David Labaree on Schooling, History, and Writing: School’s Shift from Community to Competition Can Harm Our Youth David Labaree on Schooling, History, and Writing: School’s Shift from Community to Competition Can Harm Our Youth This post is an op-ed that Deborah Malizia and I just published in the San Jose Mercury News.  Here’s a link to the original.  It follows up on an earlier op-ed we did on the subject.   Schools’ shift from community to …

Teacher in a Strange Land: What about Homeschooling? Teacher in a Strange Land: What about Homeschooling? Families who choose to homeschool their children have never been on my negative/activist radar, as a veteran public school educator. I have had both positive and not-so-positive experiences with students who were homeschooled–from a pair of shy, well-behaved sisters who fit seaml…

Nancy Bailey’s Education Website: There’s Too Much Stuff on Classroom Walls! Nancy Bailey’s Education Website: There’s Too Much Stuff on Classroom Walls! Classroom walls for young children learning to read are often covered with words, letters, word sounds, symbols, vocabulary, and even speech therapy pronunciation mouths, which are creepy. For years, Word Walls have ruled. Bare walls are also dull and unin…

Janresseger: Press Reports Ranking American High Schools Mislead the Public Janresseger: Press Reports Ranking American High Schools Mislead the Public Here is Stanford University sociologist Sean Reardon describing in rather technical language what his research has shown for decades about a school or school district’s standardized test scores as an accurate indicator of student demographics but not a good…

Letters from the Future (of Learning): What is Childhood For? Letters from the Future (of Learning): What is Childhood For? Did you hear? The Gates Foundation is going to focus all of its subsequent investments on math education.  That’s roughly $700 million (and growing) each year, at a time when children are feeling more depressed, anxious and rudderless than ever before; at a moment when o…

Radical Eyes for Equity: Reading Reform We Refuse to Choose Radical Eyes for Equity: Reading Reform We Refuse to Choose Since the early 1980s, the US has been in a constant cycle of accountability-based reform in education. By 2001 and the implementation of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and the central role of the National Reading Panel (NRP), that education reform cycle intensified by adding…

Diane Ravitch’s Blog: Carol Burris: New Data Show That Charter Schools Increase Segregation Diane Ravitch’s Blog: Carol Burris: New Data Show That Charter Schools Increase Segregation Carol Burris former teacher, former principal, now executive director of The Network for Public Education, writes in The Progressive about the segregative effects of charter schools. Burris writes: As we approach the seventieth anniversary o…

David Labaree on Schooling, History, and Writing: The Fraught Connection Between State and School David Labaree on Schooling, History, and Writing: The Fraught Connection Between State and School This post is a new essay of mine that was published two years ago in Kappan. Here’s a link to the original.  And here’s a link to the pdf.  It is also reprinted as a chapter in my new book, The Ironies of Schooling.  The essay focuses …

Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice: Real Schools Need Books, Not Laptops or Cell Phones (James Traub) (Guest Post by James Traub) Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice: Real Schools Need Books, Not Laptops or Cell Phones (James Traub) (Guest Post by James Traub) “James Traub is a journalist and scholar specializing in international affairs. He is a columnist and contributor to the website foreignpolicy.com. He worked as a staff writer for The Ne…

Alfie Kohn: The Siren Song of “Evidence-Based” Instruction Alfie Kohn: The Siren Song of “Evidence-Based” Instruction I’m geeky enough to get a little excited each time a psychology or education journal lands in my mailbox.1 Indeed, I’ve spent a fair portion of my life sorting through, critically analyzing, and writing about social science research. Even my books that are intended for gene…

Janresseger:State Support for Pre-Kindergarten Is Another Victim As Vouchers Drain State Tax Dollars Janresseger:State Support for Pre-Kindergarten Is Another Victim As Vouchers Drain State Tax Dollars Yesterday, the Ohio Capital Journal‘s Susan Tebben reported some troubling numbers about Ohio children’s access to early childhood education: “The National Institute for Early Education Research’s annual ‘state of preschool’ report …

Shanker Blog: How Do Vouchers Defund Public Schools? Four Warnings and One Big Takeaway Shanker Blog: How Do Vouchers Defund Public Schools? Four Warnings and One Big Takeaway Our guest author is Josh Cowen, Professor of Education Policy at Michigan State University. His new book, The Privateers: How Billionaires Created a Culture War and Sold School Vouchers is forthcoming at Harvard Education Press. Over the past tw…

Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice: Get Tech Out of Classrooms – Some Parents Say (Jessica Grose) (Guest Post by Jessica Grose) Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice: Get Tech Out of Classrooms – Some Parents Say (Jessica Grose) (Guest Post by Jessica Grose) Jessica Grose is an Opinion writer for The New York Times. She covers family, religion, education, and culture. Jaime Lewis noticed that her eighth-grade son’s grades were slipping several…

Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice: Get Tech Out of Classrooms – Some Parents Say (Jessica Grose) (Guest Post by Jessica Grose) Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice: Get Tech Out of Classrooms – Some Parents Say (Jessica Grose) (Guest Post by Jessica Grose) Jessica Grose is an Opinion writer for The New York Times. She covers family, religion, education, and culture. Jaime Lewis noticed that her eighth-grade son’s grades were slipping several…

Curmudgucation: Curriculum as the Next Reformy Frontier Curmudgucation: Curriculum as the Next Reformy Frontier Just stay with me for a minute. The right-tilted Hoover Institute has a publication out for the fortieth anniversary of A Nation At Risk, the Reagan-era hit job on public education, a collection of essays by various members of the reformster world. Some of these are not very e…

Curmudgucation: Curriculum as the Next Reformy Frontier Curmudgucation: Curriculum as the Next Reformy Frontier Just stay with me for a minute. The right-tilted Hoover Institute has a publication out for the fortieth anniversary of A Nation At Risk, the Reagan-era hit job on public education, a collection of essays by various members of the reformster world. Some of these are not very e…

David Labaree on Schooling, History, and Writing: Too Easy a Target: The Trouble with Ed Schools and the Implications for the University David Labaree on Schooling, History, and Writing: Too Easy a Target: The Trouble with Ed Schools and the Implications for the University This post is a piece I published in Academe (the journal of AAUP) in 1999.  It provides an overview of the argument in my 2004 book, The Trouble with Ed Schools. I reproduce it here as a public ser…

David Labaree on Schooling, History, and Writing: Too Easy a Target: The Trouble with Ed Schools and the Implications for the University David Labaree on Schooling, History, and Writing: Too Easy a Target: The Trouble with Ed Schools and the Implications for the University This post is a piece I published in Academe (the journal of AAUP) in 1999.  It provides an overview of the argument in my 2004 book, The Trouble with Ed Schools. I reproduce it here as a public ser…

Nancy Bailey’s Education Website: Where’s the “Evidence” in State-Mandated Science of Reading Programs? Nancy Bailey’s Education Website: Where’s the “Evidence” in State-Mandated Science of Reading Programs? Last I looked, thirty-seven states and the District of Columbia have signed reading laws (Schwartz 2024). Parents, educators, school administrators, and state and local policymakers hear the Science of Reading is critical for chi…

Nancy Bailey’s Education Website: Where’s the “Evidence” in State-Mandated Science of Reading Programs? Nancy Bailey’s Education Website: Where’s the “Evidence” in State-Mandated Science of Reading Programs? Last I looked, thirty-seven states and the District of Columbia have signed reading laws (Schwartz 2024). Parents, educators, school administrators, and state and local policymakers hear the Science of Reading is critical for chi…