Low-Income Students
Assessment
Opinion
American Exceptionalism
Marc Tucker responds to the argument of American exceptionalism.
School Choice & Charters
Opinion
Scrooge and School Reform
Ladd suggests that what is needed are positive policy interventions, such as early-childhood and pre-school programs; school-based health clinics and social services; after school programs and summer programs; and paying more attention to inputs such as school quality and school processes.
School Choice & Charters
Opinion
Are All Choices a Choice?
If charters had stuck to their original selling point—the need for innovation on a small, less-regulated scale before we mandated it on a large scale—there'd be a few grumbles and otherwise just curiosity.
Student Well-Being & Movement
Opinion
To Boost Learning, Start With Emotional Health
Some schools are entering into promising partnerships to address students' non-academic needs, Jane Isaacs Lowe writes.
Standards & Accountability
Opinion
Do You Believe in Miracles?
There are no silver bullets in education. There are no magic feathers that enable elephants like Dumbo to fly. It's hard work to improve schools. It takes dedication, resources, and time. And the work is never done, the magic number of 100 percent is always out of reach.
Equity & Diversity
Opinion
Newt's Half-Baked Idea
Have you ever tried to bake a cake but had it flop because you took it out of the oven too early? Underbaked cake is mushy and gooey, difficult to correct, and hard to swallow. That is my mental model of Presidential hopeful and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrinch's idea on teaching poor children a work ethic. But it's even worse than half-baked; it's outrageous, and offensive.
School Climate & Safety
Opinion
From High Poverty to High Performing
I always cringe when I hear so-called reformers say poverty is "no excuse" for lack of student achievement. It is not because I don't subscribe to that belief, but because I know politicians will use that message as an excuse for not "leveling the playing field" for poor children. To believe that you can treat and fund all schools in the same way meets what many call the definition of insanity--doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. From collective bargaining contracts to federal law, poverty has to be a factor in every decision that affects the education of poor children and those who educate them.
Federal
Opinion
Turmoil Seems to be Chief Product of Education "Reform"
When something keeps on appearing as a byproduct of an activity, eventually you might begin to wonder if perhaps the byproduct is actually the objective.
School & District Management
Opinion
Getting From Here to There
In a world in which the money some folks earn in a day is more than what others hope to earn in a year, a decade, a lifetime, it's hard to calculate likelihoods. Even the word "earn" is problematic.
Equity & Diversity
Opinion
Deportations Throw Children into Foster Care
There is an ugly reality that many of us are spared from, but which is omnipresent in the lives of many of our students.
Equity & Diversity
New Census Measure Shifts the Face of Poverty
A new supplemental poverty measure finds fewer children, more senior citizens, qualify as poor.
Equity & Diversity
Opinion
Occupy Oakland: Striking Questions
I spent yesterday back in Oakland, participating in the Occupy Oakland general strike. Several hundred Oakland teachers were there as well, part of a crowd that swelled to around ten thousand in the afternoon. Below are photos and a video that capture some of the spirit of the day. And some thoughts about how the Occupation Movement is shifting the debate, and creating space for some new questions to be asked about how our schools are working.
College & Workforce Readiness
Opinion
Solving the Nation's Dropout Crisis
It will take a multi-pronged approach to reduce dropout numbers, Russell W. Rumberger writes.