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And now, a defense of boutique education
At the cost of alienating my new blog-buddy Alexander Russo, who a few days ago said, “Once in a while, Sherman Dorn and I agree about something,” I’m going to go in a slightly different direction from my gripe about the NCLB-and-gifted-ed argument Wednesday. Then, I argued that the defense of gifted education was an inappropriate […]
Ugly arguments against NCLB
There are plenty of ways I can criticize NCLB and its implementation, but to whine that it drains resources for the gifted is one of the more disturbing arguments I’ve read (and today’s story by Joseph Berger isn’t the first time it’s appeared in the New York Times). Particularly wince-inducing passages…
Report: Three of every two government statistics are flawed
Okay, I’m joking. The real headline from the Guardian newspaper is One in five Home Office statistics are unreliable, says department head. Maria Farrell at Crooked Timber makes the point that non-neutral claims of facts degrade public discourse. But I wonder whether even a putatively independent body can create trustworthy facts when they’re subject to subtle […]
Boundaries, agendas, and meta-narratives
Kevin Carey has an interesting discussion about policy perspectives and POV boundaries in the context of a broader discussion about the role of teacher unions. (Minor point here: to his good, bad, and good and bad perspectives on unionization, I’d add look at the d***ed specifics. Also see Michele McLaughin’s response, which I’ll just respond to as […]
Theodore Porter, Trust in Numbers, and picking the right fights
On the way to and from my mother-in-law’s house today, I finished Theodore Porter’s Trust in Numbers (1995). (I should say that I finished it while my spouse was driving!) While I was distraught this morning at Porter’s style, I slogged through, a matter which I knew was important. And the book has plenty of […]