Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice: The Unstoppable Search for “Successful” Teaching In U.S. Schools Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice: The Unstoppable Search for “Successful” Teaching In U.S. Schools In my office I have a very old textbook used for beginning teachers called Hall’s Lectures on School-Keeping. It was published in 1829. “While the class is reading,” Samuel Read Hall tells novices, “the entire atten…

Curmudgucation: Yes, Engage Curmudgucation: Yes, Engage Intuitively, you’d think that student engagement was a clear positive. As a teacher, I certainly found it easier to teach a student who was engaged and involved than one who was checked out. And there is, in fact, a boatload of research that supports what we intuit. But there is also research that sugges…

Janresseger: Important New Publication Explores How Inadequate School Funding is Intertwined With Race and Segregation Janresseger: Important New Publication Explores How Inadequate School Funding is Intertwined With Race and Segregation What happens when we get so used to a long injustice that we can’t see it anymore?  In a fine new collection of articles, University of North Carolina law professor, Osamudia James explains how blind we have all be…

Teacher in a Strange Land: There IS Such a Thing as a Free Lunch– a Good Thing. Teacher in a Strange Land: There IS Such a Thing as a Free Lunch– a Good Thing. So—Michigan just adopted a policy of offering free breakfast and lunch to all K-12 public school kids. Charter school kids, too– and intermediate school districts (which often educate students with significant disabilities). More than half of Michigan s…

Answer Sheet: A Program to Cut School Suspensions in Chicago Worked Very, Very Well. Here’s How. Answer Sheet: A Program to Cut School Suspensions in Chicago Worked Very, Very Well. Here’s How. Last year, the Biden administration issued new school discipline guidelines aimed at reducing high rates of suspension and expulsion for students with disabilities. This year, it directed public schools to comply with civil rights laws …

LA Progressive: Why Do Some Schools Excel at Addressing Student Mental Health Needs? LA Progressive: Why Do Some Schools Excel at Addressing Student Mental Health Needs? It seems that no community may be immune to what many are calling a national mental health crisis among children and teens. “We needed a lot more mental and behavioral help after COVID,” Meredith Mullen told Our Schools. Mullen is the community sch…

Gary Rubinstein’s Blog: Will KIPP NYC Be Disqualified (Again) From U.S. News & World Report Best High School Rankings? Gary Rubinstein’s Blog: Will KIPP NYC Be Disqualified (Again) From U.S. News & World Report Best High School Rankings? There is exactly one KIPP high school in New York City. KIPP NYC College Prep High School was started in 2009 to serve students graduating from KIPP middle schools. In 2013 they moved into a new facility that was p…

Ed in the Apple: The Long Road: Can “Performance Tasks,” or, “Projects” Replace Standard Testing as Assessment and Accountability Metrics? Ed in the Apple: The Long Road: Can “Performance Tasks,” or, “Projects” Replace Standard Testing as Assessment and Accountability Metrics? ….any powers that are not specifically given to the federal government, nor withheld from the states, are reserved to those respective states, or to the people at large. Educa…

Gadfly on the Wall: The Hidden Bias Against Male Teachers Gadfly on the Wall: The Hidden Bias Against Male Teachers No one wants to be the disciplinarian. Not at the expense of being a teacher. Often you need to do the one so you can do the other. After all, it’s difficult to teach a class that can’t listen or sit or refrain from arguing. But that’s the role men are often given in the fie…

Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice: Technology Might Be Making Schooling Worse (Antero Garcia) (Guest Post by Antero Garcia) Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice: Technology Might Be Making Schooling Worse (Antero Garcia) (Guest Post by Antero Garcia) Antero Garcia is associate professor of education in Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education. This article appeared in Stanford Report, June 26, 2023 As a professor of education an…

Radical Eyes for Equity: Moving Beyond the Cult of Pedagogy in Education Reform Radical Eyes for Equity: Moving Beyond the Cult of Pedagogy in Education Reform As a teacher for forty years and a teacher educator for more than half of that career, I have always struggled with the tendency to oversell teacher quality and instructional practice. Does teacher quality matter? Of course. Does instructional practice …

Nancy Bailey’s Education Website: Little-Discussed Reasons Why Students Might Not Like to Read Nancy Bailey’s Education Website: Little-Discussed Reasons Why Students Might Not Like to Read Students don’t like to read. These rarely discussed reasons may explain why. Kindergarten is no longer a garden.    Kindergartners are pressured to read. Before NCLB, over twenty years ago, this was unheard of and still makes no sense. Fo…

Curmudgucation: Questions for Voucher Supporters Curmudgucation: Questions for Voucher Supporters In Pennsylvania, the GOP is still pursuing the voucher program that Governor Shapiro just vetoed. Their dismay over his veto is understandable– it’s a version of the long-pitched voucher program that was tooled to meet his requirements. So the GOP can be forgiven for feeling as if t…

Janresseger: As School Reform Devolves to the States, Public Schools Face Unrelenting, Far Right Opposition Janresseger: As School Reform Devolves to the States, Public Schools Face Unrelenting, Far Right Opposition The federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), passed in 2002, embodied school reform premised on the theory of test-based accountability—the requirement of high-stakes standardized tests for all students and the application of…

Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice: How Teachers and Students Think about and Use A.I. (Natasha Singer) (Guest post by Natasha Singer) Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice: How Teachers and Students Think about and Use A.I. (Natasha Singer) (Guest post by Natasha Singer) Natasha Singer writes about technology, business and society for the New York Times. She reports on tech companies and their influence on public schools, higher education and job op…

Answer Sheet: How to Fix the Damage Done to Schools by Federal School Reform Laws Answer Sheet: How to Fix the Damage Done to Schools by Federal School Reform Laws More than 20 years ago, President George W. Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act into federal law, ushering in a new period of school reform that was centered on accountability based on high-stakes testing. It failed to produce the improvements pr…

Teacher in a Strange Land: The War Against Icebreakers Teacher in a Strange Land: The War Against Icebreakers Best Twitter–is it still Twitter, considering its ugly new Maga-X logo?—thread of the day: A war on icebreakers in upcoming professional development for teachers. The things people report being asked to do range from silly to downright demeaning. Icebreakers from my own pantheo…

10th Period: All But 5 Ohio Charter High Schools Rank in Bottom 25% of Schools Nationally 10th Period: All But 5 Ohio Charter High Schools Rank in Bottom 25% of Schools Nationally In its latest national rankings, U.S. News & World Report pointed out that generally, charter schools around the country are disproportionately doing well on their national ratings. “Charters show up in disproportionately high rates among the …

Diane Ravitch’s Blog: Heather Cox Richardson: The Lies Embedded in Florida’s Social Studies Curriculum Diane Ravitch’s Blog: Heather Cox Richardson: The Lies Embedded in Florida’s Social Studies Curriculum Heather Cox Richardson, a historian, analyzed the controversial Florida social studies curriculum and explains how they attempt to minimize racism and slavery. Their fault lies not in one or two sentences but in their central idea…

Nancy Bailey’s Education Website: 10 Years Later: The Continuing Intentional Unraveling of America’s Public Schools Nancy Bailey’s Education Website: 10 Years Later: The Continuing Intentional Unraveling of America’s Public Schools School reform continues to privatize and destroy public schools. August marks ten years since I began blogging. Within that time I have written two books and co-authored a third with Diane Ravitch. I’m proud of all th…