Evidence-based programs, not teachers, should be held accountable 

for test scores

 …

What is “good” teaching? What is “great” teaching?

We read and hear about “good” and “great” teachers. However, what are the defining characteristics of this caliber of teaching? Is it engagement of students, content knowledge, the ability to connect relevancy to students, the constant exploration of new and exciting teaching strategies that expand learning opportunities for students while promoting professional growth? Is it collegiality, whereby the human capital that…

Grades are part of schooling and of how teachers communicate progress and development to parents.  How can this idea ever take hold especially in a public school?  Or, for that matter, how can the use of standardized tests used as high stakes measures ever be diminished?  We wonder. As the power of social media grows and the engagement of those who are advocating to abolish grades catches fire, is living in the "can't happen world" becoming a dangerous place?…

Another country

Since its birth, the U.S. has defined itself as egalitarian, fundamentally distinct from the class-ridden societies of Europe, writes Matt Phillips in Quartz. This has sometimes been true: On the eve of the American Revolution, income distribution for American colonists was much better than in England, slavery aside (if you can put it aside). Yet the U.S. has become increasingly unequal since the Civil War. For an interval in the 20th century, parity…

A triumph in redesign

In a profile of Guilmette Elementary School in Lawrence, Massachusetts, Jennifer Davis writes in The Hechinger Report that Principal Lori Butterfield didn't want to boost literacy and math scores at the cost of everything else. Lawrence Receiver Jeff Riley gave district principals "charter-like" autonomies, including control over budgets, curricula, schedule, professional development, and how much time (200 or 300 hours) to add to a full school…

Mission impossible

What burned teacher Ellie Herman out after five years, she relates on the Answer Sheet blog in The Washington Post, was a photocopier dubbed "La Bestia" in her low-income high school in Los Angeles. Herman, decades-long TV writer/producer for shows like "Desperate Housewives," "Chicago Hope," and "Newhart," switched in 2007 to teaching Drama, Creative Writing, English 11, and 9th-grade Composition at a South Los Angeles charter that was 97 percent…

Schools need to be re-designed now but across the nation bond issues to refurbish existing facilities continue. Change is demanded by the times we live in, by those who are at the edge of the new economy and, most importantly, by the children who are arriving at school. Once the world starts spinning, it is natural to hold to what has worked in the past. Public schools have served well for a century or two. They are also one of the few remaining relics of communities that used to be…

The wide availability of information online and the presence of services like makemyessay.com that allow students to fraudulently appropriate essays and term papers they didn't write are just two of the elements that have led to a dramatic rise in the frequency of college plagiarism. While technology and professors have become more adept at sniffing out this type of dubious content, plagiarism is still a legitimate concern on campuses across the country.…

It used to be that, to a large extent, your major didn't matter. A degree was a degree. While this is obviously not true universally, it has been a prevalent stance in years not too far removed. However the line of thinking of "if you go to college, you will get a good job" is no longer true. As competitiveness in the job market has increased, it has become increasingly important to plan ahead and gear your education towards your desired career. Job-specific training and a tailored education…

In the last couple of decades, online education has become gradually more popular. One of the first entrants into the online education market was the MBA program. Offered by a variety of institutions, the MBA was one of the first educational offering available online and remains one of the most popular today. In the past, some universities shied away from online education, and employers devalued online graduates. However, as these types of graduates have become more mainstream and…

As time goes on, the ideology behind intelligence and education is evolving. This line of thinking took a tremendous step forward with the multiple intelligence study by Howard Gardner. Increasingly in the classroom, the workplace, and in board rooms across the world, new types of intelligence are becoming more and more prominent. This infographic from the…

Confounding findings from the recent Brookings Institute reported that superintendents could not be directly connected to student achievement. The report found that,  "In the end, it is the system that promotes or hinders student achievement. Superintendents are largely indistinguishable."…

Mobile technology being an indispensable tool in education is the current trend we follow nowadays. Since people spend most of their time hunched over screens either playing online games or updating their Facebook status, many schools are using mobile devices in particular in encouraging young minds to continue learning while on the go. Given that, many learning institutions are now equipping themselves with new and better…

Here are three things about Jeffrey Ludwig you should know: he was a teacher for 30 years, high school and college; he's an aggressive critic of the problems in our public schools and has written a book on the subject; and finally he's  OR-- openly religious.

 I interviewed him (via email) for an …

No one, no teacher, no school leader, no one escapes the complex responsibilities our jobs and our lives include.  Balancing our lives and our work requires thoughtful organization...think of it as our life's inbox.  Clutter in our minds is tantamount to clutter in our inbox and visa-versa.  The effect of making a To Do List in order to de-clutter our minds and help us accomplish what needs to be done, unpacking and organizing thoughts can be duplicated by taking control of our bulging…