Latest News and Comment from Education

Friday, October 18, 2013

10-18-13 Schools Matter

Schools Matter:




Chess in school: A good move or patzer move?
Submitted to the Sun Sentinel (Florida), Oct 19Working with an organization called First Move, three Sunrise schools plan to include formal instruction in chess for second and third graders believing that it "provides big academic benefits," ('City incorporating chess at three elementary schools," October 19). Neither the article nor the First Move website mention any evidence that

Cut Testing Budget and Hire School Nurses
Hiring school nurses, improving the health and well being of children in the poorest neighborhoods who need eyeglasses, dental care, and regular checkups, not to mention expensive medicine for asthma, would lead to higher test scores.Will this incident in Philadelphia change policy?It depends on how far Pearson and McGraw Hill and gang can keep their Golden Goose laying all those golden eggs as Co

Basketball Hero Bobby Heaton and the 13 Filthy Rich Who Bought Indiana Public Education
By Doug MartinWhenever he gets the opportunity, Indiana State House 46 district member Bobby Heaton (who lives in Terre Haute) likes to let everyone know that he played basketball with Larry Bird back in the good ole days at Indiana State University, but nowadays Heaton is a Walmart team player, dribbling out school privatization for the filthy rich who don’t even live in Indiana, let alone his di


10-17-13 Schools Matter
Schools Matter: Diane Ravitch and Reformers' FeelingsWhen Diane Ravitch, in Reign of Error, discusses charter schools, she makes it clear that not all charters impose a “no-excuses” mentality. When discussing the reformers’ public relations machine and its “well-honed message,” she analyses their language and writes, “when they speak of “no-excuses,” they mean boot camp culture.”In a rational worl