Valerie Strauss – Why school is a ‘confusing mental mish-mash’ for kids

Marion Brady is a veteran educator who has long argued that public education needs a paradigm shift. Here is a new piece in which he explains why schools need a complete transformation in what and how students learn, and why the Common Core State Standards, standardized tests and other elements of corporate-influenced school reform can’t accomplish this. Brady says that …

Allison Shertzer – Why US Cities Are Segregated by Race: New Evidence on the Role of ‘White Flight’

US cities became increasingly segregated by race over the 20th century. General consensus holds that most of this segregation was concentrated in the post-war period. This column uses neighbourhood-level data to find that racial segregation in cities began earlier; indeed, much of it had taken place by 1930. The column also examines the residential response of whites to black arrivals, …

Kevin Kumashiro – Why Every Student Will NOT Succeed With the New Education Law

Last week, after a seven-year delay, Congress overwhelmingly voted, and the president signed, to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, dubbed No Child Left Behind in 2002, and now called the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).  This new law fixes some problems but creates others, especially for children who struggle the most. The new law ends the NCLB requirement …

Nadia Prupis – Latest SAT Scores Raise New Alarms Over ‘Test-and-Punish’ Education

New statistics show that average SAT scores countrywide have dropped to their lowest level since the college admissions exam was redesigned in 2005, continuing a 10-year trend that education advocates say illustrates the failures of test-driven schooling. According to the College Board, which reported the statistics on Thursday, the average SAT score for the class of 2015 was 1490 out …

The Democrats May Have Just Aligned Themselves With Test and Punish – We Are Doomed – Steven Singer

Almost every Democrat in the US Senate just voted to keep Test and Punish. But Republicans defeated them. I know. I feel like I just entered a parallel universe, too. But that’s what happened. Some facts: No Child Left Behind (NCLB) is a disaster. It took the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) – a federal law designed to ensure all schools get …

An Alternative To Failed Education ‘Reform,’ If We Want One – Jeff Bryant

The movement to boycott standardized testing has caught the media totally by surprise. The mostly parent-led effort started with Facebook pages and neighborhood meetings has grown into a firestorm of resistance. As the Associated Press reported this week, “This ‘opt-out’ movement remains scattered but is growing fast.” The article points to New York – where perhaps as many as 200,000 students recently sat out …