Ecology of Education

Master of Myth: What Arne Duncan Says and Does

Master of Myth: What Arne Duncan Says and Does The great enemy of truth is very often not the lie – deliberate, contrived and dishonest – but the myth – persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic. —John F. Kennedy U.S. Secretary of Education has been called the most powerful education secretary in history. With billions of dollars [...]

Evaluating Teachers with VAM: Variable Ambiguous Mistake

Anyone who has read this blog before is probably aware of my position on the use value-added measurement for teacher evaluation.  I have argued many times here, and in Teacher Magazine, that politicians, self-styled education reformers, and members of the general public are ill-informed if they believe that we can use state tests to determine [...]

Ed Reformers: Champions of the Wrong Theory of Learning

In alphabetical order: Mike Bloomberg, mayor of New York City. Eli Broad, financier and philanthropist. Jeb Bush, ex-Florida governor and possible 2012 presidential contender. Arne Duncan, U.S. Secretary of Education. Bill Gates, business magnate and philanthropist. Joel Klein, chancellor of New York City schools. In education issues, mainstream media sometimes call these gentlemen, “The New [...]

Dogs: An Unusual Guide to School Reform

Driving the country roads of Scotland, Ireland and Wales, I have sometimes been lucky enough to be blocked by sheep being moved from one pasture to another. I say ‘lucky’ because it allows me to watch an impressive performance by a dog – usually a Border Collie. What a show! A single, mid-sized dog herding [...]

A Teacher’s Field Guide to Parents

Teachers would be foolhardy to label parents as either good or bad. Not all parents are created equal and cannot be categorized on a single spectrum.  To do so would jeopardize a teacher’s ability to survive. Literally.  I mean, I’m talking life or death here. You see, when normally mild mannered and reasonable people become [...]

Come Join Abolish Grading Movement

I want to develop a page on my blog dedicated to exhibiting teachers who have abolished, are abolishing or want to abolish grading from their classroom. Below is my story with abolishing grading and my contact information for others to get in touch with me. If you are interested in being a part of a group [...]

Pros & Cons of Summertime Daddy Day Care

Here are some (hopefully amusing) Pros & Cons of spending summer break as a full-time daddy.

The Idealistic Science Educator vs. The Teacher in the Trenchesic

Over time I’ve become one of them: a teacher in the trenches. My post University idealistic nature was sucked right of me through 10 years of public school accountability, standardized testing and district doctrine. As I move back towards the passion that fueled me through my first few years of teaching, I’m reminded of what [...]

Knowledge is power, power is money, and I want it

Mathematica Policy Research Inc. has released a study on the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) in relation to attrition rates and test scores.  The Washington Post summarized the study:       Mathematica studied 22 KIPP middle schools, including AIM and KEY, comparing test scores of charter students to scores of selected students in regular public schools [...]

Spill Happens: Education Reform & the Gulf of Mexico

There are a number of things we could arguably learn from the on-going Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico: These things are NOT fail safe. We should get off oil. MMS’s regulators are too lax. BP took too many chances. Corporations are to blame. Lobbyists are to blame. Politicians are to blame. We are [...]

Emerging Trend: Teachers as Advocates

(This piece was originally published at Cooperative Catalyst.) I keep waiting on the invitation: Who: Teachers What: Education Reform Policy Party Where: Wonk Circles All Over When: NOW! Why: We want YOU to help envision & shape the next generation of schools. The paradox, of course, is that as the reformation of education garners greater [...]

Alberta’s Inspiring Education

On June 2, Alberta Education released their Inspiring Education Steering Committee Report. This has been a long awaited document, as many teachers have waited in the balance to hear where the government plans to direct education. Of course, the entire report was directed by Albertans, as they were asked to contribute their thoughts and feelings [...]

Education Reformers: Four Key Questions

Questions being ignored or inadequately addressed by the current business and industry-driven education reform effort: 1. Market forces in general, and merit pay in particular, are being promoted by leaders of business and industry as keys to improved school performance. In highly effective schools and school systems, educators see themselves as members of a team [...]

The Acronym’s Missing a Letter: W(riting)

I’m proposing something radical. I’m recommending we consider something that may not fit into a nifty acronym. For some time, educators and those interested in influencing schools’ curricular foci, have suggested significant instructional redirection, often with an acronym that supposedly creates education’s needed compass. The most famous of these, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics), has [...]

Using Technology to Support Real Learning in Alberta

Here is a new research publication from the Alberta Teachers’ Association. It questions how pedagogical practices and the curriculum may need to change in order to prepare students to participate meaningfully in the knowledge-based and globally interconnected world of the 21st century. This monograph serves to stimulate a debate on the true nature of learning [...]

Creating the Optimal Learning Environment

This article was originally posted by George Couros on May 21, 2010 at his site, “The Principal of Change“. As I have talked about effective practices for teachers and administrators, I really wanted to shift the focus on what the best environment is for student learning. If we are to have students become leaders and [...]

Winning: the ultimate distraction

I was reffing basketball again this morning and I had a game where a player placed another in a headlock and took him to the floor as hard as he could. So I promptly gave him a disqualifying foul and he was removed from the game. The disqualifying foul was a no brainer – the [...]

Education Reform: 22 Problems, and a Proposal

The “standards and accountability” education reform effort begun in the 1980s at the urging of leaders of business and industry, is failing. The reform message, powerfully reinforced by mainstream media, is simple:

1. America’s schools are, at best, mediocre.
2. Teachers and students deserve most of the blame.
3. As a corrective, rigorous subject-matter standards and tests must be put in place.
4. Market forces must be brought to bear to pressure teachers and students to work to those standards.

Collaboration Agent

This post is cross-posted from www.joebower.org Collaboration is a very important skill to have. If you are a teacher or parent, you know how cumbersome group projects can be. Sometimes the project itself is the least of our concerns. But is it possible to collaborate too much? I took some class time to show my [...]