The Spark of Lifelong Learning

“Scientists have recently made a remarkable discovery,” says author/journalist Annie Murphy Paul in this article in School Library Journal. “They have identified a force, commonly found in classrooms and libraries, that makes people think more clearly, understand more deeply, and remember more accurately. This force has the power to transform struggling students, and to lift high-achieving students to a new…

Who Says Math Has to Be Boring?

By THE EDITORIAL BOARD…

Caroling with Education Reformers

Russ on Reading 

Russ Walsh

Does the Common Core Dictate Instructional Methods?

In this feisty Education Gadfly article, Michael Petrilli responds to recent articles criticizing supporters of the Common Core for going back on their initial claim that the new standards won’t prescribe how content is taught in classrooms. Petrilli and others have said that Common Core will bring about important “instructional shifts,” and the critics are saying, Aha!…

The PISA Puzzle

The lessons of the big test for our school reform movement aren’t as simple as they might seem.

The Answer Sheet

Four lessons on new PISA scores — Ravitch

The Persistent Allure of Paper

The demise of printed material has been predicted for years, but in this article in The Week, Nicholas Carr argues that it’s not going to happen soon. “Paper may be the single most versatile invention in history,” he says, “its use extending from the artistic to the bureaucratic to the hygienic.” The average American uses a quarter of a ton every year. We simply can’t live without it. Printed books are selling…