You can never complain about the US tenure process again . . ....
Teach for America vs. National Board Certification
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If pressed to name my ultimate professional passion and goal—the thing I was put on earth to do—it might be something like “elevate the ideas and voices of excellent teachers.” Like many people in America, I think we can do a vastly better job of educating all our kids, across the socio-economic spectrum. We’re not going to get far with that goal until we upgrade our teaching force, however—skilled and dedicated boots on the ground.I have written about the experience of snooping through some internal TFA listserv messages about Linda Darling-Hammond and her prospective role in the Obama administration,...
Education: LISTEN TO THIS MAN!
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How do you personally feel about the future of American education?I’m panicked, I’m worried. I think if we continue along the path that we’re going, our greatest days are behind us. But, I still believe we can turn it around. That’s why I’m still in the classroom, and I’m gonna do my best. But as long as we embrace “testing is everything,” and as long as we keep shrinking art programs and physical education programs, we’re not in a good place. Those are the things that inspire kids to do great things, so I hope we keep enlarging them, not shrinking them.The words are those of Rafe Esquith, at...
Childhood Food Insecurity / 10% of US Population Now on Food Stamps
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Food StampsA record 32.2 million Americans are receiving food stamp assistance. As the economy grows bleak, 10 percent of the U.S. population fall below the threshold.Food Insecurity The states with the highest rates of food insecure children under 5 years of age. Food Insecure: unable to consistently access adequate amounts of nutritious food that is necessary for a healthy life. (As of 2007, PRIOR to the current downturn.) Louisiana 24.2%North Carolina 24.1%Ohio 23.8%Kentucky 23.3%Texas...
More from the Textbook Wars
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[Houston Chronicle] Texas high school students would learn about such significant individuals and milestones of conservative politics as Newt Gingrich and the rise of the Moral Majority — but nothing about liberals — under the first draft of new standards for public school history textbooks. . . [read ...
Race and Diversity in the Age of Obama
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Wide ranging summary of current research on race, "assimilation," immigration, and inequality in America, by Orlando Patterson.h/t Neuroanthropol...
NYT: Do Teachers Need Education Degrees?
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Our new dean mentioned this posting to our college this week.http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/16/education-degrees-and-teachers-p...
How can we use bad measures in decisionmaking?
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Reposted from my personal blog:I had about 20 minutes of between-events time Thursday morning and used it to catch up on two interesting papers on value-added assessment and teacher evaluation--the Jesse Rothstein piece using North Carolina data and the Koedel-Betts replication-and-more with San Diego data. Speaking very roughly, Rothstein used a clever falsification test: if the assignment of students to fifth grade is random, then you shouldn't be able to use fifth-grade teachers to predict test-score gains in fourth grade. At least with the set of data he used in North Carolina, you could predict...
Testing and the False Promise of Educational Improvement
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As New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg moves toward near certain reelection, an interesting article appeared in the New York Times last week, looking at his stewardship of the public school system: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/04/nyregion/04scores.html?_r=1&ref=education. The numbers look impressive. This year, 82 percent of city students passed statewide tests in math and 69 percent in English, up from 42 and 38 percent, respectively, in 2002. Staten Island and Queens have seen dramatic rises in comparison to other New York counties, and even the lowly Bronx is improving. And the racial gap...
Reforming Juvenile Justice
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An editorial in today's New York Times discusses a successful effort to reduce the number of children sent to detention facilities:Closely supervising young offenders, instead of incarcerating them, did not increase the youth crime rate or the risk to public safety. Similar programs have since been adopted in 110 jurisdictions in 27 states and the District of Columbia. According to a new study from the foundation, the results have been astonishing: Many jurisdictions have managed to cut the number of children in detention by half or more; in many, the youth crime rate has declined. . . .Communities...
Your Brain on Chaos
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No, I don't understand this either. But it seems important and cool:HAVE you ever experienced that eerie feeling of a thought popping into your head as if from nowhere, with no clue as to why you had that particular idea at that particular time? You may think that such fleeting thoughts, however random they seem, must be the product of predictable and rational processes. After all, the brain cannot be random, can it? Surely it processes information using ordered, logical operations, like a powerful computer?Actually, no. In reality, your brain operates on the edge of chaos. Though much of the...
A teacher explains why she is leaving
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originally posted at Daily KosIt happens all the time. People come into teaching, full of enthusiasm, sometimes accompanied by real talent. But they do not stay. After all, we lose half of those entering into teaching before they start their sixth year, the bulk of those before they start their fourth. There are lots of reasons. Some, like those entering through programs like Teach for America, never intended to make a career of it. Others find they cannot handle the pressures, or live on the salaries. I could give you statistics, but that is often not effective. I remind you that Stalin...
I Learned it at the Movies
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I learned it at the movies When the psychologists tested all the students a week later, the verdict for classroom movies was one thumb up, one thumb down. Watching the films did clearly help the students learn more—but only when the information was the same in both text and film. Apparently the vividness of the film—and simply having a second version of the same facts—did help the students create stronger memories of the material. But when the information in the film and the reading were contradictory—that is, when the film was inaccurate—the students were more likely to recall the film’s distorted...
Stick-to-it-tiveness
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The truth about gritModern science builds the case for an old-fashioned virtue - and uncovers new secrets to success.In recent years, psychologists have come up with a term to describe this mental trait: grit. Although the idea itself isn’t new - “Genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration,” Thomas Edison famously remarked - the researchers are quick to point out that grit isn’t simply about the willingness to work hard. Instead, it’s about setting a specific long-term goal and doing whatever it takes until the goal has been reached. It’s always much easier to give up, but people...
From the AACTE Weekly Briefs
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Teacher Training Faces Overhaul From the Indianapolis StarProposed rules being unveiled today would give Indiana teachers a new mandate: what you teach matters more than how you teach. A broad series of changes proposed by Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett would require even elementary education majors to minor in core subjects such as math, English, science, art or social studies while limiting undergraduate coursework in education. The proposal also would relax the amount of training required of principals and superintenden...
Good news for EPB!
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We posted an article that we thought you and your readers might be interested in having a look at, "100 Best Blogs for Teachers of the Future" I am happy to let you know that your site has been included in this list. http://www.clearvieweducation.com/blog/2009/100-best-blogs-for-teachers-of-the-future/ Thanks for your time! Amber John...
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