Is It Really All About the Benjamins?

Assessment, Equity, Learning, Teacher Quality

As both a former teacher and a MBA, I’m struck these days by two things: first, the ubiquity of “business thinking” in today’s education reform strategies; and second, the complete absence of the sort of business thinking we actually need to be heeding. Keep reading here . . .

Teacher Money Will Have To Wait, Senate Democrats Say

Learning, Teacher Quality

Yesterday, Congressional Quarterly reported that Senate Democrats have abandoned efforts to add $23 billion for saving teachers’ jobs to their chamber’s supplemental war spending bill, acknowledging they don’t have the 60 votes to block an expected Republican filibuster. Republicans have criticized the White-House backed proposal as a “bailout” that shouldn’t be attached to an emergency war spending bill. Supporters of … Read More

The Teachers' Unions' Last Stand?

Assessment, Learning, Teacher Quality

In case you missed it, Steven Brill wrote a relatively balanced piece in this weekend’s New York Times Magazine about the national education reform landscape — and how teachers unions are truly facing a sink-or-swim moment of reinvention. As someone who feels neither allegiance nor antipathy toward either of the increasingly polarized camps (I actually like and respect both Linda … Read More

BBC Walk and Talk

Assessment, Equity, Learning, Teacher Quality

I spent this afternoon walking and talking with BBC reporter Kavitha Cardoza about assessment systems and what the U.S. can learn from other countries around the world. Check it out at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/world_news_america/8612399.stm.