Cross-posted on Education Week I got some bad news this week. It has to do with one of my grandchildren, who attends public schools in Maryland in a pretty upscale county. I'll call her Judy. She is 11, a very strong student. When Judy was in...
Cross-posted on Education Week Of course you know what STEM stands for: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. It's an acronym, signifying a program and a national priority. The argument for its centrality is simple. Our economy is technology-driven. The strength of that economy depends on our...
Cross-posted on Education Week Shall I let you in on a little secret? Not long after the Obama administration took office, my colleague Betsy Brown Ruzzi and I paid a visit to an old friend, Carmel Martin, who had left behind many years as a senior...
Cross-posted on Education Week Last week's education blog by Jay Mathews in the Washington Post takes note of the release of Mitt Romney's education platform, compares it to that of the President and pronounces them "twins." The two parties, he says, largely agree on education policy...
Cross-posted on Education Week Pasi Sahlberg, in his landmark book Finnish Lessons, makes the point that Finland's development of extensive student achievement standards proved to be a very important landmark on the trajectory of Finland's rise to world class status in the education arena. Later on,...
Cross-posted on Education Week Much of the history of American education over the last half century or more can be seen as a struggle between those who favor quality and those who favor equity as the top priority for national education reform. The stage was set...
Cross-posted on Education Week Notwithstanding the last-ditch street blockades erected by the naysayers, it seems more likely with the passage of each day that most American states will stick by their commitments to implement the Common Core State Standards. But what does it mean to "implement...
Cross-posted on Education Week On Saturday, May 4 the New York Times published a column by Charles Blow that you ought to read. Blow is one of my favorite columnists and this is one of his best columns, straight from the heart, about his mom, a...
Cross-posted on Education Week Over the last couple of weeks, the question as to what rate of interest college students will pay on their loans leaped to the front pages of our vanishing newspapers. Both parties have agreed that the rates should stay where they are, instead...
Cross-posted on Education Week Over the last thirty years, the United States has seen the status of its education system relative to that of other industrial nations sink from the top to the middle. In the same period, Finland's system has risen from obscurity to first...