The letter below was sent to the New Jersey Star Ledger on Friday, March, 19th, 2010 at 5:42 P.M. They have not published it, and I am assuming at this point that they won’t. Even though it is framed to specifically discuss New Jersey, the topic and my points in this article can be attributed [...]

I am not anti-Charter Schools in the least, and I do not want anyone who reads this article to think such. My point here is to explain how the system is going to be altered over the next several years as states are cutting school funding throughout the country. We are about to enter the [...]

I’m starting to believe that there is no such thing as “large-scale” education reform unless the government steps in and mandates it. Quite frankly, I don’t think large scale reform should exist anyway (especially by bureaucrats). Right now, the educational world has thousands of people who all have the answers to the question of what [...]

Recently Diane Ravitch, former United States Assistant Secretary for Education under the Bush administration, has come under fire for an “about face” of her standpoint on NCLB. The whole situation is a shame for a number of reasons and yet no one is willing to look them in the face. I applaud her for finally [...]

I want to start the conversation off with a question: if we are working diligently to create lifelong learners, does an emphasis on exclusive teacher accountability denigrate the efforts of the system to cultivate this trait in kids? By the way, I am NOT talking exclusively about standardized testing. In my mind, I am ALWAYS [...]

Call me cynical, but there is something unbelievably funny to me about the fact that people scream about celebrating individual differences among kids yet we want every one of them to be in a specific grade by a specific year and pass the same test at the exact same time. Doesn’t this make you laugh [...]

I am currently reading The Dumbest Generation by Mark Bauerlein and, even though I find him to have faulty research (like using NAEP scores) and that he overstates his point (which means he knows no one is listening), I still consider where he is coming from. His second chapter discusses bibliophiles and the diminishing value of [...]

Let’s assume, for a second, that performance pay becomes a reality in schools. Teachers are paid based upon some quantitative data that suggests student learning. Whether this is an accurate metric or not is irrelevant for the question I want us to consider. With the institution of a merit/performance pay system, do districts forego the [...]

I support standardized testing and so do you even if you don’t know it or want to admit it. What you don’t support is standardized testing in its current form or for that use that has become synonymous with the term. Imagine if standardized testing was not mentioned in the same sentence as the “No [...]

It seems as though politicians are rallying around the notion of national standards and there are few individuals voicing an opinion and raising questions about the effectiveness of such measures. I, on the other hand, am beginning to wonder if the entire country realizes that standards as they are currently envisioned limit the amount of [...]