Ripley Rips, Charter Board Partners Grows, Teachers Unions Are The Talk Of The Nation

Amanda Ripley lets loose in the Wall Street Journal:

What happened in Chicago is about more than just Chicago. It’s about the deeper problem of transforming America’s schools. For too long our education reformers have tried to create a professional teaching corps from the top down, and union leaders have fought to maintain an untenable system. Both sides need to enter the 21st century.

Jane Hannaway and I discussed teachers unions and this WaPo article and this book today on NPR’s Talk of the Nation today.

Charter Board Partners, interesting and important organization, is growing and is hiring a program assistant.  You can also connect with them via LinkedIn.    Learn more here via this video.

8 Replies to “Ripley Rips, Charter Board Partners Grows, Teachers Unions Are The Talk Of The Nation”

  1. Re: Ripley. Look, we could have gone Finland’s way with teacher preparation and unions joining the professionalism solution, but instead, we went down the road of punishment and intimidation. Is it any wonder the unions seem static? It’s all they can do to just maintain in the face of wave after wave of criticism. Some deserved, most not. When push comes to shove, the unions will not cave in completely. Ripley only tells half the story of Finland. The changes to teacher training came with greater social safety nets, more economic equity, and better health care for all citizens. Canadians don’t have to push so hard in education to increase outcomes because like the Finns, they have other social structures in place to support families and children.

  2. Staffing

    Over 600 new full and part-time positions to staff longer school day in subjects such as art, music and PE.
    Oh my God/Allah/Yahweh/et. al

    Undoubtably, the Professional Education Reform crowd will channel Kaya Henderson and tell us that she didn’t see a return on investment from fulltime librarians.

  3. It might be interesting to think about how this is a larger, international issue. Check out the latest post at International Education News – a scan of global news related to educational policy and change covering September so far.

    We can start to make connections between what is happening in America, and prominent issues from around the world, such as teacher protests in the UK, Australia, Slovakia, & Kenya. Also, what about student protests in Chile and China?

    http://internationalednews.com/2012/09/20/scan-of-education-news-september-1st-18th/

  4. How did Finland become flavor of the week for those opposing education reform?

    You all do realize that Finland, like virtually every country in the world outside the US, has a “high stakes” exam system that makes anything we do in the US seem like coloring books, right? And that that is fundamentally at odds with what the unions have been demanding for decade (no oversight, no responsibility, and more money for fewer students)?

  5. A high stakes exam for the kids. DC DC-CAS or Maryland MSA or any other states NCLB exams are not high stakes, not even raw steak , for the students.
    It doesn’t affect grade level placement or their grades. Princeton and harvard et. al. don’t look at it.

  6. Journalists and publishers get an idea that adequate research has been done by you.
    You may have gone to some big time websites and seen a link to what they
    call their “newsroom”. Just remember you are not the only
    person offering information.

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