Today, many school reformers have adopted the slogan that “education is the civil rights issue of our time.” President Barack Obama referred to education as the “civil rights issue of our time” during a speech before Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network in 2011. Former Secretary of Education Arne Duncan ... Read More »
For education reformers, the 2016 presidential primaries have been a wasteland. The Republican circus has produced many memorable moments, but few if any have touched on education. Even on the Democratic side, education has been virtually invisible. The major issue is rising inequality, and public education has long been our ... Read More »
Every teacher of low-income children and English-language learners has had this moment: You’re sitting with a student, working line by line through a text, grappling with what should be fairly simple comprehension questions. “Did you read it?” you ask. “I read it,” the child replies. “But I didn’t get it.” ... Read More »
The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), passed in December to replace No Child Left Behind, requires states to use at least one “non-academic” factor to help measure school progress. For the National Education Association and other advocates of a broader vision of student success, this key provision guarantees that schools start addressing the needs of ... Read More »
It’s only April, but Bakari Shead, a second-grade teacher at Stern Elementary School in Greenville, Miss., is already looking toward the 2017-18 school year, which is when state education departments are required to submit implementation plans for theEvery Student Succeed Act (ESSA)—the law that replaced No Child Left Behind. To ... Read More »
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Members of the oldest all-male club at Harvardhave almost never spoken publicly about the organization since its founding in 1791. This week, that silence was broken when an official with the group, the Porcellian Club, said that admitting women could increase the chances of sexual misconduct. “Forcing ... Read More »
The number of students who scored high enough to qualify for New York City’s gifted and talented programs rose this year, the Education Department said on Thursday. But the neighborhoods in which those children live continued along a familiar pattern: In wealthy districts, more children take the tests, and score ... Read More »
In November 2011, after a police officer pepper-sprayed students who were sitting in the quad during a protest, the University of California, Davis, had to contend with an image problem as a video rapidly spread. Though media relations might have been one part of the response, university officials were also ... Read More »
Last week I wrote about some of my meandering thoughts about the smorgasbord of teacher leadership initiatives that are popping up across the nation like a game of whack-a-mole. I received many good questions and pushback on Twitter, and have had some great conversations as a result. My fellow blogger ... Read More »
How long does it take before we can effectively judge the success or failure of teacher leadership? What is the timeframe before we are ready to run teacher leadership through the evaluation gauntlet and deem its worth? Last week I was wondering those very things as I read Ross Brenneman’s ... Read More »
Education authorities in Seoul, South Korea, banned corporal punishment at all schools in the capital last week. Teachers there are now prohibited from all forms of corporal punishment, including ordering students to do push-ups, run, hold their arms straight above their heads, and walk in a squatting position called a ... Read More »
The math and science achievement of U.S. students continues to surpass the global average for nations taking part in a prominent assessment, results issued Tuesday show, but several East Asian countries and jurisdictions far outpace the United States, especially in mathematics. The most striking contrast comes in the 8th grade, ... Read More »
