The Answer Sheet: August, 2012
Posted at 12:46 AM ET, 08/31/2012
By Valerie Strauss
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said pretty much what you’d expect him to say about education reform at the GOP convention — schools are failing and teachers unions are bad — but you might not have thought he'd make a pitch for school choice by talking about all the options shoppers have for milk when they go to a supermarket.
By Valerie Strauss |
12:46 AM ET, 08/31/2012 |
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Posted at 09:55 PM ET, 08/30/2012
By Valerie Strauss
Jeb Bush tells the Republican Convention that every parent should be able to choose where their child goes to school, noting that we have choice in other aspects of life. “Go down any supermarket aisle - you’ll find an incredible selection of milk,” he said. Here’s the text of the speech.
By Valerie Strauss |
09:55 PM ET, 08/30/2012 |
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Posted at 09:03 PM ET, 08/30/2012
By Valerie Strauss
Here’s an amusing video on how to properly doodle to get through math class if you don’t have a phone on which to play Angry Birds.
By Valerie Strauss |
09:03 PM ET, 08/30/2012 |
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Posted at 12:31 PM ET, 08/30/2012
By Valerie Strauss
Would Mitt Romney pick Michelle Rhee or Jeb Bush or Bobby Jindal to be his education secretary? Who are the other candidates? Here’s a list of possibilities.
By Valerie Strauss |
12:31 PM ET, 08/30/2012 |
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Posted at 05:00 AM ET, 08/30/2012
By Valerie Strauss
Bill Nye the Science Guy has been booed for saying the moon reflects light from the sun, and now for saying in a video that the creationist view of the world is “crazy.” He has also been reported dead by the satirical Onion newspaper.
By Valerie Strauss |
05:00 AM ET, 08/30/2012 |
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Posted at 05:00 AM ET, 08/29/2012
By Valerie Strauss
It was obviously too difficult for the authors of the 2012 Republican Party platform to hide their contempt for public education, because it is evident
throughout the section on schooling.
By Valerie Strauss |
05:00 AM ET, 08/29/2012 |
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Posted at 07:37 PM ET, 08/28/2012
By Valerie Strauss
Here’s what the Republican Party platform for 2012 says about K-12 education and college.
By Valerie Strauss |
07:37 PM ET, 08/28/2012 |
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Posted at 12:08 PM ET, 08/28/2012
By Valerie Strauss
Randi Weingarten says stereotypes in new film are worse than those in “Waiting for Superman.”
By Valerie Strauss |
12:08 PM ET, 08/28/2012 |
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Posted at 06:00 AM ET, 08/28/2012
By Valerie Strauss
Education Secretary Arne Duncan often praises the Recovery School District of New Orleans as a big success. Here’s a look at what’s really going on there.
By Valerie Strauss |
06:00 AM ET, 08/28/2012 |
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Posted at 01:46 PM ET, 08/27/2012
By Valerie Strauss
Two sixth-graders at a Minneapolis public school say students are being forced to gobble down food at lunch because they are allotted only 15 minutes to eat.
By Valerie Strauss |
01:46 PM ET, 08/27/2012 |
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Posted at 05:00 AM ET, 08/27/2012
By Valerie Strauss
A cognitive scientist and artifical intelligence theorist argues that our push for more STEM education is off base. Why? He writes: “You can live a productive and happy life without knowing anything about macroeconomics or trigonometry but you can’t function very well at all if you can’t make an accurate prediction or describe situations, or diagnose a problem, or evaluate a situation, person or object.”
By Valerie Strauss |
05:00 AM ET, 08/27/2012 |
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Posted at 09:00 AM ET, 08/25/2012
By Valerie Strauss
Obama edged out Romney in a new national poll that asked which candidate was better for public education . . . plus more news.
By Valerie Strauss |
09:00 AM ET, 08/25/2012 |
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Posted at 07:00 AM ET, 08/25/2012
By Valerie Strauss
As the nexus between business and public education has become a flashpoint in the school reform debate, a former superintendent of Arlington Public Schools looks back on the extention of interaction between his district and business.
By Valerie Strauss |
07:00 AM ET, 08/25/2012 |
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Posted at 07:00 AM ET, 08/24/2012
By Valerie Strauss
The English Language Learner school population is growing so much that some demographers predict that in 20 years the ratio of ELL students to English-only students could be
one in four. Here’s the list of what teachers and policymakers should and should not do for these students.
By Valerie Strauss |
07:00 AM ET, 08/24/2012 |
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Posted at 11:00 AM ET, 08/23/2012
By Valerie Strauss
By Valerie Strauss |
11:00 AM ET, 08/23/2012 |
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Posted at 10:18 AM ET, 08/23/2012
By Valerie Strauss
A New York educator gives her list of three reforms that parents should worry about most in their children’s public schools.
By Valerie Strauss |
10:18 AM ET, 08/23/2012 |
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Posted at 05:00 AM ET, 08/23/2012
By Valerie Strauss
Since 2000, Emory University submitted false admissions data to college rankers and other organizations that showed higher test scores and class rankings than students actually had.
By Valerie Strauss |
05:00 AM ET, 08/23/2012 |
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Posted at 03:00 PM ET, 08/22/2012
By Valerie Strauss
The stagnant trend in
ACT college readiness scores just released is yet another piece of evidence that test-driven K-12 education in the U.S. is a sweeping, expensive failure.
By Valerie Strauss |
03:00 PM ET, 08/22/2012 |
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Posted at 11:32 AM ET, 08/22/2012
By Valerie Strauss
The 2012 PDK/Gallup poll on how Americans view public education shows some major divisions as well as agreements. Here is education historian Diane Ravitch’s analysis of what matters in the poll and what doesn’t.
By Valerie Strauss |
11:32 AM ET, 08/22/2012 |
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Posted at 12:01 AM ET, 08/22/2012
By Valerie Strauss
The annual Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup poll on American views about public education shows a big divide on issues including vouchers and evaluating teachers based on student standardized test scores. But Americans agree on issues including the need to make teacher preparation as strong as in other professions, such as medicine and law.
By Valerie Strauss |
12:01 AM ET, 08/22/2012 |
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Posted at 11:37 AM ET, 08/21/2012
By Valerie Strauss
A veteran educator lists eight things about the Common Core State Standards that he thinks will damage public education.
By Valerie Strauss |
11:37 AM ET, 08/21/2012 |
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Posted at 10:00 AM ET, 08/21/2012
By Valerie Strauss
Those seeking to improve schooling through efforts to increase teacher effectiveness and build teacher capacity are realizing that such efforts rely heavily on principal capacity and stability.
By Valerie Strauss |
10:00 AM ET, 08/21/2012 |
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Posted at 05:01 AM ET, 08/21/2012
By Valerie Strauss
Here’s a memo from the Broad Foundation that lays out its plans to expand its already considerable influence in public education. It includes the creation of a “go to group” of Broad Academy graduates and others who can drive Broad-supported reform policies.
By Valerie Strauss |
05:01 AM ET, 08/21/2012 |
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Posted at 05:00 AM ET, 08/21/2012
By Valerie Strauss
Here you can read the entire memo from the Broad Foundation that spells out its strategy for expanding its influence in the world of school reform.
By Valerie Strauss |
05:00 AM ET, 08/21/2012 |
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Posted at 02:53 PM ET, 08/20/2012
By Valerie Strauss
“Won’t Back Down,” writes one movie-goer, depicts a story that is more about good vs. evil than about the truth behind public schools today and the movement to privatize them.
By Valerie Strauss |
02:53 PM ET, 08/20/2012 |
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Posted at 06:00 AM ET, 08/20/2012
By Valerie Strauss
What do most public teachers and students across the nation have to look forward to as they head back for the 2012-13 school year? Here’s a list — with suggestions on how to improve public education.
By Valerie Strauss |
06:00 AM ET, 08/20/2012 |
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Posted at 10:00 AM ET, 08/18/2012
By Valerie Strauss
President notes that state and local budget cuts have helped kill 300,000 teaching and other jobs since 2009. But there’s an irony.
By Valerie Strauss |
10:00 AM ET, 08/18/2012 |
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Posted at 07:05 AM ET, 08/17/2012
By Valerie Strauss
If you are wondering why you should add charter schools to your investment portfolios, here’s David Brain, head of a major investment concern called
Entertainment Properties Trust, to tell you.
By Valerie Strauss |
07:05 AM ET, 08/17/2012 |
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Posted at 05:00 AM ET, 08/17/2012
By Valerie Strauss
You can’t get away from the word “rigor” when it comes to school reform, but here’s an argument that it is time for a better word and a better concept to drive American education. How about “vigor?”
By Valerie Strauss |
05:00 AM ET, 08/17/2012 |
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Posted at 06:00 AM ET, 08/15/2012
By Valerie Strauss
Teacher educators across the country are stepping up to create new, valid tools to hold themselves and their colleagues accountable in an era when teachers have become punching bags for reformers intent on using student test scores to evaluate the worth of a teacher, Linda Darling-Hammond writes.
By Valerie Strauss |
06:00 AM ET, 08/15/2012 |
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Posted at 05:00 AM ET, 08/15/2012
By Valerie Strauss
All you need to know about why the University of Virginia governing board needs a serious shakeup can be found in an interview that my colleagues did with the school’s president, Teresa Sullivan.
By Valerie Strauss |
05:00 AM ET, 08/15/2012 |
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Posted at 02:13 PM ET, 08/14/2012
By Valerie Strauss
It’s the middle of August, which means it is
Shark Week, and to mark the 25th anniversary of the popular show, the education arm of the Discovery Channel has a gift for teachers.
By Valerie Strauss |
02:13 PM ET, 08/14/2012 |
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Posted at 06:00 AM ET, 08/14/2012
By Valerie Strauss
Music and creativity entrepreneur Derek Sivers has a popular TED Talk titled “Leadership Lessons From Dancing Guy.”
By Valerie Strauss |
06:00 AM ET, 08/14/2012 |
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Posted at 11:21 PM ET, 08/11/2012
By Valerie Strauss
When Paul Ryan was in high school, he won an honorific from his senior class, but it may not have been one he would have chosen.
By Valerie Strauss |
11:21 PM ET, 08/11/2012 |
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Posted at 12:18 PM ET, 08/11/2012
By Valerie Strauss
Romney VP pick talks a lot about scaling back the reach of the federal government, but in 2001 he voted for No Child Left Behind.
By Valerie Strauss |
12:18 PM ET, 08/11/2012 |
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Posted at 08:00 AM ET, 08/11/2012
By Valerie Strauss
Helen Dragas, the rector of the University of Virginia’s governing board, probably never thought she would be linked in a headline to Lady Gaga, but she did it to herself with e-mails she sent to the school’s leaders.
By Valerie Strauss |
08:00 AM ET, 08/11/2012 |
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Posted at 06:00 AM ET, 08/11/2012
By Valerie Strauss
You don’t hear school reformers calling loudly for cheating accusations to be seriously investigated.
By Valerie Strauss |
06:00 AM ET, 08/11/2012 |
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Posted at 06:00 AM ET, 08/10/2012
By Valerie Strauss
The collective sigh heard across Alabama recently came from educators pleased to hear Gov. Robert Bentley tell the Alabama Association of School Boards he would not include
charter school legislation in his next package of bills. Here’s why.
By Valerie Strauss |
06:00 AM ET, 08/10/2012 |
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Posted at 06:00 AM ET, 08/09/2012
By Valerie Strauss
As children head back to school after a
decade of No Child Left Behind, will they benefit from lessons learned from this sweeping and expensive failure? Sadly, instead of learning from the beastly NCLB, the Obama administration is doubling down on a failed policy.
By Valerie Strauss |
06:00 AM ET, 08/09/2012 |
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Posted at 11:30 AM ET, 08/08/2012
By Valerie Strauss
Three values are at the heart of the practice of science and engineering and are central to discovery and innovation: searching for uncertainty, recognition of ambiguity and learning from failure. Therefore, it makes sense to nurture these values in school. But education reform policies ignore ambiguities in assessment data and punish failure as determined by uncertain evidence. Unless checked, the latter will undermine the former.
By Valerie Strauss |
11:30 AM ET, 08/08/2012 |
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Posted at 07:00 AM ET, 08/08/2012
By Valerie Strauss
Two new studies investigate why teachers quit their jobs and why others stay. The researchers come up with similarities but it is the differences that are really important. Here’s what they are.
By Valerie Strauss |
07:00 AM ET, 08/08/2012 |
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Posted at 04:00 AM ET, 08/08/2012
By Valerie Strauss
Under the headline “
Campbell Brown: Teachers Unions Go to Bat for Sexual Predators,” the former NBC and CNN reporter
writes a tale in The Wall Street Journal about teachers unions that are so darn awful, she says, that they protect members who are sexual predators. Wrong on so many counts, Campbell.
By Valerie Strauss |
04:00 AM ET, 08/08/2012 |
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Posted at 02:58 PM ET, 08/07/2012
By Valerie Strauss
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is getting new pushback on his school voucher program from the Interfaith Alliance.
By Valerie Strauss |
02:58 PM ET, 08/07/2012 |
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Posted at 08:00 AM ET, 08/07/2012
By Valerie Strauss
There is now so much money and power backing market-driven reforms that it is nearly impossible for alternative views to break through.
By Valerie Strauss |
08:00 AM ET, 08/07/2012 |
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Posted at 05:00 AM ET, 08/07/2012
By Valerie Strauss
Cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham writes about how Steven Levitt, of
Freakonomics fame, has unwittingly provided an example of how science applied to education can go wrong.
By Valerie Strauss |
05:00 AM ET, 08/07/2012 |
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Posted at 02:30 PM ET, 08/06/2012
By Valerie Strauss
Here’s a letter that the University of Virginia Faculty Senate president, George M. Cohen, sent to the governing Board of Visitors. It expresses concern about the board’s plans to move beyond this summer’s leadership fiasco, in which university President Teresa Sullivan was first fired and then reinstated after a campus revolt.
By Valerie Strauss |
02:30 PM ET, 08/06/2012 |
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Posted at 09:00 AM ET, 08/06/2012
By Valerie Strauss
Here are 10 damaging things that school reformers say are true but aren't.
By Valerie Strauss |
09:00 AM ET, 08/06/2012 |
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Posted at 06:00 AM ET, 08/06/2012
By Valerie Strauss
You all know about Michelle Rhee’s anti-teachers union organization
Students First.
But do you know about the new
blog called Students Last? It’s operating principle:
If you care about education, we would like to encourage you to stop. Here is a satirical post on what could become a new Olympic sport: teacher bashing.
By Valerie Strauss |
06:00 AM ET, 08/06/2012 |
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Posted at 05:00 AM ET, 08/05/2012
By Valerie Strauss
Under Rhee, 50 percent of teachers’ evaluations were based on standardized test scores. Is 35 percent any better?
By Valerie Strauss |
05:00 AM ET, 08/05/2012 |
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Posted at 12:36 PM ET, 08/04/2012
By Valerie Strauss
In a Michigan district, officials can now inspect students’ cellphones if they receive a complaint of “sexting,” either on or off campus.
By Valerie Strauss |
12:36 PM ET, 08/04/2012 |
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Posted at 11:38 AM ET, 08/03/2012
By Valerie Strauss
Here are some more education terms that you commonly hear thrown around in the national conversation about reform — and what they really mean.
By Valerie Strauss |
11:38 AM ET, 08/03/2012 |
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Posted at 08:00 AM ET, 08/02/2012
By Valerie Strauss
Apart from politics, the most contentious public issue today is education. Most people have little knowledge about the realities of education, basing their opinions on personal experience, their worldviews, and what their leaders tell them. Thus, the flow of jargon is plentiful and forceful, seeking to turn the tide of public opinion irrevocably in a particular direction. Here are some examples of jargon used every day and what it really means.
By Valerie Strauss |
08:00 AM ET, 08/02/2012 |
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Posted at 06:00 AM ET, 08/02/2012
By Valerie Strauss
Recent posts about the Khan Academy elicited a lot of interest. Here are some of the responses from readers.
By Valerie Strauss |
06:00 AM ET, 08/02/2012 |
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Posted at 12:00 PM ET, 08/01/2012
By Valerie Strauss
The New Teacher Project (TNTP) has a new,
highly publicized report about what it calls “irreplaceables,” a catchy term that is supposed to describe those teachers who are “so successful they are nearly impossible to replace.” Here’s a problem with the report.
By Valerie Strauss |
12:00 PM ET, 08/01/2012 |
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Posted at 07:00 AM ET, 08/01/2012
By Valerie Strauss
Rising high school seniors who want to get a jump on their college applications should know that
the Common Application used by more than 450 colleges and universities has just gone live for the 2012-13 admissions season.
By Valerie Strauss |
07:00 AM ET, 08/01/2012 |
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Posted at 05:00 AM ET, 08/01/2012
By Valerie Strauss
After only a year as commissioner of education for Florida, Gerald Robinson resigned on Tuesday following a string of embarrassing mistakes involving the state’s standardized test-based accountability system. But the problems he faced when he came — and new ones that he crated — aren’t going away.
By Valerie Strauss |
05:00 AM ET, 08/01/2012 |
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Posted at 04:00 AM ET, 06/08/2012
By Valerie Strauss
Olympic champion
Michael Phelps has had a great swimming coach, but it was really another teacher who was front and center in his life: his mom, Debbie, a middle-school principal in Maryland who has been an award-winning educator for nearly three decades.
By Valerie Strauss |
04:00 AM ET, 06/08/2012 |
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