Public Schools

House Approves $20 Billion For Green Schools

AP | JIM ABRAMS | Posted 06.06.2008 | Green

Read More: 21st Century Green High-Performing Public School Facilities Act, Public Schools, Energy Efficient Schools, Green Schools Act, Energy Costs, Green Schools, Green News

WASHINGTON -- The House on Wednesday committed more than $20 billion over the next five years to help states build and renovate schools to make them m...

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Thousands of Parents Stand Today for Public School Choice

Mike Piscal | Posted 06.05.2008 | Politics

Read More: Change, Public Schools, Parents, Los Angeles, Protest, Education, Charters, Politics News
Mike Piscal

Today several thousand parents will assemble to march on the Los Angeles Unified School District to demand choice, equity and accountability within California's public school system.

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Obama's Education Speech Fired Me Up

Dan Brown | Posted 06.02.2008 | Politics

Read More: Public Schools, No Child Left Behind, Mentors, Education, Student Achievement, Teacher Residency Programs, Nclb, Mapleton Expeditionary School of the Arts, Standardized Testing, High-Stakes Testing, Barack Obama, Denver Post, Politics News
Dan Brown

Last week in Colorado, Barack Obama gave a truly incisive speech on improving education in America.

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Beyond "The Big Test": A Brilliant Idea to Improve Schools

Dan Brown | Posted 05.28.2008 | Living

Read More: Fairtest, No Child Left Behind, Public Schools, Testing, Essential Schools, Boston Globe, Assessment, Coalition for Essential Schools, Ces, Standardized Testing, High-Stakes Testing, Teachers, National Exhibition Month, Ted Sizer, Living News
Dan Brown

If a brilliant idea slapped us in the face for how to help public school students achieve more, would we recognize it? Today, schools' everyday funct...

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Watch and Join a Heated Three-Minute Education Debate

Dan Brown | Posted 05.23.2008 | Politics

Read More: Partnership for Learning, Public Schools, Wendy Kopp, Performance Pay, No Child Left Behind, High-Stakes Testing, Robert Pondiscio, Teacher Quality, Core Knowledge, Teach for America, Ascd, Student Achievement, Amy Wilkins, American Federation of Teachers, Education Policy, Ed in 08 Blogger Summit, Student Assessment, Standardized Testing, Ed in 08, Teaching in the 408, Teachers, Education Reform, Public Education, Politics News
Dan Brown

At last week's Ed in '08 Blogger Summit, I asked a question about alternatives to high-stakes testing to the education policy panel and received an an...

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Civil Disobedience: South Bronx 8th-Graders Refuse the TEST! (I'm Impressed.)

Dan Brown | Posted 05.21.2008 | Living

Read More: No Child Left Behind, New York City Public Schools, Public Schools, Student Achievement, Education Policy, High-Stakes Testing, School Accountability, Standardized Testing, Douglas Avella, South Bronx, I.S. 318, Living News
Dan Brown

High-stakes testing has spiraled out of control and students are wise to the scheme. The reason we haven't seen more uprisings is that kids have been intellectually and spiritually bludgeoned into submission.

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Schools at Risk: A Unique Perspective

Gerald Bracey | Posted 05.20.2008 | Living

Read More: Education History, Education Reform, Technology, Public Schools, Fertilizer, U.S High School Graduation Rate, Fritz Haber, Pills, Living News
Gerald Bracey

Discussions about the condition of public schools usually center on curriculum, instruction and test scores. A new book by Gene V. Glass reads more like a thriller than an academic treatise.

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Newt Gingrich and Me: A Charged Moment at an Education Blogger Summit

Dan Brown | Posted 05.16.2008 | Media

Read More: Public Schools, Hotel Palomar, School Vouchers, Monopoly of Failure, Education Policy, Bloggers, School Funding, Ed in 08 Blogger Summit, School Reform, Education Sector, Teachers, Education Reform, New Gingrich, Ed in 08, Media News
Dan Brown

Gingrich's automatic dismissal of everyone currently within the struggling education system feels parallel to the disastrous de-Baathification process following the US invasion of Iraq.

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I've Been Nominated for Education Blogger of the Year -- Thank You Huffington Post!

Dan Brown | Posted 05.13.2008 | Media

Read More: Ed in 08 Blogger Summit, No Child Left Behind, Public Schools, Education, Nclb, Ed in '08, Blogging, Media News
Dan Brown

It's been my great pleasure to help to stir the pot about issues affecting students, teachers, and families in America.

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Memo to Democrats: Talk More About Education

Dan Brown | Posted 05.12.2008 | Politics

Read More: Public Schools, Democratic Primary, Education, Barack Obama, No Child Left Behind, George W. Bush, Arizona, Democrats, George Miller, High Stakes Testing, Nclb, John McCain, Hillary Clinton, Republicans, Politics News
Dan Brown

McCain's threadbare talking points on education offer prime ammunition for Democrats to help define his candidacy as Bush's third term.

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The End of Freedom in America?

John W. Whitehead | Posted 04.27.2008 | Living

Read More: Aclu, Public Schools, Separation of Church and State, Public Prayer, Living News
John W. Whitehead

You'd think the schools would be grateful for a teacher who serves as a positive, moral role model for young people. But when religion is involved, even heroes like Marcus Borden find themselves under fire.

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Watch This Two-Minute Music Video: "Not on the Test"

Dan Brown | Posted 04.23.2008 | Living

Read More: Public Schools, No Child Left Behind, High-Stakes Testing, Standardized Testing, Not on the Test, Student Achievement, Nation at Risk, Ton Chapin, Living News
Dan Brown

How can we get fairer, more comprehensive measurements of our kids' academic achievement? All the scorched-earth essays in the world can't completely...

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Say What?! Bloomberg Compares Himself to Martin Luther King, Jr.

Dan Brown | Posted 04.08.2008 | Politics

Read More: Public Schools, Urban Schools, Education, New York Sun, Bronx, Mayor Bloomberg, Martin Luther King, Michael Bloomberg, City Council, Mike Bloomberg, Education Reform, Letitia James, Bloomberg, Nyc, NYC Education, Bloomberg Martin Luther King, Politics News
Dan Brown

No one slips and compares himself to Dr. King. This kind of comment betrays NYC Mayor Bloomberg's deeply out-of-touch relationship with the on-the-ground reality.

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Bloomberg's Budget Choices Hit Students Hardest

Dan Brown | Posted 04.07.2008 | Politics

Read More: Keep the Promises, New York City Public Schools, Public Schools, Joseph L. Bruno, Mayor Bloomberg, Randi Weingarten, United Federation of Teachers, Michael Bloomberg, Uft, New York State Assembly, New York City, Politics News
Dan Brown

The CEO mayor's logic may work in terms keeping a company's stock price afloat despite "belt-tightening" or lay-offs, but it doesn't fit one bit for schools.

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Minn. Lawmaker Wants Scent-Free Schools

AP | MARTIGA LOHN | Posted 03.11.2008 | Politics

Read More: Axe Effect, Axe Spray, Minnesota Lawmaker, Public Schools, Politics News

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Those all-over body sprays that promise to turn teenage boys into babe magnets? Instead of attracting girls, they could be mak...

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School-Level Cuts Hit New York City; Why, Bloomberg, Why???

Dan Brown | Posted 02.11.2008 | Politics

Read More: Public Schools, Education, Principal, Department of Education, New York Daily News, Randi Weingarten, Budget Cuts, United Federation of Teachers, Michael Bloomberg, School Reform, Joel Klein, Uft, New York Times, Teachers Union, New York City, Tweed, Politics News
Dan Brown

This is not about keeping a stock's price afloat; you are cutting kids' after-school programs, guidance counselors, smaller classes, computers. Erasing these entities will incontrovertibly have an effect, and a terrible one at that.

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Senator Kennedy, No Child Left Behind, and the Dropout Crisis

Dan Brown | Posted 01.14.2008 | Politics

Read More: Public Schools, Class Size, Education, Edward Kennedy, No Child Left Behind, Nclb, George W. Bush, Dropout Epidemic, George Miller, Ted Kennedy, Politics News
Dan Brown

It's politically inconvenient for Washington to recognize that some high schools may tacitly encourage failing students to drop out so that the schools' test scores don't have to include their low marks.

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Today is Redemption Day in Schools

Dan Brown | Posted 12.21.2007 | Living

Read More: Christmas, Public Schools, Education, Teachers, Winter Break, Public Education, New York City Teachers, Living News
Dan Brown

The week of winter break is a hard-won milestone in the school year, a crucial opportunity for teacher and students to decompress, spend time with family, and reflect.

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Where Have All the (American) Scientists Gone?

Gerald Bracey | Posted 12.20.2007 | Living

Read More: George Bush, Public Schools, National Institutes of Health, Engineering, Science Education, Living News
Gerald Bracey

Undergrads in science see the warning signals -- professors who can't get grants, postdocs who can't get tenure -- and head elsewhere.

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Is U.S. Education Better Than Ever?

Diane Ravitch | Posted 12.05.2007 | Politics

Read More: Public Schools, Education, David Kearns, Department of Education, Gerald Bracey, Public Education Reform, PISA, Schools, Public Education, Sandia Report, Politics News
Diane Ravitch

What was the Sandia report and why does it matter? And how did I allegedly conspire to "suppress" it?

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Distilling the Nation's Report Card on Reading

Gerald Bracey | Posted 11.26.2007 | Politics

Read More: Public Schools, Reading, National Endowment for the Arts, To Read or Not to Read, Politics News
Gerald Bracey

Are we to believe that in a short, two-year span, America's poorest readers dropped a full year in their ability to comprehend text?

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The "Single Most Important Issue" That's Never Discussed

Marc Lampkin | Posted 11.07.2007 | Politics

Read More: Public Schools, K-12 Education, Education, Improving Education, American Schools, Presidential Race, Politics News
Marc Lampkin

It's high time for the candidates put their policies before the pandering and deliver some real answers on education.

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Los Angeles is on fire! Disaster unearths contradictory memories of my Amish-Mennonite background

Steven Denlinger | Posted 10.25.2007 | Living

Read More: Public Schools, Migraines, Violence, Taliban, Wildfires, Iaea, Los Angeles, Amish, Hartville, Brentwood, Mcc, Mennonite, Fiddler on the Roof, Little House on the Prairie, Santa Monica, The Archer School for Girls, Lincoln College, London, Bible, Los Angeles Times, The Lazy Daisy, Oxford University, Bread Loaf School of English, Corinthians, Rotary, Gelassenheit, Denlinger, Living News
Steven Denlinger

My mother called me from Ohio the other night, worried about the fires. She asked me if I was all right. "Sure," I told her. "I'm safe - I live i...

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Immigration Policy & the Triumph of Buypartisanship

David Sirota | Posted 10.23.2007 | Politics

Read More: Immigration, H-1b, Public Schools, Outsourcing, Education, Need for Workers, Ecucation, Lobbyists, Hi Tech Jobs, Domestic Workers, Politics News
David Sirota

Leo Hindery calls it "nonpartisan" - I call it buypartisan. Whatever you want to call it, it is fueled by the very corruption we are seeing on trade, taxes and now on immigration.

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Matthew LaClair is Cool

Ryan J. Davis | Posted 10.18.2007 | Politics

Read More: Public Schools, Christianity, Matthew LaClair, Evolution, Creationism, Young Democrats, Satire, Politics News
Ryan J. Davis

Last week I sat down with Matthew LaClair, the high school senior who taped his history teacher saying all sorts of wild things last year.

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