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 This blog is no longer being updated.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
Testing the Right Way
In medicine, the quip is that pathologists know the definitive answer about disease - only too late. In education, it can be said that teachers know the answer about effective instruction and learning the same way - belatedly. I thought of this analogy after reading what Arthur Levine, president emeritus of Teachers College at Columbia University, wrote in an op-ed ("Better schools through smarter testing," Los Angeles Times, Aug. 3).
Education
Opinion
Competition Won't Work in Schools
Reformers assert that competition is indispensable if public schools are to improve. They like to cite examples from the private sector, where companies that had once been written off did an about face when competition forced them to implement new performance criteria. But reformers suffer from selective amnesia, as a series of articles about Microsoft demonstrate. Since this column is devoted exclusively to education, however, I'll focus only on stack rankings of employees there ("Microsoft's Lost Decade," Vanity Fair, Aug.).
Education
Opinion
Why Teachers Unions Are Losing Support
Teachers unions have been called practically every bad name under the sun for so long that it seemed impossible to add to the list. At least that's what I thought until I reflected on events unfolding in California, particularly in the Los Angeles Unified School District. On that basis, I'd now like to add another name: oblivious. Let me explain.
Education
Opinion
High Tech Classrooms
The lackluster performance of students in this country on tests of international competition is used as evidence of the need for better instruction. I'm not going to explain once again the difference between an exam meritocracy and a talent meritocracy in addressing the issue. Instead, I'm going to examine what is already known about technology and its effects on learning.
Education
Opinion
What to Do About Bad Teachers
The drive to rid schools of persistently underperforming teachers will intensify with the start of the fall semester. I agree that teachers who are ineffective don't belong in the classroom. What I find disturbing, however, is that efforts for the most part are based on a punitive approach: Identify these teachers sooner and fire them if they don't quickly improve. But a new study shows that many of these seemingly hopeless teachers can get better when given proper support ("Teacher Evaluations Found to Improve Midcareer Effectiveness," Education Next, Aug. 9).
Education
Opinion
A Better Academic Calendar
In the belief that a longer school year will result in more learning, a few public schools are extending their calendar beyond the typical 180 days ("To Increase Learning Time, Some Schools Add Days to Academic Year," The New York Times, Aug. 6). I understand the rationale for the change, but I submit that it's more effective to rework the existing schedule. Specifically I recommend breaking up the time spent in school so that students get more frequent but shorter breaks than at present.
Education
Opinion
Teachers as Virtuosos
The debate over teacher compensation is so familiar by now that I won't bore readers with the details. Instead, I want to address a related but different concept. It has to do with the notion of teachers as virtuosos: how to identify them and how to pay them.
Education
Opinion
Learning How to Write
So much of the criticism leveled at public schools today is focused on the deficits that students display in science and math. But I think doing so detracts attention from their equally disturbing shortcomings in writing. Perhaps my experience teaching English for 28 years in the Los Angeles Unified School District at the same high school accounts for my concern.
Education
Opinion
Where's Common Sense in Disciplining Students?
With the start of the fall semester just a few weeks away, school officials will once again find themselves debating the issue of discipline. Over the past two decades, get-tough policies, often referred to as zero tolerance, have neither made schools safer nor have they helped children learn right from wrong.
Education
Opinion
Is California a Bellwether for Education Reform?
It's always risky to assume that evidence from one state applies to others. But when the state is California, it's hard to dismiss the findings out of hand. According to a poll conducted for the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and the Los Angeles Times, 64 percent of voters in the state said they are willing to pay higher taxes to increase funding for public schools ("Californians willing to pay higher taxes for better schools," Los Angeles Times, Nov. 20).
Education
Opinion
Students Pay a Price for 'Success'
When David McCullough Jr. recently told members of the graduating class of Wellesley High School in Massachusetts that they are not special or exceptional, his remarks went viral. But his view is not unique. It is shared by many others who complain that young people have an inflated sense of themselves ("Redefining Success and Celebrating the Ordinary," The New York Times, June 29).
Education
Opinion
Charter School Report Card
It's disturbing to read an essay that claims to offer a true account about charter schools at this crucial point in the reform movement but instead presents a distorted picture. I'm referring to a piece in The Wall Street Journal by Joel Klein ("New York's Charter Schools Get an A+," Jul. 27). As readers will recall, Klein was the former chancellor of New York City's public schools who is now the CEO of News Corporation's educational division. News Corporation owns The Wall Street Journal.
Education
Opinion
Giving Public Schools a Black Eye
At a time when public schools need all the support they can get from taxpayers, their cause was set back by the unfolding of events in a small Mojave community. On July 20, San Bernardino County Superior Court Judge Steve Malone ruled that parents in the Adelanto Elementary School District had the right to take control of the Desert Trails Elementary School under California's parent trigger law ("Judge Backs Push for Charter School," The Wall Street Journal, Jul. 24).
Education
Opinion
Education and the Economy
Corporate America complains that it has to hire workers from abroad because it can't find enough qualified employees domestically. According to the U.S. Commerce Department, multinational corporations increased hiring overseas during the 2000s by 2.4 million, while reducing their work forces in the U.S. by 2.9 million. They blame public schools for their action. But I don't buy their explanation.