On Ravitch, Reign of Error
Bottom line: Diane Ravitch’s Reign of Error captures the bulk of concerns that critics voice about the current wave of American school reform. The primary audience includes teachers, and others who hold views similar to Ravitch’s. It also is useful as a quick reference guide to the arguments by reform critics, as most of the […]
Call for Papers: The comparative and international history of school accountability and testing
The current set of debates within national education systems includes significant discussion and enactment of school accountability mechanisms. While there is considerable variation among countries, the internationalization of test-based accountability is a significant and recent phenomenon. That broader pattern of accountability has a history that overlaps with both the history of testing and the broader […]
The wrong moves for faculty
At the start of the academic year, it has now become almost de rigeur to write blog entries/listicles to students about how to communicate with faculty. This comes out of painful experience by those who have had critical emails from students diverted to spam because students used spammish subject lines such as “Hey!” or “Critical […]
General-education courses and barriers to entry
A few days ago I made a number of suggestions for state higher education policy, the first of which was for state legislators to pay the costs of general-education courses that students currently pay in tuition and fees, at least at community colleges. This morning, Matt Reed writes that he is concerned about two consequences […]
How you can become an important economist of education: speed past the disruption metaphor
I’ve read the new Rick Hess-Michael Horn edited volume, Private Enterprise and Public Education, and most of the chapters in earlier versions for the Andrew Kelly-Kevin Carey anthology, Stretching the Higher Education Dollar. Given my disappointment over the more general “here’s where the market drives things so don’t harsh or hate so much” chapters, I’ve been trying […]