Hess, with snarky tones (that I love so very much), critiques this year’s offerings at AERA. Daniel Willingham offers his own interpretation of Hess’s critiques, pointing out that perhaps all education ‘reformers’ should focus less on everything education-related and more on the parts of education that they personally understand most deeply.
Over on Flypaper, the Fordham Institute blog, Paul Gross guest posts on the diminished quality of science standards . We are, as he says, doing a disservice to Darwin’s contributions to science.
As with the debate surrounding whether more money increases student achievement, so too is there a debate on whether more time in school increases student achievement. The folks over at Education Sector put together a lovely infographic to help you clearly and concisely understand the central issues (direct link to image here).
There’s talk in Seattle of finding a new way to bring the charter school concept to their community. What they call ‘Creative Approach Schools’ require 80% of teachers to support the transition. Interestingly, this closely mirrors the Education by Charter concept put forward by Ray Budde in the 1980s. His theory, with quite a bit of adaptation, is what we now know as the charter school movement.
‘Bully,’ the documentary on bullying in America’s schools, opened last Friday. After an open conflict with the MPAA over its R-rating, The Weinstein Company has decided to release the film to theatres with no rating, offering theatres the opportunity to decide for themselves. Andy Rotherham responds to the movie here. And, you can see the cities where the movies will be playing here.
A less serious note about indecent behavior: high schools everywhere are cracking down on what constitutes appropriate prom attire. Less impactfully, one middle school just banned hugging.
One KIPP student shares her less than positive experiences, calling attention to a known criticism of the KIPP model. A 20-year old Princeton junior ran for — and won! — a seat on his California school board. His platform? Pro-reform. As Alexander Russo on This Week in Education says, “in a previous era, someone like Andrew would have finished his college education and applied to Teach for America.” Can he deliver on this pro-reform promise? This slam poetry piece by Rachel Smith, a senior in Chicago, comes to mind. Her impactful piece criticizes teachers who work in urban schools and treat the job merely as their chance to be a savior to inner-city, troubled youth. (It’s fantastic.)
I close with this candid account of fraternity life at Dartmouth. Don’t read this while eating or just before eating. My Saturday began at 7:15am when the off-campus frat house began their “state school” party. By 9am, the police had arrived to a street that wreaked of beer. You won’t find sympathy from me for the antics of Ivy League undergraduates.