Most American school districts are facing serious budget shortfalls as a result of the economic downturn. This means, in many cases, that teachers will be fired. In many districts , teacher contracts are structured in such a way that administrators must terminate teachers in order of seniority. This system goes by the name of “Last … Continue reading
This one’s on ending the education reform wars: Want to hear that you hate teachers? Claim that those that do their jobs poorly should be dismissed. You’ll hear that the data are flawed (or that data are irrelevant), that teachers aren’t the problem, that former District schools chancellor Michelle Rhee is not a nice person … Continue reading
Two new pieces over the weekend (sorry this comes late—I was out of town at a conference)! In the Kalamazoo Gazette, on Fred Upton’s pro-child marriage vote [excerpt]: Since I was covering the issue for a column for The Washington Post, I called U.S. Rep. Fred Upton’s office the day the House of Representatives planned … Continue reading
I’ve got a new piece on education reform up on the Washington Post’s website (Post Partisan): You’d think that this is all pretty obvious, right? Who honestly believes that highly effective teachers don’t matter for student success? Who believes that parents should be locked into sending their students to terrible schools? Who wants to waste … Continue reading
After reading my education reform piece in the Washington Post several weeks ago, a friend wrote to ask me what I thought of hiring additional teachers as an education reform strategy. With some slight reworking, here were my thoughts (as a former teacher): First of all, consider the money question, since we live in a … Continue reading
