Bar exams for teachers?

By Chester E. Finn, Jr.

As President of the AFT, the late Albert Shanker was instrumental in creating the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) and much else in the education-reform world. Now Randi Weingarten is trying—earnestly and imaginatively—to return the organization and its (present) leader to the pantheon of real reformers.

Their new and much-ballyhooed proposal, contained in a report…

Getting real about the Common Core

By Checker E. Finn, Jr. / December 6, 2012

A foundation staffer I think well of posed these vexing questions the other day:

With the transition to the new Common Core assessments, states will have a number of decisions around how they use the new tests. Some of the most consequential are around possible use of the tests for high school exit or grade promotion. These are obviously sticky subjects. Should we be…

Is Favoritism Wrong?

In this thoughtful Chronicle of Higher Education article, philosophy professor Stephen Asma (Columbia College/Chicago) says the opposite of fairness is not selfishness. But that’s the way it seems when we hear children complain, “That’s not fair!” It’s easy for parents and teachers to see this as a thinly disguised attempt to get one’s way. “Kids learn early that an honest declaration of ‘I’m not…

Inspiring Others

We’re No. 1

By David Warlick on December 4th, 2012…

More on Problems with Value-Added Evaluation of Teachers

Why is there such a push to evaluate teachers using value-added analysis? asks Michael Marder (University of Texas/Austin) in this Kappa Delta Pi Record article. Because many governors, state education commissioners, and federal legislators have embraced these points:

• Teachers are the single most important in-school factor in student…

Common Core: Sound Education Practice or Bad Gamble?

Common Core vs. Common Sense

The headline in a recent edition of Education Week read, "Hopes Pinned on Standards to Boost College Readiness: SAT results show no improvement in any tested…

December 3, 2012

Visit my Literacy Connections blog for a writing opportunity for ELA teachers.  If you have at least five years experience teaching ELA, you can apply to write test materials.  Good luck!

Happy writing,

Christine

Dear Dr. John King,

As we close out the third month of this hectic and busy school year, I felt compelled to sit down and write you this letter on behalf of my son, my students, my colleagues, many parents and all of the dedicated and passionate educators throughout the great state of New York (and beyond). I know it has been almost a year and a half since you have taken over as Commissioner of Education in New York State and in that short time, you have brought about…

Twitter has been a topic for educational Bloggers for several years now. I believe that those educators using Twitter are drawn to those posts, while other educators, not using Twitter, are driven away. Maybe the problem is the emphasis, or focus of the blog posts. Maybe the focus should be on relevance and no mention of twitter. Are educators relevant in our technology-driven society?  The obvious answer is that some are, and some are not. A more important question is which of these two…