In New York City, one of the most diverse yet segregated school systems in America, privileged parents routinely object to, resist, manipulate, and scheme to avoid sending their children to school with others whom they deem undesirable. It is easy to condemn these white, upper-middle-class resistors to school integration and de-tracking […]
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Care is What Matters. Assessment is the Tell
Speaking glibly against high-stakes testing is easy but their effects are like residual pesticides. They linger in systems long after their application. The ideas that prompted their widespread use persist even among those who might disavow over-testing. Sometimes detection of toxic testing residuals can be tricky. Standing in front […]
We Are All Values Voters
We are all values voters. As George Lakoff has consistently argued, people vote their values first, not policy positions. What, then brought the United States to the point when, according to recent polls, a significant majority of Americans think the country “is going in the wrong direction.” Let’s start by discarding […]
Privatization: Education Eggs in the Wrong Basket
Don’t let the government take away your democracy. It’s at risk, especially in education. Two developments caught my attention this week. In both cases, policy makers acted to promote the idea that parents should shop for schools just like when they go to the market to buy eggs. Democracy […]
Privatize Schools? Look for Evidence, But Not at First.
Want to know whether charter schools and education vouchers are good ideas? Don’t look for evidence– at least not at first. I am a science educator. Evidence is at the core of the practice of science. Science educators teach their students that a claim about how the natural world […]
If Not Now, When?
Without one another we are diminished. The more we have others around us, the stronger we can become. That is the idea of the common good. It’s not a uniquely American idea, but it is one with which many of us identify. Republicans in Congress have a different idea. It applies to guns, health care, […]
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