Privatizing Public Education in Philadelphia?
Philadelphia has had state control of its public schools for a full decade. Now the leaders of the city think that public education is the problem. Read Full Post >
Recently in NYC schools Category
May 12, 2012
March 21, 2012
On Foreign Relations & Precious Gems
Denver: If you go out that-a-way, visit the Jefferson County Open School. Begun in 1970, it's a precious gem. Read Full Post >
February 28, 2012
How to Demoralize Teachers
The principal of an outstanding elementary school in Brooklyn wrote me to say that the release of the ratings made her "absolutely sick." One of her teachers was rated for a year when she was away on child-care leave. Read Full Post >
January 04, 2012
Two Golden Opportunities Lost in the 1990s?
Like No Child Left Behind, the Soviet state set goals for everyone to meet—or else. Since they were unmeetable goals, it produced a culture of lies and cover-ups and a climate of fear. Does that sound familiar? Read Full Post >
December 06, 2011
Do You Believe in Miracles?
There are no silver bullets in education. There are no magic feathers that enable elephants like Dumbo to fly. It's hard work to improve schools. It takes dedication, resources, and time. And the work is never done, the magic number of 100 percent is always out of reach. Read Full Post >
November 02, 2011
The One Best Way ... Not
It will take longer and more complicated "sit-ins" to impact on the inequalities now rampant in our country. It will take creative thinking and an attitude toward each other's compromises that is sufficiently tolerant to allow for many routes to recapturing democracy. Read Full Post >
June 30, 2011
When We End Up Defending, Not Proposing
Isn't it amazing that at just the moment in history that the private sector has demonstrated a combination of appalling ignorance and incompetence—to the detriment of billions of ordinary people—they've managed to use their monstrous profits to shift the argument to the sins of the public sector? Read Full Post >
May 31, 2011
A Dark Day in New York State
This isn't an argument against holding teachers accountable; it's an argument against holding them accountable for the wrong things and in a way that will result in very negative unintended consequences. Read Full Post >
April 19, 2011
What Did We Learn From the Cathie Black Debacle?
So it made perfect sense, at least to Mayor Bloomberg, that a successful publishing executive could sell his program. After all, she opened and closed many magazines, why not do the same with schools? But it didn't work. She didn't know the language, the issues, the players, or anything about public education. Read Full Post >
March 09, 2011
What Are the Winners Thinking?
I fear we're back, public-policy-wise, to the year I was born, 1931, when most of what we know as the American dream was still to come. Read Full Post >
The opinions expressed in Bridging Differences are strictly those of the author and do not reflect the opinions or endorsement of Editorial Projects in Education, or any of its publications.
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