The war over public education has been waged over the last decade or so by two opposing factions; a battle between David and Goliath, if you will. There are numerous distinctions between the two sides, characterized by issues of wealth and power. “Goliath” in our analogy is the “corporate reform of education” movement and their advance army of standard-bearers, a […]

It wasn’t easy narrowing this list down to just 5 things, but here we go! She Set the Predatory Lenders Free. By gutting regulations intended to protect students, many of whom are veterans, minorities, and first-generation college attendees, from being defrauded by predatory schools and colleges, Betsy has put the interests of these for-profit colleges—some of which she has personal financial […]

I think we need to start being very intentional with the language we use when referring to organizations like Teach for America (TfA) and the persons who decide to join them–and having made some of the mistakes I’m about to point out myself, I’m taking the liberty of making the following suggestions: • There are no TfA “teachers”–teachers decide to […]

I read a lot of stuff on education policy, written by a wide range of authors. Some are bright, well-informed, and experienced teachers. Most are not. But this piece here maybe the silliest article on education reform I’ve seen in a long, long time. It’s by an author I have to admit I’d never heard of until today…Robin Lake, from […]

Every time I go out to observe one of our music student teachers, I come away thinking three things… 1. These new music teachers are really, really good. Much better than I was just coming out of school. More musically versatile, more aware of the profession, so passionate about teaching kids about music. In spite of the doom & gloom […]

Attorney General Bill Schuette has been part of the team running the state of Michigan for the past 8 years. Why anyone would think he has suddenly come up with some new, out-of-the-box ideas on how to improve the state’s schools, just because he’s now running for governor, is simply beyond me. But the good folks over at Bridge took […]

Some thoughts on the “can’t we just be civil?” argument… 1. I have approximately zero interest in remaining “civil” when the “opinions” held by those in power legislate my trans students out of existence…or make it possible to fire gay employees for being gay…or separate kids from their parents at the border…or denigrate women…or refer to Mexicans as rapists…or label […]

I recently returned from a week in Shanghai, China, where I had been invited to speak at a conference and serve as a consultant to a group of Chinese music educators who are developing a music assessment system for use in their schools. While I was there I kept a running log of reflections on what I noticed, and the […]

“Parents, by their very nature, should decide what, when, where and how their children learn,” DeVos said. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos is at it again. Currently on her second “Rethink Schools” tour, “DeVos will swing by four states: Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana.” Two tours of public schools in two years on the job–the poor woman must be exhausted. And […]

The Thomas B. Fordham Institute is a conservative think tank focused on education policy issues. One of their frequent contributors is a person named Dale Chu. Full disclosure: I do not know Mr. Chu, we’ve never met, and I’ve only glanced at his blog posts in the past. I do know that I’ve never run across any of his scholarly […]

In this installment of The Charter School Follies we meet our hero, Eva Moskowitz, the CEO and founder of one of America’s most well-known “No Excuses” charter management corporations, Success Academy Charter Schools in New York City. Ms. Moskowitz, who never studied education, never taught in a public school, and “thought half of her teachers in high school were incompetent”, shares in […]