Bridging Differences

The Emperor Wears No Clothes

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 08:15:00 -0500

Dear Diane, I don’t even trust myself to write standards (of the sort that can be specs for tests) for one school, one district, one state—much less the whole nation! I’m bound to have a better idea a week later....

A Worthy Proposal for State Inspection Teams

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 08:35:00 -0500

Dear Deborah, The current effort to develop national standards in English and math is something to which we will surely pay close attention. I understand that you reject consequential curricular decisions made outside the school, but my view is that...

The Risks of Democracy

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 10:44:22 -0500

Dear Diane, The diverse views we get in response to our exchanges is a reminder about why we should not expect one right answer to the question of “why educate?" We need enough consensus to persuade the public that it...

The Data Game

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 13:29:54 -0500

Dear Deborah, Ah, data. A new study from the Center on Education Policy finds that state tests scores have been rising steadily since the passage of NCLB. But the report is based only on state tests, which are notoriously unreliable...

Charters, Performance Pay, & Serious Trade-Offs

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 10:05:00 -0500

Dear Diane, Yes, it seems so obvious to you and me. Using their metrics, the boosters of mayoral control can hardly point to any trend that supports their claims. On NAEP data, the two biggie mayoral control cities show no...

The Obama Agenda is the GOP Agenda

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 09:30:00 -0500

Dear Deborah, If you recall, I took some heat from readers when I said some while back that the Obama administration was adopting the same policies as the Bush administration and that Arne Duncan sounds amazingly like Margaret Spellings on...

Let's Explore How NAEP Could be Better Used

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 09:05:00 -0500

Dear Diane, Thanks for being there at the venerable old Julia Richman high school building last week, Diane. So many old friends, some new ones, and a nice net profit for FairTest—the little David facing the Harcourts, McGraws, ETS's, et...

Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 08:59:00 -0500

Dear Deborah, I enjoyed seeing you honored as a hero of education by FairTest last week, which established an annual award named for you. If anyone had told me five years ago that I would be at that event, I...

Test Results Are Not a Good Stand-In for Achievement

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 10:05:00 -0500

Dear Diane, You are right. We agree on the civil rights movement’s history. Schools were never the primary focus—but one of many interconnected ones. The connection between schooling and the economy interests me—but for different reasons than the usual PR-linkage...

Is School Choice the Civil Rights Issue of Our Time?

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 08:28:00 -0500

Dear Deborah, You say that schools are now, for “the second time…at the center of the civil rights movement.” The schools in the 1950s were certainly at the center of the legal battle for civil rights, to be sure, and...

Civil Rights and Democracy are Inseparable

Thu, 28 May 2009 08:26:00 -0500

Dear Diane, I got a few blasts for the comments you liked on Klein/Sharpton/Gingrich’s (EEP) civil rights efforts. It hit a nerve. Our obsession with schools is both a healthy and an unhealthy aspect of the American psyche. This is,...

Why Education Is Not the Civil Rights Issue of Our Time

Tue, 26 May 2009 09:13:00 -0500

Dear Deborah, I was glad to read your comments on the faux-Education Equality Project (EEP), now headed by New York City’s Schools Chancellor Joel Klein and the Reverend Al Sharpton, with the assistance of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. The...

When 'Equity' Is Used to Increase Segregation

Thu, 21 May 2009 14:34:00 -0500

Dear Diane, It would have chilled Martin Luther King’s blood to see how the struggle for equality has been narrowed into a race for higher test scores in a society that abandoned Lyndon Johnson’s “War on Poverty.” We are now...

Data-Driven Nonsense

Tue, 19 May 2009 08:45:00 -0500

Dear Deborah, You seem to believe that I was chastising "the poor" for their lack of manners. Not at all! We live in an age when manners, self-discipline, respect for others, civility, and courtesy are in short supply in all...

Schools Need Accountability Consistent with Democracy

Thu, 14 May 2009 09:12:00 -0500

You and I, Diane, want an intellectually feisty citizenry, and that’s what we don’t offer the poor.