(NOTE: This article is cross-posted at www.samchaltain.com) It’s almost election season in DC, which means I need to decide once and for all if Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee – and, by extension, Mayor Adrian Fenty – deserve another four years at the helm. Here are the arguments as I see them: On one hand, it’s [...]
Category Archives: Uncategorized
We Need a New Set of “Words, Words, Words”
August 5, 2010 – 11:49 am
(NOTE: This piece is also posted on http://www.samchaltain.com/blog) On the radio this morning, I heard three different stories about public education reform. In each story, I heard the same three words — data, testing, and accountability. Before I get any more depressed about how uninspiring this language makes me feel, I have a proposal to [...]
New Resource: ESEA Toolkit
August 1, 2010 – 5:27 pm
Earlier this month, the Forum for Education and Democracy and its Rethink Learning Now partners released a toolkit to assist students, parents, educators, and anyone else interested in advocating for a better Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), the main federal education law, which is past due for reauthorization. (ESEA should have been reauthorized in 2007.) [...]
All Systems Go!
July 19, 2010 – 8:59 am
(This blog is also posted at www.samchaltain.com) Increasingly, I hear people talking about the need for “systems change” and “systems thinking,” and when I do I always wonder what people mean when they say it. My own interest in systems thinking began a few years ago when I read Peter Senge’s classic The 5th Discipline. [...]
What No One Else Will Say About Teach for America
July 16, 2010 – 10:38 am
There’s an interesting debate unfolding on the New York Times web site this week around this question: Does Teach for America Improve the Teaching Profession? Unfortunately, too many of the featured contributors — who have sparked hundreds of readers to offer their own feedback — chose to cast TFA in one of two terms: as [...]
What Gandhi Would Think of “The Lottery”
July 6, 2010 – 2:05 pm
I just saw The Lottery – a documentary film about public education in general, and the charter school movement in particular – and I feel like I’ve been punched in the gut. The film is beautiful, and deeply moving, It is impossible not to fall in love with the four children (and their families) whose [...]
Tribal Leadership — The Business of School Reform
June 29, 2010 – 11:03 am
I’m in Chicago this week attending the National Charter Schools Conference, and on the plane this morning I continued reading a book that was recommended to me last week by Zappos’ Tony Hsieh, called Tribal Leadership. It’s a fascinating book to be reading as we prepare to start a completely new school. And as someone [...]
A Progressive by Any Other Name
June 21, 2010 – 10:04 am
Cross posted at The Critical Skills Blog I’m at the Progress in Progressive Education Conference at the Putney School today. I’ve been tweeting a bit- and will probably tweet more- but something that Howard Gardner said this morning is still ringing in my ears. The fact that we call something “Progressive” or “Traditional” doesn’t make [...]
Name the Book Competition — We May Have a Winner!
June 16, 2010 – 9:53 am
First off, thanks are in order to everyone who has weighed in thus far to offer useful feedback on our ongoing search for a title to the forthcoming book of 50 learning stories. Yesterday, I had a long meeting with the publisher’s marketing folks, and when I explained to them the concept for the cover [...]
Teaching, Learning, and Fairness: Meeting the Needs of All Learners in a Diverse Society
June 16, 2010 – 7:05 am
At the intersection of teaching, learning, and fairness is an approach to education that supports all children, regardless of ability or background, in reaching their full potential. One of the toughest challenges we face is helping kids with dramatically different skill levels meet the uniform demands of a standardized curriculum. Ironically, addressing this challenge with fairness in mind requires that we discard the notion of uniform results.
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