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Wednesday, April 4, 2012

This Week In Education: Quotes: "I Don't Live In Other Nations"

This Week In Education: Quotes: "I Don't Live In Other Nations":


Quotes: "I Don't Live In Other Nations"

All-of-Chewbaccas-Dialogue-from-Star-Wars

Ravitch: Interesting that top-performing and most equitable nations in world do not have vouchers or charters.
Fuller: I don't live in other nations I live here & I believe we need choice for poor families. If this is Diane u used to believe it too.
Exchange between Diane Ravitch and Howard Fuller, via Whitney Tilson.  See full Tilson clip below.

Fuller: Diane, how long has the traditional system been failing kids? Would u suggest it is now time to end it?

Ravitch: All kids regardless of race, income, etc should get a good education but poverty is a huge burden for children.

Fuller: No one in their right mind would say it is not a burden. It has always been a burden. It was for my mother &grandmother but my mother and grandmother knew an educ would give me any hope. When did some of y'all


Bruno: Boot Camp For Bloated Teacher Prep Programs

Boot_Camp_11As someone who finished his own two-year MA/credential program at an ed school fairly recently, I was heartened to readthis story from U.S. News about " institutions retooling their graduate education programs" with stronger focuses on efficiency and quality. To some extent this is a response to "pressure from the government", but equally telling in my mind is that some schools want to compete with the "highly streamlined training" of Teach for America-like programs.
Criticism of TfA-style reforms sometimes focuses on "replicability" or "scalability", but I think what we're seeing is that those concerns sort of miss the point. It's improbable that TfA would be able to completely staff all of our schools even if we wanted them to. What TfA and other alternative programs