The nationās largest urban transit system is seeking billions more in federal aid but may have to consider drastic measures, including postponing critical improvements.
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The nationās largest urban transit system is seeking billions more in federal aid but may have to consider drastic measures, including postponing critical improvements.

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The nationās largest urban transit system is seeking billions more in federal aid but may have to consider drastic measures, including postponing critical improvements.
The Two Faces of American Education
From the New York Review of Books, by Andrew Delbanco
In order to agree that Americaās schools ought to be better (Ravitch), we donāt have to believe that they are worse than ever (Rhee). We donāt have to think, as Rhee does, that āgreatā teaching is a magic bullet in order to agree with Ravitch that the training of teachers ought to be more rigorous and that our nation needs āa stable workforce of experienced professional educatorsā who receive good compensation and respect. Rhee is right that our schools could use some shaking up. Ravitch is right that āthe wounds caused by centuries of slavery, segregation, and discrimination cannot be healed by testing, standards, accountability, merit pay, and choice.ā
This article examines the philosophies of two voices in American education, Diane Ravitch and Michelle Rhee. Ā Rhee (who heads a lobbying organization) is a proponent of charter schools, privatization, and testing-based accountability who dismisses the effects of structural inequality. Ā Ravitch (described as "arguably our leading historian of primary and secondary education") emphasizes the importance of addressing poverty alongside education reform, as well as a stable workforce of better trained, experienced educators who receive "good compensation and respect."
Read it here and click below for more quotes.
When we are too certain of our opinions, we run the risk of ignoring any evidence that conflicts with our views. It is doubt that shows we are still thinking, still willing to reexamine hardened beliefs when confronted with new facts and new evidence.
Death and Life of the Great American School System -- Diane Ravitch
The Daily Show 2013 10 30 Diane Ravitch
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How could they have foreseen the social disintegration that would force upon the school the roles of parent, minister, policeman, social worker, psychiatrist and babysitter?
Diane RavitchĀ in reference to the founders of the common school movementĀ
DIANE RAVITCH'S BLOG
Why Did David Letterman Invite Only TFA for Teacher Appreciation Week? dianerav This teacher noticed with chaĀgrin that David LetĀterĀman invitĀed ten Teach for AmerĀiĀca teachĀers to delivĀer his top ten reaĀsons for Teacher AppreĀciĀaĀtion week. SomeĀwhat in LetĀterĀmanās defense, I have to say that the top ten reaĀsons, which were mostĀly sarĀdonĀic and cynĀiĀcal, did not reflect much credĀit on teachĀers or on the kids who delivĀered the lines.
I conĀclude that David LetĀterĀman saw no reaĀson to express appreĀciĀaĀtion for teachĀers.
Our elites have gone bonkers. How else can you explain their fasĀciĀnaĀtion with young colĀlege gradĀuĀates who agree to teach for only two years as the very best way to improve eduĀcaĀtion? Their āsacĀriĀficeā is only temĀpoĀrary; soon they will be in gradĀuĀate school or law school or workĀing for GoldĀman Sachs, leavĀing behind their measly teacher pay.
How would our elites (talkĀing to you, CharĀlie Rose, and to you, ediĀtoĀrĀiĀal boards and corĀpoĀrate chiefĀtains) feel about handĀing forĀeign polĀiĀcy over to the recruits in the Peace Corps instead of the seaĀsoned diploĀmats in the ForĀeign SerĀvice? The kids are alright, but why are they celĀeĀbratĀed instead of celĀeĀbratĀing the three milĀlion plus women and men who make a career of teachĀing?
For all I appreciate Ravitchās coming out stance on testing and accountability, I do not embrace her recommendations at the end of her 2010 book. Although I agree with this statement in many ways, ie āthe way to improve schools is to improve curriculum and instruction and improve the conditions in which teachers work and children learn ...ā (225), her approach to curriculum here still focuses essentially on delivery of "core" content -- and I would push back both on this idea of delivery as well as this idea of "core." Within this vision too she imagines a truce in the "culture wars" which I would say is also highly questionable, especially within a frame of delivery/consumption. Michael Apple writes that within the dynamics of knowledge, power and teaching in education "is a very real set of relationships among those who have economic, political, and cultural power in society on the one hand and the ways in which education is thought about, organized, and evaluated on the other" in his preface to his book Ideology and Curriculum (2004).
I also think her conceptualization of a standardized curriculum narrows what is possible as well as what I believe is actually urgently necessary. At least at the time of writing of this book, she doesnāt seem take into account the digital meditated and networked world of knowledge within/among which we now need to think about education and schooling. However the environment in which we think about school and knowledge has fundamentally shifted and changed since the beginning of her story. Mimi Ito, author of Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out: Youth Living and Learning with New Media, in a speech at the American Association for School Library Conference in October 2011 says,
⦠the world around the classroom has also changed dramatically. Established cultural institutions like the textbook, the teacher, or the encyclopedia arenāt the critical passage points for knowledge anymore. Kids are immersed in a networked knowledge economy of free flowing information and constant social connectivity.
Again, I am influenced in my thinking by my work in the field of digital media and learning. Most recently reading the Connected Learning Research report, the authors write that āTodayās American youth are entering a labor market strikingly different from earlier generations.āĀ
Regardless of which job forecasts win out, we anticipate a future of heightened competition for good jobs, and a reduction in the wage premium gained by education. In this context, a neo-liberal vision of a market-driven education system is far more likely to yield a permanent two-track system than an environment in which opportunity and outcomes are widely shared across the citizenry. In order to pursue an educational reform agenda that is oriented towards equity, we need to confront these market realities as well as take into account the highly unequal educational playing field dominant and non-dominant youth encounter. Our educational system will fail those young people who it most needs to serve without solutions that look to education as a way of building capacity and meaningful participation rather than as a pipeline to a shrinking sets of opportunities.
I am also influenced by sophisticated curriculum development work that I have seen teachers I work with created and iterate over time. Curriculum is a "complicated conversation" (Ellsworth) and always reflects larger trends and influences in the society at larger (both explicit and hidden) ... so I don't agree with Ravitch that is is the domain of educational professionals versus teachers (note: I'm not sure I even understand this distinction btw, so that's a question) or "the what" versus "the how," (as she puts it on 226) and I'd be interested in discussing that more.
To support a conversation around curriculum, I found this post by former principal Frank Murphy in the Philadelphia School Notebook, which takes a historical view and shows the circular nature of the impact of āreformsā on curriculum and instructional control over the last decade in Philadelphia. And comments here by educators like Christina Puntel and others, make suggestions about directions to go that reach back historically to a time when teachers were in charge of their own curriculum and instruction decisions. These strike me as key pieces to hold onto as we move forward.
What did we know in the field from before NCLB about this curriculum and instruction? And what do we need to keep learning in order to move forward, in the name of equity and democracy, within radically changed and changing social, economic and educational environments?