The Pulse - Education's Place for Debate

Teacher Dropouts

Pete Reilly — 3/24/2008 6:53:22 PM

Having 30% -40% of our students drop out of school; and losing 40%-50% of our new teaching corps is not acceptable.

It's 3 AM and the White House Wants to Change Your Math Curriculum

Gary Stager — 3/18/2008 5:52:38 AM

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President Bush's National Math Advisory Panel has released its final report and several Pulse Contributing Editors discuss the merits of the effort while none if surprised by the panel's focus on "core math skills."

Read these provocative articles and share them with colleagues! Post your comments as well.

Just the Facts, Ma'am

Roger Schank — 3/18/2008 5:36:08 AM

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There is no evidence whosoever that says that a nation that is trailing in math test scores will somehow trail in GDP or whatever it is you really care about. This is just plain silly, but we keep repeating the mantra that we are behind Korea in math as if it has been proven that this matters in some way...

Presidential Math Panel Vows to Increase Learning Disabilities

Gary Stager — 3/18/2008 5:17:59 AM

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In a world-class display of side-splitting math teacher humor, National Math Advisory Panel member Francis “Skip” Fennell told the New York Times, “Just as “plastics” was the catchword in the 1967 movie The Graduate, the catchword for math teachers today should be ‘fractions.’“

Great Documents in Education # 7 - What Makes Mathematics Hard to Learn

Great Documents — 3/17/2008 4:11:38 PM

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World-class scientist, artificial intelligence pioneer and thinker about thinking, Dr. Marvin Minsky has written a provocative essay about mathematics learning (and education). Read it here...

Mathematics and Policy

David Thornburg — 3/17/2008 4:21:17 PM

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Recent pronouncements from Washington regarding math education have suggested that pedagogical points of view don't matter in the teaching of mathematics. For example: "There is no basis in research for favoring teacher-based or student-centered instruction," Dr. Larry R. Faulkner, the chairman of the panel, said at a briefing last Wednesday. "

Too bad he, Secretary Spellings and by extension, their boss - The President of the United States, are demonstrably wrong.

Another Pi Day Ruined by Presidential Politics

Michael Paul Goldenberg — 3/17/2008 3:42:35 PM

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The NY Times reported on March 14, 2008, "Report Urges Changes in Teaching Math." No little irony that this appeared on Pi Day, probably the only time in the school year when many mathematics teachers across the country try to find a grade-appropriate activity/lesson on the same topic. This is about as close as America comes to a national curriculum in mathematics...

The Majesty of Urban Public Education

Stuff 2.0 — 3/5/2008 6:56:53 PM

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Essayist and NPR commentator, Sandra Tsing Loh, has written a terrific article celebrating the wonders of urban public education for March 2008 issue of The Atlantic Magazine.

500,000 Schools

Dan Kinnaman — 4/29/2008 9:40:34 AM

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Smaller schools score higher across the board.

Those Who Would Be President Pontificate on Education

Susan Ohanian — 1/17/2008 1:40:43 PM

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Education does not get much play in the debates. People who care about the issues should pay close attention to what the candidates are saying, even though they lie. I guess we the electorate choose which lies we want to believe. *Republicans 1) Rudy Giuliani: whose education advisory board should give you ....

The NEA’s Approach to Encourage More Reading: Like Dealing with Hunger by Hosting Wine-Tasting Parties

Stephen Krashen — 1/3/2008 6:12:01 AM

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The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) has come up with a bad solution to a problem that doesn’t exist!

Read more...

Defeating NCLB and the Campaign of Movement Conservatism which Produced It

Ken Goodman — 12/21/2007 12:10:45 PM

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It is possible that we have already had some success in forcing Presidential candidates to take a stand on NCLB. There certainly is a strong contrast between the rhetoric on education of the Republications and the Democrats.

Read more...

Do Kids Read Less for Fun? Blame Standardized Tests

Alfie Kohn — 11/28/2007 7:50:55 PM

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Several years ago, a teacher who regularly invited her students to "drop everything and read" their favorite books was asked by a colleague whether she was still setting aside class time for that purpose. ....

Bush is Winning This War!!!!

Gerald Coles — 11/15/2007 5:33:57 PM

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O.K., Mission Accomplished hasn't been accomplished in Iraq and the Taliban in Afghanistan remain strong, but let's give credit where it's due. The president has been fighting several wars at once and while his hands are full with his wars abroad, here at home his wars are going splendidly. As ....

Technology in Education
Teacher Training: Oh, Oh!

Ron Canuel — 11/1/2007 6:28:21 AM

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Banking on the next generation of teachers may still be a long shot, given the current training systems in place.

The Inside Scoop on Teach for America

Barnett Berry — 11/1/2007 6:02:25 AM

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Teach for America (TFA) really may be more like Enron than Google... TFA is spending about $125,000 per teacher!

Act Now to Overhaul NCLB!

Monty Neill — 10/15/2007 4:11:39 PM

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Now is a critical time for educators -- school board members, administrators, teachers and other staff -- parents and community members to contact their Congressional representatives and demand a thorough overhaul of the law.

What if Every Child had a Laptop and Nothing Changed?

Bruce Dixon — 10/11/2007 4:41:08 AM

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We need to continuously be challenging ourselves, and asking whether we are doing enough...

Teaching...And All That Jazz

Etta Kralovec — 8/25/2007 11:16:49 AM

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I love to listen to jazz; watching jazz musicians play together is one of life?s greatest pleasures for me. I am not an aficionado or a jazz buff, I can?t play jazz, I am just a fan. Beyond the music of jazz, I am drawn into jazz, in part, because ....

Separate, but Equal?

Pedro Noguera — 7/11/2007 2:05:19 PM

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With the US Supreme Court's recent ruling in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1 (05-908) and Crystal Meredith v. Jefferson County Board of Education (05-915), we have formally returned to legally sanctioned segregation...

A "Reading First" New Edition?

Linda Polin — 6/1/2007 7:52:11 PM

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How long will it take for "Help! Mom! There are Liberals Under My Bed!" to be in your school library? Will "Help! Mom! Hollywood's in My Hamper!" be tested by Accelerated Reader?

Read more...

TwitterLiteracy and Buy a Friend a Book Week

Yvonne Andres — 5/9/2007 6:28:37 PM

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TwitterLiteracy and Buy a Friend a Book Week Hey educators ? are you looking for more innovative ways to increase student literacy? Two of my newest discoveries are TwitterLit and BAFAB. TwitterLit.com - Twittering the first lines of books so you don't have to! If you are a writer or a book lover ? ....

The Steep "Unlearning Curve"

Will Richardson — 2/7/2007 10:06:28 AM

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One of the most challenging pieces of figuring out how to move education forward in a systemic way is "unlearning curve" that we teachers and educators have to go through to even see the possibilities that lay before us. So much of our traditional thinking about personal learning and classroom practice is being challenged ....

The Formative Assessment Flap

W. James Popham — 9/28/2006 10:40:49 AM

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In 1998, Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam, published results of an extensive, meta-analytic review of research regarding the instructional payoffs of well-conceived classroom assessments. These two British researches concluded that classroom assessment, if properly implemented, could not only improve how well students were learning what was being taught in class, but could also meaningfully boost students’ scores on external achievement exams.

Students Rating YOUR Teachers Online

Odvard Egil Dyrli — 8/30/2006 12:00:00 AM

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Throughout my years of supervising, when I suggested that teachers ask students to evaluate the quality of their teaching anonymously, it seemed that many would rather throw up through their noses. "The students won't know the value of what I am teaching until later in their lives," said one, and "It doesn't matter what ....

The Pulse - Education's Place for Debate

Teacher Dropouts

It's 3 AM and the White House Wants to Change Your Math Curriculum

Just the Facts, Ma'am

Presidential Math Panel Vows to Increase Learning Disabilities

Great Documents in Education # 7 - What Makes Mathematics Hard to Learn

Mathematics and Policy

Another Pi Day Ruined by Presidential Politics

The Majesty of Urban Public Education

500,000 Schools

Those Who Would Be President Pontificate on Education

The NEA’s Approach to Encourage More Reading: Like Dealing with Hunger by Hosting Wine-Tasting Parties

Defeating NCLB and the Campaign of Movement Conservatism which Produced It

Do Kids Read Less for Fun? Blame Standardized Tests

Bush is Winning This War!!!!

Technology in EducationTeacher Training: Oh, Oh!

The Inside Scoop on Teach for America

Act Now to Overhaul NCLB!

What if Every Child had a Laptop and Nothing Changed?

Teaching...And All That Jazz

Separate, but Equal?

A "Reading First" New Edition?

TwitterLiteracy and Buy a Friend a Book Week

The Steep "Unlearning Curve"

The Formative Assessment Flap

Students Rating YOUR Teachers Online

Technology in Education
Teacher Training: Oh, Oh!