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AP Students Forced to Accept Less
November 21, 2008A teacher with the sign-on name of pfelcher posted a provocative comment on the Web version of my Nov. 3 column for the Post's Metro section. I was repeating for the 4,897th time my view that even low-income students who have not performed well in school can learn in a college-level high school course, like Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate, if given extra time and encouragement.
The Most Promising Schools in America
November 21, 2008My publisher and I had a fight over the subtitle of my upcoming book, "Work Hard. Be Nice," about the Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP). Okay, it wasn't a fight exactly. My editor at Algonquin Books, Amy Gash, is too polite and professional for that. It was a spirited discussion. Gash said the Algonquin view was that my subtitle, "How Two Inspired Teachers Created America's Best Schools" was off-putting and hyperbolic. Who was I to say what was best and what wasn't?
Why the Next Education President Will Be Like Bush
November 21, 2008My unassailable election prediction: The guy who wins Tuesday will be an education president. There is no way to avoid it. They all grab that title, whether they deserve it or not.
Will 8th Grade Algebra Help All Kids?
November 21, 2008 Heated messages are still pouring in about my Sept. 22 Metro section column for The Post, " Recalculating the 8th Grade Algebra Push." It revealed new research by Brookings Institution scholar Tom Loveless showing that many students who performed very poorly on the National Assessment of Educational Progress eighth grade math test said that, nonetheless, they were considered math whizzes at their schools. Astonishingly, they were enrolled in Algebra 1, Geometry or Algebra 2 in the eighth grade.
Five Great Educators Who Make a Difference
November 21, 2008Columbia University's Teachers College Press comes out next month with a book about five important reformers: James P. Comer, John I. Goodlad, Henry M. Levin, Deborah Meier and Theodore R. Sizer. If you were assembling the leading American thinkers and writers about education, you would have to include these five. They tell the stories of how they became so obsessed with education and what they learned about improving schools in the book "Those Who Dared: Five Visionaries Who Changed American Education."
Why I Don't Like 21st-Century Reports
November 21, 2008Another well-intentioned report on the future of American schools reached my cubicle recently: "21st Century Skills, Education and Competitiveness: A Resource and Policy Guide." It is available on the Web at www.21stcenturyskills.org/index.php. It is full of facts and colorful illustrations, with foresight and relevance worthy of the fine organizations that funded it -- the National Education Association, the KnowledgeWorks Foundation, the Ford Motor Company Fund and the Tucson-based Partnership for 21st Century Skills, a leading education advocacy organization that also produced the report and sent it to me and many other people.
Firing Teachers: Readers vs. Me
November 21, 2008The Internet arrived late in my career. Its annoyances are far outweighed by its joys. One of the best things about the new era is that I can converse with far more readers and at much greater depth than I ever could with just a phone and a typewriter.
Beware of the Easy School Fix
November 21, 2008 When fixing schools, beware of miracle cures. Every week people send me ideas they say will change the future of education and lead all humanity to enlightenment. So, when management expert William G. Ouchi let me look at his new work on the surprising power of total student loads per teacher, or TSL, I was skeptical.
Inside the Bay Area KIPP Schools
November 21, 2008One of the benefits of finding public schools that work is the chance to study them and discover exactly what they are doing that other schools are not doing. Sadly, this rarely seems a blessing to the educators at those schools, who have to fill out surveys, sit for long interviews and have strangers recording their every move. Often they feel like Michael Phelps might have felt, told to take a drug test every time he won an Olympic gold medal.
Naming Our Best Schools
November 21, 2008My search for a suitable label for the hard-charging schools remaking American education in low-income neighborhoods got more attention than I expected. Many bloggers responded. Some thoughtful critics skewered the whole exercise, adding to the fun. It was an instructive exchange of views, and I have a winner.
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