Items by Robert Pondiscio

• Dandelions and Orchids

  —The Core Knowledge Blog

  “Most of us have genes that make us as hardy as dandelions: able to take root and survive almost anywhere.  A few of us, however, are more like the orchid: fragile and fickle, but capable of blooming spectacularly if given greenhouse care.”  – The Science of Success, by David Dobbs [...]
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  Posted: December 14, 2009, 9:55am EST
  by Robert Pondiscio

• Detroit Parents Want Teachers, Administrators Jailed

  —The Core Knowledge Blog

  Number of comments: 5
  “Somebody needs to go to jail. Somebody needs to pay for this. Somebody needs to go to jail, and it shouldn’t be the kids.” Sharlonda Buckman, CEO of the Detroit Parent Network, demanding jail time for educators and district officials Saturday following the release of test scores that showed fourth- and [...]
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  Posted: December 13, 2009, 9:44am EST
  by Robert Pondiscio

• Best of the Blogs

  —The Core Knowledge Blog

  A few good reads from far and wide… Everything that’s wrong with us The Educated Reporter Reporters are dying to cover the education beat with breadth and depth, but educators “operate in a culture of fear,” writes Linda Perlstein. “Worse, though, is the paranoia that prevents anyone, from the top on down, from [...]
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  Posted: December 12, 2009, 4:12pm EST
  by Robert Pondiscio

• Getting Back on Tracking

  —The Core Knowledge Blog

  Number of comments: 10
  Want to start a fight in education?  Suggest that ability grouping or “tracking” is a good idea and someone (usually not a parent and seldom a teacher) will accuse you of being indifferent to struggling students.  And that’s one of the milder forms of criticism.  A new study by Brookings’ Tom Loveless issued by the Fordham Institute [...]
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  Posted: December 11, 2009, 11:22am EST
  by Robert Pondiscio

• Thomas The (Conservative, Sexist) Tank Engine

  —The Core Knowledge Blog

  Number of comments: 3
  A political science professor at Canada’s Alberta University analyzed 23 episodes of Thomas the Tank Engine and concludes the popular children’s show portrays a world “blighted by a conservative political ideology and a rigid class system which stifles self-expression.” And it’s sexist, too.  The U.K. Daily Mail quotes Laura Midgley, [...]
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  Posted: December 11, 2009, 9:47am EST
  by Robert Pondiscio

• Making Tenure Tougher

  —The Core Knowledge Blog

  Number of comments: 8
  Think it’s too easy for teachers to get tenure?  How about a system where only six out of ten teachers get tenure?  If that sounds about right to you, click here. [...]
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  Posted: December 10, 2009, 5:40pm EST
  by Robert Pondiscio

• Consuming Mass Quantities

  —The Core Knowledge Blog

  Number of comments: 2
  Americans consume an estimated average information diet of 100,000 words each day, in print and online, via TV and radio, as well as music, movies and even games.  An exhaustive study of data consumption by researchers at the University of California, San Diego concludes Americans averaged almost 12 hours per day of  information consumption in 2008.  Despite a [...]
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  Posted: December 10, 2009, 9:13am EST
  by Robert Pondiscio

• TUDA: The Utterly Depressing Assessment

  —The Core Knowledge Blog

  TUDA stands for “The Utterly Depressing Assessment.”  Coverage of yesterday’s math scores for urban school districts has edupundits bending over backwards to say “my scores are worse than your scores.”   Football analogies abound.   Cleveland’s scores “might be the only thing in that city more depressing than the Browns,” says Flypaper.  At [...]
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  Posted: December 09, 2009, 10:40am EST
  by Robert Pondiscio

• Cowboy Up

  —The Core Knowledge Blog

  The business book Cowboy Ethics purports to hold lessons for Wall Streeters about the “code of the west,” but a Colorado teacher believes it’s a good vehicle for reaching high school students and giving them “the personal qualities they will need to achieve true career and life success.” A story in [...]
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  Posted: December 09, 2009, 9:32am EST
  by Robert Pondiscio

• TUDA Mathematics Results Out Today

  —The Core Knowledge Blog

  New NAEP numbers, the Trial Urban District Assessment or “TUDA” for math, are out this morning, looking at 4th and 8th grade samples from 18 urban school  districts.  From the IES news release:  In comparison to 2007, scores improved in two districts at each grade in 2009.  Scores did not change [...]
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  Posted: December 08, 2009, 11:21am EST
  by Robert Pondiscio

• WH Official: Hispanics Lack “Sense of Urgency” on Education

  —The Core Knowledge Blog

  Here’s a comment I haven’t seen repeated or discussed anywhere.  Juan Sepulveda, director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans, said in New Mexico last week that Hispanics aren’t being aggressive enough about closing the academic achievement gap.  According to a report in the Albuquerque Journal, [...]
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  Posted: December 08, 2009, 9:11am EST
  by Robert Pondiscio

• Willingham on Online Teaching

  —The Core Knowledge Blog

  Number of comments: 10
  Online learning has lots of potential, but the teacher-student relationship can’t possibly work over the Internet, right?  That’s what Dan Willingham used to think too. [...]
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  Posted: December 07, 2009, 12:31pm EST
  by Robert Pondiscio

• Sharpton’s Media Maven Takes an Ill-Advised Bow

  —The Core Knowledge Blog

  Number of comments: 1
  It’s PR 101 that publicists should be seen and not heard.  And not even seen.  Feast your eyes, then, on this curious piece in the New York Daily News about Al Sharpton’s “media adviser” Rachel Noerdlinger.  Sharpton’s leadership role in the Education Equality Project has given pause to some who would otherwise [...]
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  Posted: December 07, 2009, 11:38am EST
  by Robert Pondiscio

• Parent Power on Facebook

  —The Core Knowledge Blog

  When parents in Palm Beach County, Florida became unhappy with a new school district testing initiative called “embedded assessments” and other changes to the curriculum, they organized a potent online resistance.  “They started with e-mails,” reports the Sun-Sentinel newspaper. “Then they created Facebook pages. Then came a website.” “The Internet is a common denominator [...]
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  Posted: December 07, 2009, 10:49am EST
  by Robert Pondiscio

• Stylin!

  —The Core Knowledge Blog

  Number of comments: 5
  The New York Times today has a big piece about New York City hedge fund guys and their involvement in charter schools….and, er….wait a minute…..in the Sunday Styles section??!?  Sample quote: Hedge fund managers may be better known for eight-figure incomes with which they scoop up the choicest Manhattan penthouses and Greenwich, [...]
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  Posted: December 06, 2009, 12:33pm EST
  by Robert Pondiscio

• What Works is Boring

  —The Core Knowledge Blog

  Number of comments: 3
  Important, but frustrating piece in the Washington Post this morning about the difficulty of sustaining test-score growth in underperforming schools after dramatic one-time boosts.  “Studies across the country show that many low-performing schools falter after big one-year gains in test scores.  Of the seven D.C. public schools that increased proficiency rates [...]
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  Posted: December 06, 2009, 9:35am EST
  by Robert Pondiscio

• 2009 Edublog Award Nominations

  —The Core Knowledge Blog

  Number of comments: 6
  Nominations are being sought for the 2009 Edublog awards.  The competition requires that nominations be made not just by blogs but on the blogs themselves.  I’m not posting nominees in every category–and only one nomination per category is permitted–but this gives me a chance to issue some well deserved pats on [...]
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  Posted: December 05, 2009, 10:04am EST
  by Robert Pondiscio

• The Week’s Best Blog Posts

  —The Core Knowledge Blog

  The week’s best ed blog posts from the weekly Common Knowledge email newsletter–a weekly roundup of news in curriculum, teaching, ed policy and more.  You can sign up for the newsletter here. Why Business Leaders Should Not Be in the Driver’s Seat Bridging Differences Schools are not trying to build a better mousetrap, writes [...]
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  Posted: December 04, 2009, 6:21pm EST
  by Robert Pondiscio

• The Questions Get Tougher For P21

  —The Core Knowledge Blog

  Number of comments: 4
  Common Core’s aggressive skepticism about the Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21) is slowly emerging as one of the great David vs. Goliath stories in education.   The tiny Washington-based nonprofit, which is less than two years old, has been relentless in questioning the whole concept of 21st century skills.  A big piece in next [...]
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  Posted: December 04, 2009, 12:51pm EST
  by Robert Pondiscio

• The Incredible Shrinking Education Beat

  —The Core Knowledge Blog

  Number of comments: 2
  A new Brookings report bemoans a lack of education reporting noting that “only 1.4 percent of national news coverage from television, newspapers, news Web sites, and radio dealt with education.”  Some are taking issue with the study’s methodology, noting it only counts page A1 stories in the newspaper.  Still nobody seems [...]
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  Posted: December 03, 2009, 9:52am EST
  by Robert Pondiscio

• Building Vocabulary, The Tiger Woods Way

  —The Core Knowledge Blog

  Number of comments: 10
  If SAT verbal scores happen to go up a little, thank Tiger Woods. [...]
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  Posted: December 02, 2009, 4:10pm EST
  by Robert Pondiscio

• Core Knowledge Quiz: U.S. Foreign Policy

  —The Core Knowledge Blog

  Number of comments: 10
  On this day in 1823, President James Monroe declared the Americas could no longer be colonized by European nations.  Under the “Monroe Doctrine” the U.S. would consider any such attempts an act of aggression and promised to intervene.  It was a defining moment in U.S. foreign policy.  Here’s a Core Knowledge Quiz to [...]
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  Posted: December 02, 2009, 3:22pm EST
  by Robert Pondiscio

• Indoctrination and Dispositions

  —The Core Knowledge Blog

  Number of comments: 10
  The University of Minnesota’s ed school has found itself embroiled in controversy after a newspaper columnist claimed the school is seeking to indoctrinate would-be teachers with radical ideologies–and might prevent those who do not toe the line from teaching.  As described by Katherine Kersten, a columnist for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, The Race, Culture, Class and Gender [...]
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  Posted: December 01, 2009, 9:20am EST
  by Robert Pondiscio

• Alternative Class for Disrupters?

  —The Core Knowledge Blog

  Number of comments: 10
  Schools won’t improve, a Florida teacher argues,  unless there are alternative classes or activities ”for those who don’t care to learn or can’t, or won’t, let anyone else learn.” Until these needs are addressed,” writes Junie Rabin in the Sun Sentinel “do not expect changes in drop-out rates or second-class education. [...]
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  Posted: November 30, 2009, 9:26am EST
  by Robert Pondiscio

• Talking Dirty

  —The Core Knowledge Blog

  Put away the Purell and send your kids outside to play in the dirt.  New research suggests bacteria on the surface of the skin helps fight inflammation when you get cuts and bruises.   Why is it important?  The UC San Diego research is being hailed by some as evidence for the “hygiene [...]
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  Posted: November 30, 2009, 9:25am EST
  by Robert Pondiscio

• Hate Speech, Free Speech and Intolerance

  —The Core Knowledge Blog

  Number of comments: 1
  The ACLU is suing Florida’s Alachua County School District alleging students’ free speech has been “unlawfully censored.”  The Orlando Sentinal reports several children were suspended or threatened with suspension for “wearing tee shirts promoting their religious beliefs about Christianity and Islam in school and at school events earlier this school [...]
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  Posted: November 28, 2009, 11:46am EST
  by Robert Pondiscio

• Axe Grinding?

  —The Core Knowledge Blog

  Number of comments: 5
  Parents in one Rhode Island school district are wondering whether “grinding,” a sexually suggestive form of dancing, should be banned at school dances.  It’s gotten to the point where it’s uncomfortable to watch,” said Kate Macinanti, chairwoman of the high school’s dance committee – a subgroup of the South Kingstown High [...]
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  Posted: November 28, 2009, 10:58am EST
  by Robert Pondiscio

• Blather, Rinse, Repeat

  —The Core Knowledge Blog

  Number of comments: 2
  In a debate on the Education Next website, Joe Williams of Democrats for Education Reform and Pedro Noguera of New York University wrestle with the question, “Should school reformers pay more attention to the non-academic needs of poor children?”  The more pertinent question might be which of the two groups Williams and Noguera [...]
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  Posted: November 24, 2009, 5:20pm EST
  by Robert Pondiscio

• America’s Next Great Pundit

  —The Core Knowledge Blog

  Number of comments: 2
  Many of my fellow ed bloggers have been working overtime to get out the vote for Teach for America honcho Kevin Huffman to win the Washington Post’s America’s Next Great Pundit contest, a wonderfully clever American Idol for the chattering classes.  The efforts have paid off with Huffman narrowly fending off [...]
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  Posted: November 24, 2009, 9:39am EST
  by Robert Pondiscio

• Neuroscientists for the Arts

  —The Core Knowledge Blog

  Number of comments: 10
  Dan Willingham offers up practical reasons why arts education is not a mere luxury in education.  Writing at the Washington Post’s The Answer Sheet blog, Willingham cites Harvard developmental psychologist Jerry Kagan, who observed recently that while reading and math are typical litmus tests for academic success, the arts allow some [...]
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  Posted: November 24, 2009, 9:17am EST
  by Robert Pondiscio

• Mr. Goldfarb’s Evaluation

  —The Core Knowledge Blog

  Number of comments: 10
  Run, don’t walk, over to the Washington Post to read Jay Mathews piece on the evaluation given to an AP History teacher under Washington, DC’s new IMPACT system for assessing teacher performance.   Dan Goldfarb, a teacher at the Benjamin Banneker Academic High School has taken an extraordinary risk by giving [...]
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  Posted: November 23, 2009, 9:05am EST
  by Robert Pondiscio

• Darkness Falls

  —The Core Knowledge Blog

  Number of comments: 8
  The United States is in gradual decline, says Checker Finn matter of factly.  “Many people seem oblivious, going about their own affairs without reference to ominous but very gradual trends, rather like the frog that didn’t know it would be boiled because the water in that pot was warming so [...]
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  Posted: November 23, 2009, 6:05am EST
  by Robert Pondiscio

• Two Birds, One Stone

  —The Core Knowledge Blog

  Number of comments: 3
  School budget shortfall?  Student discipline problems?  Solve both by……charging for detention!  A pair of school board members in Nutley, New Jersey are proposing precisely that. Yes, they’re serious.  The board members, Steven Rogers and Walter Sautter, say they are hoping to adopt a policy by next school year that would charge [...]
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  Posted: November 23, 2009, 6:05am EST
  by Robert Pondiscio

• H.S Grad Can’t Read His Diploma

  —The Core Knowledge Blog

  Number of comments: 1
  How did Wayne Knowland graduate from a Bronx high school last June, the New York Post asks, when he can’t even read his diploma? In fact, the charismatic 18-year-old can’t read street signs, a paragraph in a newspaper or a job application — despite educators at Fannie Lou Hamer HS sending [...]
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  Posted: November 23, 2009, 6:04am EST
  by Robert Pondiscio

• “Infantilizing Our Kids Into Incompetence”

  —The Core Knowledge Blog

  Number of comments: 10
  A new revolution is under way, according to the cover story of the latest Time Magazine.  It’s aimed at rolling back “the almost comical overprotectiveness and overinvestment of moms and dads.”    Call it slow parenting, simplicity parenting, free-range parenting, the magazine notes, but the message is the same: “Less is more; hovering is [...]
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 5:57pm EST
  by Robert Pondiscio

• Required Reading

  —The Core Knowledge Blog

  Number of comments: 8
  My “Blog About This” list is growing like kudzu, so in the interest of time…. Jay Greene “can’t understand the enthusiasm of education reformers for national standards and testing.”  Jay sees plenty of room for mischief.  I’m inclined to agree.  However, if all we end up with is national testing that allows [...]
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  Posted: November 18, 2009, 10:49am EST
  by Robert Pondiscio

• Oh Say Can You C.E.?

  —The Core Knowledge Blog

  Number of comments: 6
  A Missouri school district has run afoul of some parents for teaching children to identify when historical events occurred by the designations ”C.E.” (Common Era) and “B.C.E.” (Before Common Era) in addition to the traditional B.C. and A.D.   The numbers don’t change one way or the other.  It’s equally accurate to say Julius Caesar [...]
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  Posted: November 17, 2009, 11:01am EST
  by Robert Pondiscio

• Neologism Watch

  —The Core Knowledge Blog

  Number of comments: 1
  The New Oxford Dictionary has named “unfriend” as the 2009 Word of the Year.  Unfriend (v.)  The act of “remov[ing] someone as a ‘friend’ on a social networking site such as Facebook.” An unlovely word, unfriend (wouldn’t “defriend” be more accurate?) beat out other tech terms for Word of the Year, including sexting, hashtag, and [...]
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  Posted: November 17, 2009, 8:49am EST
  by Robert Pondiscio

• Core Knowledge Quiz: Springsteen Study Guide Edition

  —The Core Knowledge Blog

  Number of comments: 4
  When you’re 60-years-old and living on the road it’s easy to get disoriented.  Surely that explains why Bruce Springsteen shouted out “Hello, Ohio!” to the crowd at the Auburn Hills Palace in Michigan last Friday.  He mistakenly referred to the Buckeye State from the stage several times before one of [...]
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  Posted: November 17, 2009, 8:27am EST
  by Robert Pondiscio

• Ed Blogger Named to Common Standards Panel

  —The Core Knowledge Blog

  Number of comments: 3
  A name familiar in edublog circles will serve on the newly announced “work groups” charged with developing K-12 standards in English Language Arts and math.  Diana Senechal, who contributes to the Core Knowledge Blog and pinch-hits at Joanne Jacobs’ blog has been named to the panel authoring the ELA standards.  Matt Davis, who along with Souzanne [...]
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  Posted: November 16, 2009, 8:10am EST
  by Robert Pondiscio

• Congress to Consider Expanding Troops to Teachers Program

  —The Core Knowledge Blog

  Under a bill pending in Congress, 98% of U.S. schools would be eligible to hire retiring military personnel who will then be trained as educators under the federal “Troops to Teachers” program, McClatchy Newspapers reports: As currently designed, the program offers troops up to $5,000 to help them pay for their [...]
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  Posted: November 16, 2009, 7:55am EST
  by Robert Pondiscio

• Are You Meeping Kidding Me?

  —The Core Knowledge Blog

  Number of comments: 1
  The town of Danvers, Massachusetts can now claim prideful ownership of two great overreactions in American history.  The first was the Salem Witch Trials.  The second?  Banning the word “meep” at Danvers High School.  Read it and meep. [...]
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  Posted: November 16, 2009, 7:51am EST
  by Robert Pondiscio

• Winston Churchill, Developing Writer

  —The Core Knowledge Blog

  Number of comments: 7
  We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender. A computerized program aimed at assessing student writing skills for English “A levels” deems passages by Winston Churchill, Ernest Hemingway and other [...]
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  Posted: November 12, 2009, 10:27am EST
  by Robert Pondiscio

• Give It Away

  —The Core Knowledge Blog

  Number of comments: 1
  Tout le blogosphere is high dudgeon over a North Carolina middle school fundraiser offering an extra 20 points on two tests for a $20 donation.  All of those schools that have instituted “No Grade Below 50″ policies must be kicking themselves for leaving money on the table. [...]
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  Posted: November 12, 2009, 6:12am EST
  by Robert Pondiscio

• Dan Willingham’s Hall of Shame

  —The Core Knowledge Blog

  Number of comments: 8
  Dan Willingham has debuted a new feature over the the Washington Post’s Answer Sheet blog aimed at debunking scientific claims made on behalf  of educational products.  The first case on the docket is a computer program called eyeQ, which purports to improve reading speed by teaching kids to use both [...]
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  Posted: November 11, 2009, 6:23am EST
  by Robert Pondiscio

• If It Sounds Too Bad To Be True…

  —The Core Knowledge Blog

  Number of comments: 4
  In September, this blog passed on the results of a survey of Oklahoma high school students whose lack of knowledge of basic civics strained credulity.  But not far enough, apparently.  Via Public School Insights comes word that the results of the survey were “likely fabricated.”  The survey by a firm called Strategic Vision [...]
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  Posted: November 10, 2009, 4:57pm EST
  by Robert Pondiscio

• Give Me Harvard or Give Me Death

  —The Core Knowledge Blog

  Parental anxiety is ruining playtime, notes the Washington Post’s Valerie Strauss.  It’s not news that lots of preschool parents have become “super-anxious trying to give their kids a leg up on kindergarten,” Strauss writes at The Answer Sheet.  “But I didn’t realize just how nutty things had become until I talked [...]
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  Posted: November 10, 2009, 8:44am EST
  by Robert Pondiscio

• Are You Smarter Than a 1954 8th Grader?

  —The Core Knowledge Blog

  Number of comments: 6
  Quick.  How many current members of the President’s Cabinet can you name?  OK, how many Cabinet positions can you name, even if you don’t know the person in the office right now?  You know the 1st and 2nd Amendments, right?  How about No. 3 through 23?  Check out the 98 [...]
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  Posted: November 10, 2009, 8:04am EST
  by Robert Pondiscio

• Gerald Bracey’s Last Testament

  —The Core Knowledge Blog

  You had to know that if any education commenter could make himself heard from beyond the grave, it would be Gerald Bracey.  He was working on his 18th annual Report on the Condition of Public Education when he passed away last month.  It’s out today.  It focuses on three specific reform [...]
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  Posted: November 09, 2009, 4:32pm EST
  by Robert Pondiscio

• Can Schools Be Sued for Failure to Educate?

  —The Core Knowledge Blog

  Number of comments: 3
  The ACLU is suing Florida’s governor, Board of Ed and other officials for “failing to ensure that students in Palm Beach County receive a high quality education.”   The state’s constitution requires Florida to provide a uniform, efficient, safe, secure and high quality education.  “Palm Beach County is clearly not upholding its [...]
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  Posted: November 09, 2009, 10:29am EST
  by Robert Pondiscio