Why teaching isn’t like law or medicine
The teacher certification debate at edspresso this week is interesting, and Ed Sector staffer Kevin Carey lays out the best of the anti-certification arguments. Then out pops this: The fact that teacher certification is regulated by the government also makes it unduly subject to political pressures—one reason, I suspect, that the standards for entering the teaching […]
Bulleted ed-policy sliders
Charter-school report? PDK/Gallup poll? I’ve been preparing for the semester and don’t have time for a long entry on this, but here are a few quick (and idiosyncratic) perspectives on the big education news today: While the responses on the poll to reform vs. alternative system have remained somewhat consistent over the years Gallup has […]
Teen expectations: too little or too much?
Alexandra Robbins’ new book on elite college-prep students The Overachievers is sparking a grumpy response from Jay Mathews this morning (hat tip: Kevin Carey): Our real national problem is not that we ask most teens to do too much, but too little. (emphasis added) This is a century-long debate, going back to Progressive-era administrators who […]
Smooth work satisfies
Took a little bit of time to go out of the house to ChainCafé this afternoon to finish preparing an EPAA article for this week. Smooth… a few minor editorial changes, then the usual format issues (change hyphens to en-dashes where needed, expand the italicized text a bit) and send it off to the author […]
Galleys of Florida education reform book, take 2
Just arrived at my house: second set of galleys for Education Reform in Florida. Time to start checking them against the first set of galleys and then finish the indexing.