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 This blog is no longer being updated.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 Fiction-Nonfiction Duel
The Common Core Standards have intensified the debate about the increased role of nonfiction in the K-12 curriculum. As a former English teacher, I'm frankly at a loss to understand the concern. Guidelines recommend that students get about the same exposure to fiction and nonfiction in the lower grades, and more exposure to nonfiction in high school. Let me explain why that makes sense.
Education
Opinion
The Same Old STEM Complaint
Repeating something often enough does not make it true. But don't try telling that to corporate executives. The latest example is an attempt by Brad Smith, the executive vice president and general counsel of Microsoft, to convince readers that there are some 3,400 open jobs at Microsoft for engineers, software developers and researchers that can't be filled because schools are not turning out enough workers with the necessary skills ("How to Reduce America's Talent Deficit," The Wall Street Journal, Oct. 19).
Education
Opinion
Religious Freedom in Texas Schools
The only conclusion I can draw from the recent decision by a state district court in Texas is that the U.S. Constitution doesn't apply there. I'm referring to a temporary injunction against the Kountze school district prohibiting it from enforcing a ban on Bible-themed banners at school events ("Texas Judge, Siding With Cheerleaders, Allows Bible Verses on Banners at School Games," The New York Times, Oct. 19).
Education
Opinion
Desperation Deepens for School Districts
In the face of financial woes not seen since the Great Depression, school districts are resorting to unprecedented practices to stay solvent. I've written before about how some districts allow corporations to place their advertisements on campuses for a fee. The latest move, however, makes such tactics seem insignificant. It involves putting school buildings on the market to raise cash ("School District Bets Future on Real Estate," The New York Times, Sept. 5).
Education
Opinion
Take Student Complaints With Caution
How much weight should be given to student complaints about their teachers? I ask that question because the evaluation of teachers in the years ahead is expected to include input from students in addition to input from principals, peers and parents ("Seeking Aid, School Districts Change Teacher Evaluations," The New York Times, Oct. 16). I welcome the change. But I have reservations about placing inordinate reliance on student comments.
Education
Opinion
Teachers Find Ally in Evaluating Performance
When teachers first argued against the use of standardized tests to judge their effectiveness, they were accused of trying to avoid accountability. But their cause has now been picked up by parents, who certainly can't be said to be opposed to accountability when their own children are involved.
Education
Opinion
The Truth About the Teacher Shortage
Is there really a teacher shortage in this country? The usual data cited are from the U.S. Department of Education's Digest of Education Statistics. It shows that in 1970 there were 2.06 million public school teachers, or one for every 22.3 students. Today, there are 3.27 million public school teachers, or one for every 15.2 students. At first glance, these numbers seem to indicate that there is no teacher shortage and that class sizes are not too big ("The Imaginary Teacher Shortage," The Wall Street Journal, Oct. 9). But these conclusions are misleading.
Education
Opinion
Should a Teacher's Past Be the Basis for Firing?
The SEC requires investors to be warned in a prospectus that past performance is no guarantee of future results. I think state licensing departments should warn teacher candidates that their past behavior is guaranteed to come back to haunt them.
Education
Opinion
Failure Does Not Mean Devastation
I have great respect for Alfie Kohn, but I disagree with what he recently wrote as a guest blogger ("Do kids really learn from failure? Why conventional wisdom may be wrong," The Answer Sheet, Oct. 4). If I read him correctly, he believes that nothing good comes from failing. "But are we entitled to conclude ... that failure is beneficial, or that parents and teachers should deliberately stand back rather than help out?" The answer to the first question is yes, while the answer to the second question is no.
Education
Opinion
Student Free-Speech Still Unsettled Issue
I thought that the U.S. Supreme Court had made it clear in Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District in 1969 that students did not "shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate." Yet on Oct. 2, a 15-year-old high school student in the New York City school system was sent home when she refused to change her T-shirt that said "I Enjoy Vagina" ("School sends home bisexual Queens student who wears 'I enjoy vagina' T-shirt," New York Daily News, Oct. 3).
Education
Opinion
How School Choice Affects School Finance
The growing popularity of parental choice is having unintended consequences for school finances. The situation in Inglewood, California is a case in point. The school district there has experienced a 20 percent overall decline in enrollment since 2006, creating a fiscal emergency ("Jerry Brown's School Bailout," The Wall Street Journal, Oct. 2). But school districts by law cannot declare bankruptcy. Instead, they are taken over by a state-appointed receiver who operates the schools while attempting to balance the books. (I wrote about the subject in "When States Seize Schools: A Cautionary Tale," Education Week, Jun. 12, 2007.)
Education
Opinion
Fiction No Match for Reality in 'Won't Back Down'
"Won't Back Down," the new movie financed by billionaire Philip Anschutz, is cited by reformers as an example of the power of teachers unions to obstruct efforts to improve failing schools. When reminded that the film is fiction even though it claims to be "inspired by true events," they are quick to point to Desert Trails Elementary School in Adelanto, California to make their case. It was there that parents petitioned the school board to convert the school into a charter under the state's parent trigger law.
Education
Opinion
Mission Statements and School Realities
The field of education is known for its lofty mission statements that have great intuitive appeal. The problem too often, however, has been in their execution. Christopher Whittle serves as an instructive case study. As readers will remember, Whittle first came into prominence with Edison Schools in 1992. He is once again in the news because of the opening of Avenues: The World School ("Chris Whittle Seeks Global Reach in Private School Venture," Education Week, Sept. 25).
Education
Opinion
Different Views of School Reform
Educational reform varies greatly across the country. What is seen as transformational in one place is regarded as insignificant in another. The settlement of the teachers strike in Chicago this month, for example, contrasts dramatically with the referendum on the ballot in Idaho in November. Yet both come under the same umbrella.