This narrow U. S. test-based agenda has blocked the advance of slower long-term reforms that might have made a difference to the lives of our youth--and the culture of our country. If...

November 1995

survey of journal editors in education, little enthusiasm for the idea of creating electronic versions

changing ideas about what constitutes a publication

not just a Powerpoint, eh

This article is adapted from his book, The Global Achievement Gap: Why Even Our Best Schools Don’t Teach The New Survival Skills Our Children Need—and What We Can Do About It (New York: Basic Books, 2008)

why not copy and fund some of their parental-support programs for existing public schools?

Charter schools often receive the same amount of public funding per student as public schools, and also benefit from their ability to raise and use charitable donations.

Surely, classroom teachers would have more opportunity to teach and teach well if they had enough books and study materials for all their kids

Kids were disrespectful to teachers, and teachers were impatient with kids

how does a school get to the point that my school was at when I first arrived? In this particular case, there had been a series of administrative turnovers, so every couple of years the priorities changed. There was no adopted discipline code, so school discipline was something that was randomly applied to individual students rather than a part of the entire school culture. Teachers felt that they were not supported by administration, and some students realized that there were few in any consequences for poor behavior (the student who hit the opposing player earned the first suspension in years). Some teachers just gave up; others became angry. Still others were intimidated. Teacher absenteeism was high.

The school turnaround didn’t occur overnight, but at the end of two years of consistent application of the discipline plan

for stu­dents that do not feel the need to reme­di­ate, any grade becomes instantly sum­ma­tive

pre­sen­ta­tion day is the only day that you took to assess this child, and then you leave any reme­di­a­tion up to them

ou prob­a­bly call it “check­ing for under­stand­ing” or some­thing along those lines. I actu­ally keep a sheet going in my note­book with every kid’s name on it and a check mark for whether I feel like I’ve com­mu­ni­cated to them where they’re at in any given topic

Is good classroom management enough to ensure good instruction?

One of those researchers was Deborah Loewenberg Ball, an assistant professor who also taught math part time at an East Lansing elementary school and whose classroom was a model for teachers in training.

Teaching, even teaching third-grade math, is extraordinarily specialized, requiring both intricate skills and complex knowledge about math.

deep-seated wish to create escape routes from public education.

Since there is no way to know who will be an effective teacher

What if we could channel the financial and human resources spent on the machinery of high-stakes testing into a robust, widely distributed program of professional development?