Leadership Blog

Walt Gardner's Reality Check

Walt Gardner taught for 28 years in the Los Angeles Unified School District and was a lecturer in the UCLA Graduate School of Education. This blog is no longer being updated.

Education Opinion The Efficiency Index
If efficiency is the best way to evaluate schools, why not just put all teachers on straight commission?
Walt Gardner, September 12, 2014
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1 min read
Education Opinion What Makes a Teacher Great?
So much of the connection between teachers and students is the result of chemistry, which no school of education can teach.
Walt Gardner, September 10, 2014
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1 min read
Education Opinion Sex Imbalance in Teaching
Recruiting more men into the classroom will not change the attitude of most people who still regard teaching as a sinecure.
Walt Gardner, September 8, 2014
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Education Opinion Career Advancement in the Classroom
The fact that the Baltimore Teachers Union approved the new pay system is further evidence that teachers' unions are not obstructionists.
Walt Gardner, September 5, 2014
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Education Opinion More Class Time Is Questionable
Positive results in the short run do not necessarily prevail in the long run.
Walt Gardner, September 3, 2014
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Education Opinion What About Student Accountability?
Students have been led to believe that they have no responsibility whatsoever for learning.
Walt Gardner, September 1, 2014
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Education Opinion Why Should Children Go to School?
Without adult supervision, children who are left alone to play could just as well behave like the children in Lord of the Flies.
Walt Gardner, August 29, 2014
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Education Opinion The Easy Way to Teacher Certification
Certifying teachers based on short-cut routes makes a mockery of everything teaching stands for.
Walt Gardner, August 27, 2014
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Education Opinion Tell Teacher Candidates the Truth
Teacher leavers say they haven't left the teaching profession but that the teaching profession has left them.
Walt Gardner, August 25, 2014
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Education Opinion Self-Selection Bias at Charter Schools
Not all children have parents who are involved enough - if at all - in their education to take advantage of the choices open to them.
Walt Gardner, August 22, 2014
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Education Opinion The Other Side of Teacher Tenure
Abolishing tenure would leave even exemplary teachers vulnerable to abusive principals.
Walt Gardner, August 20, 2014
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Education Opinion Best Teaching Is Based on Relationships
Long after subject matter is forgotten, attitudes remain.
Walt Gardner, August 18, 2014
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Education Opinion Professionalizing Teaching
Teachers in the U.S. spend at least twice as many hours in the classroom as teachers in countries whose students outperform ours on tests of international competition.
Walt Gardner, August 15, 2014
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Education Opinion Atlanta Cheating Scandal Lessons
Standardized tests should be used strictly for diagnostic purposes, as in Finland.
Walt Gardner, August 13, 2014
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