Highlighted Posts for the week of June 17th

(There are more recent posts on the HML Blog, click here.

Why we can't threaten our way to better schools 

Arbitrary, and often rigid, consequences designed as part of a deterrent system tend to fail-and they certainly fail to support the students who too frequently fall into their grasp.

Teachers' teachers face test as scrutiny of education rises 

Scores of teacher-training programs across the country will likely face similar scrutiny in the coming years. Following the lead of Tennessee and Louisiana, policymakers in a growing number of states are evaluating the programs - and even issuing report cards for them - based on the test scores of their graduates' students.

Anti-Ed Reform History - from my perspective 

The success and ease with privatizing New Orleans showed just how easy such a tactic could become and Louisiana's poorest schools.  Special education students were being underserved, excluded or counseled out. The data quality and oversight of charter schools was non-existent.

 Don't Buy the Numbers: How do you define a failing school?

I've always said, our teachers in this building do such a great job of taking their clay and molding it and getting success. It's different when kids are coming with everything. 

An Education Declaration to Rebuild America 

Americans have long looked to our public schools to provide opportunities for individual advancement, promote social mobility, and share democratic values.

 Beware the Social Engineer and His Abstractions 

The retreat into generalization by education professionals in reading and English language arts is one example of a more general phenomenon-the desire by social scientists and politicians and a few wealthy plutocrats to do social engineering based upon abstract principles-you get what you measure, for example.

Words of Wisdom by David Berliner 

Dr. David Berliner, author of The Manufactured Crisis: Myths, Fraud, and the Attach on America's Public Schools, presents his "Words of Wisdom."   David has some very pointed comments about educational research, public education, and public policy relating to testing and accountability. 

Local School Boards Are Under Siege, and So Is Democracy

Too many boards are under siege trying to balance state and federal budget cuts, increasing child and family poverty, parents and unions with unrealistic expectations, and a "school-industrial complex" that has become the province of administrators and consultants who dominate discussions with technical gobbledegook.

What's the Best Way to Measure School Climate? 

While it's now well-established that a good school climate is important to students' success in school, measuring the climate is still a work in progress.

Why Common Core standards will fail

The idea that common standards might create efficiencies and motivations that raise achievement is disproved by what has happened in the many states that created their own standards. Those states still have some schools scoring very well and others scoring miserably. 

Who's Minding the Schools? 

For Diane Ravitch, a historian of education and former assistant education secretary, the program is predicated on "the idea that you can't trust teachers." If we want our children taught from standardized scripts, she told us, let's say so and accept the consequences.