Common Sense For School Administrators

Ms. Cornelius of A Shrewdness of Apes has some advice that really should be read by school administrators and wannabees: 1. Have meetings only if you have something to say. Holding meetings for the sake of holding meetings, or to show the higher-ups that you hold regular meetings, wastes valuable time for everyone. This is especially important in the days before the school year actually starts.

Merit Pay Chronicles: A Teacher Speaks!

Maria Neira is a former classroom teacher who runs a teachers union in New York State. Consider reading what she has to say on the subject of teacher pay based on test scores:Fully understanding last week's battle in Albany over whether student test scores should be used to determine which teachers earn tenure requires a broader appreciation of what it means to be a classroom teacher.Too often,

Texas Teacher Shortage?

They're crying out for teachers in the Lone Star State:Each day, students of different races, genders, ethnicities and socioeconomic backgrounds enter the nation's classrooms. Unfortunately, for some, these factors may work against them - especially in urban areas.According to TCU's [Texas Christian University] Center for Urban Education, urban schools - those schools with low socioeconomic and/

When Girls Go Stupid

What more can be said about this crime? And what can be done to stop the stupidity of this type of made-for-video violence?

When They're Too Cool For School

Sad But True.Heh. It's just a matter of time before those all-knowing Washington lawmakers and their associates accomplices over at The Kingdom Of Spellings will attempt to legislate an attitude-change for America's youth.

Censorchimps: The East Texas Subspecies

Who would've thought that wearing a "John Edwards for President" T-shirt would get a kid suspended from high school? The lawsuit was inevitable: A Waxahachie High School sophomore is suing the school district for the right to wear a T-shirt supporting John Edwards as a 2008 presidential candidate.The Liberty Legal Institute on Tuesday announced that it was suing the Waxahachie Independent School

D.C.'s Gangster Education

In today's Washington Post, Colbert I. King let's us know how bad it has gotten in many of the public schools in our nation's capital:"Security at Wilson High to Be Tightened" announced a headline in The Post's March 21 Metro section. More stringent measures were being put in place after 13 students were arrested because of two fights that week, the story said.I first visited Woodrow Wilson High

'Tis The Season For Parents And Kids To Be Scammed

As the parent of a 16-year-old (the TeenWonk) high school junior that has a 4.35 G.P.A., we've been getting a number of so-called "nominations" for inclusion in this or that "national honor roll," "who's-who book," and, of course, the United States Achievement Academy.The "nominations" were made by her well-intentioned (but unknowing) teachers, who think that they are doing the kids a favor by so

Helicopter Parents Vs. Stinger Teachers

When are "involved parents" too involved? In one Maryland district, the fur is flying between some parents and a number of teachers: The Baltimore Sun ran an article on Tuesday about parental involvement taken to the extreme. The trigger was an annual survey by the Howard County Education Association that shows a majority of teachers say they have been subjected to harassment, and most of the

George F. Will Gets Beyond NCLB

From tomorrow's Washington Post George Will writes: No Child Left Behind, supposedly an antidote to the "soft bigotry of low expectations," has instead spawned lowered standards. The law will eventually be reauthorized because doubling down on losing bets is what Washington does. But because NCLB contains incentives for perverse behavior, reauthorization should include legislation empowering

U.S. Students Not Comparing Well With Others

It seems as though American students continue underperforming when compared to many of their international peers: Finland and South Korea have topped the world in a new student ranking survey.According to the OECD, the two countries lead the world when it comes to education, especially in reading and science.In particular, Finnish students ranked top in science, while South Korean teenagers were

Babies Having Babies: Now A Generational Problem

While I was reading this Iowa story about the 29-year-old grandmother, I wanted to tear my hair out in clumps:Quad-City area teenagers are still having babies. But the good news is that fewer teens are doing so across the region — and in Iowa, Illinois and the United States as a whole — than 10 years ago.Some say the teens who are having babies seem to be getting younger and younger, including a

Banning 'Lil Ghosts And Goblins At The School House Door

Halloween is still weeks away. But already in Colorado the PC crowd has begun its campaign to suppress yet another harmless childhood rite of passage: BROOMFIELD - There won't be little ghosts and goblins at Kohl Elementary School this Halloween.In a newsletter sent home to parents, Principal Cindy Kaier wrote that the traditional Halloween party celebrated in classrooms each year will be

The Spellings Report: Pushing NCLB

The nation's report card has just come out and Queen of All Testing U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings is positively giddy over the news: "Student achievement is on the rise," said Secretary Spellings. "No Child Left Behind is working. It's doable, reasonable and necessary. Any efforts to weaken accountability would fly in the face of rising achievement."Spellings noted that 48 states

The Free-Radical Approach To EduReform

The editorial board of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution is saying that what's needed in order to overhaul public education is to actually go ahead and really overhaul public education:End high school at age 16. Take schools away from school districts and school boards and give them to hired private contractors, most likely liability corporations owned and run by teachers. Fund schools from the

Our Troubled High Schools: Gang-Banging The Indy Way

The plague of student juvenile gangs continues to infest many of our public schools, with the latest incident occurring in, of all places, an Indianapolis high school: Seven North Central High School students face gang-related charges after a fight in the school cafeteria resulted in their arrests Thursday.According to police reports, Special Deputy Thaddeus Jones of the Indianapolis Metropolitan

Teach Like Your Hair's On Fire: A "Gotta Have?"

A book with a title like that is just begging to be bought.Australian educator Murray Bourne liked it while Teacher Magazine's Howard Good didn't.Heh. Maybe some kind-hearted soul will buy a couple of copies and leave them in our teacher's lounge.I won't hold my breath.

Our Falling Reading Scores: What's To Be Done?

This is some troubling news: Reading skills among U.S. students graduating from high school this year fell to the lowest since 1994 as measured by the most widely taken college-entrance exam.Reading scores on the SAT declined 1 point to 502 after a 5- point drop last year, the test's operator, the College Board, reported today. The decline in 2006 had been the largest in three decades. Average

The Elephant In The EduReform Room

When it comes to successfully reforming our chronically under performing public education system, the factor that nobody in the MSM seems to want to talk about is the sad reality that many of our classroom teachers are under qualified for the jobs in which they are assigned.Well... almost nobody.In a recent op-ed piece that appeared in The Los Angeles Times, Camille Esch shows us that elephant "

Is This How To Build A Better NCLB?

The federal No Child Left Behind Act is up for reauthorization, and among the interested parties the jockeying for position has begun:Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., the chairman of the House education committee, says he hopes to steer a bill renewing the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) through the House this fall, and one of the key changes he plans to propose is incentives for states and