Every generation thinks its teenagers are the worst.The old have been wringing their hands about the young's cultural wastelands and ignorance of history at least since admirers of Sophocles and Aeschylus bemoaned the popularity of Aristophanes ("The Frogs," for Zeussakes?!) as leading to the end of (Greek) civilization as they knew it. The Civil War generation was aghast at the lurid dime novels of the late 1800s. Victorian scholars considered Dickens, that plot-loving, sentimental ("A Christmas Carol") favorite, a lightweight compared with other authors of the time. Civilization, and culture...
A different way of assessing student learning
is rather than by tests by portfolios and performances. Yesterday I attended a conference in Providence, Rhode Island co-sponsored by the Rhode Island Department of Education which was mainly put on by the Coalition of Essential Schools, an organization which flows from the work of Theodore Sizer, who was one of the speakers.I plan to write in depth about what I saw when I have time to organize my thoughts - I did not get home until 1 AM this morning, and I still have my own school responsibilities. I saw some examples of student performances and portfolios, I have where possible tried to...
"muscular philanthropy"
Posted, too, at SM:Muscular philanthropy--that's what Fred Hess calls the kind of Walton-Broad-Gates phalanx that has as one of its goals the charterizing (rhymes with cauterizing) of American public schools, beginning first in the urban schools where voucher efforts have been unsuccessful so far. Bill and Melinda, the darlings of the neoliberal set, are a bit queasy regarding vouchers, having the ongoing history that they do with the education establishment. See, too, "How Many Billionaires Does It Take to Fix a School System," NY Times Magazine, 3/9/08.Now...
Ed Links (Belated)
These have been piling up. This is part IWorking Memory Has Limited 'Slots' A new study shows how our very short-term "working memory," which allows the brain to stitch together sensory information, operates. The system retains a limited number of high-resolution images for a few seconds, rather than a wider range of fuzzier impressions. Humans rarely move their eyes smoothly. As our eyes flit from object to object, the visual system briefly shuts off to cut down visual "noise," said one of the psychologists. So the brain gets a...
Of the Education Trust and others
After Friday's entry by Jim Horn on Ed Trust's Amy Wilkins, and yesterday's entry by Philip Kovacs, I think I want to put in my two cents' worth on the discussion of philanthropy and education policy. I disagree with Education Trust on a number of policy issues, but I also disagree with Jim and Philip in their interpretation of Ed Trust and inside-the-Beltway institutional allies as illegitimate actors. I think that does not float as a concept, if for no other reason than my democratic assumption that everyone is a legitimate political actor. (Among other reasons to take this stance, there is...
THE TRUST
As Amy Wilkins works for the Education Trust (THE TRUST), I thought a few words on the organization might be apropos. No sniping here...okay...not too much sniping here...if my blogmanship is poor, note so in the comments and I'll work on it!For starters, THE TRUST is made possible by the generous support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation: $5,076,846 according to Gates Foundation Records.“Established in 1990 by the American Association for Higher Education as a special project to encourage colleges and universities to support K-12 reform efforts,” the Education Trust has matured into “the...
Watch Amy Wilkins Change the Subject
Post, too, at SM.Dan Brown asks a great question that does not get answered, even as Amy launches into an attack on the questioner. Wonder how come.From Huffington Po...
Older People Really are Wiser
Fascinating article about aging and memory at NYtimes.com:“These findings are all very consistent with the context we’re building for what wisdom is,” she said. “If older people are taking in more information from a situation, and they’re then able to combine it with their comparatively greater store of general knowledge, they’re going to have a nice advantag...
MERITORIOUS CONDUCT
Interesting juxtaposition of Ed Week articles this week—a commentary from James Starkey, 40-year classroom veteran from Colorado, Please Don’t Do Me Any Favors, and an article in the news section, Principals’ Group Seeks Influence on Incentive Pay. Subtext question in both pieces: What motivates people to improve their performance? Starkey’s observations about hard-working and undervalued teachers rang true for me. Like Starkey and his wife, I have been prejudged and patronized dozens of times by those who pigeonhole teachers as noble, but benevolent and underpaid missionaries to the unschooled...
Corporate Vouchers Victorious in Florida
When state legislators in Florida offer children and parents either a rundown, under-funded, segregated testing factory or a tax-supported corporate voucher to a Christian school, the school choice has already been made--and it hasn't been made by the parent or the child.Nevertheless, a growing number of legislators in Florida have seen the light at the bottom of their vortex. They have convinced themselves that they are not voting for vouchers--they are voting for scholarships. They are not giving up their civic commitment to provide for citizens in order that corporations may be relieved of...
Education Policy Blog Nominated for Blog of the Year Award
The Education Policy Blog has been nominated for the ED in '08 Blog of the Year Award.Voting will run from now until May 14th and the winner will be announced at the 2008 Blogger Summit on May 15th in Washington, DC. (Our own Kenneth Bernstein will be a panelist at the summit.)Readers can vote at http://edin08.com/bloggersummit/bloggerpoll.aspx.Now, some of us have been thinking we shouldn't necessarily support the Ed in '08 agenda. Does that mean we should eschew the voting, and perhaps not even mention our nomination? Is this very message a sign that...
The Conservative Flight From Vouchers
A fascinating article on why conservatives have abandoned vouchers:In recent months, almost unnoticed by the mainstream media, the school voucher movement has abruptly stalled. Some stalwart advocates of vouchers have either repudiated the idea entirely or considerably tempered their enthusiasm for it. Exhibit A is "School Choice Isn't Enough," an article in the winter 2008 City Journal (the quarterly published by the conservative Manhattan Institute) written by the former voucher proponent Sol Stern. Acknowledging that voucher programs for poor children had "hit a wall," Stern concluded: "Education...
"Reading First" a failure
I think everyone here knows that the “Reading First” program is just another Bush patronage scam, using NCLB rules to funnel money to campaign supporters and loyalists. Now the Institute of Education Sciences – the unit that says all policy must be based on rigorous scientific evidence – concludes that Reading First is a lousy program. Okay, now there’s scientific evidence: so what’s the response?Background: http://www.elladvocates.org/nclb/reading.htmlThe Bush Administration has been using the Reading First program to reward political cronies and ideological allies, ignoring a legal mandate to...
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