A Ler

What Charter Schools Can Teach Us About Teacher Voice

by Richard D. Kahlenberg & Halley Potter — March 09, 2015

Charter schools were originally proposed as vehicles to give teachers more leadership opportunities; however, the sector has evolved to focus on empowering management over teachers, and today just 7% of charter schools are unionized. This commentary piece explores what lessons can be drawn from the experiences of charter schools, both positive and negative, and how to run schools and structure the teaching profession to build and retain strong teachers. A subset of charter schools are pioneering new avenues for empowering teachers that could be adopted in other public school settings.

 

Lá Por Fora

Failings of American High Schools

(…)

Most discussions of high school reform focus, not surprisingly, on schools and teachers. They typically call for changes in the curriculum, in instructional methods, or in the selection, training, or compensation of teachers. I think this focus on what takes place inside the classroom is myopic. And it is why our efforts to improve high schools in America have largely failed. We haven’t done anything to improve adolescents’ noncognitive skills.

Nearly twenty years ago, in Beyond the Classroom (Steinberg, 1996), I argued that no school-reform effort would have any impact, though, if students didn’t come to school ready and able to learn. I continue to believe that this is true. The fundamental problem with American high-school achievement is not our schools or, for that matter, our teachers. If parents don’t raise their children in ways that enable them to maintain interest in what their teachers are teaching, it doesn’t much matter who the teachers are, how they teach, what they teach, or how much they’re paid. Without changing the culture of student achievement, changes in instructors or instruction won’t, and can’t, make a difference. In order to do this successfully, we need to start with families.

 

Medos

The right’s fear of education: What I learned as a (former) conservative military man

Why are Republicans constantly bashing college these days? I was one of them — and the answer may surprise you.

 

Liberdade De Escolha E Estupidez: O Caso Do Sarampo Nos EUA

A situação é perfeitamente estúpida, ou melhor, é uma situação inaceitável causada pela estupidez em nome de uma “liberdade” que só acaba por prejudicar muita gente.

O sarampo, depois de considerado erradicado, está em crescimento nos EUA devido ao crescimento de um movimento anti-vacinas que oscila entre posições de cepticismo ignorante quanto à sua validade e os preconceitos nascidos de uma pretensa cultura médica.

A busca de popularidade junto de sectores radicais que vivem num mundo de aparentes superstições quasi-medievais leva políticos experientes a dizer completos disparates sobre a liberdade dos pais decidirem se os filhos devem ser vacinados e depois a voltar atrás.

E é este o problema de levar determinados argumentos de autoridade, alegadamente em nome de valores inquestionáveis como a liberdade, a um excesso inaceitável. Porque essa pretensa liberdade de “escolher o melhor para os filhos” pode acabar a provocar o desnecessário regresso de doenças que o avanço da Ciência exterminou.

 

Lá Por Fora

Rage Against the Regime: The Reform of Education Policy in New York City

 

Cambada De Centralistas Estalinistas, Estes Nova-Iorquinos!

Mas, claro, a evocação de modelos externos de “sucesso” não contempla as notícias sobre o momento em que se consideram falhadas as reformas apregoadas e é necessário voltar ao que por cá querem abandonar.

Porque uma coisa é dar autonomia às escolas, no sentido de uma capacidade de tomar decisões partilhadas e mobilizadoras da comunidade escolar e educativa e outra é criar micro-centralismos com hierarquias tão ou mais rígidas do que uma única.

Chancellor Set to Centralize Management of New York City Schools

Chancellor Carmen Fariña is expected to announce changes on Thursday that will restore a centralized hierarchy to New York City’s schools, largely dispensing with one of the core management philosophies of the previous mayoral administration.

Beginning this fall, most principals will report to superintendents and to regional centers, according to a person who saw a draft of the plans late last year, but spoke on the condition of anonymity because this person was not authorized to speak about them publicly. The superintendents, who generally cover districts or parts of boroughs, and the regional centers would report to administrators in the chancellor’s office.

 

A Ler

Sponsors of Policy: A Network Analysis of Wealthy Elites, their Affiliated Philanthropies, and Charter School Reform in Washington State

O registo no site pode ser gratuito mas eu deixo aqui o pdf completo: CharterSponsor.

 

Pelos States

Probe Of Charter School Group Blasts ‘Suspect’ Conduct, ‘Rampant Nepotism’

 

Balanços

The Teaching Profession in 2014 (in Charts)

Referência enviada pela A. C.

 

Balanços – E.U.A.

The Year in Charts

 

Pelos States

Exposing the charter school lie: Michelle Rhee, Louis C.K. and the year phony education reform revealed its true colors

Charter schools promised new education innovations. Instead, they produced scam after new scam.

 

Lá Como Cá

REPORT: Only 9 Percent Of Guests Discussing Education On Evening Cable News Were Educators

Via Diane Ravitch.

 

Pelos States

Charter schools slip on latest state report card

 

Desigualdade

The Gap Between the Rich and the Rest of Us Is The Widest It’s Been In 30 Years. Here’s One Reason Why.

Lots of Americans don’t have bank accounts.

 

Interessante

A Rural High School with a 21st Century Outlook

 

Pelos States

NY State Official Raises Alarm on Charter Schools — And Gets Ignored

A top official in the New York State Comptroller’s Office has urged regulators to require more transparency on charter-school finances. The response has been, well, nonexistent.

Agradecendo a referência ao V. Teodoro.

 

Lá Como Cá

The Incredible Shrinking Incomes of Young Americans

It’s repetitive for some to hear, but important for everybody to know: You can’t explain Millennial economic behavior without explaining that real wages for young Americans have collapsed.

 

A Ler

New Findings Show New York City’s Small High Schools Boost College Enrollment Rates Among Disadvantaged Students

MDRC, a nonprofit, nonpartisan education and social policy research firm, released new findings today from its rigorous multiyear study of small public high schools in New York City. The findings confirm that these schools, which serve mostly disadvantaged students of color, not only raise graduation rates by 9.4 percentage points, but they boost college enrollment by 8.4 percentage points. In addition, the small high schools achieve these gains at a lower cost per graduate than that of the high schools attended by students who had applied to these schools but were randomly assigned to other public high schools when small school slots were full.

 

Ser Professor Na América

Agradecendo a referência à Isabel P.

Why Is American Teaching So Bad?

 

Estudos

Three Essays on Education Reform in the United States

Measuring Hard-to-Measure Student Competencies