Constrained Professionalism: Dilemmas of Teaching in the Face of Test-Based Accountability

by John S. Wills & Judith Haymore Sandholtz — 2009 (From the Teachers College Record)

Background/Context: In response to state-level test-based accountability and the federal No Child Left Behind Act, school administrators increasingly view centralized curriculum and prescribed instructional strategies as the most direct means of increasing student performance. This movement toward standardization reduces teachers’ autonomy and control over their classroom practices. The consequences of test-based accountability on teacher practice are often conceptualized as a tension between teacher professionalism and standardization.
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Cultural Shock: Barry Lynn interviewing Diane Ravitch

Barry Lynn presented with the "Outstanding Friend of Public Education" award by the HML by Jane Hammond.

Barry Lynn, HML Board Member, and Executive Director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, interviewed Diane Ravitch.  Diane Ravitch is the author of  Death and Life of the Great American School System.
To hear the interview, Click here

Elephant Tale - The Search for Grand Magical Remedies

Elephant Tale

by Ernst Z. Rothkopf — January 04, 2011

If proven findings from learning research were extensively and energetically applied in classrooms, the success of American schools would be measurably improved, but practically all of the ideas from the cognitive laboratory make increased demands on teachers. The prevailing micro-economy in the classroom is a serious obstacle to the adoption of research-proven practices because it does not provide needed support (and incentives) for teachers. The current loud pursuit of GRAND magical remedies for our educational problems, while neglecting the use of effective, research-proven ideas, is nothing short of a hypocritical cloak for a grubby parsimony that refuses to support lesson-level, tactical instructional ideas.


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Has Public Education Peaked

American education has peaked. Accept it. It has serious SYSTEM problems, and the present crop of reformers is making those problems worse. We’re not going to get the schools we need by doing longer and harder what we’ve been doing for the last 150 years.


An article by Monday 10 January 2011

by: Marion Brady  |  The Washington Post | Op-Ed

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School of Thought: Time Magazine's 11 Education Activists

With budget cuts looming, and with more states considering radical changes to teacher tenure and other important policies, 2011 looks to be a big year for education, for better or for worse. Here are 11 reformers who are poised to shake things up even more in these tumultuous times. These activists are political and apolitical, working to change school systems from within and without, and can be found in the for-profit, nonprofit and governmental sectors. Some are big names in the education world, while others are more behind-the-scenes players. But what they all have in common is the potential to change how Americans think about education and how kids experience school in 2011 — and beyond.

Key Players

• Shaking Schools Up in an Already Tumultuous Year
• Michael Bennet: The Senator
• Steven Brill: The Writer
• Jeb Bush: The Adviser
• David Coleman: The Architect
• John Deasy: The Superintendent
• Jonah Edelman: The Activist
• Kristin Richmond and Kirsten Tobey: The Foodies
• Wendy Kopp: The Teacher Trainer
• Diane Ravitch: The Convert
• Michelle Rhee: The Radical

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/completelist/0,29569,2040867,00.html#ixzz1AZuEwSr6


Click here to read the Time Magazine article.

Starve Public Education

Top Ten Ways the Right Will Wreck the Recovery

Monday 27 December 2010

by: Isaiah J. Poole  |  Campaign for America's Future | Op-Ed

Conservatives have a legislative agenda for 2011 that will hurt your ability to get or keep a job, your neighborhood's ability to recover from the recession and this country's ability to regain its footing in the global economy.

To keep conservatives from enacting policies that will kill a nascent economic recovery, progressives will have to organize against these top 10 economy killers.

Check #9 . Starve Public Education

(Photo: Rhys's Piece Is; Edited: Jared Rodriguez / t r u t h o u t)

For the complete text of the article, click here.

1. Repeal of Health-Care Reform

2. Diminish the Federal Government's Ability to Support Job-Creation

3. Slash Federal Infrastructure Spending 

4. Dismantle Medicare (and Give Seniors "Vouchers")

5. Undo Financial Reform, and Let the Predators Run

6. Support Big Oil and Kill Green Jobs

7. Don't Just Cut Government Waste; Cripple Government

8. Amp up the Insecurity in Social Security

9. Starve Public Education

Here is an easy way to keep the rich rich and the less well-off part of the permanent underclass: continue the decades-long conservative-led assault on public education. In just the past month, one report says U.S. children lag behind those in China, Finland, South Korea, Canada, Japan, Switzerland and New Zealand in educational achievement, and another says one in four youths fail the Army entrance exam.

Our inability to provide a quality education to all of our children is a risk to our national security as well as our economic well-being and competitiveness. Yet many conservatives in Congress want to respond to this national crisis by abolishing the national agency charged with addressing the problem, the Department of Education. That's on top of the continuing push for school privatization and private-school vouchers, the scapegoating of teachers and their unions, and the shifting of funding burdens to states that simply can't handle the load.

10. Don't Ask the Rich to Help Reduce the Deficit; Ask Low-Income Americans Instead

Diane Ravitch Debates James Merrimam On Charter Schools

Diane Ravitch debates about charter schools.


Education advocates debate the benefits of charter schools on "Inside City Hall."

Diane Ravitch

Click here.