schools, D.C. Schools, D.C. Schools, D.C. Schools | Tags:  IMPACT and d.c., d.c. teacher evaluations, d.c. teachers, dc schools and teachers, how to evaluate teachers, value added evaluations

Posted at 06:30 AM ET, 07/29/2010

Study: Error rates high when student test scores used to evaluate teachers
By Valerie Strauss
I don’t understand all of a new statistical study about error rates when student test scores are used to evaluate teachers and schools, but I do get this: The rates are so high that they should give pause to even the most ardent admirers of such evaluation systems.

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:30 AM ET, 07/29/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Teachers, Teachers | Tags:  error rates and value-added, evaluating teachers, high-stakes decisions and teacher evaluation, mathematica study, teacher evaluation, value-added measures

Posted at 10:30 AM ET, 07/28/2010

Were some D.C. teachers fired based on flawed calculations?
By Valerie Strauss
A professor of sociology and education at Teachers College, Columbia University, argues that D.C. Public Schools botched the calculations that were used to decide to fire some of the 241 teachers let go last week.

By Valerie Strauss  |  10:30 AM ET, 07/28/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  D.C. Schools, D.C. Schools | Tags:  DC CAS, IMPACT evaluation system, d.c. public schools and teachers, d.c. schools, d.c. teachers fired, how rhee fired teachers, rhee and d.c. and fire and teachers, rhee fires teachers, value added and teachers, why rhee fired teachers

Posted at 06:30 AM ET, 07/14/2010

How we evaluate relief pitchers and teachers
By Valerie Strauss
How is it that we are better able to evaluate baseball players than we are teachers?

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:30 AM ET, 07/14/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers | Tags:  baseball facts, bill james, evaluating baseball players, evaluating teachers, fplay, johan santana, teachers

Posted at 06:30 AM ET, 07/13/2010

The myth of teacher tenure
By Valerie Strauss
An education and law professor argues that getting rid of teacher tenure will not solve the problem of incompetent teachers or noncompetitive student achievement in the global marketplace

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:30 AM ET, 07/13/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Teachers, Teachers | Tags:  ayp and teachers, eliminating teacher tenure, eliminating tenure for teachers, myth of tenure, no child left behind and teachers, teacher tenure, teachers

Posted at 11:30 AM ET, 07/12/2010

Teacher accountability schemes let teens off the hook -- Willingham
By Valerie Strauss
Cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham talks about students, their attitudes and whether teachers can be held solely or even primarily responsible for their academic achievement.

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:30 AM ET, 07/12/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Daniel Willingham, Daniel Willingham, Daniel Willingham | Tags:  attitudes and students, daniel willingham, factors in student achievement, main factor in student achievement, teachers and student achievement, teenagers and behavior, who is responsible for student achievement

Posted at 06:30 AM ET, 07/12/2010

Bill Gates' troubling involvement in school reform
By Valerie Strauss
Bill Gates is surely smart and rich, but his involvement in public education is highly troubling for a number of reasons. Here's why.

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:30 AM ET, 07/12/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Teachers | Tags:  bill gates, bill gates and teachers, bill gates at aft convention, gates foundation and education, gates foundation and race to the top, gates speech to teachers, teachers

Posted at 06:30 AM ET, 07/11/2010

A new look at Teach for America
By Valerie Strauss
Here's a new look at the independent research on the effectiveness of Teach for America teachers.

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:30 AM ET, 07/11/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Teachers, Teachers | Tags:  research on teach for america, research on tfa, teach for america, teachers and attrition

Posted at 12:30 PM ET, 07/08/2010

Ravitch on teachers and her critics
By Valerie Strauss
Education historian Diane Ravitch brings down the house at a teachers convention and answers her critics.

By Valerie Strauss  |  12:30 PM ET, 07/08/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Diane Ravitch, Diane Ravitch, Diane Ravitch, Diane Ravitch | Tags:  charter schools and research, death and life of great american school system, diane ravitch, ed week and ravitch, national education association and convention, nea convention, ravitch and nea, ravitch and teachers, ravitch and video, teachers convention

Posted at 03:30 PM ET, 07/07/2010

A tradeoff worth making for schools
By Valerie Strauss
A former longtime aide for Rep. David Obey disputes that Obey is "carrying water" for teachers unions by seeking a cut in Race to the Top to save teachers jobs.

By Valerie Strauss  |  03:30 PM ET, 07/07/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers | Tags:  cutting race to the top, legislation on teachers jobs, no child left behind, obey and teachers, obey and teachers bill, race to the top, saving teachers jobs, scott lilly

Posted at 12:31 PM ET, 07/06/2010

Senators' logic for fighting cuts to Race to Top flawed
By Valerie Strauss
A letter that 13 senators wrote in opposition to proposed cuts to three of President Obama’s main education programs has some flawed reasoning.

By Valerie Strauss  |  12:31 PM ET, 07/06/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Race to the Top, Race to the Top | Tags:  bayh letter, cutting race to the top, duncan and race to the top, legislation and teachers, legislation to save teachers jobs, obey and education bill, obey and teachers, race to the top and second round, race to the top and winners, race to the top applications, race to the top criteria

Posted at 03:31 PM ET, 06/25/2010

Extremism in school reform is not a virtue
By Valerie Strauss
A longtime educator says it is time to recognize the complexity of the challenges presented by ailing school districts and to avoid simplistic, extreme positions which seem so popular today.

By Valerie Strauss  |  03:31 PM ET, 06/25/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Tags:  charter schools and teachers, colorado and teachers law, eliminating teacher tenure, merit pay and teachers, teacher tenure, teacher tenure and reform, teachers and accountability, teachers pay and test scores, value of teacher tenure

Posted at 12:26 PM ET, 06/25/2010

The long-lasting power of a great teacher
By Valerie Strauss
A colleague writes about one special high school teacher and the powerful connection they forged. He just learned of her death, and what she left for him.

By Valerie Strauss  |  12:26 PM ET, 06/25/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Teachers | Tags:  great teachers, great teaching, powerful learning experiences, teachers

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 05:30 AM ET, 06/22/2010

Ravitch to Obama: 'Change course before it is too late"
By Valerie Strauss
Education historian Diane Ravitch talks about meeting thousands of teachers and parents who are "unhappy, frustrated and demoralized" at the Obama administration's education policies. And she explains what she would tell President Obama if he gave her the chance.

By Valerie Strauss  |  05:30 AM ET, 06/22/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Diane Ravitch, Diane Ravitch, Diane Ravitch, Diane Ravitch, Diane Ravitch | Tags:  arne duncan, death and life of the great american school system, diane ravitch, diane ravitch's book, no child left behind, obama blueprint for reform, race to the top, teachers, teachers unions and reform

Posted at 05:30 AM ET, 06/20/2010

Teacher: 'Worst year in the classroom' in decades
By Valerie Strauss
A public school teacher describes the conditions under which he is being forced to teach.

By Valerie Strauss  |  05:30 AM ET, 06/20/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Teachers, Teachers | Tags:  board certified teacher, diane ravitch, race to the top, teachers

Posted at 01:58 PM ET, 06/17/2010

Randi Weingarten: Rhee is wrong
By Valerie Strauss
The teachers union president whom D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee highly praised in an op-ed article this week -- the one in which she tells New York schools boss Joel Klein that he has a lot to learn from hr -- is taking strong issue with Rhee’s advice to Klein.

By Valerie Strauss  |  01:58 PM ET, 06/17/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  D.C. Schools, D.C. Schools | Tags:  aft president randi weingarten, d.c. schools chancellor michelle rhee, d.c. teachers contract, michelle rhee and joel klein, randi weingarten and michelle rhee, rhee and klein, rhee gives advice to klein, rhee op-ed, weingarten and rhee, weingarten op-ed

Posted at 01:13 PM ET, 06/17/2010

Teachers cover Lady Gaga's 'Bad Romance'
By Valerie Strauss
Whoever said teachers don't know how to have fun haven't been to Holmes Middle School in Alexandria, Va. This week some of them treated kids to a dance performance of Lady Gaga's huge hit "Bad Romance."

By Valerie Strauss  |  01:13 PM ET, 06/17/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Teachers | Tags:  bad romance lyrics, lady gaga, lady gaga and bad romance, teachers, teachers cover lady gaga, teachers sing "bad romance"

Posted at 09:00 AM ET, 06/16/2010

Ravitch: 'Are we in an era of National Stupidity?'
By Valerie Strauss
Education historian Diane Ravitch looks at the accumulating evidence revealing how our "accountability policies are a great fraud," and asks: "Are we in an era of National Stupidity or National Insanity?"

By Valerie Strauss  |  09:00 AM ET, 06/16/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Diane Ravitch, Diane Ravitch, Diane Ravitch, Diane Ravitch, Diane Ravitch | Tags:  Arne Duncan, Diane Ravitch, accountability and nclb, accountability movement, accountability policies, bridging differences, diane ravitch and deborah meier, holding teachers accountability, how to hold teachers accountable, narrowing the curriculum, president obama and education bluerpint, president obama and school reform, teachers and merit pay

Posted at 06:30 AM ET, 06/14/2010

Rhee and her advice to NY: Hubris, or what?
By Valerie Strauss
In what could easily be seen as an astonishing act of hubris, D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee has offered a lot of unsolicited advice to New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, the man who recommended her to D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty to run the city schools.

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:30 AM ET, 06/14/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  D.C. Schools | Tags:  michelle rhee and d.c. contract, michelle rhee and new york daily news, new d.c. teachers contract, rhee and advice and klein, rhee gives advice to klein, rhee's advice to klein

Posted at 06:30 AM ET, 06/12/2010

New controversy at Rhode Island school
By Valerie Strauss
One of the two newly named principals at the Rhode Island school were all the teachers were fired and then rehired had on his resumé a serious exaggeration of student achievement in math at his former school.

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:30 AM ET, 06/12/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Teachers | Tags:  central falls high school, central falls school, obama and central falls, rhode island school, teachers fired, teachers rehired at rhode island school

Posted at 11:00 AM ET, 06/08/2010

Teachers council blasts Arizona policy on accents
By Valerie Strauss
The National Council of Teachers of English has finally issued a condemnation of a policy in Arizona in which teachers who speak English with a heavy accent or exhibit poor grammar are being removed from classes for students still learning English.

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:00 AM ET, 06/08/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Teachers | Tags:  arizona, arizona audits teachers with accents, arizona teachers, ell learners in arizona, english language learners in arizona, national council of teachers of english, teachers, teachers with accents

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

Study: N.Y. teacher performance pay program flops
By Valerie Strauss
On the heels of a study about an ineffective program in Chicago linking student test scores to teacher pay, here's another one, with the same results, from a New York program. Do you see a pattern?

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:30 AM ET, 06/08/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  No Child Left Behind, No Child Left Behind, No Child Left Behind | Tags:  d.c. teachers contract, merit pay, michelle rhee, nclb, performance pay, teachers, teachers performance pay, test scores and pay

Posted at 09:30 AM ET, 05/27/2010

How Arizona is checking teachers’ accents
By Valerie Strauss
More than 1,500 teachers in Arizona have already been evaluated to see if they can speak English fluently, and some have been found to have problems, a Department of Education official said.

By Valerie Strauss  |  09:30 AM ET, 05/27/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Learning | Tags:  arizona and teachers, arizona and teachers with accents, arizona monitors teachers with accents, arizona schools, arizona teachers, teachers and accents, teachers and accents and arizona

Posted at 06:30 AM ET, 05/25/2010

Concern over accented teachers not original to Arizona
By Valerie Strauss
The state of Arizona has gotten a lot of attention lately for its decision to remove teachers who speak with pronounced foreign accent and/or whose speech is ungrammatical from classrooms with students learning to speak English. But the idea wasn’t original to the Arizona Board of Education.

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:30 AM ET, 05/25/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Learning | Tags:  arizona and accents, arizona remove teachers with accents, foreign accents and teachers, research on teachers with accents, teachers with accents

Posted at 02:58 PM ET, 05/23/2010

Charters vs. public schools: Behind the numbers
By Valerie Strauss
In a New York Times magazine article today, writer Steven Brill compares a charter school in Harlem with a traditional public school which is housed in the same building. He says the student populations are the same. They aren't.

By Valerie Strauss  |  02:58 PM ET, 05/23/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Charter schools | Tags:  brill and story about unions, brill's story and charter schools, charter schools, steven brill story, the new york times and brill story, the teachers unions last stand

Posted at 11:15 AM ET, 05/20/2010

Obama’s mistake with technology in ed reform
By Valerie Strauss
The Obama administration's plan for rewriting No Child Left Behind makes the mistake of relegating technology – a catalyst for all educational reform efforts for the 21st century – to just an “additional, cross-cutting priority.”

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:15 AM ET, 05/20/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Technology, Technology | Tags:  blueprint for reform, obama and blueprint for reform, obama and mistake, obama and nclb, obamas, teachers college, teachers college at columbia university, technology in education, technology in schools

Posted at 06:30 AM ET, 05/20/2010

Charters should leave D.C. teachers contract alone
By Valerie Strauss
Public charter school advocates are, not surprisingly, upset about a proposed new contract that will significantly boost the salaries of unionized teachers in traditional D.C. public schools. But D.C. school system officials have it right: They shouldn’t be.

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:30 AM ET, 05/20/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  D.C. Schools, D.C. Schools, D.C. Schools | Tags:  charter schools, d.c. charter schools, d.c. public schools, d.c. teachers contract, michelle rhee, teachers contract, washington teachers union

Posted at 09:14 AM ET, 05/17/2010

The real world of teachers
By Valerie Strauss
How much do teachers earn? Here's a look at one state, in which teachers are among the highest paid in the nation, but who still earn on average less than firefighters, cops, engineers and business middle managers.

By Valerie Strauss  |  09:14 AM ET, 05/17/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Teachers | Tags:  how much do teachers earn?, new jersey teachers salaries, salaries, star-ledger, teacher earnings, teacher salaries, teachers

Posted at 06:30 AM ET, 05/17/2010

Why Obama, Duncan should have kept quiet about Rhode Island teachers
By Valerie Strauss
Lo and behold, several months after every teacher at a low-performing Rhode Island high school was fired so the school could get a fresh start, and after Education Secretary Arne Duncan praised the firings as an act of “courage,” and after President Obama declared that the firings showed a “sense of accountability,” well, after all of that, the teachers have been rehired.

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:30 AM ET, 05/17/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  No Child Left Behind, No Child Left Behind | Tags:  central falls high school, central falls teachers, rhode island teachers rehired, teachers and rhode island, teachers fired in rhode island, teachers rehired

Posted at 02:52 PM ET, 05/16/2010

Tentative agreement reached on Rhode Island teachers
By Washington Post Editors
The teachers at Central Falls High School in Rhode Island who were all recently fired may get to keep their jobs after all. A tentative agreement has been reached between the teachers union and school district officials and will be voted on tomorrow.

By Washington Post Editors  |  02:52 PM ET, 05/16/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Teachers | Tags:  central falls high school, deal in central falls, president obama and central falls, teachers and central falls

Posted at 10:30 AM ET, 05/14/2010

Don't rush to link teacher evaluation to student achievement
By Valerie Strauss
The president of Teachers College at Columbia University writes about the problems with President Obama's proposal to link teacher evaluation to student performance.

By Valerie Strauss  |  10:30 AM ET, 05/14/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  National Standards, National Standards, National Standards | Tags:  No Child Left Behind, Teachers College, guest bloggers, linking teacher evaluation to student performance, value-added measures

Posted at 06:30 AM ET, 05/12/2010

Teachers refuse to give standardized tests to kids
By Valerie Strauss
Maybe there is a lesson in this for American teachers. Saying that they are sick and tired of forcing kids to take standardized tests, thousands of teachers in England are refusing to administer high-stakes standardized tests in English and math this week.

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:30 AM ET, 05/12/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Standardized Tests, Standardized Tests | Tags:  boycott in Britain, standardized tests, teachers, teachers boycott test, test boycott

Posted at 04:32 PM ET, 05/11/2010

A new source for education news, analysis
By Valerie Strauss
Here's a new source for the public to get news and analysis about education.

By Valerie Strauss  |  04:32 PM ET, 05/11/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Tags:  Hechinger Report, Teachers College, education news

Posted at 01:15 PM ET, 05/11/2010

Horse, then cart, on teacher evaluation -- Hess
By Valerie Strauss
American Enterprise Institute's Frederick M. Hess writes about why Colorado's school reform bill is in one sense a giant step forward, but is overreaching in an "impatient rush to 'fix' teacher quality in one furious burst."

By Valerie Strauss  |  01:15 PM ET, 05/11/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Standardized Tests, Standardized Tests | Tags:  Colorado and teachers, Colorado school reform, Frederick Hess, Rick Hess, standardized tests, teacher assessment, teachers

Posted at 03:00 PM ET, 05/07/2010

Learning Stories: Tell your own
By Valerie Strauss
school systems: What do these actually look like. To find out, Rethink Learning Now asked people from various walks of life to talk about their most powerful learning experiences. You can share your own.

By Valerie Strauss  |  03:00 PM ET, 05/07/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Learning, Learning, Learning | Tags:  great teachers, learning stories, teaching, what makes a great teacher

Posted at 05:08 PM ET, 05/05/2010

Accented teachers may be better for English language learners: study
By Valerie Strauss
Arizona may be making a mistake by trying to remove heavily accented Hispanic teachers from classrooms filled with Hispanic English-language learners. A new study on how well students learn second languages from teachers with accents suggests that tudents can learn a second language better from a teacher who speaks in the same accent as the student.

By Valerie Strauss  |  05:08 PM ET, 05/05/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Learning, Learning, Learning | Tags:  Arizona, Arizona and accented teachers, Arizona and teachers, Arizona orders teachers with accents out of class, Arizona schools, English language learners, accented teachers, how accents affect learning, language research, research, research on accents, research study on accents, teachers with accents, the answer sheet and arizona

Posted at 06:30 AM ET, 05/04/2010

Arizona strikes again: Now it is ethnic studies
By Valerie Strauss
First Arizona passed a law requiring police to question anybody who looks like an illegal immigrant. Then we learn that the state order school districts to get rid of teachers with very heavy accents. Then the legislature approved a bill targeted at a Mexican-American studies program that the state education chief doesn't like. Arizona doesn't know when to quit.

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:30 AM ET, 05/04/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  History | Tags:  Arizona and heavily accented teachers, Arizona and law, Arizona immigrant law, Mexican-american studies, ethnic studies in Arizona, heavily accented teachers, history

Posted at 08:00 AM ET, 05/02/2010

Heavily accented teachers removed from Arizona classrooms
By Valerie Strauss
School districts in Arizona are under orders from the state's Department of Education to remove from classrooms teachers who speak English with a very heavy accent or whose speech is ungrammatical.

By Valerie Strauss  |  08:00 AM ET, 05/02/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Teachers | Tags:  accented teachers being removed in arizona, arizona and immigrants, arizona and teachers, arizona immigration law, teachers

Posted at 04:14 PM ET, 04/29/2010

Obama awards Teacher of the Year
By Valerie Strauss
President Obama presented Sarah Brown Wessling from Iowa with the 2010 National Teacher of the Year award today at a ceremony in the Rose Garden. He also supported legislative efforts to provide funding to states to keep hundreds of thousands of teachers from being laid at the end of the school year.

By Valerie Strauss  |  04:14 PM ET, 04/29/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Teachers | Tags:  president obama, sara brown wessling, teacher of the year, teacher of the year winner, teachers, wessling and teacher of the year

Posted at 06:16 PM ET, 04/28/2010

Yes and no on D.C. teachers contract funding
By Valerie Strauss
Yes, the contract that D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee negotiated with the Washington Teachers Union should be approved. But no, the city should not allow itself to be beholden to private foundations who have offered to donate $64.5 million to help pay for teachers raises.

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:16 PM ET, 04/28/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  D.C. Schools | Tags:  Chancellor Michelle Rhee, D.C. schools, D.C. teachers, D.C. teachers contract, d.c. teachers contract, foundations and teachers contract, private foundations and D.C. teachers contract, rhee and contract, rhee and gandi and contract, teachers contract, teachers contract and D.C., teachers contract in trouble

Posted at 09:00 AM ET, 04/28/2010

How to measure student growth
By Valerie Strauss
By Lisa Guisbond. Growth models are pitched as a thoroughly modern, scientific way to .answer the age-old parental question: “What did you learn in school this year, my dear?” It seems reasonable enough: Test students at the beginning and the end of the year and measure the “growth” in test scores to see if student achievement is improving. Given the narrow and limited nature of the data used to measure this growth, however, there’s often less than meets the eye in the results. Fortunately, there are better, if little known or understood, ways of both measuring and stimulating real growth in learning.

By Valerie Strauss  |  09:00 AM ET, 04/28/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Teachers, Teachers, Teachers, Teachers, Teachers, Teachers | Tags:  Race to the Top, growth models, how to evaluate teachers, nclb, no child left behind, schools and growth models, standardized tests, teacher assessment, teacher evaluation, teachers

Posted at 06:30 AM ET, 04/27/2010

VP, Jill Biden pay respect to teachers
By Valerie Strauss
At a time when it has become almost a national sport to bash teachers, Vice President Joe Biden and the Second Lady, Professor Jill Biden, took a different, and welcome, tact yesterday by hosting the 2010 State Teachers of the Year.

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:30 AM ET, 04/27/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Teachers | Tags:  Biden and teachers, Bidens host teachers, Jill Biden and teachers, Teachers of the Year, Vice President Biden and teachers, teacher of the year, teachers

Posted at 04:30 PM ET, 04/23/2010

Even more education trouble in Florida
By Valerie Strauss
The Florida Legislature doesn't give up trying to drastically change the public education system: Now it is considering legislation that, if ultimately approved by lawmakers and then the voters in a referendum, would allow direct public funding of religious schools.

By Valerie Strauss  |  04:30 PM ET, 04/23/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Teachers | Tags:  Florida and education, Florida and teachers, Florida vouchers, church and state and Florida, referendum on Blaine Amendment and Florida, teachers tenure bill and Florida

Posted at 02:00 PM ET, 04/21/2010

Student: Do, kids, teachers on Facebook really want privacy?
By Valerie Strauss
A high school student writes about just how much privacy kids and teacher on Facebook really want.

By Valerie Strauss  |  02:00 PM ET, 04/21/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Student Life, Student Life | Tags:  Facebook privacy, Facebook privacy changes, bishop mcnamara high school, teachers on facebook

Posted at 10:30 PM ET, 04/19/2010

Maryland’s big education mistake
By Valerie Strauss
Education officials in state after state are moving to contort their elementary and secondary school systems to align with the priorities of Education Secretary Arne Duncan to win some of the $3 billion being dangled by the Obama administration in its Race to the Top competition. It is especially unfortunate to Maryland, a state with a well-regarded education system, promote reforms that include some that have no basis in research--or in common sense.

By Valerie Strauss  |  10:30 PM ET, 04/19/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Race to the Top, Race to the Top | Tags:  Duncan and Race to the Top, Maryland Race to the Top proposal, Maryland schools, Obama and Race to the Top, Obama and schools, Race to the Top, performance pay and teachers, teacher pay, teacher pay for performance, teachers, value added models

Posted at 01:50 PM ET, 04/15/2010

Crist vetoes bad bill, Florida teachers win
By Valerie Strauss
Teachers in Florida can breathe a temporary sigh of relief now that Gov. Charlie Crist has announced that he intends to veto legislation that teachers said would have devastated their profession and harmed public education.

By Valerie Strauss  |  01:50 PM ET, 04/15/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Teachers, Teachers | Tags:  Crist and teachers, Crist and veto, Crist vetos bill, Florida governor vetoes bill, Florida teachers, Senate Bill 6 and veto, Senate bill 6 vetoes, crist and teachers, crist helps teachers, crist veto, florida and race to the top, teachers bill vetoed

Posted at 11:36 AM ET, 04/15/2010

New York to close teacher 'rubber rooms'
By Valerie Strauss
New York City will close the "rubber rooms" it has maintained where teachers sit doing nothing while collecting pay and waiting for disciplinary hearings, the Associated Press is reporting.

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:36 AM ET, 04/15/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Teachers | Tags:  NY rubber rooms, New York teachers, rubber rooms, teachers, teachers and rubber rooms, teachers unions

Posted at 03:19 PM ET, 04/14/2010

Teasing teachers in Florida
By Valerie Strauss
Florida Gov. Charlie Crist has become a big tease, but it’s hard to know if he is teasing teachers or his fellow Republicans in the state Legislature. Crist has until Friday to decide what to do about legislation sent to him that would, among other thing, end teacher tenure in Florida, link teacher pay to student test scores, eliminate experience and advanced degrees as a factor in teacher evaluation, create a slew of new standardized tests for kids to take. If he listens to one person on what to do, it should be the superintendent of Manatee County schools.

By Valerie Strauss  |  03:19 PM ET, 04/14/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Teachers | Tags:  Bush and teachers, Crist and teachers, Crist and teachers bill, Florida education, Florida school reform, Florida teachers, Florida teachers tenure bill, Jeb Bush, Senate Bill 6, bush and Florida educaiton, bush and teachers bill

Posted at 04:48 PM ET, 04/13/2010

Rhee back in trouble with D.C. teachers
By Valerie Strauss
It would be best for D.C. kids if Michelle Rhee’s reform effort actually works in improving schools. It’s just hard to see how that is going to happen when she keeps landing herself in situations that only increase people’s mistrust of her.

By Valerie Strauss  |  04:48 PM ET, 04/13/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  D.C. Schools | Tags:  Chancellor Michelle Rhee, D.C. schools, D.C. schools and budget, D.C. teacher firings and Rhee, D.C. teachers, D.C. teachers and Rhee, D.C. teachers contract, Rhee and D.C. Council, Rhee and D.C. teachers, Rhee and controversy, teacher layoffs and D.C.

Posted at 11:30 AM ET, 04/12/2010

Willingham: Obama should stop coercing teachers and start persuading
By Valerie Strauss
Cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham writes about how President Obama seems to trying to coerce teachers to do what he wants rather than use his formidable powers of persuasion. Experients in psychology, he says, show that coercion gets compliance, while persuasion breeds enthusiasm and innovation.

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:30 AM ET, 04/12/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Daniel Willingham, Daniel Willingham, Daniel Willingham | Tags:  Daniel Willingham, Obama and teachers, Obama education policy, President Obama and teachers, guest bloggers

Posted at 06:30 AM ET, 04/12/2010

Even Megan Fox knows Calif. has an education crisis
By Valerie Strauss
"Crisis" is an overused word, but it is actually an understatement to explain what is happening in California public education, where massive budget cuts have left many schools without nurses, janitors, librarians and counselors, and sports programs. Teachers are being laid off in droves--and more cuts are in the offing. A video starring Megan Fox and Brian Austin Green tells it all.

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:30 AM ET, 04/12/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Teachers | Tags:  California and schools, California budget crisis, California education cuts, Fox and Green video, Megan Fox, Megan Fox and David Austin Green, Megan Fox and teachers, Megan Fox video

Posted at 05:00 AM ET, 04/12/2010

The governor and the teachers
By Valerie Strauss
Florida educators stage protests to urge Gov. Charlie Crist to veto a bill they say will harm public schools. At one demonstration, Crist comes to the aid of a protester.

By Valerie Strauss  |  05:00 AM ET, 04/12/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Tags:  Florida, Florida teacher pay, Florida teacher tenure, Florida teachers, teacher pay, teacher tenure bill, teachers

Posted at 04:07 AM ET, 04/12/2010

New Harvard research on teacher effectiveness
By Valerie Strauss
By Debra Viadero. A new statistical analysis from a group of researchers at Harvard University’s Center for Education Policy Research adds a new wrinkle to the known body of research on the effectiveness of teachers.

By Valerie Strauss  |  04:07 AM ET, 04/12/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers | Tags:  Debra Viadero, Harvard research, research on teachers, teacher effectiveness

Posted at 11:00 AM ET, 04/10/2010

Diane Ravitch’s letter to Florida lawmakers
By Valerie Strauss
Here is a letter that education historian Diane Ravitch wrote to Florida lawmakers putting into historical context some of the controversial issues in legislation now on the desk of Gov. Charlie Crist that would change public education in the state. She explains why she thinks that public education would be harmed if the legislation becomes law.

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:00 AM ET, 04/10/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Teachers, Teachers | Tags:  Crist and teachers and bill, Crist and veto, Diane Ravitch, Florida, Florida and teachers, Florida teacher tenure bill, Gov. Charlie Crist, Gov. Crist, House Bill 7189, Senate Bill 6, performance pay for teachers, standardized tests, teacher tenure bill, teachers, teachers and job security, teachers and performance pay

Posted at 12:00 PM ET, 04/09/2010

Rhee's biggest, and most costly, failing
By Valerie Strauss
A former school superintendent, teacher and now a university professor writes about the biggest failing of D.C. Schools Superintendent Michelle Rhee, and why it may ultimately lead to her departure from the city.

By Valerie Strauss  |  12:00 PM ET, 04/09/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  D.C. Schools, D.C. Schools, D.C. Schools | Tags:  D.C. public schools, D.C. teachers pact, Larry Cuban, Michelle Rhee, Rhee and teachers

Posted at 09:42 AM ET, 04/09/2010

Florida ed reform passes: Is it a model or disaster?
By Valerie Strauss
The Florida House early today passed a bill that ends job security for teachers and links teacher pay to student test scores, and the legislation is now in the hands of Gov. Charlie Crist (R). Will he agree with supporters that it is a model for the nation, or with opponents, who say it is extreme, badly crafted and harmful to public education?

By Valerie Strauss  |  09:42 AM ET, 04/09/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Tags:  Charlie Crist, Florida, Florida governor, Florida teachers, Gov Crist, House bill 7189, NCLB, Senate Bill 6, jeb bush, protester faints, school reform, teacher pay, teacher tenure bill, teachers and protest

Posted at 08:38 AM ET, 04/08/2010

And now, outsourcing the grading of papers
By Valerie Strauss
And now, outsourcing the grading of papers. That's what some teachers are doing, through a Virginia company that hires graders most overseas. But how are teachers supposed to properly evaluate student performance if they don’t actually spend time reading and grading their work?

By Valerie Strauss  |  08:38 AM ET, 04/08/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Grades, Grades | Tags:  chronicle and grades, grades, outsourcing education, outsourcing grading, teachers

Posted at 09:29 AM ET, 04/07/2010

The lesson in Rhee’s deal with the WTU
By Valerie Strauss
There is a great lesson in the proposed pact struck by D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee and the Washingotn Teachers Union. And no, it is not that people will take desperate measures to shore up their positions before an election.

By Valerie Strauss  |  09:29 AM ET, 04/07/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  D.C. Schools | Tags:  Chancellor Michelle Rhee, D.C. schools, D.C. teachers, D.C. teachers union, Rhee makes deal, teachers and Rhee

Posted at 04:37 PM ET, 04/06/2010

More for Florida educators to be angry about
By Valerie Strauss
Florida's teachers are already outraged about legislation expected to become law that would end tenure, require the creation of more standardized tests and link teacher pay to test scores. Now there's a bill that would allow corporations contribute money to a fund that provides school vouchers and then deduct it from their taxes.

By Valerie Strauss  |  04:37 PM ET, 04/06/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Teachers | Tags:  Florida, Florida tax credits, Florida teacher tenure bill, Florida vouchers, Senate Bill 2126, Senate Bill 6, Standardized test, school voucher, standardized test, teacher tenure bill, teachers

Posted at 09:09 PM ET, 03/30/2010

How about merit pay for parents?
By Valerie Strauss
One teacher's idea: Take funding for merit pay and move it from the teacher column into the parent column to provide more incentive for parents of low-performing students to follow-through in helping their children succeed.

By Valerie Strauss  |  09:09 PM ET, 03/30/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Teachers, Teachers | Tags:  parents, teachers, teachers unions

Posted at 05:04 PM ET, 03/24/2010

Florida Senate approves disastrous teachers bill
By Valerie Strauss
On Wednesday, the Florida Senate passed a bill that would end job security for teachers in the state and require school districts to evaluate and pay them primarily on the basis of student test scores.

By Valerie Strauss  |  05:04 PM ET, 03/24/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  No Child Left Behind, No Child Left Behind, No Child Left Behind | Tags:  FCAT and bush, Florida Senate Bill 6, NCLB, standardized tests, teachers

Posted at 06:30 AM ET, 03/24/2010

Disaster for Florida teachers: Senate Bill 6
By Valerie Strauss
A bill in the Florida Senate would go a long way to destroying the teaching profession in the state: It would eliminate job security, and link most of a teacher's pay to how well students perform on standardized tests. The bill takes to extremes the notion, supported by President Obama, of linking teacher evaluation to test scores.

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:30 AM ET, 03/24/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Education Secretary Duncan, Education Secretary Duncan, Education Secretary Duncan | Tags:  Arne Duncan, Florida legislature, President Obama, standardized tests, teacher pay, teachers

Posted at 05:25 PM ET, 03/18/2010

Teacher who hung Obama in effigy should go
By Valerie Strauss
The teacher at Central Falls High School in Rhode Island who hung President OBama in effigy--apparently in reaction to Obama’s support of the firings--should go.

By Valerie Strauss  |  05:25 PM ET, 03/18/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  No Child Left Behind, No Child Left Behind, No Child Left Behind | Tags:  President Obama, central falls, rhode island school, teachers fired

Posted at 09:33 AM ET, 03/12/2010

Why Obama should invest in teachers
By Valerie Strauss
How a professional learning community works--and why the most important investment the Obama administration can make in education is in teachers and teaching.

By Valerie Strauss  |  09:33 AM ET, 03/12/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers | Tags:  George Wood, Obama, guest bloggers, teachers, teaching

Posted at 06:30 AM ET, 10/29/2009

Should teachers reveal their political opinions in class?
By Valerie Strauss
The Group splits on whether teachers should reveal their own political opinions to their students in class.

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:30 AM ET, 10/29/2009 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Civics Education, Civics Education | Tags:  Teachers, The Group

Posted at 06:30 AM ET, 10/23/2009

What teachers think about their jobs, testing
By Valerie Strauss
Federal officials take note: A new study shows that 40 percent of the country’s 4 million K-12 teachers are “disheartened” with their jobs and the vast majority think there is too much standardized testing and that it is a “drawback” to teaching.

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:30 AM ET, 10/23/2009 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Standardized Tests, Standardized Tests | Tags:  standardized testing, teachers

Posted at 12:30 PM ET, 10/13/2009

Art Expert: The Problem With School Art Programs Are Teachers Who "Can Barely Draw"
By Valerie Strauss
By David C. Levy ..."There is another reason why the arts, and visual arts in particular, are an endangered species in American K – 12 education. It has been my observation that primary and secondary school art teachers rank very low on the continuum of professional respect among their peers. And I would posit as a significant cause that they have generally not achieved a sufficient level of skill in their discipline to deserve that respect. For example, while English teachers may not be able to write The Great American Novel, the chances are pretty good that they can compose a competent essay. But many art teachers can barely draw!"

By Valerie Strauss  |  12:30 PM ET, 10/13/2009 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers | Tags:  art teachers, teach training

Posted at 06:30 AM ET, 10/08/2009

The Group: Our Kids' Teachers, Good and Bad
By Valerie Strauss
It is October and by now we have formed opinions about our children's teachers. The Answer Sheet's Group of Moms talks about what makes a good teacher and a poor one. Should you request teachers? What do you do if you have a bad teacher? And what should we, as parents, expect from the school principal?

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:30 AM ET, 10/08/2009 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Tags:  The Group, teachers

Posted at 11:00 AM ET, 09/24/2009

High School Senior Tells Adults: Get Off Facebook!
By Valerie Strauss
By Adam Turay: I was sitting on Facebook one afternoon looking through some new photos of my friend at a football game. The sequence of comments was fairly run-of-the-mill; there were some chummy remarks from his teammates, a few gushy sentiments from his girlfriend, and one excessively adulatory comment from ... HIS MOTHER? ... Though adults (and even teachers in some cases) want to maintain relationships with children, grandchildren etc., Facebook is definitely not the place to do so.

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:00 AM ET, 09/24/2009 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers | Tags:  Facebook, adults on Facebook, teachers

Posted at 11:30 AM ET, 09/15/2009

Students: What Makes a Good--and Bad--Teacher
By Valerie Strauss
Now that school is in full swing, The Answer Sheet asked some smart teenagers to answer this question: What are the qualities that you see in teachers you like the best, and the teachers you think are ineffective?

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:30 AM ET, 09/15/2009 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Teachers | Tags:  bad teachers, good teachers, teachers

Posted at 01:00 PM ET, 09/14/2009

Readers: Should Teacher Pay Be Linked to Student Test Scores?
By Valerie Strauss
Please post your answer, and I will blog on the best reader comments them later this afternoon. The Issue: Most public school teachers are paid today under a system that is close to 90 years old and involves allowing teachers to earn salary increases through experience and additional coursework. There is a "pay for performance" movement that would allow teacher salaries to be linked to how well a teacher does his/her job--especially by how well their students do on standardized tests and on their evaluations.

By Valerie Strauss  |  01:00 PM ET, 09/14/2009 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Teachers | Tags:  pay for performance, school reform, teachers

Posted at 06:30 AM ET, 09/08/2009

CHECKING IT OUT: What's a ‘highly skilled’ teacher in D.C.?
By Valerie Strauss
Back in the day at Everglades Elementary School in Miami, I had a fifth-grade teacher named Berry Shaw. She was known as the second toughest--read that, second meanest--teacher in the place, and I quaked on the first day of class....

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:30 AM ET, 09/08/2009 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Teachers, Teachers | Tags:  D.C. schools, Highly Skilled Teachers, Michelle Rhee, Teachers

Posted at 11:30 AM ET, 09/01/2009

Stop Sending Sick Kids to School
By Valerie Strauss
Let’s have a show of hands: How many of you have sent a child to school when you have suspected (I’m being polite here) that he/she was not well and might be contagious? Maybe it will help if I...

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:30 AM ET, 09/01/2009 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Parents, Parents | Tags:  school work, sick kids, swine flu, teachers

Posted at 06:00 AM ET, 09/01/2009

Q & A on Learning
By Valerie Strauss
As promised yesterday, here is more from cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham from the University of Virginia, and author of "Why Don't Students Like School," on how kids learn and what teachers should and shouldn’t be doing in class. The...

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:00 AM ET, 09/01/2009 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Tags:  brain, learning, schoolwork, teachers

Posted at 12:00 PM ET, 08/31/2009

New Rules for Back- to-School Night
By Valerie Strauss
This really happened: An administrator at a school in Montgomery County welcomed several hundred parents at back-to-school night by relating his extensive experience as an educator and as a soldier. Then he said, “So you can see I am...

By Valerie Strauss  |  12:00 PM ET, 08/31/2009 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Parents, Parents | Tags:  back to school night, parent, teachers