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THE LATEST fad to sweep K-12 education is called “21st-Century Skills...
The latest school grades released by the city's Education Department are bogus...
DAVID Steiner, our new state commissioner of education, has a golden opportunity to restore New York's reputation as a national leader in education...
The board of the Los Angeles Unified School District is opening 50 schools over the next few years and considering a proposal to allow some or all to be privately managed...
The latest release of scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress provides no evidence for the effectiveness of the federal No Child Left Behind Act...
ARNE DUNCAN, the secretary of education, has urged the nation’s mayors to take control of their public schools so that they can impose radical reforms...
Nearly five years ago, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) issued an alarming report called "Reading at Risk," which declared that literary reading was in dramatic decline...
Over the past several weeks, New Yorkers have been re-introduced to Caroline Kennedy...
I am deeply impressed by the philanthropy of financial whiz Michael Steinhardt, but totally baffled by the decision of the New York State Board of Regents to approve his proposal to open a publicly funded Hebrew Language Academy Charter School in Brooklyn...
Former Senator Claiborne Pell of Rhode Island left quite a legacy when he died on Jan. 1 at the age of 90...
Five years ago, I published The Language Police, to warn about the ways in which political correctness was imposing blatant censorship on textbooks and tests...
The 2007 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) was released on Tuesday, and it contained both good news and bad news for the U.S...
Louis V. Gerstner Jr. has some daring ideas about how to change American education...
Back in 2000, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation had a big idea about how to fix the problems of American education...
During the campaign, Barack Obama pledged that, if elected, he would make "a truly historic commitment to education."...
In India, students compete for admission into cram schools, where they study intensively in order to compete for admission into India's highly regarded technology colleges...
LAST week, Schools Chancel lor Joel Klein announced the start of a pilot program that will introduce a new way to teach reading to children in kindergarten, first grade and second grade in 10 low-performing schools...
In the six years since Mayor Michael Bloomberg won control of the city's public schools, installed Joel Klein as chancellor and instituted sweeping changes, teachers, parents and other New Yorkers have differed sharply over the city's education policies and their effects on more than one million students...
For most people, the popular culture is far more influential via movies, television, the Internet, radio, and other forms of mass media than what is taught in school...
The New York City Department of Education has embarked on a perilous new path in its efforts to raise test scores...
I have been writing about schooling for 40 years, but have never experienced an attack as intemperate as the one by Kathryn Wylde ("Hypocritical Critic", PostOpinion, Oct. 30)...
The teachers union just outsmarted the Smartest Guys in Education...
Despite the rosy claims of the Bush administration, the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002 is fundamentally flawed...
The release of national test scores in reading and math on September 25 was an embarrassment for the New York State Education Department...
In a globalizing economy, America's competitive edge depends in large measure on how well our schools prepare tomorrow's workforce...
Several weeks ago, I wrote an article in the Sun titled "Don't Blame the Teachers..."
History offers many explanations for why people should acquire a broad, liberal-arts education...
Recently, I attended yet another one of those conferences where leaders of American industry, commerce, and government get together to decide what to do about our schools...
The New York City Education Department has announced plans to create a public school in Brooklyn called the Khalil Gibran International Academy, devoted solely to Arabic culture and language...
The federal education law called No Child Left Behind (NCLB) is due to be renewed this year, but political insiders in Washington predict that Congress will not take action until after the next Presidential election in 2008...
Deborah Meier and Diane Ravitch have found themselves at odds on policy over the years, but they share a passion for improving schools...
There is a line between visionary thinking and pie-in-the-sky theorizing...
In this Christmas season, many of us will sing "Joy to the World" without knowing that it is a hymn written by the English preacher Isaac Watts, and several days later, we will follow it up with "Auld Lang Syne," an old Scottish song that was rewritten by the poet Robert Burns...
This week, many families will take advantage of the holiday to take their children to the Rose Science Center at the American Museum of Natural History, to the Hall of Science in Queens, or to the Liberty Science Center in Jersey City...
When the next presidential campaign heats up, and it may already have started, we can expect that education reform will be a hot topic...
There should be efforts to very actively recruit middle-class people into neighborhood schools and make sure these really are schools that prepare kids for college...
Warren Buffett's gift of $31 billion to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will double the foundation's assets, bringing it to more than $60 billion, and will increase its annual giving to nearly $3 billion…
In the course of the last 30 years, the two of us have been at odds on any number of issues—on our judgments about progressive education, on the relative importance of curriculum content (what students are taught) vs. habits of mind (how students come to know what they are taught), and most recently in our views of the risks involved in nationalizing aspects of education policy…
When governments take responsibility for publishing school textbooks, such books invariably reflect what the leaders of that society want children to believe. Nowhere is this issue more crucial than in the Middle East, where national and religious passions are a constant threat to world peace.
In a test given regularly by this federal agency since the early 1970s, nine-year-old students earned the highest scores ever in both reading and mathematics.
schools today are being strangled by a ton of laws, regulations, contracts, mandates, and rules.
What does Harry Potter have that the textbooks don't?
A Nation at Risk proved to be an antidote to many of the pedagogical fads of the 1960s such as classrooms without walls, fluffy electives, and watered-down curricula
After nearly forty years and many billions of dollars, Head Start children still begin kindergarten far behind children from middle-class homes on measures of school readiness.
The Core Knowledge curriculum, developed by E.D. Hirsch of the University of Virginia, works on the simple principle that knowledge is powerful.
The U.S. Department of Transportation recently indicated that a high school diploma is not especially important.
The state bet that students could meet high expectations, and it backed up its bet with serious new funding and excellent tests.
To protect the sanctity of the franchise, potential voters should be required to present proof of citizenship when they register and proof of identity when they vote.
Unfortunately, Congress is about to act on legislation that could jeopardize the entire NAEP program.
The major media warned of a movement growing among parents and educators to curtail testing for promotion or graduation.
Is it the candidates who have dumbed down their appeals or are they simply acknowledging that the public has a limited vocabulary?
The early results suggest that the Regents' tests have become easier.
I am glad to see that you are trying to draw us back to the issues where we have genuine differences!...
Over the past week, you and I have each weighed in on the defects of testing...
I will have to delay a bit before I can get to the book you recommended...
School is open, and it is time to talk!...
The public school system was established as a crucial part of our nation's democracy -- whether rich or poor, American children are granted the same opportunity to learn and succeed, making public education the great equalizer...
Diane Ravitch is a prominent historian of education, the author of a dozen books including Edspeak: A Glossary of Education Terms, Phrases, Buzzwords and Jargon (2007), The Language Police (2003) and Left Back: A Century of Failed School Reforms (2000)...
No Child Left Behind created a perfect storm of lying and fraud, all of it completely legitimate...
We have had fun these past couple of years exploring our differences and our agreements...
The current effort to develop national standards in English and math is something to which we will surely pay close attention...
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...
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 issues like accountability and choice...
I enjoyed seeing you honored as a hero of education by FairTest last week, which established an annual award named for you...
You say that schools are now, for “the second time…at the center of the civil rights movement.”...
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...
You seem to believe that I was chastising "the poor" for their lack of manners...
The columnists at The New York Times are deeply engaged in school reform these days...
I watched with some amusement as the media tried to figure out how to report the latest results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)...
A new report by McKinsey & Co., the management consultants, came out last week, and it is worthy of our attention...
Over time we have developed a very solid and smart community of readers who like to argue with us and with each other...
We in New York City were treated to an amazing show in early April...
I want to go back and discuss President Obama’s big speech on education...
My guess is that we will have a long time, not months, but years, to discuss national standards and a national curriculum...
I will get back to you on another day about the strengths and dangers of a national curriculum...
Last week, I attended three different conferences in Washington, D.C....
Since you brought up the subject of “21st Century skills,” it seemed like an opportune time to talk a bit about this subject...
I have been watching and listening to our new secretary of education, trying to understand his views on the most important issues facing our schools and the nation's children...
I was about to move on to a new topic but on Sunday read a column in The New York Times by Nicholas Kristof titled "Our Greatest National Shame."...
Teacher-bashing has become the motif of the day...
We got some good comments from readers who went to the trouble of reading the U.S. Department of Education document on how to turn around chronically low-performing schools...
You are undoubtedly right that what we have been calling “reform” is not producing better educated young people...
I acknowledge that I have been influenced in my thinking by my frequent exchanges with you...
Happy New Year to you and to our readers. 2009 is shaping up to be an important year for American education...
Now we know that President-elect Barack Obama has chosen Arne Duncan as his secretary of education...
You quote John Goodlad, who asks “Whatever became of the idea that representative democracy is the essential starting point for public education?”...
I wish, as you suggested, that we could have some influence on the national debate...
We live in a dangerous and dark time for schools...
Back in the old days (i.e., pre-NCLB), it really didn't matter to teachers, principals, and superintendents—that is, the people who actually work directly in schools and have daily interaction with children—who was Secretary of Education...
Out there in the world of big media, the speculation is centering on who will land the big jobs at State, Defense, and the Treasury...
I have the advantage of writing you after the election...
You and I have advocated for different approaches over the years, though they are not contradictory...
As this election nears a close, it is sad to note that very little has been said about education...
I expect we will both watch the last presidential debate...
Over the time that we have been blogging, we have found many issues on which we disagree—mostly having to do with externally set curriculum, standards, and tests—and many on which we agree—mostly having to do with autocratic school leadership and efforts to force a business model on the schools...
When Gov. Roy Romer spoke of national standards at our recent debate, I believe he was suggesting the development of national standards and testing on a voluntary basis, starting with about 15 governors working together to derive a common program...
You were a great partner in our debate last week in Washington, where the two of us—accustomed to differing—sparred with former governor of Colorado Roy Romer (who now chairs the group ED in ’08) and Jon Schnur (the founder of New Leaders for New Schools)...
I heard from a friend who attended the New York state Senate hearing where you testified...
You raise important questions about the role of trust and community in schooling...
I read your “advice to the next president” with interest...
I am still somewhat unsure about the difference between your small schools and the small schools created by various school districts, or your small schools and the charter schools that are popping up in many districts...
Sometimes, like you, I start feeling down about the direction of our world today...
Well, we have been blogging for more than a year now, and there was bound to be a screw-up sooner or later...
I can’t believe that we are debating the message of A Nation at Risk in 2008, a quarter century after it appeared!...
I have been a supporter of Core Knowledge from its beginning...
To answer your question, “How come, since there are more teachers than policymakers,” the policymakers get to run the show?...
On Sunday morning, as I was pondering my reply to your last blog about “making sense of our differences,” I picked up The New York Times and read a shocking story...
Tests inevitably gauge a student’s fund of knowledge and experience, not just what was taught in school...
I didn’t suggest that “good medical care” was “test-prepping.”...
When I first read Murray and Herrnstein’s "The Bell Curve," I was unpersuaded...
I want to be first in line to shout "hosanna" to your call for courtesy...
As you know, Americans have a long history of looking to other countries for answers to our educational problems...
April 2008 marks the 25th anniversary of “A Nation at Risk,” the report on the condition of American education that continues to be controversial to this day...
Well, we do disagree about what should happen in “our houses of learning.”...
Maybe I should not have thrown George Counts’ famous challenge into the mix...
We do agree: Violence is not the essential reason that schools are unsuccessful. We agree that violence is not caused by schools, and that in every community the schools are the safest environment that students are likely to encounter...
I was just sitting down to reply to your post and thought I would first scan my email...
Since I don’t imagine that any state or school district plans to roll back its school attendance requirements—no more than you intended your bored student to leave school and go home—I am not going to debate whether school is or is not a scary place for most kids....
I must say that I do not see mandatory schooling as incarceration, and I suspect that you really don’t see it that way either...
So we took our show on the road for the first time!
I am happy to join with you in adopting a bridging motto of “Neither guide on the side nor sage on the stage..."
think a few words are in order about the AIR study of TIMSS and PISA. ..
I have read the reports of the international assessments over the years and think it would be foolhardy to dismiss them out of hand...
In the past, say, a century or so ago, school reformers used "democracy" as the magic word...
Your description of CPESS and other Coalition schools sounds like a memory from a distant past...
Let's talk about grading schools and about when it is appropriate to close schools...
I don't agree with your judgment—and the judgment of some (but not all) of our readers—about whether it is feasible to craft useful standards...
I don’t understand why you are so certain that any state or national standards are beyond consensus, or that they will be entirely arbitrary...
In a recent item on Huffington Post, Gerald Bracey claimed that I should atone for having "suppressed" the Sandia report in 1991...
As usual, you raise lots of interesting questions and you sharpen our clear differences...
I note with pleasure that The New York Times endorsed (again) the principle of national testing...
Toward the end of her latest entry on the Building Bridges blog, Diane Ravitch reports on her inside knowledge about how much Democrats want to change NCLB...
I must add two points to my blog about the letter grades handed out to New York City public schools last week...
A question for everyone to think about...
There are times when I feel that we are on the same wavelength, and times when I know we are not...
I agree with you about the uncertainty involved in medicine...
No, I don't think the dilemmas you describe are as omnipresent in all of life's vocations as they are in teaching...
It's no big surprise that "standards" involve judgments...
You make some good points about the distinction between norm-referenced tests and criterion-referenced tests, but I disagree with your characterization of the latter...
I don’t think you should worry at all about annoying those “with more power” than you...
I hope we are not disappointing our readers by agreeing more than we disagree...
A couple of weeks ago, the New York Times printed an adulatory interview of Sir Michael Barber about what needs to happen in American education...
Dear Deb, Yup, back-to-school time...
On this episode of Arts Scene, Diane Ravitch talks about her latest book, The English Reader: What Every Literate Person Needs to Know...
Your discussion of knowledge and trust sounds right to me...
Is K–12 education really lagging badly, or have we ‘raised our sights’?
I like small schools, but I also like middle-size schools...
Apparently your trip to China has in no way dimmed your energy or your imagination...
On Monday, the Supreme Court ruled narrowly in favor of the school in Alaska that suspended a student for holding up a banner that said "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" at a school-sponsored event...
Mayor Michael Bloomberg's Department of Education has just approved a plan to pay poor kids to get higher test scores...
I hope you had a wonderful trip to China and that you are not too wiped out...
Nicholas Kristof, writing from China, expresses his admiration for Chinese education in a column in the New York Times ("The Educated Giant")...
You will not be surprised to learn that I agree with you about the value of a road test for licensing future drivers...
American students do worse on national tests of American history than any other subject....
As you know, Mark Twain (or Disraeli or someone) once wrote that there are three kinds of lies: Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics...
Ask almost any teacher or principal, and they will tell you that testing has gotten out of hand...
It is really truly hard to keep track of all the studies and reports that appear on what seems to be a daily basis about how to fix the public schools...
It is valuable to reconsider the history of progressive education not just as an arcane matter, but to see how good ideas go astray...
Deborah Meier and Diane Ravitch have found themselves at odds on policy over the years, but they share a passion for improving schools...
Last week, New York City was again listed as a finalist for the Broad Prize, which recognizes the most improved big-city school district...
The New York Post ran an editorial yesterday (March 21) called "Potemkin Protesters," claiming that parent opposition to the city's latest reorganization plan has been manufactured by the UFT and "the far-left Working Families Party" so as to "derail school reform..."
The growing number of mandates and non-educators enforcing them make teachers' unions more critical than ever, according to professor Diane Ravitch...
Good afternoon and welcome to the second in a series of online chats following the release of this year's Quality Counts report, "Quality Counts at 10: A Decade of Standards-Based Education..."
In the course of the last 30 years, the two of us have been at odds on any number of issues—on our judgments about progressive education, on the relative importance of curriculum content (what students are taught) vs. habits of mind (how students come to know what they are taught), and most recently in our views of the risks involved in nationalizing aspects of education policy...