This Week in Education

Alexander Russo's inside scoop on education news.

Written by former Senate education staffer and journalist Alexander Russo, This Week in Education covers education news, policymakers, and trends with a distinctly political edge. (For archives prior to January 2007, please click here.)

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November 1, 2007

The Secret Life Of Erin And Tiffany

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God I love this stuff: "I was walking to my math class when I noticed a bunch of little pieces of paper strewn across the hallway. I stole my math teacher's tape, lost my participation points in class and slowly taped it all together, discovering the secret lives of Erin and Tiffany."
FOUND by Laura Warman in Washington [79 comments]

School Cupcake Parties Are Killing Our Children

Worried about cupcakes in schools? Dr. Rob Riggle finds out that cupcakes are the "number one killer" of our children:

From The Daily Show.

Cool Ways To Prepare For Saturday's SAT Exams

The Daily Show's Demetri Martin shows the latest "advances" in standardized test prep (Princeton Review podcast tutorials, Kaplan MySpace pages, comic books with words like "alacrity" in them, bad pop songs with the same):

"I know this test seems like a big deal that will determine your entire future. And it is. Because it will."

October 31, 2007

Too Many Reports, Says Report

"The Texas State Library and Archives Commission spent 18 months and canvassed more than 170 agencies and public colleges and universities, checking on all the reports they are assigned to do.The commission found more than 1,600, and state records administrator Michael Heskett is pretty sure his team hasn't found them all." (State report: Texas has too many reports)

Strippers Help Pass Out Candy At Local School

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Scores strippers help pass out candy at Halloween carnival
NY Daily News

October 26, 2007

Cleveland High School Student Shooter Video Released

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"He looks like any other high school student - except for the guns 14-year-old Asa Coon holds in each hand. Coon's rampage was captured in eerie, time-lapse snapshots by security cameras at SuccessTech Academy." See more images here. The local Fox affiliate has posted the video here.

October 25, 2007

Lice Costs US Schools $500 Million, Says Lice Removal Company

According to entrepreneur Maria Botham, lice infestation is the #1 reason for school absenteeism, and on average it costs the U.S. public school system over $500 million every year: Gold Standard for Lice Removal Opens in Lincoln Park. Via Yahoo! Finance.

“Please go KILL these people....Please, please, please.”


School Chief’s Embarrassment Is a Lesson for Itchy E-Mailers NYT
“Please go KILL these people....Please, please, please.”






October 23, 2007

School Of Shock

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No news yet of any schools that water-board kids, but I'm sure that's not far off. In the meantime, here's a story from Mother Jones about a school that takes in kids from several states and uses electric shocks as part of its discipline system: School of Shock. The pictures of the kids are to prevent them from shocking the wrong person.

October 17, 2007

Dear School: Don't Be Lonely, We'll Be Back Tomorrow

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I'm really into FOUND magazine right now, where folks send in things that they find and explain where they found them. This is a note written by a child and found in a school one day. Do schools get lonely when the kids leave for the day? I'm sure they do. Just like teachers.



October 16, 2007

"I Don't Want To Blow You Up!"

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Talk about misguided efforts at teaching tolerance. This artist has created a storybook-coloring book to help children understand Muslims -- a noble effort, but perhaps a little too shocking in its approach (Teach Tolerance Through Coloring). From New York Magazine.

October 15, 2007

"Nice White Lady"

A little Monday-morning humor, this video spoofs all the movies like "Freedom Writers" where a committed teacher -- always a white woman -- helps urban youth reach their dreams:

Via Whitney Tilson.

Long Response, No Full Credit

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October 12, 2007

Reader Contest: A Day In The Life Of Your School

HomepageInspired by a vivid reader comment on my Chicago blog from last week (A Day At Crane High School), I'm having a contest of sorts for the next few days in which readers are invited to describe the school (or administrative office, or reform office) where they work, or where their children attend, or where they pass by every day, or where they tutor. So brush off your writing skills and tell us what it's like where you are -- what it looks like, what it sounds like, what things you notice from being there all the time, or how it's changed lately. [Or, if you have a great blog entry that does the same thing, tell us where to find it.]

October 10, 2007

Sleep Deprivation Slows Learning By A Year

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Yesterday, I ranted about the dangers of students multitasking while trying to learn. Today's rant is about sleep deprivation. Thanks to a post from former US News reporter Stacey Schultz on her blog, Fussbucket, we learn about a new NY magazine story showing that sleep deprivation has concrete effects on how much students learn, and that districts (and parents) who have addressed the issue have seen achievement go up.

October 9, 2007

Is Multi-Tasking Holding Our Kids Back?

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Most pundits say that kids multi-tasking -- doing homework with the TV on, for example -- is just the way things are now, and indeed they may be right. But in the new Atlantic author Walter Kirn says that students' and teachers' and indeed human beings' brains were not made for such things. According to Kirn, our brains lose their ability to retain information if asked to do too many things at once. The implications for schooling are clear:

"The next generation, presumably, is the hardest-hit...A recent study from the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 53 percent of students in grades seven through 12 report consuming some other form of media while watching television; 58 percent multitask while reading; 62 percent while using the computer; and 63 percent while listening to music....This is the great irony of multitasking—that its overall goal, getting more done in less time, turns out to be chimerical. In reality, multitasking slows our thinking."

PS: This post was written while I was on the phone and watching TV.

October 4, 2007

Denial Over Disparities: Cutting Down The Oak Tree In Jena

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The New Yorker takes on the Jena 6 case in large part to make the point that despite our tendencies towards denial what's happening down there is not old school, it's present-day -- and not just in the South, either. "Discrimination in the American justice system is not only a Deep South thing; it is a national embarrassment...America's predominant response to racism, of course, has long been denial. In Jena, the town fathers effected a vivid evasion. Their problem, they concluded, was not themselves but their tree: they cut down the offending oak and hauled it away." (Disparities). Meanwhile, a Chicago student has been expelled for showing a picture of his topless girlfriend to classmates.

October 3, 2007

Racial Slur Turns Up In Crossword Puzzle Assignment

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Joanne Jacobs links to a much-discussed story a crossword puzzle that includes one question in which the N-word is the answer. Says Jacobs:"A parent complained that this is one word students don’t need to be taught, the teacher apologized and it appears that life will go on at Sequatchie County Middle School."

TV Show Profiles District Of Columbia Marching Band

Thanks to JM for passing along this link from DCist about the upcoming taping of the Ellen Degeneres Show at Ballou High School. Check out this video snippet from a new documentary that's coming out on the school and it's band:

Or if your'e in the area go see the taping tonight at 9:30 live.

Group Hugging Ban Captures International Attention

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One Oak Park Illinois school's "hugging ban" has captured the media spotlight, for however briefly. Maybe this is a new part of Ed In '08's strategy to win more attention for education issues. And it's working. (You know they convinced Kozol to do that partial fast thing.) Or maybe it's just a slow news week and schools are easy targets. Check here to see 200-something stories published on the topic. Not known for accuracy, many of the media stories miss the fact that the hugs being banned are big group hugs not the usual greeting kind.

October 1, 2007

"Hanging Photo" Roils Grambling Campus

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"A recent incident at the elementary school on the Grambling State University campus that resulted in a noose hanging around a small child's neck has left university officials scrambling for answers. Grambling State University President Horace Judson was driving to Dallas on Friday afternoon for the Saturday football game between GSU and Prairie View when his secretary called him, describing certain pictures that had been posted online by the student newspaper, The Gramblinite."

September 26, 2007

Chaos In The Classroom, Celebrity Edition

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The daily arrival and departure of Brad and/or Angelina at the Lycee Francaise on Manhattan's Upper East Side has photographers and parents going a little crazy it seems. The school is blaming the parents and asking them to refrain themselves. At the same time, they're apparently relenting after two weeks and letting Brangelina's kid come in the side door. Don't ask me how I know this stuff.

September 25, 2007

Remember When?

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Hard to believe it, but the pocket calculator is 40 years old today according to Texas Instruments. I don't remember quite back that far, but I do remember fondly the faux denim case that my middle school calculator came in.

September 24, 2007

The Cupcake Wars

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Forget the Jena Six. The anti-0besity push against cupcakes in schools is facing new resistance, according to this NYT story (here), based in part upon the treat's renewed popularity among hipsters and yuppies as well as on the sometimes heavy-handed ways in which pro-health advocates have shaped their message. Plus which, cupcakes are tasty.

"While the merits of banning goodie bags filled with Reese’s and Skittles seem obvious — especially at a time when the risk of childhood diabetes is high for American children — many parents draw the line at cupcakes."

Spider-Man Vs. Moses

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WalMart is going to be selling toy religious figures this fall, according to an article from In These Times, a product line that may bring up interesting but difficult discussions for parents like "who would win in a fight -- Spider-Man or Moses?" Spider-Man, apparently.

Convoluted History Of Student Free Speech On School Grounds

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When Clothes Speak to More Than Fashion NYT
A controversy over two fifth graders sporting buttons featuring Hitler Youth members highlights the difficulty that schools face when confronting free speech cases.

September 22, 2007

Daft Hands

If you see the kids in the hall doing some crazy thing with their hands covered in marker, they might not be flashing gang signs. The "Daft Hands" video on YouTube has been watched over 3 million times, and done "live" on the Ellen Degeneres show.

Check it out - you can be the first in your teacher's lounge / office / cubicle to master the whole thing.

September 20, 2007

What Are Kids Really Like?

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Forty kids left alone in a deserted New Mexico town to fend for themselves. The controversial reality show "Kid Nation" premiered last night, and the first episode sounds like it was sorta interesting: ‘Kid Nation’ shows real side of young relations. "There was a lot of disagreement and strife, and there were a number of moments — when a kid pulled a muscle, when they couldn't figure out to cook pasta but were desperately hungry, when kids sobbed uncontrollably — that it seemed like an adult should step in. But then the kids figured out what to do, and even if the results weren't perfect (the first-night's dinner of macaroni and cheese did not look very appetizing at all), they made it work."

Universal(ly Expensive) Preschool

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And you thought that universal preschool was expensive? Imagine how much it would cost at the going rates at Forbes' most expensive preschools.

Scissors Scare

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There's lead, or something toxic, in some Fiskars scissors that were being used at some schools, according to this blog post.

September 19, 2007

University Of Florida Student Tasered At Kerry Speech

Here's the video that everyone's watching, in which a confrontational student is eventually tasered by campus security after begging not to be:

You know you want to see it.

September 18, 2007

Blue Man School, Ghetto Film School

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Check it out. The three guys who started Blue Man Group -- you know, the ones that everyone knows from the Intel and iPod ads -- are starting their own school in New York City (Cool for School). Speaking of strange new schools in New York, here's another one: Ghetto Film School (NYT). Mr. Hall said that in addition to a core curriculum of standard academic subjects, the school would offer electives like screenwriting, film history and production.

September 17, 2007

Unimaginative Administrators Ban Form Of Dancing They Banned Three Years Ago

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Apparently out of new ideas for what to ban this year for their annual homecoming ban, school administrators in the Chicago area and soon around the country have decided to rename so-called "freak" dancing as something else, "juke" dancing, and declare a new ban anyway. The rules are simple: "The feet stay on the floor. The hands stay off the floor. They can't lean against the wall. And they must dance in an upright position." Unimaginative media outlets, looking to distract and terrify parents and other readers, have decided to go along with it. Equally to blame bloggers, looking for readers and oblivious to the ironies involved, make fun of the media and the administrators.

Great Rivalries In Education: Who's Your Frenemy?

Good vs. evil is rarely all that interesting, which is why internal conflicts -- the nemesis in the other cubicle, "frenemies" and underminers, siblings, hipsters vs. yuppies, Jon Stewart vs. Stephen Colbert -- are so much more fun to watch. Nearly everyone has a nemesis -- whether he or she realizes (or admits) it or not. Usually it's someone nearby.

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So which are the greatest "us-vs.-us" rivalries in the education world? A partial list -- feel free to nominate others:Paige Vs. Spellings...Dewey Vs. Montessori...Phonics vs. whole language...The AFT Vs. NEA...Recess Vs. Naptime...Gates Vs. Broad Foundations...Debbie Meier Vs. Ted Sizer...Standards Vs. Accountability...Finn Vs. Allen...Vallas Vs. Chico (Chicago 1995-2001)...Head Start Vs. Universal Preschool...Kozol Vs. NCLB...Kennedy Vs. Dodd (vs. Harkin)...Riley Vs. Hunt...Vouchers Vs. Charters...Mike Cohen Vs. Jack Jennings...Nina Rees Vs. Mike Petrilli...Health care reform Vs. School reform...Jon Schnur Vs. Wendy Kopp.

Note: Some of these are made up.

September 14, 2007

Lazy Teacher Meant To Show Star Wars, Showed Porn Instead

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According to this Fox News story, a group of 5th graders who were supposed to be viewing a Star Wars DVD instead got an eyeful of porn (here). They're still trying to figure out how it happened, though apparently (see coloring book image) there's lots of Star Wars porn for kids laying around. Me, I'm wondering how showing the movie got into the lesson plan in the first place. I'm a hard-ass that way, I guess.

September 13, 2007

"No Able-Bodied Student Left Behind"


'Students First In Line' Program To Offer Job Training At Needy Schools
Stolen from Alan Gottlieb's Schools For Tomorrow blog.

Colbert Can't Shake Klein On Paying Kids For Grades

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As expected, faux conservative newscaster Stephen Colbert made much fun of NYC Chancellor Klein's plan to pay kids for good grades -- except when Colbert realizes the money-making potential: "Is this only limited to students, because I think I could ace some of those fourth grade exams?" asked Colbert. Colbert also suggested taking the logical next step -- bringing back child labor -- and he tried to one-up Klein's program by offering $700 for kids to come over to his house, smoke cigarettes, and play violent video games. Klein generally parried all this well and got his talking points out, including that the effort is privately funded, has worked in Dallas (??), and that people in education are overly scared of trying new things. Check it out here. A good mix of fun and earnestness.