Testing Students to Grade Teachers

http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/05/30/testing-students-to-grade-teachers

Public Schools to start Charging

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703864204576313572363698678.html

Gates Foundation Funds

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/22/education/22gates.html?_r=1&hp

This I think is very important to consider going further with this club and this research. We try and read and become informed, and sometimes it's easy to forget that the people we read and who are conducting studies might be getting funded by people who have their own personal agendas. It definitely should cause us to be critical and analytical of what we read, and search for multiple opinions.

4 Day School Week to Save Costs?

http://www.philly.com/philly/education/20110505_Two_Pennsylvania_school_districts_weigh_four-day_week.html

My question is, who is this serving: the kids or the teachers? They would be going from 180 days to 154. Doing it as an effort to save special classes I can understand, maybe, but doing it as an effort to save from teacher layoffs I'm less convinced. Thoughts?

Good Education Blogs:

Want to be able to find good education articles when you have free time and want to see what's going on?Here are some good sources to bookmark on your computer. (Listed in no particular order) Feel free to comment and add to the list. The good thing about many of these links is that they will be able to lead you to much more information from their posts.


1. Eduwonk.com
A blog written by Andrew Rotherham, Co-founder and Partner at Bellwether Education Partners, a national nonprofit devoted to helping low-income students in the achievement gap

2. http://www.joannejacobs.com/
Longtime journalist and current media fellow at the Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy and at the Hoover Institution at Stanford

3.http://www.educationgadfly.net/flypaper/
The blog of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, an institution devoted to educational policy and politics

4.http://www.quickanded.com/
The blog of Education Sector, an independent think tank located in Washington D.C focused on education policy and reform

5. http://charterinsights.blogspot.com/
A blog dedicated to lessons learned in operating charters and current discussions/policies of the charter school movement. It focuses mainly on Colorodo but has some national insights as well.

6.http://educationpolicyblog.blogspot.comomics, and psyc
A blog written by a group of people who are interested in the state of education, bringing a multitude of perspectives hoping to inform policy and practice. Covers a broad range of topics including philosophy, history, curriculum theory, sociology and economics.


7.http://www.studentsforedreform.org/blog
The national blog representing Students for Education Reform, an organization of college students on various campuses who are interested in the future of education for the country.


8. http://www.storiesfromschool.org/
A blog of National Board Certified teachers who write and how policy is impacting teaching and learning in their classrooms in an effort to shed light on a larger national conversation


9.http://www.myeducationalplan.com/
A cool blog that links to all the National publications of each day in the News that cover education


10.http://education.nationaljournal.com/
A well rounded and reputable blog on education policy


11. http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/Bridging-Differences/
Harvard School of Education's daily education blog

Does School Reform 'Damage Poor Children?'

Alfie Kohn in the Washington Post writes an interesting op/ed piece about his take on the educational reform movement. He argues that with the emphasis on testing and results, rather than closing the achievement gap, the heavy emphasis on memorization actually widens the achievement gap because the wealthier students can focus on critical thinking.

Read it here: Kohn's Piece

Here is an another article that challenges and takes issue with many of Kohn's Points.

Some Debate On The Salary of Teachers

Here was a seemingly uncontroversial NYT op-ed from the Sunday paper, and then a critical review from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute. Be sure to also check out the links to the other articles in the 2nd to last paragraph of the Fordham piece for more views on teacher pay.

Dave Eggers Op Ed

Education Gadfly Response

I liked this discussion because when I had first read the Eggers op/ed, I felt like he was saying nothing new, but nothing necessarily disagreeable. So I was glad to see people raising a critical eye to it. I know this year I definitely want to learn more about the debate surrounding payment of teachers, as that is something I personally worry about when I consider education as a potential career.

An Introduction

As we begin our year long journey into the complicated depths of ed-reform, let's try to leave our biases at the table and come in ready to learn, and ready to "unlearn" things we thought maybe we knew before. This is going to be a group effort, and I think we'll all get out of it as much as we put in.

I think this article is a good one to keep in mind as we start this blog.

Steeped in Rhetoric

So as a reminder: anyone in the club can post articles to this forum, and anyone, regardless of whether they are in the club or not, has the ability to comment on our discussions.