News Round Up, Education Edition

Here are some education stories I have been collecting.  Some of these might rightly seem only tangentially related to education.

I am just not sure that this is the way to get a useful comprehensive update to teacher evaluation.

There is so much to pull apart in this piece on a "bar exam for teachers" and the backing of the "union."  Let's start with some inside knowledge. Randi was never really a teacher. They might have had her "teach" a class when they courted her to be the head of the NY-UFT.  But that hardly makes her an expert.  There are so many contradictory pieces in here -- teachers are not like lawyers, lawyers do not apprentice, many states already require exams in both pedagogy and subject area.  And the worst of all, I fear, is that the only winners in this scheme are the test makers.

Arlene Ackerman passed away here in Albuquerque (of all places) on my birthday.  I still think that she was never given wide enough berth to make the kinds of changes that take time ... and support from the community, parents and board members.

This was a somewhat confusing piece on funding formulas in Texas or perhaps more accurately about a court ruling about school funding in Texas.

I am glad to know that someone is thinking about the NCAA, poor academic policies, and college educations.  I hope that someone figures out how to get this young man a real shot at college.

This story describes the intersection of schooling and parenting with a program that works with "rebellious teens" -- seems an odd way to describe teenagers, as if most teenagers aren't rebellious? Probably more interesting is the fact that this program is specifically targeting those teens from immigrant families that seem not to be "adjusting" to "Americanized life."

I am guessing that the Inside Bay Area newsgroup decided to post a link to this blog post because it is Black History Month since it is nearly three months after it was published on the blog.  However, I don't really care why they did. It is an informative piece from both the standpoint of this "reporter's" alleged re-education and the thoughtful recounting of the facts.  May the Black Panther Party's 10 points continue to inspire the kinds of connections described here.

Jon Stewart interviewed my favorite target, Michelle Rhee, last week.  If I ever get to interview her, I hope that I can be as graciously critical as Jon is... Some of Michelle's best friends are teachers, in case you were wondering.  She is such an easy target -- partly because she appears to have no consciousness about what is objectionable about herself.  Um... has registered as a Republican yet?  Here is the extended interview part 1, in case you didn't get enough on the first link.  And part 2.  It is in part 3 where Jon really gets her to trip over her own words. I would have wanted to slap her with her own words more forcefully -- that's why I said, I hope I will learn to be as gracious as Jon in his slap-downs.  I won't be reading her book, unless someone pays me.

This piece talks about George I. Sanchez -- and a group in NM that figured out he was a native son who hasn't been given his due.  I wonder if Sanchez would prefer to have buildings named after him or actions taken to remedy the ills he pointed out decades ago.

A last minute entry is about a new scholarship started in my home town ... I am not sure what point they were trying to make with this article.  I wish they had at least given a link to be able to contribute to the fund.

There were several pieces from the NYTimes that caught my eye, but I will admit that they have been open on my computer for days, and I have not had the energy to read them... you can let me know what you think.