The K-12 Contrarian
A former high school teacher, Dave Powell is an associate professor of education at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania. In this blog, Powell examined efforts to fix education, including whom you should trust and why. This blog is no longer being updated.
Teacher Preparation
Opinion
Is Teacher Education Too Theoretical?
Should teacher education programs prepare new teachers for schools as they are now or schools as we would like them to be? That's the tension at the heart of the issue of whether teacher education is useful or not. Maybe all this "theoretical" teacher education isn't so bad after all.
Curriculum
Opinion
The Conversation About Standards We Should Be Having
Imagine a world where we gave some common tests set to some common standards and used them to compare programs to each other, and we did it not to impose punishments or identify winners and losers but to spotlight what works in certain contexts and what doesn't. Wouldn't that be an improvement over how we do things today?
School & District Management
Opinion
Start School Later: What Are We Waiting For?
I asked Andra Williams Broadwater, who works with a group called "Start School Later," to share some thoughts on the importance of delaying start times in the morning in the interest of our children's health. This seems like one thing that would be pretty easy to get right.
Early Childhood
Opinion
We Have to Find a More Progressive Way to Fund Education
I need to do a little venting about deregulation and taxes. It all started when the bus pulled up to take my daughter to school.
School & District Management
Opinion
Education Is Not Absent From the 2016 Presidential Race
There's been some complaining lately that the presidential candidates don't have anything to say about education policy. Not so fast, I say.
Curriculum
Opinion
Common-Core Math: What Are We So Afraid Of?
Here comes another video complaining about the "scary" way kids are doing math these days. Somebody really ought to start collecting these things for posterity.
Standards
Opinion
A Tale of Two Test Scores
One of our local schools made the paper recently for not doing enough to raise the test scores of its students. Whether that's true or not is an open question.
School Choice & Charters
Opinion
Education's Nixon: The Success Academy Debacle
A lot has been said about the video that surfaced recently of the charter school teacher belittling her student for not doing what was on her paper. That teacher's boss, Eva Moskowitz, may have more in common with Richard Nixon, of all people, than you'd think.
Teacher Preparation
Opinion
Coming Up Short When It Comes to Teacher Shortages
When it comes to teacher shortages, we might hope that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. But that seems unlikely.
School & District Management
Opinion
In Praise of Snow Days and Two-Hour Delays
We had a snow day yesterday, but we had something even better today: a two-hour delay. More of that, please.
Early Childhood
Opinion
Sanders, Clinton, Detroit, and the $675,000 Speech Problem
What do Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton, Goldman Sachs, and Detroit's crumbling public schools have in common? You might be surprised to find out.
Education
Opinion
What's the Matter With Bathroom Breaks?
You might have missed the survey of workplace quality conducted by the AFT and the Badass Teachers Association back in May. If you did, and you're a teacher, you won't be surprised by what it said.
Curriculum
Opinion
What If Teachers Were More Like Airline Pilots?
What could we learn about teacher education policy by looking at the career ladders of airline pilots?
Curriculum
Opinion
High Standards Without High Stakes
Is it possible to have high standards without using standardized tests to assess them?