Tag Archive for ‘eduwonk’ at The Core Knowledge Blog

Tag Archive for 'eduwonk'

21st Century B.C. Skills

Published by Robert Pondiscio on October 30, 2008 in Core Knowledge, Curriculum and Education Theory. 4 Comments

Eduwonk Andy Rotherham gives voice today to something that has been irritating me for a while now–the careless and self-indulgent tossing about of the phrase “21st Century Skills” to describe the simple outcome of a sound, basic education. Problem solving, critical thinking and cooperative learning have been with us in this country since we hunted in groups using spears with Clovis points. As Andy puts it:

We’re not the first society where those skills have been needed or valued. What’s changed is the need — for both equity and economic reasons — to give many more students a high quality education that allows them to develop these skills. In other words it’s about broadening access to a good education rather than a radically different conception of what a good education is. If dressing that up as 21st Century Skills helps sell an equity agenda, that’s great, otherwise we are flattering ourselves some about just how revolutionary the world we live in really is.

Amen. The sooner we stop nattering on about “21st Century” skills the better, especially since the phrase tends to be code for devaluing the content-rich curriculum that makes critical thinking possible.

Adjunct For America

Published by Robert Pondiscio on July 8, 2008 in Educational Policy and Teaching. 3 Comments

Fascinating idea from Andy Rotherham at Eduwonk today, who blogs about creating a mechanism to open schools to part-time teachers, especially retired teachers:

There are some national service ideas floating around on this but they tend to focus on full time teaching. Another way to approach it would be to create more adjunct teachers, especially at the high school level. While teaching full-time may be more intense and more of a time commitment than some people want as a post-retirement option, capturing some of their time is one way to help address the various human capital challenges education faces….There are other part-timers out there, too, for instance mothers with young children, who could be tapped.

I’d add corporations in science and technology to the list of talent sources. If turning out qualified students is their concern, might as well help out. “Facilitating all this would be an attractive niche for a non-profit, too,” Andy notes.

Who Is Eduwonkette?

Published by Robert Pondiscio on July 7, 2008 in Opinion. 1 Comment

NYC’s best education reporter, Elizabeth Green of the NY Sun, has a big piece this morning about anonymous blogger Eduwonkette, whose blog has become “a thorn in the side” of the New York City Department of Education.

DOE communications chief David Cantor and Eduwonk Andy Rotherham are among those who take shots at EW, alleging that her anonymity keeps readers from evaluating her bias. Having spent decades in the news business before becoming a teacher, I should be predisposed to agree. So why doesn’t her anonymity bug me? Perhaps it’s the nature of her blog. By focusing on research, EW on her best days functions as a first-rate BS detector, saying in essence “here’s the data. You decide.” The fact that she’s got deep pocketed institutions and major players in the edusphere taking shots at her is a testament to her impact. Indeed, you can probably divide edubloggers into two camps: those who admit they are envious of EW’s impact…and liars.

But that’s her second most significant accomplishment. Her first is that she makes education research entertaining. Her anonymity may be frustrating to her critics, but her blog is indispensible.