The Answer Sheet - School Survival Guide for parents (and everyone else).

Posted at 05:00 AM ET, 03/31/2011

The nonsense behind the ‘X consecutive teachers’ argument

By Valerie Strauss

The “X consecutive teachers” argument only carries concrete policy implications if ‘top’ teachers can be accurately identified, writes Matthew Di Carlo, but the ability to do that remains very limited.

By Valerie Strauss | 05:00 AM ET, 03/31/2011 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)

Posted at 03:55 AM ET, 03/31/2011

Restocking teachers: The math doesn’t add up

By Valerie Strauss

Let’s do the math: Layoffs caused by budget cuts are about money, and experienced teachers cost more — until you take an honest look at the high costs associated with turnover from a passing parade of inexperienced teachers, writes the NEA president.

By Valerie Strauss | 03:55 AM ET, 03/31/2011 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)

Posted at 04:00 AM ET, 03/30/2011

Obama bashes his own education policies

By Valerie Strauss

Veteran educator Anthony Cody writes about how odd it was that President Obama said kids take too many standardized tests when his own education policies are pushing more of them on schools.

By Valerie Strauss | 04:00 AM ET, 03/30/2011 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)

Posted at 03:00 AM ET, 03/30/2011

Ravitch: Why merit pay for teachers doesn’t work

By Valerie Strauss

Education historian Diane Ravitch explains why the current effort by school reformers to institute merit pay systems for teachers isn’t supported by many teachers and won’t work.

By Valerie Strauss | 03:00 AM ET, 03/30/2011 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)

Posted at 04:00 AM ET, 03/29/2011

The misleading data and debate on class size

By Valerie Strauss

A veteran educator explains that while most of the studies conducted in the last 30 years argues that class size does matter in student achievement, especially in the primary grades,

By Valerie Strauss | 04:00 AM ET, 03/29/2011 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)

Posted at 10:41 PM ET, 03/27/2011

Déjà vu all over again: A lesson from the history of school reform

By Valerie Strauss

It would be a healthy thing for current school reformers to look back at their early twentieth century predecessors. Because the former are doing a lot of what the latter tried, and it didn’t work then, just like it won’t now.

By Valerie Strauss | 10:41 PM ET, 03/27/2011 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)

Posted at 12:16 PM ET, 03/26/2011

Jaw-dropper of the week

By Valerie Strauss

You have to hand it to Florida Gov. Rick Scott. There’s a lot to drop jaws in his education initiatives: steep funding cuts, lots of new requirements and perhaps $2 billion in unfunded mandates.

By Valerie Strauss | 12:16 PM ET, 03/26/2011 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)

Posted at 10:43 AM ET, 03/26/2011

Teachers alone can’t create excellent schools

By Valerie Strauss

A Teach for America alumnust takes issue with George Will on Teach for America and how children in high-poverty schools should be taught.

By Valerie Strauss | 10:43 AM ET, 03/26/2011 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)

Posted at 12:46 PM ET, 03/25/2011

The girl who ran away to avoid a standardized test

By Valerie Strauss

More from the “standardized testing obsession” file: A 13-year-old girls runs away to avoid taking a standardized test as a new Harvard study comes out showing no evidence that financial incentives to teachers to improve student test scores have any benefit.

By Valerie Strauss | 12:46 PM ET, 03/25/2011 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)

Posted at 01:14 AM ET, 03/25/2011

Indignez-Vous: Lessons for activism in education

By Valerie Strauss

An educator wonders why there isn’t more overt resistance to standardized tests, the attack on teachers, etc., among educators, parents, and students who are deeply committed to public education.

By Valerie Strauss | 01:14 AM ET, 03/25/2011 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)

Posted at 12:28 AM ET, 03/25/2011

Father: Why I didn’t let my son take standardized tests

By Valerie Strauss

A college professor and the father of a middle school student explains why he didn’t let his son take standardized tests required by No Child Left Behind.

By Valerie Strauss | 12:28 AM ET, 03/25/2011 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)

Posted at 12:41 AM ET, 03/24/2011

5 myths about teachers that are distracting policymakers

By Valerie Strauss

Here are five myths about teachers that often distract policymakers and that effectively show that not just anybody can be a teacher.

By Valerie Strauss | 12:41 AM ET, 03/24/2011 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)

Posted at 12:30 AM ET, 03/24/2011

Kid donates $300 life savings to protect teachers’ jobs

By Valerie Strauss

A fifth-grader, understanding a lot better than many adults about the importance of keeping teachers in the classroom better than a lot of adults, took a stand about layoffs at her California elementary school by donating her life savings of $300 in an effort to save teachers’ jobs.

By Valerie Strauss | 12:30 AM ET, 03/24/2011 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)

Posted at 11:21 PM ET, 03/23/2011

Darling-Hammond: U.S. vs highest-achieving nations in education

By Valerie Strauss

Renowed education expert Linda Darling-Hammond writes about what the United States is really doing to its public school teachers and how much this contrasts with what other countries have done to improve their education systems.

By Valerie Strauss | 11:21 PM ET, 03/23/2011 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)

Posted at 10:55 PM ET, 03/23/2011

Ravitch: Actually, it’s an age of hypocrisy and meanness

By Valerie Strauss

Education historian Diane Ravitch writes about how mean our education policies have become.

By Valerie Strauss | 10:55 PM ET, 03/23/2011 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)

Posted at 05:00 AM ET, 03/22/2011

Praising teachers while bashing them

By Valerie Strauss

The constant barrage on teachers — even under the guise of praising them — is doing lasting damage to the profession and undermines the already weak position that teachers hold professionally in the United States, a veteran educator writes.

By Valerie Strauss | 05:00 AM ET, 03/22/2011 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)

Posted at 12:25 AM ET, 03/22/2011

What NCAA tournament players study

By Valerie Strauss

Here, courtesy of Slate.com, are the top academic majors being pursued by members of most of the NCAA basketball tournament teams, a list that differs somewhat from the general college population.

By Valerie Strauss | 12:25 AM ET, 03/22/2011 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)

Posted at 12:19 PM ET, 03/21/2011

The unusual next season of ‘Survivor’

By Valerie Strauss

Here is a dream write-up of the next season of the television show ‘Survivor’ that just about every public school teacher in the United States would love to watch.

By Valerie Strauss | 12:19 PM ET, 03/21/2011 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)

Posted at 10:00 AM ET, 03/21/2011

How test scores are used as a political prop

By Valerie Strauss

Politicians have long used funding to mandate policy–often with little logic. This is happening with abandon now in education, as state and federal legislators ignore evidence to ‘reform’ schools.

By Valerie Strauss | 10:00 AM ET, 03/21/2011 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)

Posted at 04:00 AM ET, 03/21/2011

The power of ‘edcamps’ and ‘unconferencing’

By Valerie Strauss

A school district superintendent writes about a growing phenomena in professional development for teachers that requires the educators who are attending to design sessions that meets their needs and that varies from traditional P.D. in other ways.

By Valerie Strauss | 04:00 AM ET, 03/21/2011 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)

Posted at 12:53 PM ET, 03/19/2011

Jaw-dropper of the week

By Valerie Strauss

This is the first of an experimental weekly series of posts that will simply provide the sentence or paragraph in any story related to education that made my jaw drop.

By Valerie Strauss | 12:53 PM ET, 03/19/2011 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)

Posted at 05:00 AM ET, 03/18/2011

Teacher: Losing my religion

By Valerie Strauss

A teacher takes a course to broaden professional horizons, but ends up in “ a near infantile state of disequilibrium” and starts to “question if I’ve lost my philosophy, creativity, basically my ‘religion’ as a teacher.”

By Valerie Strauss | 05:00 AM ET, 03/18/2011 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)

Posted at 03:58 PM ET, 03/17/2011

Ironic extremes: Lauding and bashing teachers

By Valerie Strauss

How’s this for ironic extreme: An international conference is underway in New York about how to elevate the teaching profession, while, in Florida, a new law is about be put on the books that will go a long way to making sure nobody wants to be a public school teacher.

By Valerie Strauss | 03:58 PM ET, 03/17/2011 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)

Posted at 08:15 AM ET, 03/17/2011

The real qualities of teacher excellence

By Valerie Strauss

A master educator lists the qualities of teacher excellence. Not on the list: standardized test scores.

By Valerie Strauss | 08:15 AM ET, 03/17/2011 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)

Posted at 05:00 AM ET, 03/17/2011

Principal: Why I hate March

By Valerie Strauss

A principal writes that he used to love March for the great basketball, and the first signs of spring. Now he hates it because of the “annual madness” of the Ohio Graduation Tests, in which kids sit for hours and answer questions that adults can’t answer but that will affect their lives anyway.

By Valerie Strauss | 05:00 AM ET, 03/17/2011 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)

Posted at 04:00 AM ET, 03/16/2011

Fed up with the term ‘status quo’

By Valerie Strauss

Everywhere you go, if you question any of the dominant reforms (value-added assessment, virtual schools, school closings, rigid pedagogical models, etc.), you are branded a defender of the status quo. That’s nonsense.

By Valerie Strauss | 04:00 AM ET, 03/16/2011 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)

Posted at 11:19 PM ET, 03/15/2011

Obama and Boehner: Education nonsense

By Valerie Strauss

It’s hard to keep track of who is making less sense on education in Washington D.C. right now: the Democratic president or the top Republican leader.

By Valerie Strauss | 11:19 PM ET, 03/15/2011 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)

Posted at 02:35 PM ET, 03/15/2011

SAT question on reality TV stirs controversy

By Valerie Strauss

An essay question about the value of reality television shows on last Saturday’s SAT college entrance exam has sparked a controversy about whether it was culturally insensitive.

By Valerie Strauss | 02:35 PM ET, 03/15/2011 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)

Posted at 09:30 AM ET, 03/15/2011

How American teachers have failed

By Valerie Strauss

A public school teacher explains why he finally, sadly, agrees that he and his teaching colleagues have failed

By Valerie Strauss | 09:30 AM ET, 03/15/2011 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)

Posted at 05:00 AM ET, 03/15/2011

The myth of the ‘superteacher’

By Valerie Strauss

A teacher writes: “When I first heard about a school in Manhattan that was preparing to pay teachers up to $125,000 a year, I thought that was great. Finally, we are getting the respect we deserve. But after seeing the deal close up ...I am not sure it is much of a bargain after all.”

By Valerie Strauss | 05:00 AM ET, 03/15/2011 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)

Posted at 04:00 AM ET, 03/15/2011

‘Math is for boys’ stereotype still alive

By Valerie Strauss

By second grade, girls and boys express the stereotype that “math is for boys” but not for girls, a new study shows in a finding that may help explain why fewer females enter math and science careers than boys.

By Valerie Strauss | 04:00 AM ET, 03/15/2011 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)

Posted at 12:04 PM ET, 03/14/2011

What to do when a college says ‘no’

By Valerie Strauss

The real March Madness has begun: Some of the most selective colleges are releasing their admissions decisions. For parents and school counselors looking for ways to support students who may receive an unexpected rejection, here are some important facts to share.

By Valerie Strauss | 12:04 PM ET, 03/14/2011 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)

Posted at 06:00 AM ET, 03/14/2011

Gaming the system in D.C. schools

By Valerie Strauss

Here’s a fictional account that explains well how the standardizing test system is gamed in D.C. schools, and, by extention, in other school systems as well.

By Valerie Strauss | 06:00 AM ET, 03/14/2011 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)

Posted at 05:00 AM ET, 03/14/2011

The White House’s split personality on bullying

By Valerie Strauss

A veteran teacher writes that while our White House is four-square against individual bullies in our schools, it is guilty of supporting bullying of some of our schools, especially the ones where most of the kids live in poverty.

By Valerie Strauss | 05:00 AM ET, 03/14/2011 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)

Posted at 07:06 PM ET, 03/13/2011

Philosophical proof: Why testing obsession is nutty

By Valerie Strauss

A philosophical argument about the craziness of today’s relentless focus on test scores.

By Valerie Strauss | 07:06 PM ET, 03/13/2011 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)

Posted at 07:04 PM ET, 03/13/2011

Teach for America alum: Where TFA falls short

By Valerie Strauss

A Teach for America alumnus writes about why the organization must modernize.

By Valerie Strauss | 07:04 PM ET, 03/13/2011 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)

Posted at 07:02 PM ET, 03/13/2011

Ravitch: Jon Stewart and other education heroes

By Valerie Strauss

Education historian Diane Ravitch: “There really is a bipartisan consensus on education reform... .”

By Valerie Strauss | 07:02 PM ET, 03/13/2011 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)

Posted at 07:01 PM ET, 03/13/2011

The Michigan Fish Test and school reform

By Valerie Strauss

Educator Larry Ferlazzo explains the Michigan Fish Test and humility.

By Valerie Strauss | 07:01 PM ET, 03/13/2011 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)

Posted at 12:51 AM ET, 03/12/2011

Why schools should try things not “research-based”

By Valerie Strauss

A buzz phrase in schools across the country has become “research-based best practices” -- but sometimes schools may need to try things that have no evidence base.

By Valerie Strauss | 12:51 AM ET, 03/12/2011 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)

Posted at 12:44 AM ET, 03/12/2011

A Florida teacher tells Obama he disappointed her

By Valerie Strauss

A Florida public school teacher explains how she told President Obama that he has disappointed teachers -- and what she wishes she had more time to tell him.

By Valerie Strauss | 12:44 AM ET, 03/12/2011 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)

Posted at 12:30 AM ET, 03/12/2011

Teachers tell: One thing I wish I’d known

By Valerie Strauss

Teachers answer this question: “What was one thing you wished you’d known when you started teaching?

By Valerie Strauss | 12:30 AM ET, 03/12/2011 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)

Posted at 12:05 AM ET, 03/12/2011

Obama’s odd embrace of Jeb Bush

By Valerie Strauss

Here’s why teachers got upset when President Obama embraced Jeb Bush and his education reform record last week at a Miami school.

By Valerie Strauss | 12:05 AM ET, 03/12/2011 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)

Posted at 12:03 AM ET, 03/12/2011

Rheeform: How she fired teachers (with artistic license)

By Valerie Strauss

Here’s an artist’s rendering, so to speak, of how Michelle Rhee worked when she was chancellor of D.C. schools. A video that will make you laugh and cry.

By Valerie Strauss | 12:03 AM ET, 03/12/2011 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)

Posted at 11:52 PM ET, 03/11/2011

Why Bill Gates is wrong on class size

By Valerie Strauss

A veteran teacher explains why a proposal by Bill Gates to selectively increase class size doesn’t make any educational or financial sense.

By Valerie Strauss | 11:52 PM ET, 03/11/2011 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)

Posted at 11:30 PM ET, 03/11/2011

Pearls of wisdom from the Education Department

By Valerie Strauss

In the “D-for duh” category, here is some of the advice that the Education Department spent time putting together as guidance just issued to governors on how to wisely spend federal money during these financially troubled times.

By Valerie Strauss | 11:30 PM ET, 03/11/2011 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)

Posted at 11:27 PM ET, 03/11/2011

Why homework is counterproductive

By Valerie Strauss

Here are four reasons from Alfie Kohn about why homework is a losing enterprise for teachers, parents and students.

By Valerie Strauss | 11:27 PM ET, 03/11/2011 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)

Posted at 01:26 PM ET, 03/11/2011

Japan Earthquake: Facts, resources on quakes, tsunamis

By Valerie Strauss

Here are facts and websites that teachers and parents can use to educate themselves and their children about earthquakes and tsunamis.

By Valerie Strauss | 01:26 PM ET, 03/11/2011 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)

Posted at 12:54 PM ET, 03/11/2011

5 Myths on zero-tolerance policies

By Valerie Strauss

Zero-tolerance disciplinary policies have been popular for years in school districts around the country, often implemented on a set of assumptions that research shows are not true. Here are five myths about zero-tolerance, and the reality.

By Valerie Strauss | 12:54 PM ET, 03/11/2011 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)

Posted at 04:23 PM ET, 03/10/2011

Defending Arne Duncan, sort of

By Valerie Strauss

Education Secretary Arne Duncan is getting bashed by critics and even supporters for telling Congress that 82 percent of public schools could be at risk of failing to meet education goals this year, up from 37 percent last year. What if he is right?

By Valerie Strauss | 04:23 PM ET, 03/10/2011 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)

Posted at 03:01 PM ET, 03/09/2011

The problem with Rhee’s successor in D.C.

By Valerie Strauss

The new permanent chancellor of D.C. schools is going to be Kaya Henderson, to no one’s surprise, and this, to her supporters, is a great thing because she is, as they say, Michelle Rhee without Michelle Rhee. Maybe not.

By Valerie Strauss | 03:01 PM ET, 03/09/2011 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)

Posted at 06:04 PM ET, 03/07/2011

Few schools enter Obama commencement speech contest

By Valerie Strauss

The White House did not receive enough applicants in a contest it launched for schools to win a commencement address by President Obama so it extended the deadline and made the application process easier.

By Valerie Strauss | 06:04 PM ET, 03/07/2011 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)

Posted at 12:30 PM ET, 03/04/2011

Jon Stewart hosts Ravitch, rips critics of teachers

By Valerie Strauss

The host made scathing and hysterically funny (and sad) new attack on the hypocrisy underlying the assault on public school teachers.

By Valerie Strauss | 12:30 PM ET, 03/04/2011 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)

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 05:00 AM ET, 03/03/2011

The Diane Ravitch myth

By Valerie Strauss

Anybody reading much of the commentary written on education policy could be forgiven for thinking that education historian Diane Ravitch is somehow the Wizardess of Ed, the woman behind the curtain secretly pulling the strings.

By Valerie Strauss | 05:00 AM ET, 03/03/2011 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)
Categories: Diane Ravitch | Tags: arne duncan, bill gates, charter schools, colbert report, diane ravitch, jon stewart, president obama, school reform, whitney tilson

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 11:00 AM ET, 03/02/2011

March Madness: 'My name is Luke and I refuse to take your test'

By Valerie Strauss

A father writes that his 11-year-old has spent this year in school getting ready for this month's Pennsylvania standardized assessment tests rather than pursuing intellectually stimulating classroom experiences. Now he wonders if he should ask his son to boycott the tests.

By Valerie Strauss | 11:00 AM ET, 03/02/2011 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)
Categories: Guest Bloggers, Standardized Tests | Tags: bartleby project, penn state, pennsylvania assessments, rube goldberg, standardized tests

Posted at 08:00 AM ET, 03/02/2011

The Bill Gates problem in school reform

By Valerie Strauss

How our celebrity-obsessed culture affects school reform: If Bill Gates had no money, would anybody care what he has to say about how to fix public schools (especially since he lacks strong evidence to back his positions)?

By Valerie Strauss | 08:00 AM ET, 03/02/2011 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)
Categories: Guest Bloggers, School turnarounds/reform | Tags: bill gates, gates foundation, gates interview, school reform, teacher evaluation teacher effectiveness

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 08:30 AM ET, 03/01/2011

The fight over teaching evolution, climate change

By Valerie Strauss

A survey shows many biology teachers are afraid to teach evolution. A proposed law in Tennessee would require science educators to "teach the controversies" regarding evolution and climate change -- even though scientists don't think there is much controversy. What's going on in the world of science instruction?

By Valerie Strauss | 08:30 AM ET, 03/01/2011 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)
Categories: Anthony Cody, Guest Bloggers, Science | Tags: climate change, evolution, global warming, intelligent design, science class, scopes trial, teaching climate change, teaching evolution, theory of evolution

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

The Answer Sheet: March, 2011