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Amid all the back-patting and credit-taking involving the recently announced gains in NEAP test scores among early grade levels, Joanne Jacobs catches a blatantly obvious bit of foot-in-mouth thinking in a New York Times editorial, which speculated that gains at the elementary level came at the expense of middle and high school scores. Why, you ask? Because, the Times opined, schools were knowingly "placing their most well-trained and experienced teachers in the early grades, a strategy that means the teachers become less and less qualified over all as the students move up the grades."

Sounds like a plausible working theory, except that it's, you know, not how schools work. As Joanne puts it:

The Times editorial board must not have anyone who knows much about education. This is an obvious error. Secondary and elementary teachers aren't switched back and forth at will.

Following the Times' logic, sending a high school physics teacher to teach 3rd grade in the hopes of raising elementary test scores would be like... oh, I don't know... sending a New York Times editorial writer to keep the same kids from inserting split infinitives into the student paper.

(via joannejacobs.com)

Posted by at 4:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Why save bureaucratic overreach for the school year? While musing about summer reading lists, Joe Williams stumbled across this:

You'd think having summer reading programs for students would be an easy enough feat for people with doctorates in education to pull off. You steal one of the many summer reading lists already available all over the globe, run off a few million copies and get it into the hands of students and their parents. (Or, if you are into the whole consensus-building thing, you appoint a commission to meet a few dozen times over 18-months to create a list similar to the ones you can just-as-easily rip-off from other states and districts on the Internet, run off a few million copies, etc.) ... [But] in New York State, the men and women in charge of the state’s schooling bureaucracy recently were forced to issue an 866-word “Guidance on Locally Required Summer Reading Assignments” to remind everyone that since we’re talking about public education there are rules, rules, rules which must be followed!

To be fair, as Williams points out, this chunk of verbage was likely prompted by a spate of lawsuits involving summer reading assignments. Still, he raises an excellent question, well beyond the scope of this blog to answer:

So, do we come up with stupid rules for smart people to follow, or smart rules for stupid people?

(via Eduwonk)

Posted by at 4:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Somehow this seems akin to seeing a Roman legionnaire wearing a wristwatch in a low-budget movie, but Colonial Williamsburg is offering free podcasts -- downloadable audio interviews about life within Virginia's restored18th century colonial capitol -- to educators. As far as summertime professional development goes, though, I'd wager that listening to an apprentice cooper discuss the "art and science" of making barrels on your iPod count beats sitting in an overairconditioned conference room as someone drones on about learning styles.

(via Tim Lauer's education technology blog)

Posted by at 4:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I wonder how many first-year teachers have the gumption to assign year-end class presentations for the very last day of school. Then again, how many first-year teachers can say this about the final day of their first year teaching?

During one of the presentations, I had to go to the bathroom. The group had just handed out a survey that the class was to complete and then discuss. I told them that I'd be right back and bolted off to the bathroom. Unfortunately, the closest bathroom is all the way on the other end of the school, so it took me a minute to get back. God bless that minute, because when I returned and opened my classroom door, I saw the most amazing thing--everyone seated (except for the presenting group), 10 eager hands in the air, listening avidly, avidly I tell you, to the conversation. As I slipped into the back of the room, Holly, one of the presenters, said that she was sorry they didn't wait for me. I sat down in the back and watched as these three girls led a really good discussion about their theme--one of the best we've had all semester.

Sounds like a pretty nice way to end the school year, whether it's your first or forty-first year in the classroom.

(via hipteacher.)

Posted by at 4:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)