Highlighted Posts for Monday, July 15th:

Testing did spur some progress in student performance. But it has become clear to us over time that testing was being overemphasized - and misused - in schools that were substituting test preparation for instruction.

Conceived inside the tone-deaf echo chamber of the beltway, politicians, pundits and insider groupies failed to comprehend that the great rejection of No Child Left Behind was due to the top-down, test-based, rigid punishments inflicted on the needy.

. . .  there is no comprehensive scientific "body of evidence that iPads will increase math and reading scores on state standardized tests" nor that "students using iPads (or laptops or desktop computers) will get decent paying jobs after graduation."  

The Decline of North Carolina  

North Carolina was once considered a beacon of farsightedness in the South, an exception in a region of poor education, intolerance and tightfistedness. In a few short months, Republicans have begun to dismantle a reputation that took years to build.

"The saddest part? The people hardest hit by the policies and decisions of the current crop of legislators will gladly vote for them again."  

While many of the nation's superintendents are optimistic about the potential of the common-core standards and new technology to improve what goes on in classrooms, a healthy percentage are also skeptical about such developments.  

A bewildering turn against public schools 

Now there are people in power who think public schools are a problem and public school teachers are part of it. Their solution is to take a hammer to the public school edifice by breaking it up into charter schools and giving parents vouchers to send their children to private schools.  

What lies behind Americans' doubts and cynicism about the three major branches of the federal government - with the exception of the military - is undoubtedly a mix of factors.

It's the money, stupid

Charter operators hire primarily young, inexperienced teachers; work them to death and then decline to renew their contracts when they should be giving them raises.

The Billionaires' War Against Public Education

Go Public celebrates the small and large miracles that happen in PUSD classrooms every day.  We see overcrowded classrooms, but we also see an elementary teacher who greets each student with a special word of support as he or she arrives in her classroom.  

Why schools aren't businesses 

We knew how to produce quality. Zero defects! TQM! Continuous improvement! In retrospect, the speech was perfectly balanced - equal parts ignorance and arrogance.

 The Problems That Federal Legislation Studiously Avoids 

The problem is that proposed legislation does nothing to address the inequities. To provide substance would "require politicians and inside the beltway actors to actually press for funding equal to the mandates. It would require significant investments in job, community and comprehensive educational support systems."  

(Posts prior to June 1st, click here.