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  • Darkness Falls

    Number of comments: 1
    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

    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

    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”

    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

    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.?

    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

    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

    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

    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

    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?

    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

    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

    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

    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…

    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

    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?

    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

    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?

    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

  • Classroom Management Problems? Hire a Bouncer

    Number of comments: 10
    At Ed Policy Thoughts, Corey Bunje Bower looks at a letter to the editor in the New York Times from a former teacher, who suggests the way to improve public education is to hire a ‘bouncer’ for every classroom to handle disruptive students.  Corey is skeptical about the bouncer idea but points [...]
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    Posted: November 08, 2009, 10:55am EST
    by Robert Pondiscio

  • If Bedtime is Book Time, Why Not “Morning Math?”

    Number of comments: 2
    The best idea I’ve heard in a long time comes courtesy of Lisa Guernsey of Early Ed Watch (where is Sara Mead, anyway?) who points out that every parent gets the idea that bedtime is book time, but what about math?  She’s encouraging parents “to build math moments into the morning routine, [...]
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    Posted: November 07, 2009, 5:26pm EST
    by Robert Pondiscio

  • Core Knowledge Quiz: Ancient Egypt

    Number of comments: 6
    On this day in 1922, British archaeologist Howard Carter sent a telegraph to his sponsor announcing he had discovered an undisturbed tomb in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings.  His discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb stunned the world and revolutionized our understanding of Ancient Egypt.  Children encounter Egypt and other ancient civilizations [...]
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    Posted: November 06, 2009, 9:53am EST
    by Robert Pondiscio

  • Alter’s Ego

    Number of comments: 3
    A suggestion by Claus Von Zastrow of Public School Insights that pundits like Jonathan Alter who write about education be subject to performance pay attracted the notice of Alter, who has been mixing it up with commenters to the post.  It started when Von Zastrow took issue with Alter’s KIPP cheerleading [...]
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    Posted: November 05, 2009, 3:41pm EST
    by Robert Pondiscio

  • I Caught California Being Good!

    Number of comments: 3
    It’s the oldest trick in the elementary school classroom management book:  using positive reinforcement to get children to behave in the hope of earning a reward or recognition.  When it’s time to clean up before lunch the teacher says, “Let’s see who’s ready to line up first.  I’m looking to see [...]
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    Posted: November 05, 2009, 11:57am EST
    by Robert Pondiscio

  • “And Thank You for Choosing Harvard University!”

    Number of comments: 4
    In most sectors of our economy, customer focus is paramount, as it should be in education, too. Customer focus could yield a more student-centric system through the development and dissemination of user-friendly “truth-in-education” information that helps students make “best-fit” choices regarding which education provider to select based on customer preferences [...]
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    Posted: November 03, 2009, 10:54am EST
    by Robert Pondiscio

  • Great Job! Go Sit on the Bench

    Jay Mathews thinks Arne Duncan shouldn’t be the Secretary of Education.  In fact, he looks at recent Ed Secys Bill Bennett, Rod Paige, Dick Riley, Margaret Spellings and Duncan and asks why do we have the job at all?  Their best work for kids, in my view, happened when they were NOT [...]
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    Posted: November 03, 2009, 9:13am EST
    by Robert Pondiscio

  • Einstein on the Fritz

    Interacting with Baby Einstein DVDs may not make your baby smarter. But interacting with Dan Willingham will make you smarter about the claims marketers make on behalf of educational products.  Dan’s take on the Baby Einstein flap is up at the Washington Post’s Answer Sheet blog.  ”Many parents already believe that visual [...]
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    Posted: November 02, 2009, 3:52pm EST
    by Robert Pondiscio

  • What Teacher Ed Should Look Like

    Number of comments: 10
    Teacher education programs should be selective, rigorous….and free, argues Susan Engel.  In a New York Times op-ed the psychologist and director of the teaching program at Williams College writes that admission to teacher ed programs should include “a stipend for the first three years of teaching in a public school.”  Once we [...]
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    Posted: November 02, 2009, 10:21am EST
    by Robert Pondiscio

  • Common Knowledge Newsletter

    Number of comments: 1
    The Common Knowledge newsletter, which digests the news about curriculum and teaching, education policy and other subjects of interest to the Core Knowedge community, is published each Friday during the school year.  Here’s this week’s newsletter. To subscribe and receive Common Knowledge via email, click here. Core Knowledge E. D. Hirsch’s Curriculum for Democracy City Journal If [...]
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    Posted: November 01, 2009, 10:02am EST
    by Robert Pondiscio

  • Parental [Dis]engagement

    Number of comments: 4
    Middle school teacher Mrs. Bluebird loves PowerSchool, her district’s online grading system.  It lets her update students’ grades from home, run progress reports and all kinds of other tricks.   “Parents can check grades any time of the night or day, see that work is missing, and can even get grade updates [...]
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    Posted: October 31, 2009, 1:05pm EDT
    by Robert Pondiscio

  • The Slumdog Ate My Homework

    The two child stars of the Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionaire are in danger of losing a trust fund set up by the movie’s producers because they’re not regularly attending school.  The parents of 10-year-old Rubina Ali and 11-year-old Azhar Mohammed Ismail blame the absences on deaths in the family and other problems.  But [...]
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    Posted: October 30, 2009, 1:03pm EDT
    by Robert Pondiscio

  • I Am Shocked, SHOCKED, To Find Gambling Going On Here

    Number of comments: 5
    Researchers at the National Center for Education Statistics have found evidence that “a majority of states may have lowered student-proficiency standards on state tests in recent years.” [...]
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    Posted: October 29, 2009, 12:10pm EDT
    by Robert Pondiscio

  • One For the Price of Two

    Number of comments: 2
    At Teacher Beat, Stephen Sawchuck highlights an intriguing study that shows Los Angeles students taught by Teach For America teachers “outperformed peers who were taught by other teachers—including veterans with many more years of experience.”  The study is another feather in TFA’s cap, but there is one aspect of the [...]
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    Posted: October 29, 2009, 10:36am EDT
    by Robert Pondiscio

  • Core Knowledge Quiz: American Symbols and Icons

    Number of comments: 5
    On this day in 1886, the Statue of Liberty was dedicated by President Grover Cleveland at a ceremony in New York harbor.  This week’s Core Knowledge Quiz is about the Statue of Liberty and other American symbols.  In schools usng the Core Knowledge Sequence, children begin to recognize and become [...]
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    Posted: October 28, 2009, 4:48pm EDT
    by Robert Pondiscio

  • Not Either/Or…It’s AND

    Number of comments: 2
    At Eduwonk, Andy Rotherham catches up to Russ Whitehurst’s paper, Don’t Forget Curriculum.  But he misses the boat when he writes, “I’m not sure when curriculum and reforms like choice, teacher quality, etc…became either/or.”   I’m not sure where Andy’s getting that message, but it’s not from Russ Whitehurst, who went out [...]
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    Posted: October 28, 2009, 6:54am EDT
    by Robert Pondiscio

  • The Best and Wisest Parent

    Number of comments: 6
    Invoking John Dewey’s maxim that a community should want for all children what the best and wisest parent wants for his own child, Diane Ravitch wants small classes and the presence of the arts in schools that are physically attractive and well-maintained.  At Bridging Differences, she notes none of these ideas are [...]
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    Posted: October 27, 2009, 10:54am EDT
    by Robert Pondiscio

  • Trick or Tweet?

    Number of comments: 2
    Some months ago, I challenged teachers to give examples of good classroom uses of Twitter without using the term “engagement.”  In other words, is it possible to use the micro-blogging site to extend learning or create understanding in a superior way to other teaching methods?  It led to a lively [...]
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    Posted: October 27, 2009, 9:38am EDT
    by Robert Pondiscio

  • Farms, Field Trips and Test Scores

    Number of comments: 6
    The New York Times rode along with 75 Harlem kindergarteners last week on a field trip to the Queens County Farm Museum to  gaze at cows and sheep “not only for a glimpse of rural life, but to rack up extra points on standardized tests.” New York State’s English and math [...]
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    Posted: October 26, 2009, 9:27am EDT
    by Robert Pondiscio

  • Does Good Teaching Equal Good Test Scores?

    Number of comments: 10
    In his New York  Times column praising the Obama administration’s “quiet revolution” on education, David Brooks writes ”there is clear evidence that good teachers produce consistently better student test scores.”   I ask this question not rhetorically, but in earnest: what is the “clear evidence” to which Brooks refers?   Is there a study that defines good teaching, [...]
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    Posted: October 24, 2009, 11:32am EDT
    by Robert Pondiscio

  • Two More Black Eyes for 21st Century Skills

    Number of comments: 3
    “I am trying NOT to write off the 21st century skills movement as a sham, but its leaders don’t make it easy,” writes the Washington Post’s Jay Mathews this morning on his Class Struggle blog.  Mathew raises a skeptical eyebrow at a new book by Bernie Trilling and Charles Fadel, 21st Century [...]
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    Posted: October 23, 2009, 8:46am EDT
    by Robert Pondiscio

  • “The Most Important Education Reformer of the Last Century”

    Enclosure: [download]
    Number of comments: 9
    [Update:  In the comments to this post, Paul Hoss questions Sol Stern giving credit to Hirsch for Massachusetts's Education Reform Act.  Stern responds below.] In the new City Journal, Sol Stern files a comprehensive dispatch on the career of E.D. Hirsch, Jr. and judges the Core Knowledge founder to be “the most important' [...]
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    Posted: October 22, 2009, 12:52pm EDT
    by Robert Pondiscio

  • Hold On, Mr. President

    Number of comments: 2
    “From the moment students enter a school, the most important factor in their success is not the color of their skin or the income of their parents. It’s the person standing at the front of the classroom,” said President Obama in a recent speech.  Linda Perlstein, off to a strong [...]
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    Posted: October 22, 2009, 9:15am EDT
    by Robert Pondiscio

  • Raising the Dropout Age

    Number of comments: 3
    In an attempt to cut the state’s dropout rate in half, Massachusetts will consider requiring students to stay in school until age 18.  Under current state law students can legally drop out at 16, but students as young as 14 can withdraw for medical reasons or to work.  Taking  the advice of a [...]
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    Posted: October 22, 2009, 9:06am EDT
    by Robert Pondiscio

  • Rock Stars vs. Breaking Rocks

    Admit it.  If Baltimore schools CEO Andrés Alonso sat next to you on the subway you probably wouldn’t recognize him.   The Baltimore Sun files an interesting editorial giving Alonso high marks for what he’s acomplished–and for not being Michelle Rhee, whose reform agenda, the paper notes, “is in many ways indistinguishable” from [...]
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    Posted: October 21, 2009, 11:03am EDT
    by Robert Pondiscio

  • Keeping Up With the Joanneses

    Number of comments: 2
    Most evenings, I read the papers, go through newsletters, scan my various Google Alerts, and set aside a handful of articles that strike me as worth blogging about.  Then one of two things inevitably happen the next morning: 1) work gets in the way, or 2) I find out Joanne [...]
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    Posted: October 20, 2009, 1:12pm EDT
    by Robert Pondiscio

  • History, Hubris and Humility

    Number of comments: 5
    Over at Fordham’s Flypaper, Andy Smarick posts a remarkable piece that should be tacked to the bulletin boards of would-be ed reformers everywhere.  It’s a brief reflection on Diane Ravitch’s 2000 book, Left Back.  If you’re not in the market for a dose of humility, this probably isn’t your bag. If read [...]
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    Posted: October 20, 2009, 12:41pm EDT
    by Robert Pondiscio

  • Core Knowledge Quiz: Inventors and Inventions

    Number of comments: 1
    130 years ago tomorrow, Thomas Alva Edison perfected the incandescent lightbulb.  How much do you know about inventors and inventions?  Here’s this week’s Core Knowledge Quiz: 1. Which of the following did Edison NOT invent or perfect: the phonograph, the motion picture camera, the stock ticker, or the microphone? 2. The earliest form [...]
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    Posted: October 20, 2009, 5:00am EDT
    by Robert Pondiscio

  • Required Reading

    Linda Perstein, former Washington Post writer and author of the standout ed book, Tested, has launched an ed blog.  The Educated Reporter launched Monday, a year and a half after Perlstein was named public editor for the Education Writers Association.  What to expect? My job is to help improve coverage of [...]
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    Posted: October 20, 2009, 4:58am EDT
    by Robert Pondiscio

  • Top CK School Wants Charter Cap Lifted

    The Carl C. Icahn Charter School, a Core Knowledge School in the South Bronx, had 99 percent of its third- through eighth-graders score at or above grade level this year’s state math exams, while 94 percent of kids pass the state’s reading test.  The New York Post notes that three more Icahn schools have opened [...]
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    Posted: October 19, 2009, 10:56am EDT
    by Robert Pondiscio

  • “Reverse Engineering Academic Upbringing”

    Number of comments: 1
    The University of Nevada, Las Vegas is launching an ambitious research project to figure out why so many of its freshmen need remediation in reading and math.  Every incoming student will be evaluated “to reverse-engineer his academic upbringing,” UNLV president Neal Smatresk tells the Las Vegas Sun.  Since eighty percent of [...]
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    Posted: October 19, 2009, 5:01am EDT
    by Robert Pondiscio
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