If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If the goal is truly to fix public education in Chicago, would there be a need for marketing lessons for CPS bureaucrats? If during moments of honesty, managers talk about "blowing up" and "dismantling" a district, having a detailed script may be necessary.
I'm all for high school students taking a couple of college classes before they graduate from high school, but we are kidding ourselves if we expect the experience gained from taking a remedial college course will prepare students for the rigors of college-level work.
I'm leaving and I'm taking the kids. It's the ultimate threat -- the one that does its damage even as the words leave your mouth -- and a hallmark of a deep dysfunction. The Chicago Public Schools and I are locked in this weird relationship drama.
Instead of results, we have gotten rhetoric, and our children have fallen further behind. It is time we adopt policy solutions that match the depth and complexity of the problems and address them head on.
The most recent education news provides alarming indications that the "pipeline" from early childhood neglect to young adult incarceration is disappearing. I don't suggest that the problem is going away. Quite to the contrary.
We of course must understand that our students do not walk in as blank slates through the classroom door. Indeed, we cannot be good teachers unless we understand that schools are always already part of their local communities.
What is real school reform? When educators and policymakers see a school district in crisis, I wonder what they think about. When the "big-shot" stake...
Governor Pat Quinn offered a serious admonition to Chicago Public Schools leadership about closing 50-some elementary schools when he stopped by for a special edition of Chicago Newsroom on Friday.
If you want more kids to grow up into responsible, successful adults who contribute to our society, and if you want lower crime rates and prison populations, investing in good public education makes sense.
Providing this level of assistance is admittedly expensive, but in my experience, there are many corporate and private partners ready to help. We just have to make the case.
The attention given to private school issues in policy debates and news stories may leave the impression that private schools play a greater role in American education than they do.
Students have become pawns in what seems to be a simple math problem as presented by CPS, but is really a culture, community and citywide issue of how to create safe and effective schools for all students regardless of race, family income and geographic location.
Today's post is based on a conversation between the Forum for Youth Investment and IDEA Public Schools' Chief Human Assets Officer Audrey Hooks. She describes IDEA's attempt to disseminate its guiding principles and knowledge, not just curriculum and materials.
NYC Teachers' Free Pass? The Wall Street Journal crunched eight years worth of data, and found that more than 10 percent of principals did not flunk one teacher on their evaluations. "The findings give ammunition to Department of Education officials who say the teacher-rating system should be changed," WSJ's Lisa Fleisher writes. "New York City is one of a handful of school districts statewide that hasn't adopted a new, more nuanced system of grading teachers. ... Under the current system, teachers are either rated unsatisfactory or satisfactory. Annually, less than 3% of teachers citywide are marked "unsatisfactory."
There has been constant debate surrounding charter schools. I have a very simple question that I want to explore: What's the point?
