Education Blog

Bridging Differences

Deborah Meier is a visionary teacher, author, and founder of successful small schools in New York City and Boston. Harry Boyte, senior scholar at Augsburg College, is founder of the youth civic empowerment initiative Public Achievement and a leader in the movement to democratize higher education. This blog is no longer being updated.

School Choice & Charters Opinion Choice, Small Schools, and Trade-Offs
Meier: I also recognized that the new "reformers" used this to argue that their approach could be implemented, top-down, which would make it easier to replicate.
Deborah Meier, April 24, 2014
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7 min read
Assessment Opinion Is the Small Schools Movement Really Dead?
Klonsky: How did we let this dynamic movement of educators and community activists morph into a top-down, corporate-style web of privately operated charter schools?
Guest Blogger, April 22, 2014
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4 min read
Teaching Opinion Welcoming Mike Klonsky to Bridging Differences
Meier: The standards are a curriculum and imply a pedagogy, too.
Deborah Meier, April 10, 2014
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3 min read
Standards & Accountability Opinion School Is Conservative, Education Is Progressive
Pondiscio: It is easy to be overwhelmed and defeated as a teacher by all we cannot do and all that conspires to thwart our best efforts. I choose to focus on the possible.
Guest Blogger, April 8, 2014
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4 min read
School Choice & Charters Opinion We Need Changes Beyond School, Too
Meier: We apparently have settled for closing the test-score gaps between the poor and rich on at least math and reading tests.
Deborah Meier, April 3, 2014
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6 min read
School Choice & Charters Opinion Is School Reform Needed or Not?
Pondiscio: In my very first post here, I suggested that the education reform movement needs what I called a 'Nixon to China' moment. I lamented the unfortunate effects of our polarized education climate.
Guest Blogger, April 1, 2014
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4 min read
School & District Management Opinion Choice: For Shareholders or Stakeholders?
Meier: Neighborhood schools have some important advantages in terms of political democracy, precisely by encouraging people to talk across class and race. Alas, not many contain such mixtures!
Deborah Meier, March 27, 2014
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6 min read
School Choice & Charters Opinion Choice Is Messy. So Be It.
Pondiscio: Belief in creationism troubles me less than a belief in learning styles, for which there is roughly equal scientific support.
Guest Blogger, March 25, 2014
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4 min read
School Choice & Charters Opinion Why Voting Beats 'Voting With One's Feet'
Meier: I've discovered, painfully, that my championship of choice for many years has turned into a monster.
Deborah Meier, March 20, 2014
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5 min read
Standards & Accountability Opinion Deborah Meier, Libertarian?
Pondiscio: Having standards to which all publicly funded schools are held accountable doesn't strike me as an undue burden.
Guest Blogger, March 18, 2014
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5 min read
Assessment Opinion Improve Democracy, Not Tests
Meier: Let's keep improving on democracy rather than testing.
Deborah Meier, March 13, 2014
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5 min read
Standards & Accountability Opinion Testing, Truth, and Consequences
Pondiscio: Fair-minded readers might applaud the mindset that asks not simply, "What does this test measure?" but also, "What kind of classroom practice does this test encourage?"
Guest Blogger, March 11, 2014
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4 min read
School & District Management Opinion Agreed: No Profiting Off Children's Education
Deborah Meier: If democracy is worth dying for, how about our learning to live with it?
Deborah Meier, March 6, 2014
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6 min read
Assessment Opinion What Business Doesn't Know About Education
Pondiscio: If education has an outdated view of business, the business world can be equally clueless about education.
Guest Blogger, March 4, 2014
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5 min read
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