Dear Readers,
It has been a heck of a year to be writing about education in the USA. Below I offer a catalog of my posts, organized around the big subjects that were our focus this year. I have authored 100 posts myself, featured two interviews -- Diane Ravitch and Doug Christensen, and 28 guest posts, mostly by teachers from around the country. We have engaged in several extended dialogues, most notably with Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. This blog has also hosted debates with proponents of charter schools, value-added models and a Teaching Ambassador Fellow from the Department of Education. One, The Media’s War on Teachers, was nominated “Most Influential Blog Post” on the Edublogs Awards. Here, organized by topic, are this year’s posts.
Teachers’ Unions and Due Process
Can we get Great Teachers by Firing Bad Ones?
Are Teachers’ Unions Bad for Students?
Terra Bennet’s Story: Why Tenure Matters (Guest post)
Will the “right teachers” improve our schools?
Who’s afraid of the Big Bad Teachers?
Two Lies and a Half Truth: Teachers and our Jobs for Life
Teachers: Must we be Saints or Sinners?
Teachers’ Union Leading School Reform? Impossible!
Standardized Testing
Duncan: “Don’t Teach to the Test!”
Obama calls for Richer Assessments, Teacher Involvement
Why can’t we be Creative and Raise Test Scores Too?
Should We Try to Make Our Students Care About Test Scores?
The Tale of a Melting Ice Cube: Have we Lost the Story?
Will 49 Techniques Make You a Champ?
Children Perform Best when Teachers are Not Focused on Scores
The Lesson of the Lemmings: Schools as Ecosystems
One Parent Acts to Protect Her Son: No Tests for Connor (guest post: Sahila Changebringer)
Visions of Great Teaching and Learning
What Makes a Great Teacher?
Sharing our Visions: What does Great Education look like to You?
Herb Kohl: How About a Race to Equity? (guest post)
What do we Want Instead? Part 1 and Part 2
The Power of a Simple Idea: “Learn by Doing”
“If You Really Knew Me” Blows High School Open
Teachers and Education Reform: Can We Get Beyond “NO!” ? (guest post: David Orphal)
Teacher Collaboration Drops by Half?
A Declaration of Professional Conscience for Teachers: Now, more than Ever (guest post: Ken Goodman)
Building Teacher Accountability from the Ground Up
Why Don’t Teachers Learn from Business?
Teachers’ Voices and the Political Process of Education “Reform”
Mixed Messages from Duncan: What’s Our Message to Him?
Hearsay or Heresy -- You Decide
What Will it Take for Teachers to be Heard?
March 4 Protests against Starving Education
March 4: There’s Something Happening Here
March 4: Students and Teachers Hit the Streets!
Diane Ravitch: Organized, We Will Be Heard (interview)
Jesse is Walking to Washington, DC (guest post: Jesse Turner)
They Don’t Really Care About Us
Florida Teachers on Fire over SB 6
From Facebook to YouTube: A Teachers’ Movement is Born
Trust, the Missing Ingredient in School Reform
An Open Letter to Harvard School of Ed: Three Teachers Write
Dave Russell: Misguided: Education’s Biggest Myth (Guest post)
Secretary Duncan Wants to Talk. What Shall we Tell Him?
School Reform: It’s About the Students, Not the Teachers
Teacher Power: The New Force in American Politics
An Educator’s Despair: Why Aren’t we Talking About This? (guest post, Robin Barre)
Teachers Ask: Where did all the Money Go?
Burning Questions from Teachers: Meet Our Realities, Mr. Duncan
Burning Questions from Teachers Part 2: Meet Our Realities, Mr. Duncan
Today We 12 Speak with Secretary Duncan
Talking into a Tin Can on a string 3000 miles long: Our Talk with Duncan
Hello, This is Arne Duncan Calling...
The Summer of Teacher Discontent
Virtual Teach-in Kicks off the Summer of Teacher Discontent
A Teacher’s NEWPrint for School Change
Time to Use our Outside Voices!
Does Duncan Really Believe Teachers Support Race to the Top?
Education Policies One Reason for the “Enthusiasm Gap”
These Seven Principles: Our Plea to Congress
Overcoming Despair as we Fight for Our Schools
This is How a Tipping Point Feels
Checkbook Reform Creates Tough Choices for Teachers
Education Reform Has Jumped the Shark
Will the REAL Education Reformers Stand Up?
OprahPaganda?
Education Nation Frustration: Why WERE (some) Teachers and Parents Blocked?
How WOULD a Journalist Cover Education Nation?
Like a Tree Standing by the Water, We Shall Not Be Moved
A Manifesto of Errors: Rhee, Klein and the Gang Strike Out
Likely New Head of House Ed Committee No Friend to NCLB
Doug Christensen: Local Initiative, Self-determination and Leadership are the ONLY Thing (interview)
Guggenheim Gets an Earful
Teachers and Education Policy: Two Voices in Dialogue: Part 1
Teachers and Education Policy: Two Voices in Dialogue: Part 3
Teachers and Education Policy: Two Voices in Dialogue: Part 5
Jesse Turner: Welcome to the Great American Public School Awakening! (guest post)
Ken Mortland: Education Reform Facts You Rarely Hear (guest post)
Teacher Common Sense takes on Education “Reform” Nonsense
Waiting for Guggenheim: Will he Respond to Teachers?
Anthony Colucci: Rally to Restore Sanity in Education (guest post)
2010 in Education: The Year of the Billionaire
HUGE Cuts Loom for California Schools: How Much Can We Take?
School Reconstitutions, Turnarounds & Closures
A Letter from Los Angeles: How Not to Fix a School (guest post: Scott Banks)
Fremont High, Day 136: Life Lessons from a Reconstitution (guest post: Chuck Olynyk)
Reconstitution: There has Got to Be a Better Way
The Battle for Fremont High (guest post: Chuck Olynyk)
How does it feel to be “Reconstituted”? (guest post: Chuck Olynyk)
Strengthening Our Schools takes Persistence -- But Firing people is so Satisfying!
A Casualty in the War on Public Education (guest post: Chuck Olynyk)
Judy Chu: Here is How to Strengthen Struggling Schools (guest post)
The Devil in the Details: Hard Lessons from a School That Turned Around (guest post: Chuck Olynyk)
Congresswoman Chu’s Proposal for Struggling Schools: Let’s Transform, Not Tinker!
What is the Spin on School Turnarounds?
Turnaround Models: The Pathology of Failure (guest post: Sabrina Stevens Shupe)
The Impact of Poverty & Race
Stephen Krashen: Children need food, health care, and books. Not new standards and tests. (guest post)
Arizona Targets Immigrants and Ethnic Studies
Arizona Mural Teaches a Lesson about Racism
Achievement Gap Mystery Partly Solved - It’s Murder
/achievement_gap_mystery_partly.htmlThe Education Reformers: Willfully Blind
An Education Reformer Responds: “Schools Must Impact Poverty Because Nothing Else Can” (guest post)
I’ve Worked at Schools on Both Sides Now: Rich and Poor (guest post, Krista Calvin)
The REAL Thieves of Hope: America’s War on Teachers
Oprah: Do You Have the Courage to Listen to Teachers? (guest post: Valerie Pientka)
Krashen: Easy Money for Schools, No Strings Attached! (guest post)
Black Boys: When a Spotlight Is Not Enough
How Many of Our Students Live in Poverty?
Performance Pay, Teacher Evaluation and Value Added
Teacher Responsibility for Student Learning: What is Our Share?
Do 20% of Teachers Deny a Share of Responsibility?
Competition Can’t Beat Collaboration
Performance Pay: What Should It Look Like? (Part 3)
A Quality Teacher in Every Classroom: New Report Takes on Evaluation
Many Wrong Choices do Not Make Pay for Test Scores any More Right
The LA Times: Practicing Educational Research without a License
The Media’s War on Teachers(nominated Most Influential Blog Post on the Edublog Awards)
How Should We Motivate Teachers? The Debate over Incentives
Claudia Swisher: Value-Added Study is a Bait and Switch (guest post)
Charter Schools
Why I am NOT opposed to Charters but still don’t think they are the Answer
Why do So Many Oppose Charters when They Are Working? (guest post)
The Great Charter Debate, Part 3 (guest post)
The Great Charter Debate: Part Four
You Say Charter -- I Say Semi-Private School (guest post: Steve Neat)
Questioning College for All
Will Rain Follow the Plow in our Job Market?
Education Reformers Turn Economic Logic Upside Down
Is College-for-All Hitting a Wall?
Satire and Beyond
The Marvelous Tool of Accountability: Solving Society’s Troubles
Making Data “Fabulous” for our Second Graders
What do you think? What was your favorite post of the year?