Richard Whitmire talks with Dale Russakof about “The Prize” and the issues the story raises in a RealClearEducation exclusive.
Dan Willingham wants better teacher preparation. His argument is fundamentally about scale. How do you design effective teacher preparation programs that pitch at the average – because, by definition, in a four million plus workforce that’s what a lot of people will be. Although what he calls for is happening in some ed schools, it’s not happening at anything near scale anywhere. The problems with teacher preparation he identifies? Turns out they’re really scalable!
This Washington State charter school ruling (pdf) is a mess and potentially disruptive for students. And it shows the folly of elected judges (stuff like this just makes people cynical about government). But, elected judges are a problem that extends far beyond this particular case and isn’t really a novel problem either…
California officials are right, don’t panic about the new test scores coming out this fall (Wait, did you say fall? Weren’t the new tests supposed to give faster more usable and actionable feedback for teachers?). Anyhow, what you might want to panic about, at least a little, Californians, is that your education officials thought it was OK to try to hide the ball on school performance and pulled this clown car stunt.
Ted Sizer was one of the great ones in this sector. Ron Matus points out his support for school choice. Sizer wasn’t a big fan of much of what goes on with standardized testing (though he wasn’t hostile to good tests (the MCAS for instance in his state of Massachusetts) but he realized if you weren’t going to have testing you had to have an alternative, which leads you to choice. He also was keenly aware of trade-offs and understood every approach had obvious problems and drawbacks. Too little of that around. I talked with him about some of this a decade ago for an ES interview.
Speaking of impactful leaders, Thomas Sobol has passed. The Times on his life and work here. (And it turns out Diane Ravitch can even politicize an obit these days. I’d insert a joke here but, well, anyway she has a skill or something…)
The Limited is using leaders rather than models in its new campaign. There is at least one education leader in the mix, Nitzan Pelman, at the top, 4th from left.
Darn those pesky elected officials and all those common, average people! If they’d just let us (the elites) make all the decisions, we’d see some real progress, just like in Newark!
(Well, if you don’t laugh…)
(Wait, did you say fall? Weren’t the new tests supposed to give faster more usable and actionable feedback for teachers?).
Well, Andrew, that’s the line you and your coterie have been pimping for a few years now.
Love the way you try to mix it up to the public, as though NCLB tests and PARCC are the same. Undoubtably, you consider GMAT and LSAT the same.
This Washington State charter school ruling (pdf) is a mess and potentially disruptive for students. And it shows the folly of elected judges (stuff like this just makes people cynical about government).
Especially when people like you dissemble and purposefully mislead.
Overall, Andy’s right. He’s right about the research. He’s right about the partisan politics. He’s right about the interest group politics. He’s right about the media coverage. He’s right about where the system is strong and where the system is weak. And most importantly, IMO, he’s right about what serves the interests of parents and kids and what does not.
Just putting this out there, though I know that doing so is going to get me thrown into the ranks of the elite dissemblers and misleaders.
After reading the Washington decision and the state constitution, it seems obvious that the ruling was correct. Is is not as if the ruling is as bizarre and illogical as Bush v. Gore and those were appointed judges. But then again, Rotherham is known for finding lame reasons to support his opinions. Furthermore, to accuse these six judges of being unduly influenced by outside groups is pretty insulting guilt by association. It really is a cheap attack based upon no evidence at all.
Art,
he is especially right when it comes to giving kids a K-5 school where the class size is capped just at 20 and there are two college educated adults in the classroom.
You left that out.
“Tom Sobol was the last state commissioner who understood that education means something more than test-taking and high scores.”
You call this politicizing and obit? That is ridiculous. She gave the guy a compliment.