K-12 Schools: Beyond the Rhetoric
In this blog, Jack Schneider, assistant professor at the College of the Holy Cross, hosted productive dialogues about contentious K-12 policy issues. This blog is no longer being updated.
Education
Opinion
Common Core and Corporate Interests
Jack and guest Julian Vasquez Heilig discuss whether testing companies like Pearson are behind the Common Core State Standards.
Education
Opinion
Do Curricular Standards Get a Bad Rap?
Is there any point in having curricular benchmarks at the district, state, or national level? Jack Schneider and Julian Vasquez Heilig discuss.
Education
Opinion
A 'Third Way': Intra-District Choice
Choice, for all its pitfalls, does offer a glimmering hope of countering school segregation. Julian Vasquez Heilig and I consider a choice plan that might work.
Education
Opinion
Vouchers and Equity
Vouchers are back as a topic, and this time they've been given an equity gloss. Julian Vasquez Heilig and I discuss whether or not vouchers are still a bad idea.
Education
Opinion
What Is the Damage Done by TFA?
What is the damage done by TFA's claims that their program is as good or better than college- and university-based programs? Julian Vasquez Heilig and I discuss.
Education
Opinion
Better Off Without Teach For America?
Julian Vasquez Heilig and I have both been critical of Teach For America. But we tend to take different positions on the overall impact of organization.
Education
Opinion
Should Communities Determine Their Own Accountability Measures?
Should the community have input in what they are held accountable for in educational outcomes? Julian Vasquez Heilig and I weigh the possibilities.
Education
Opinion
Why Are We Using Standardized Tests?
What should be included in a measure of school quality? If not by standardized test scores, how should we measure student achievement? Julian Vasquez Heilig and I each have some thoughts.
Education
Opinion
Is Testing Designed to Promote Inequality?
While corporate lobbying and palm-greasing is disturbing in its own right, we can't pin the obsession with testing on Pearson.
Education
Opinion
What's a 'Corporate' Charter?
I use "corporate" as a term to describe the large chains and franchises that are dominating and leading the charter movement.
Education
Opinion
Charters and the Profit Motive
Private interests, concerned foremost with the bottom line, can be problematic in education; but the vast majority of charters are operated on a non-profit basis.
Education
Opinion
Introducing Julian Vasquez Heilig
I decided to invite a new conversation partner to jump in, hoping we might go even further in unpacking the overheated rhetoric that swirls around our public schools.
Education
Opinion
What Makes a Great Teacher?
It is deeply misguided to believe that those skills alone make a great teacher.
Education
Opinion
Education Is an Ecosystem
Education is less like a vast machine than it is like a rain forest.