Living in Dialogue
Anthony Cody spent 24 years working in Oakland schools, 18 of them as a science teacher at a high-needs middle school. A National Board-certified teacher, he now leads workshops with teachers on Project Based Learning. He is the co-founder of the Network for Public Education. With education at a crossroads, in this blog he invited you to join him in a dialogue on education reform and teaching for change and deep learning. This blog is no longer being updated, but you can continue to explore these issues on edweek.org by visiting our related topic pages: education reform.
Standards
Opinion
Colorado Coalition Says PARCC Testing Is Not Teaching
PARCC is a new, unproven, unfunded, state and federally mandated test to be taken on computers, MULTIPLE TIMES per year. Since the inception of NCLB, we have been adding to the pile of standardized tests that our students must hurdle.
School & District Management
Opinion
John Thompson: Gallup Poll Finds Majority of Teachers "Not Engaged"
The study found that 56% of teachers polled are "not engaged." They may be satisfied with their jobs, but they are not emotionally connected to their schools. Another 13% are "actively disengaged.
Curriculum
Opinion
Paul Horton: The War on Books II: Certified School Librarians Are the New Disappeared
Nothing could be clearer, given the mountains of evidence cited here and that can be accessed very easily, that a strong school library program staffed with certified librarians has a very positive effective on learning within underserved communities.
School & District Management
Opinion
Teachers: A Call to Battle for Reluctant Warriors
Teachers are beginning to react. We have known all along that test-based accountability would yield data by the truckload, but data is blind without wisdom.
Equity & Diversity
Opinion
John Thompson Reviews John Kuhn's 'Fear and Learning'
It was a Texan, Diane Ravitch, who rallied teachers when it seemed like public schooling was condemned to its Alamo. Now, it may be a Texan, John Kuhn, who points the way out of the educational civil war launched by data-driven reform.
Reading & Literacy
Opinion
The Classroom of the Future: Student-Centered or Device-Centered?
A basic question is emerging as our schools are urged to embrace the Common Core and the computer-based learning systems aligned to the standards. Are these digital devices becoming central to the classroom -- and coming to dominate the way we teach and learn?
School & District Management
Opinion
Sam Chaltain: Q & A on School, Community and Choice
I wanted to tell a deeply personal story about teachers, students, and our ongoing efforts to craft more equitable communities in order to clarify the state of public schooling as it is -- and begin hinting at what it ought to be.
English-Language Learners
Opinion
TestingTalk.org Launches National Discussion About Common Core Tests
TestingTalk.org was opened for public comments on March 30, and is actively soliciting input from parents, teachers and students regarding their experiences with the new tests.
Federal
Opinion
John Thompson: Legal Woes Growing for VAM-Based Teacher Evaluations
Since teachers must basically prove that value-added terminations are based on an irrational use of the model, it is no surprise that the first suits include cases where teachers are held accountable for the test score growth of students who they did not have in class.
School Choice & Charters
Opinion
Why Do Corporate Reformers Hate Democracy?
Reed Hastings was right about one thing. If you go to the American public and actually tell them you want to eliminate elected school boards, or completely disempower them, no one's going to go for that. So instead, these billionaires conspire.
Standards
Opinion
The Common Core: Are They Even Really Standards?
Diane Ravitch this morning has revealed the basic accepted process for the setting of national standards, and the process leading to the Common Core violated just about every step.
School & District Management
Opinion
Michelle Gunderson: Chicago School Officials Question Children Who Opt Out: Intimidation?
Chicago Public School officials sank to a new and unprecedented low this week. Children whose parents opted them out of testing were pulled from classrooms and questioned by officials from the district law office without parents' knowledge or consent.
School Climate & Safety
Opinion
Lauren Anderson: Grit, Galton, and Eugenics
What are we to make of a 2013 "genius" award winner quoting unproblematically the 'founding father' of eugenics in the opening paragraph of her research statement, even as her research engages young people of color?
Families & the Community
Opinion
Paul Horton: Free Market Education Reform -- Evidence vs. Ideology
They conclude that empirical evidence does not support the marketist legitimation of privatization. The public sector has not failed, they contend, it has thrived and deserves much more support;