Exam reflections
Today I finished grading my summer class finals. USF’s Blackboard installation is throwing a hissy fit when I try to upload the grades, and it’s Sunday, so I’ll wait for the tech wizards to straighten things out early in the week. In the meantime, since my brain is fried, I’ll repeat a few thoughts I’ve […]
The clinching argument for national curriculum standards
“Let’s do it now, before total nuts from Texas take over!” To be truthful, there have also been nuts in New York, Florida, California, and other places (and of various flavors) where a state’s size gives enormous temptations to warp the textbook approval process as leverage for controlling the entire country’s text market. That’s not […]
Crazy idea on teaching induction…
One more idea while my attention wanders from writing the exam for tomorrow morning: why do large school systems rotate administrators on the principle that they “need experience in a range of settings” for leadership purposes and then keep new teachers in the same school year after year? Who needs more rotation through a range […]
Journalistic kudos on NCES NAEP-gap analysis
I agree with Alexander Russo: much of the news coverage of the new NAEP score releases has been sober and nuanced, the stuff that the New York Times can be proud of (as opposed to stuff that prods Brad DeLong). It looks like the Ed Week coverage came too late for Russo’s entry. And now […]
Intellectual baubles
Jay Greene’s comment about intellectual fetishes and think-tank cliques had me grinning from ear to ear this morning, in part because of the multiple layers I’m reading into the comment (and that I doubt Greene intended: I use Janice Radway as my excuse to poach) and in part because Heathers is one of my favorite […]