Ecology of Education

Race to the Top, Obama Administration’s $4.35 billion education initiative, has been touted many times by the President and his Secretary of Education Arne Duncan as “the most meaningful education reform in a generation”. It is also been proposed as the blueprint for the upcoming reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), currently bearing the […]

Here’s what you need to know about “Waiting for ‘Superman.” It’s not a film — it’s a propaganda campaign. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. The term “propaganda” has gotten a bad rap, ever since its association with 20th-century totalitarian governments promoting troubling political objectives. But there is a long and honorable tradition of propaganda […]

NBC’s Education Nation confirmed their list of panelists for the upcoming education summit — none of whom are teachers and all of whom seem to take snaps from the same ed reform playbook. All except for the lone Randi Weingarten. She will play the role of Dissenting Voice in an ed reform narrative that is being ballyhooed across […]

Standards Express

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 “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 […]

Corporate America has given us Big Banks (banks too big to fail) & Big Pharma (a pharmaceutical industry too big to fight). Coming soon to a school near you, courtesy of corporate America: Big Ed

It came as quite a surprise for some when Florida was not listed among the winners of Race to the Top. What went wrong? A look at Senate Bill 6 & House Bill 7189, reveals Florida’s failure to collaborate.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy Education Secretary Arne Duncan, Rev Al Sharpton, and former speaker of the house, Newt Gingrich discuss learning, accountability, Race to the Top, and their bipartisan effort to affect change in our education system. (I first saw this clip on The Efficacy Institute’s website.)

Curiously, curiosity is no-where to be found in reform measures being debated today.  Rather, curiosity is left to scrub the proverbial floors of our education institutions.  It’s the forgotten and malnourished stepdaughter of NCLB and mistreated stepsister of Race to the Top.  Click on some of the speeches by President Obama and Secretary Duncan and […]

Cheney as the US Inquisitor General of Education, Part 3 (Part 1, Part 2) In a rare slip of Cheney’s iron-fisted totalitarianism, a document from the desk of our nation’s Inquisitor General of Education was leaked to the press yesterday. The document outlines what appears to be plans for a supplemental program in support of […]

On July 29th, 2009, the Department of Education announced the release of a competitive grant program available all states called Race to the Top, or the State Incentive Grant Fund. This program provides 4.3 billion dollars in grant monies to states that demonstrate “significant education reforms across four assurance areas.” 50% of these monies will […]

Education Secretary Arne Duncan has laid out qualifications for entry in the $4.35 billion grant contest, but has left some educators questioning whether states’ efforts to improve education will make a positive impact on their schools.