In 2011, Education Week published in print and online well over 100 thoughtful Commentaries on education issues. To give a sense of which opinion essays our readers found most compelling, the editors at Education Week have compiled a list of our 10 most-viewed Commentaries. Below, they are ordered by the number of online page views they generated. Revisit these Commentaries and examine perspectives you may have missed in 2011.
1. An Open Letter From Arne Duncan to America’s Teachers
With the start of Teacher Appreciation Week, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan addresses the nation’s educators. (May 2, 2011)
2. Formative Assessment-—A Process, Not a Test
Formative assessment can work wonders when teachers realize it’s a process of using assessment results to adjust how they work with their students, W. James Popham writes. (February 23, 2011)
3. My Nine ‘Truths’ of Data Analysis
Data analysis has an important instructional role in the classroom, explains Ronald S. Thomas. (June 15, 2011)
4. Standards: A Critical Need for K-16 Collaboration
The common-core standards cry out for K-12-higher education collaboration, Brad C. Phillips and Bruce Vandal write. (November 2, 2011)
5. This Teacher Is ‘Mad as Hell’
Angela Beeley responds to those who would strip teachers of their collective-bargaining rights and calls attacks on teachers and unions cynical and calculated. (April 27, 2011)
6. The Classroom Is Obsolete: It’s Time for Something New
School design needs to change from a classroom-based model to one centered on principles such as personalized education and inquiry-based, student-directed learning, Prakash Nair writes. (July 29, 2011)
7. Let’s Stop Teaching Writing
Prescriptive curricula make it harder for students to learn to write well, Paula Stacey writes. (September 21, 2011)
8. Beverly Hall: The Scandal Is Not the Whole Story
Former Atlanta schools Superintendent Beverly Hall writes that she regrets not having done more to prevent cheating on state tests, but that many of the gains in the Atlanta public schools were real. (August 10, 2011)
9. How Education Reform Traps Poor Children
Too often, reform saddles poor children with an education that focuses on rote learning instead of the richer academic opportunities that would help them thrive, Alfie Kohn writes. (April 26, 2011)
10. Against the Whole-Class Novel
The whole-class novel and the basal reader are alienating students from the written word and these practices must be stopped, writes Pam Allyn. (June 14, 2011)
