The Pulse

Change Every Child Needs

This year’s presidential election campaigns have been dominated by talk of change, but in politics talk of change is cheap. Unfortunately, for the most part it’s the same story in public education, where most talk of change—despite the best intentions—produces few meaningful results and change initiatives melt away like passing fads. In the end, everything continues on as it has in a strange kind of obstinate stability.

Teachers Can't Be Trusted to Use Google or Email an Attachment

But this is perfectly fine?

Texas School District To Let Teachers Carry Concealed Firearms

You Must Rethink Technology Standards

In 2004, I had the great privilege of being hired to consult and lead professional development in India. One of the highlights of the trip was being on a panel discussion with Dr. Sugata Mitra and a billionaire high-tech exec. The purpose of the day was a school convening it's community and experts to discuss the future of education. (How many of your schools have that sort of event on its calendar?)

First We Destroy the Teacher Unions...

Sounds good, right? Then what?

A Matter of Equity

THE 2003-2004 SCHOOL YEAR started like most new school years do, with high energy and high expectations for students, teachers, and school administrators. That September, according to Cities in Crisis, a new report released in April by America’s Promise Alliance, approximately 592,000 freshman high school students were enrolled in the principal school districts serving the nation’s 50 largest metro areas. Four years later in the spring of 2007, only 52 percent of these students graduated. That means that more than 280,000 students failed to graduate from these 50 districts, collectively accounting for 23 percent of the nation’s non-graduates, but only 14 percent of its ninth-graders.

Downsizing in CyberSpace: In Search of a Social Networking Diet

By Dr. Yvonne Marie Andrés, President & Co-Founder, Global SchoolNet Foundation

I MUST downsize the time I spend in CyberSpace. As wonderful as it is to connect with like-minded and amazing folks from around the world, I have officially run out of real time minutes to support these relationships. My virtual world has become obese and bursting at the seams. My only hope is to go on a radical social-networking diet.

Life after Death for Reading First

The Senate appropriations committee has joined the House of Representatives in cutting off funds in the 2009 budget for Reading First. That followed a series of damning reports by the Inspector General showing conflicts of interest in the administration of Reading First that resulted in the 6 billion dollars spent over the last six years enriching avaricious authors and their high handed publishers. The coup de gras came with the report of the federal Institute for Educational Science study that showed no improvement in comprehension for the kids who had the one-size-fits-all reading first program.

Wolin, Democracy, and The Math Wars

All You Ever Need to Know About Learning

Is embodied in a sequence of six videos of Max Schank, age 7 months.

Who Do You Nominate to Be Secretary of Education?

Either President Obama or President McCain will appoint a Secretary of Education. Who do you recommend and why?