First Lady Follies

Laura Bush says that, come what may, No Child Left Behind will be a part of her husband's legacy. Absolutely. Some of us think it will be right up there with Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, homeless Iraqis and Afghanis, Blackwater, and the shredded Constitution. She should talk to...

Those who dispense anxiety about America's schools have got it all backwards. Bill Gates, Roy Romer, Bob Wise, Bill Bennett and many others look at the results of international test-score studies and make dire predictions about the future of the U. S. economy. Instead, they should brag about the U....

The Washington Post pimping for an ad. Can you believe it? The pimpiness appeared Sunday, July 13. Who put them up to that? The ad in question is from an organization that has become the most irresponsible source of disinformation about public schools since Bill Bennett (in fact, it recently...

So now we know. All of us "paranoids" were right all along. From the beginning, some of us saw vouchers and privatization lurking behind No Child Left Behind. We were shouted down. If I had a dollar for every story I read complimenting the law on its intent and...

What is with the Washington Post? On June 17, 2008, it runs an article summarizing a report that contends the Washington, D. C. voucher program doesn't work. On June 24, it runs an editorial begging Congress not to kill the program.

Those wishing to eliminate the program did have the...

It feels like it takes 2 million minutes to suffer through the insufferable 2 Million Minutes (it takes 54). It was worth my time 'cause then I can write about it in several places, but I have to admit I borrowed the copy I viewed. Not about to plunk down...

I have always had my suspicions about international comparisons, but people in the U.S., and especially in the educational research community take them hook, line and sinker. I was disappointed to see PISA results quoted as if they were gospel in Democracy at Risk from The Forum for Education and...

Two Universities Dump the SAT;
Move Called "Cynical;" It's Not

The New York Times recently announced that Wake Forest University in North Carolina and Smith College in Massachusetts will make the SAT optional for those applying for admission (Tamar Lewin, "2 Colleges End Entrance Exam Requirement").

George...

One of the reasons that public schools are held in low esteem is that their successes are not celebrated, or if given publicity, attributed to the accomplishments of individuals and their individual smarts. The most common form of recognition is merely a bumper sticker: "My Child is an Honor Students...

Discussions about the condition of public schools usually center on curriculum, instruction and test scores. Money is sometimes mentioned, usually in a "money-doesn't-matter-don't-throw- money-at-the-schools." (See Keith Baker, "Yes, Throw Money at the Schools," Phi Delta Kappan, April, 1991 for a rebuttal.) A new book presents the condition of schooling from...

Back in 1998, I got a call from a high school chemistry teacher in Grosse Pointe, Michigan. He had just heard a speech by a consultant named Willard Daggett who claimed, among other things, that we were the only nation in the world that still thought that you teach biology...

Those who are trying to stoke the presidential candidates' interest in education as an election issue aren't having much luck. Referring to No Child Left Behind, Hillary has said "scrap it" at least three times. Obama's website mentions "shortcomings in the design of the law." McCain favors vouchers and accountability...

I sent what follows to the columnists of the Washington Post--Richard Cohen, Harold Meyerson, David Broder, E. J. Dionne, David Ignatius, Eugene Robinson, and Colbert King, George Will, Anne Applebaum and Ruth Marcus (no use fiddling with Gerson and Novak), editorial page editor, Fred Hiatt, and the Post Ombudsman on...

"Reading First] focuses on putting proven methods of early reading instruction in classrooms. Through Reading First, states and districts receive support to apply scientifically based reading research--and the proven instructional and assessment tools consistent with this research -- to ensure that all children learn to read well by the end...

Out of the Mouths of Cry Babies

There was, as you would expect, a lot of "oh woe is us" in the last week of April as the 25th anniversary of "A Nation at Risk" (ANAR) passed. Interestingly, George F. Will in the Washington Post closed by saying No Child...

To: Bob Herbert
The New York Times

Dear Mr. Herbert,

It is still amazing to me how people who are wise and insightful on most topics under the sun go all goofy when it comes to education. Goofy is you in today's column, "Clueless in America."

...

One seldom hears about The Nuremberg Precedent in education except in history class discussions of the post-World War II trials of Nazis. Some Nazi leaders said they could not have known the consequences of their policies and orders and others said they were just following orders. Their judges said "that's...

A Nation at Risk should have been published on April 1, 1983. It was a great April Fools Day joke on America (Given what it did to public education, though, educators can be forgiven if they smile not). Instead, the National Commission on Excellence in Education published it on April...

The high-stakes testing mania in general and No Child Left Behind in particular have reduced too much of public education to a system to be games. Some people play the game sincerely and seriously. The teachers and principal in Linda Perlstein's Tested are such players. They have doubts about the...

What Schools Are For.

That's the title of a book by John Goodlad, first published in 1979 and revised in 1994 and again in 2006. It was brought to mind by an email fight I had recently which left me saying "So it's come to this."

I had mentioned...