My school will finally have a permanent residence that is, if Fulton County Schools don’t get their way. The Weber School has been housed in temporary buildings (modular units or trailers) next to Zaban Park (the Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlanta). After spending years looking for the perfect site — “the geographic center of…
Many teachers are upset about testing requirements of NCLB, but I wonder if, in all the furor, many haven’t forgotten about the provision requiring highly qualified teachers in each classroom? It would seem that some of us, like the teachers referenced in a recent U.S. News and World Report article, will find our degrees, our…
Cobb County (GA.) Schools Superintendent Joseph Redden announced his resignation today (free registration or BugMeNot). Is it just me, or does this passage seem a little less “newsy” and more opinionated? Redden’s departure from the 104,000-student system surprises few, if any. Redden had defended himself and his staff of wrongdoing after a critical report on…
Will Fitzhugh answers some of the questions raised by College Board vice-president Wayne Camara in his article in Journal of College Admission, Summer 2005. Specifically, why is it that readers for the SAT are instructed to ignore factual errors in essays? Fitzhugh rightly wonders how to “reconcile this with Wayne Camara’s statement that ‘The essay…
Ever since I was finishing up my teaching degree in 1996-97, I’ve been hearing about this projected teacher shortage (free registration or BugMeNot). With increasing demands of NCLB, and complaints about the calibre of teaching candidates (and teachers themselves), not to mention concerns about teacher education, what on earth are we going to do to…
Interesting according to an article in yesterday’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution, a school at which I taught from 2002-2004 was required to allow students to transfer to another school because they failed to make AYP for two years in a row. I wish I could say I was surprised, but after being taken to task for having…
Rick Badie (free registration or BugMeNot) laments the loss of summer vacation, as all of Georgia’s public schools start by August 15: That our kids return to school in a week. That Mom and Dad are already tax-free shopping for clothes and supplies, and that soon our kids will be prepping for high-stake tests.We’ve lost…
According to the Seattle Times, Shorewood High School in Shoreline, Washington recently shredded remaining copies of the student literary magazine and reprinted it minus a poem with an offensive expletive in the title. A 35-year veteran teacher of the district, Steve Kelly, was asked to step down as the magazine’s advisor. Here is the poem,…
The New York Times (free registration, or BugMeNot) reports that even when teachers are enthusiastic about new teaching methods and would prefer to implement them, they feel too much pressure to teach to the test — in this case, the Michigan Educational Assessment Program, or MEAP. Becky Karnes, a 16-year veteran high school English teacher…
The Boston Globe reports that only 20% of teachers in public schools are male; in elementary schools, the number is a mere 9%. Think fast — did you have any male teachers in your elementary school? We had one. Mr. Veach. My sister was in his class in 5th grade. The numbers seemed to gradually…
