Archive for January 31st, 2008

Talking NCLB

Published by Robert Pondiscio on January 31, 2008 in Curriculum and Podcast and Video. 0 Comments

Diane Rehm ShowGreg Toppo of USA Today, Ed Trust’s Amy Wilkins, Joel Packer of the NEA and others chew on No Child Left Behind on WAMU’s Diane Rehm show (Katty Kay of the BBC guest hosts). Listen here.

Wilkins understates the degree to which testing has narrowed curriculum, but lays the blame on the states anyway. “What we’ve seen in too many states and too many school districts, is they’re leaving teachers without a good strong curriculum,” says Wilkins, who wants to see the Feds “provide states with money to develop good strong rich curriculum tools. The way to raise student achievement is a broad, rich, deep curriculum. The problem is the states and the districts haven’t provided teachers with those curriculum tools leaving teachers with only the tests to teach too.”

Toppo points out the futility of talking about comparisons between the U.S. and other countries since “there 50 different standards, one for each state.”

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Reading Blockheads

Published by Robert Pondiscio on January 31, 2008 in Education Practice. 0 Comments

Britannica BlogAt the suggestion of today’s ASCD “Smart Brief” I clicked over to the Britannica Blog to check out its education section. Good suggestion. While there, I stumbled upon a terrific Karin Chenoweth piece that escaped my notice when it was posted late last year. What Exactly are Kids Reading in those “Reading Blocks”? Go. Read. Discuss.

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Running Records

Published by Robert Pondiscio on January 31, 2008 in Running Records. 0 Comments

Caught Being Good

The Humane Society of the U.S.
Undercover videotape catches workers slaughtering sick cattle and possibly distributing the meat to school lunch programs.

Gov. Phil Bredesen
Tennessee Governor’s major high school reform plan approved unanimously by the state board of education.

Mark Bauerlein
Emory English Professor’s piece in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Less Critical Thinking, More Learned Appreciation, is for college professors, but applies to all teachers.

Nancy S. Grasmick
Ed Week ranks Maryland’s schools third in the nation, but the superintendent of schools still smacked by Gov. as the “poster child for No Child Left Behind.”

Names on the Blackboard

Hawaii
A report shows about half of all math and social studies classes are taught by unqualified teachers

On the Board with Checkmarks

The National Association of Mortgage Brokers
NAMB has formed a Presidential Advisory Council which will help educate consumers about financial issues and “responsible decision making.” Your punch line here.

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The Children Aren’t Above Average

Published by Robert Pondiscio on January 31, 2008 in Education Practice, Education Theory and Opinion. 0 Comments

SalonIf you missed Garrison Keillor’s lament about the state of education on Salon yesterday (thanks A. Russo) take a look. Stick around to scroll through the responses, many of which can be summarized as “I love Prarie Home Companion, but…”

“This is a bleak picture for an old Democrat,” writes Keillor. “Face it, the schools are not run by Republican oligarchs in top hats and spats but by perfectly nice, caring, sharing people, with a smattering of yoga/raga/tofu/mojo/mantra folks like my old confreres. Nice people are failing these kids, but when they are called on it, they get very huffy. When the grand poobah Ph.D.s of education stand up and blow, they speak with great confidence about theories of teaching, and considering the test results, the bums ought to be thrown out.”

Lots of nice people getting very huffy in the comments section.

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Any Portfolio In A Storm

Published by Robert Pondiscio on January 31, 2008 in Education Practice. 0 Comments

There are two essential survival skills a bad teacher needs in order to mask his or her incompetence. The first is how to put up a great bulletin board. The second is how to compile a portfolio of student work. Get these two dog-and-pony show moves down pat, add some decent classroom management skills, and you’ll have your job until the sun goes out.

ASCDKeep that in mind as you watch The Education Policy Research Unit at Arizona State University kill a mosquito with a howitzer, the mosquito being a “research report” from the conservative Lexington Institute titled Portfolios: A Backward Step in School Accountability. As a summary in ASCD’s Educational Leadership notes, “the review concludes that policymakers would do well to engage in a broader exploration of multiple measures, which would be a step forward—not backward—in school accountability.”

Maybe so. I’m not going to defend the Lexington scholarship or criticize Arizona’s review. However, the messenger and the message deserve to be uncoupled. Having seen hastily compiled portfolios used to justify promoting students who failed state tests, I can’t imagine using them as the basis for any legitimate accountability system.

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