With reformers relentlessly demanding that schools produce measurable outcomes, it’s curious that the Gini Index is rarely mentioned. I say that because what Italian statistician Corrado Gini wrote in 1912 has direct relevance to today’s debate. Sometimes referred to as the Gini coefficient, it measures the range of income inequality in a society from 0… Read more »
The quality of American education is going to get worse. Count on it. And contrary to the conventional wisdom, the main reason isn’t going to be the loss of funding accompanying economic hard times. Follow along and I’ll explain: Step One: Start with what was once a relatively simple educational system. (For me, it was… Read more »
If you somehow neglected to renew your subscription to the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, you may have missed a couple of interesting articles last year. A series of studies conducted by two independent groups of researchers (published in the September and November 2009 issues, respectively) added to an already substantial collection of evidence… Read more »
This fall brought not only the start of another school year but plenty of noise about schools as well. A movie, a manifesto, and a mayoral election in Washington D.C. all amplified the ongoing debate about who the real education reformers are. Noise and more noise. Thank goodness for the sane voices that arose in… Read more »
I reviewed “Waiting for ‘Superman’” for The New York Review of Books. I thought the movie was very slick, very professional, and very propagandistic. It is one-sided and very contemptuous of public education. Notably, the film portrayed not a single successful regular public school, and its heroic institutions were all charter schools. There are many… Read more »
If you’re pushing preschoolers to read and write, you might want to reconsider and rewind back to basics, experts said Thursday. In a nation “consumed with sooner and faster,” including in education, young students are being pushed academically at the expense of developing crucial social and problem-solving skills, Gesell Institute of Human Development Executive Director… Read more »
In a shameless act of movie flacking, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce just published a guide for business leaders on school reform that is linked to and reinforces the skewed vision of public education portrayed in the movie “Waiting for Superman.” Meddling in an area about which it obviously doesn’t know much, the chamber issued… Read more »
In knowing the great strength and legacy of public education in the United States, we the American people seek to implant these principles ….(this is where “best teachers,” “best principals” and “excellence” come in…) #1 Principle: Children are our most important treasure. The education of children in our public schools will be based on egalitarian,… Read more »
We don’t have to wait for Superman to save our public schools. We can save our schools ourselves. Right now. Without firing the teachers or disbanding their unions. Without creating more standardized tests. Without pitting schools against each other in a race for dollars which should rightfully be divided equally among the school-age children of… Read more »
You asked what keeps me running, which I assume means how I find the energy to stay on the road week after week, speaking to teachers, parents, school board members, and concerned citizens. These days, I am running because of an inner rage at the attacks on teachers and public education. I see one of… Read more »
