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Impatience with Bad Teaching
“I am sick to death of all the people who come here and say they’re going to make this school better but nothing happens. It’s a disgrace.” That’s what a young woman said to me the other day as I sat...
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Studying Success in Education: Jay Mathews’ Work Hard, Be Nice
Those of you who follow the work of The Washington Post’s Jay Mathews, often called the “dean of education reporters,” know that for the past few years he’s been obsessed with two subjects—high school...
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The Virtues of Shop Class (and Hands-on Learning and Education)
When my elder daughter was in high school she volunteered for Habitat for Humanity, and I’ll never forget the exhilaration on her face when she came home dog-tired from her days helping build houses....
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Baffled Educators: Free and Failing
I’ve had a chance to visit a couple of big suburban high schools lately. Both are in old buildings with some real charm—woodwork, tall ceilings, tall windows. Both are surrounded by neighborhoods with...
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Cheating Rampant in Atlanta Schools?
Georgia is being rocked by allegations of cheating on the state tests. Half the schools in Atlanta are under suspicion because the test papers in those schools had more erasures on them than was usual...
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School Reform: The Perils of Putting Pedagogy Over Content
You’d think Against the Odds: Insights from One District’s Small School Reform by Larry Cuban, Gary Lichtenstein, Arthur Evenchik, Martin Tombari, and Kristen Pozzoboni, would be just my kind of book....
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Diane Ravitch’s “Solution” for Our Schools: Her Analysis Means Paralysis
With The Death and Life of the Great American School System, Diane Ravitch has written an important book that deserves and is receiving attention and praise. Much of what she says resonates powerfully...
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Data and Passion: An Unlikely Pairing That Could Save Our Schools
In a series of articles for The New Yorker, Dr. Atul Gawande has given a glimpse of what the field of medicine could be if a passion to improve patient health were combined with the right kind of data....
View ArticleA National Control of Ideas? Really?
A note of menace is being struck by critics of the Common Core Standards. “National control of curriculum is a form of national control of ideas,” George Will ominously wrote recently, quoting Joseph...
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Upping the Ante on Principals
States are upping the ante on principals. Tennessee now requires that every teacher be observed two or three times a year. Indiana will soon require four observations a year. Lots of other states...
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