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First Year Highlights: Education Policy Issues

By Larry Ferlazzo — July 23, 2012 3 min read
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I’m taking the summer off from answering new questions while I work on my next book.

Instead, I’ve been posting “collections” bringing links together from previous posts on common topics (classroom management, reading instruction, student motivation,instructional strategies, parent engagement in schools, etc.). I’ve published almost fifty separate “answers” over the past year, and thought that readers might find these summer compilations more accessible.

Today, I’ll be bringing together all my posts on education policy issues in schools.

Over the summer, of course, I’ll also be preparing future responses, so keep those questions coming!

You can send them to me at lferlazzo@epe.org.When you send it in, let me know if I can use your real name if it’s selected or if you’d prefer remaining anonymous and have a pseudonym in mind.

You can also contact me on Twitter at @Larryferlazzo.

Anyone whose question is selected for this weekly column can choose one free book from a selection of ten published by Jossey-Bass (including my upcoming book - co-authored by Katie Hull Sypnieski - The ESL/ELL Teacher’s Survival Guide: Ready-to-Use Strategies, Tools, and Activities for Teaching English Language Learners of All Levels).

Here are this year’s posts on education policy issues -- I’m posting them in order of popularity (based on their number of “tweets”):

1. Standardized Test Critiques & Potential Alternatives

Professors David C. Berliner and Yong Zhao offer their thoughts on the topic.

2. Helping Long-Term ELL’s & Evaluating ELL Teachers Fairly

Katie Hull Sypnieski, the best teacher I’ve ever seen in the classroom, and staff from the American Federation of Teachers researching teacher evaluation contribute their responses.

3. Several Ways To Tell The Difference Between Good & Bad Education Research

Experienced researchers Matthew Di Carlo. from the Albert Shanker Institute and P. L. Thomas from Furman University discuss the issue.

4. Factors Behind The Success Of Ontario’s Schools -- Part One

Paul Taillefer, President of the Canadian Teachers’ Federation; Vice-Principal (& parent) Shannon Smith; and parent leaders Annie Kidder and Sheila Stewart share their varied comments.

5. Hopes For The NEA’s “New Action Agenda”

Dennis Van Roekel, president of the National Education Association; my friend and colleague Renee Moore, who was a member of the Commission that helped develop the “Agenda"; and Steve Owens, an NEA leader from Vermont are guest contributors in this post.

6. Reasons For The ‘Downgrade’ In Respect For Teachers

Dennis Van Roekel, President of The National Education Association and Barnett Berry, President of The Center For Teaching Quality respond, and I contribute an intriguing chart.

7. Factors Behind The Success Of Ontario’s Schools -- Part Two

Michael Fullan, professor emeritus at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto and special advisor to the premier and minister of education in Ontario, writes about what’s happening in....Ontario.

8. Thoughts On Grade Level Retention & Social Promotion

Donald Moore, the Executive Director of Chicago-based Designs For Change, and a nationally-recognized expert on the issue, shares his perspective.

9. Ways the “Next Generation” of Standardized Tests Should Treat ELL’s

Representatives from the two groups of states preparing the new assessments, the SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortium, or SBAC, and The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers Consortium, or PARCC, contribute responses.

I hope you’ve found this summary useful and, again, keep those questions coming!

The opinions expressed in Classroom Q&A With Larry Ferlazzo are strictly those of the author(s) and do not reflect the opinions or endorsement of Editorial Projects in Education, or any of its publications.