July 31, 2008

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Adam Smith, Plutocrats and Teacher Unions: Keeping Silent Because You Are Not a Trade Unionist Can be Fatal

Filed under: Education by Peter Goodman @ 5:09 pm

[Editor’s note: Peter Goodman blogs at Ed in the Apple, where this post originally appeared.]

When the Nazis arrested the Communists,
I said nothing; after all, I was not a Communist.
When they locked up the Social Democrats,
I said nothing; after all, I was not a Social Democrat.
When they arrested the trade unionists,
I said nothing; after all, I was not a trade unionist.
When they arrested me, there was no longer anyone who could protest.
-Martin Niemoller

Why aren’t schools doing better? What are the obstacles to school improvement? Is it the lack of funding to schools with the most disadvantaged kids? Is it the burden of poverty? The lack of adequate housing? Healthcare? Single parent households? Crime-ridden neighborhoods? New and/or poorly trained teachers? Or, is it the “rigid work rules imposed by teacher unions”? (more…)

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David Brooks says Education is “The Biggest Issue”

Filed under: Education by W.J. Levay @ 10:28 am

Conservative columnist David Brooks of the New York Times wrote Tuesday that “the biggest issue facing the country” is the national “skills slowdown” that has resulted from stagnant or modest educational gains since 1970.

Citing Claudia Goldin and Lawrence Katz’s book The Race Between Education and Technology, Brooks writes that while the U.S. experienced unparalleled educational growth for nearly a century, that growth slowed dramatically after 1970. This allowed nations around the world to catch up and, says Brooks, cost America its lead in the global economy.

Brooks suggests that the U.S. place a new emphasis on boosting educational attainment and fostering “human capital.” To that end, the conservative Brooks highlights Sen. Barack Obama’s ideas on early childhood education, while admitting that “Republicans are inept when talking about human capital policies.” (more…)

July 26, 2008

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Klein Inc., Spreading the Brand Across the Nation

Filed under: Education by Peter Goodman @ 8:03 am

[Editor’s note: Peter Goodman blogs at Ed in the Apple, where this post originally appeared.]

You can’t go home, again
~ Thomas Wolfe

With outposts in New York, Washington DC and Baltimore and the Education Equality Project Joel Klein is poised to move his brand across the nation.

Based upon the writings of Sir Michael Barber and Bill Ouchi he rejects the traditional view of school improvement. He sees schools of education, curricula, the range of math and reading programs as distractions. (more…)

July 22, 2008

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‘Kette On The DoE And Achievement Gaps

Filed under: Charter School Education by Leo Casey @ 12:43 pm

Eduwonkette is keeping the folks at the NYC DoE’s Ministry of Truth working into the wee hours of the morning, with this week’s deconstruction of the Bloomberg-Klein administration claims that they have diminished the achievement gap.

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The Race To The Intellectual Bottom

Filed under: Education by Leo Casey @ 12:28 pm

John Derbyshire of the National Review Online sets out to resurrect the arguments of Charles Murray’s and Richard Herrnstein’s odious Bell Curve that linked race and intelligence.

And the Fordham Foundation’s Flypaper is filled with praise for the effort.

That such arguments pass as iconoclastic, interesting thought on the right says volumes about the state of intellectual discourse in those quarters.

July 21, 2008

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Jonathan Alter and Teacher Evaluation

Filed under: Education by Jackie Bennett @ 3:10 pm

In a recent Newsweek article, Jonathan Alter makes it all sound so simple. Teachers should be well paid. Then, if they don’t do their job, fire them.

Well, no one would disagree with that, and certainly not what he calls the “Paleolithic teachers’ union.” Like everyone else, teachers want to work with colleagues who are competent, professional, committed, excellent – which, is what they mostly do. But teachers are also professionals who spent a lot of years in school becoming teachers, and termination isn’t just the end of a job; it often means the end of a career. So, while it’s all very well to believe that incompetent teachers should be terminated, the trick is to create an evaluation system that’s fair.

Should teachers be evaluated only by their supervisors? By their colleagues (other professions police their own)? Or by something else? (more…)

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Global Solidarity

Filed under: Education by Leo Casey @ 12:00 am

An interesting video from British trade unions on informal economy workers in the Global South, and the need for international solidarity with them.

July 18, 2008

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Are community schools too good for children?

Filed under: Education by Maisie @ 4:52 pm

Would community schools obliterate standards in U.S. education?

Well, no, but to hear Checker Finn, president of the Fordham Institute tell it, Randi Weingarten’s presidential address at the AFT convention amounts to just that. In an entry to this week’s Education Gadfly he writes that she “promises to obliterate NCLB and the culture of testing (all the while professing allegiance to “standards” that have no meaning or traction if performance in relation to them isn’t measured). Instead, she seeks a massive new program of federal aid to “community schools…”

Finn works himself into a frenzy pitting the standards and accountability that NCLB engendered (sort of) against what he calls the ” ‘broader, bolder’ crowd”– evidently the latest incarnation of communism–with its calls for (and here he quotes Weingarten) “high-quality early childhood and pre-school programs, after-school and summer programs, and programs that develop parents’ capacity to support their children’s education…[as well as] working relationships between schools and surrounding community institutions…[and] development of the whole person, including physical health, character, social development, and non-academic skills.” (more…)

July 17, 2008

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The Endless Potential of the Labor Movement and a Strong President

Filed under: Education by Leo Casey @ 3:05 pm

UFT President and newly elected AFT Randi Weingarten blogs at the Huffington Post:

Whether the issue that confronts us is education reform, healthcare reform or governmental reform, these efforts will be doomed to failure unless they are built on a foundation of respect for the professionals who do the work. When you give professionals the respect, the recognition and the rewards they rightfully deserve, there is no limit to what they can accomplish. And there is no limit to what America can accomplish with strong, growing unions standing behind Barack Obama as our next president.

July 16, 2008

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McCain Lays Down The Educational Gauntlet

Filed under: Education Politics by Leo Casey @ 11:57 pm

In his speech last week to the national convention of the American Federation of Teachers, Barack Obama was clear and unequivocal in his opposition to using public money for vouchers for private schools. At that time, Obama made it clear that he supported public school choice — the ability of students and their families to chose which public school they would attend. In taking this stance, Obama reiterated what is a longstanding position of his — he had made the same point to the National Education Association convention earlier in July, and had explicitly disowned attempts by pro-voucher partisans to spin comments he made in a primary campaign interview into support for private school vouchers. (more…)

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