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…

Code Acts in Education: Edtech Has an Evidence Problem Code Acts in Education: Edtech Has an Evidence Problem Schools spend a lot of money on edtech, and most of the time it’s a waste of their limited funds. According to the Edtech Evidence Exchange, educators estimate that “85% of edtech tools are poor fits or poorly implemented”, indicating very weak returns for the $25 billion or mo…

Code Acts in Education: Edtech Has an Evidence Problem Code Acts in Education: Edtech Has an Evidence Problem Schools spend a lot of money on edtech, and most of the time it’s a waste of their limited funds. According to the Edtech Evidence Exchange, educators estimate that “85% of edtech tools are poor fits or poorly implemented”, indicating very weak returns for the $25 billion or mo…

Gary Rubinstein’s Blog: Should the Success Academy SPRINT Program Be Investigated? Gary Rubinstein’s Blog: Should the Success Academy SPRINT Program Be Investigated? About four months ago I received an unusual DM in my Twitter account. Though over the years several different Success Academy parents have reached out to me, this was from someone who claimed to be either a current employee or a former employee. They…

Gary Rubinstein’s Blog: Should the Success Academy SPRINT Program Be Investigated? Gary Rubinstein’s Blog: Should the Success Academy SPRINT Program Be Investigated? About four months ago I received an unusual DM in my Twitter account. Though over the years several different Success Academy parents have reached out to me, this was from someone who claimed to be either a current employee or a former employee. They…

Curmudgucation: A Voucher By Any Other Name Curmudgucation: A Voucher By Any Other Name Voucher supporters have one major problem: school vouchers are unpopular. The tern doesn’t test well. Measure of public support is iffy– if you ask people if they would like every student to have the chance to ride to a great school on their own pony, people say yes, but if you ask a mor…

Curmudgucation: A Voucher By Any Other Name Curmudgucation: A Voucher By Any Other Name Voucher supporters have one major problem: school vouchers are unpopular. The tern doesn’t test well. Measure of public support is iffy– if you ask people if they would like every student to have the chance to ride to a great school on their own pony, people say yes, but if you ask a mor…

Teacher in a Strange Land: Woke/Not Woke Teacher in a Strange Land: Woke/Not Woke A few years back, in 2016, I read a blog post from a national teachers’ union leader, a white woman, proclaiming that she was now woke. I’ve met this woman a few times and have no doubt that she is sincere and well-meaning and totally on the right side of social justice issues, but the blog,…

Curmudgucation: The Panic Is No Accident Curmudgucation: The Panic Is No Accident There was a curious piece in Education Week Friday, in which Deborah Loewenberg Ball ponders the question, “Why Is the Nation Invested in Tearing Down Public Education?”  She focuses in particular on the most recent iteration: For the past four years, we have been retelling a shared narrativ…

Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice: Will Chatbots Teach Your Children? (Natasha Singer) (Guest Post by Natasha Singer) Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice: Will Chatbots Teach Your Children? (Natasha Singer) (Guest Post by Natasha Singer) Isn’t that a catchy headline? The New York Times published an article with that title recently that may have caught the attention of readers whose job is to teach children and youth. In a world whe…