As a blonde woman living in Cairo, I've experienced a fair share of harassment. I was warned about this before moving to Egypt, and so far I've done my best to thwart it. I no longer wear flattering clothes - though my sister would argue this wasn't a problem to...

As I leave my office, I can see plumes of smoke across the Nile. Something appears to be going on. I stop a man on the street and ask in excessively imperfect Arabic what's happening. My apartment is on the side of the river with the smoke; I want to...

In the first teacher strike since 1951, Egyptian educators have directed the recently ignited revolutionary spirit towards a school system in much need of reform. The ouster of Mubarak was merely a starting point. Having dismantled the inertia and complacency once fueled by disenfranchisement, Egyptians are now reclaiming...

After an $8 million budget shortfall, the New York State Board of Regents recently voted to eliminate January exams, effective in 2012. While this may come as little concern for high-achieving schools, the decision could result in serious repercussions at schools with large populations of low-performing or special...

Last year, my principal came to me with this unexpected proposal: Would I be interested in mentoring a student teacher as part of a yearlong residency program?

The program, which offered mentors a stipend and resume boost, came with a catch. Unlike other models for teacher education, my student...

On any given day, there are between one and three mothers in my classroom. This is not the result of some behavioral intervention plan, nor is this part of a special initiative to better connect parents to the school community. Those young women, doe-eyed and green, are my students.

Juggling...

This week, the feature article in The Christian Science Monitor magazine vets through both the virtues and challenges of turnaround schools. These reform-minded initiatives seek to improve some of the worst performing schools by implementing pioneering and often Draconian measures. In the form of School Improvement Grants, federal...

My living room is a graveyard for second-rate musical instruments.

It's true. At a glance, there are seven stringed or hallow gadgets scattered against walls or the crevasses between furniture. It's a collection I've been building since high school and almost every instrument I own -- guitar, mandolin, fiddle, banjo...

It's a rare occasion when you find someone with little to say about education. Everyone, it seems, has a finger to point, two cents to toss in or a soap box upon which they must stand and be heard.

This is completely understandable. Not every American can speak knowledgeably...

Thursday morning, Congress turned its attention to our country's gaping deficit. The goal: slash $2.5 trillion over the next decade. Conservatives led the charge, outlining steps to reach this lofty objective. Under their current proposal, entitlement programs, such as Medicare and Social Security, will likely emerge unscathed. Education,...

This week, along with many other New York City Teachers, I received an e-mail about the implementation of Teacher Data Reports. The opening of the message, peppered with platitudes, had a surprisingly affable tone -- one clearly meant to ensure skeptical educators that such reports will be anything...

The inequity of it all is really starting to get to me. News stations and sources, it seems, are constantly juggling juxtaposed stories on either the chronic financial woes of our school systems or the over indulgences of the banking industry. When a report on bloated salaries in the financial...

Stuck in rush-hour traffic on a Friday afternoon, a fellow teacher and I vented through a laundry list of frustrations that had accumulated over the course of a school week. When you work in a tough school system, such airing of grievances will resurface every so often, albeit with minor...

Perhaps the greatest residual impact of No Child Left Behind has been the emphasis on accountability in our school systems. Phrases such as "merit based pay" or "data-driven instruction" have crept into educational parlance and are influencing policy decisions with rapidly increasing momentum. Accountability has wrought such a frantic fixation...

In the rhetoric surrounding problems related to public education, overcrowded classrooms has long held a special place amongst the laundry list of complaints. Despite growing concern over this issue, little headway has been made in improving teacher to student ratios. The New York Times recently ran an article...

When I heard that Taliban insurgents had thrown acid into the faces of Afghan schoolgirls, I was infuriated. Could there have been a more destructive, misogynistic form of institutionalized oppression? Like many Americans, I questioned how such inequality and subjugation could persist in the 21st century. Why, by...

Few could be more shocked by Mayor Michael Bloomberg's appointment of Cathleen Black as new school chancellor than New York City teachers. Upon hearing the news, I halfway expected leaders of the union to charge down Fifth Avenue, Paul Revere style, proclaiming "The business women are coming! The business women...

I recently attended a staff development on the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). The new standards, expected to go into full effect by 2014, will implement rigorous and homogenized academic expectations nationwide. Just as the Euro facilitates travel between France and Germany, CCSS should ease transitions for students who transfer...