the reality tunnel

Why the U.S. is not Finland with regard to education policy: http://blackagendareport.com/content/why-us-can%E2%80%99t-compete-educationally Disconnect from wealthy funders of anti-teacher union candidates and largely low-income public school students: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2012/09/american-teachers.html#ixzz26iDsyahX Culture of “teacher bashing”: http://www.otherwords.org/articles/chicago_and_the_psychology_of_teacher_bashing Infographic on growth of charter schools: http://www.wnyc.org/shows/bl/2012/sep/17/educating-tomorrow-k-12/

A friend posted an image on Facebook related to the Chicago Teacher Strike that said: Legislators want teachers to be paid according to their effectiveness as evaluated by student test scores. How about paying legislators according to their effectiveness — as evaluated by job creation and economic growth? To unpack this a little, I’d say [...]

Growing up, I was lucky enough to be able to walk or ride my bike to my school.  When I was a bit younger, and lived farther away, the district had door-to-door bus service.  This isn’t the case in Chicago.  Students who go to magnet or selective enrollment schools have to, in many cases, figure [...]

West Ridge community organizers and census representatives hope community members can get everyone counted To get to the census workshop, attendees must first be buzzed into the building and directed to the library, past the school children lingering in the hallway. Inside the library, chairs have been hastily arranged into a wide ‘U’ and the [...]

This article came across my feed reader.  From the article: “The practice of separating girls from boys in the classroom was the norm decades ago. Now, it seems to be something of a new trend.” A few thoughts … I read a book on gender and computing that said that while girls do better in [...]

The book group I’m facilitating at the county jail met again this past week, interrupting an Uno game going on in the common area of the cell block.  I had just played a game of Uno that afternoon, sprawled out across a post-picnic blanket on a grassy patch just above the lake.  Kids splashed below [...]

From a story on All Things Considered: Since the 2000 elections, the number of young Americans going to the polls has increased steadily. This year is no different: In some states, double and triple the number of voters younger than 30 have turned out for primaries, compared with 2006. But another trend is also emerging: [...]

Georgia School Melds a World of Differences – New York Times: “The fact that we don’t have anything in common is what we all have in common,” said Shell Ramirez, an American parent with two children at the school…. “The mission,” Ms. Thompson [one of the founders of the school] said, “was never to create [...]

This radio piece had interesting statistics on the financial viability of the latest Radiohead album which was also available as a free download. Adam Greenfield, the person interviewed in the piece teaches a class in Urban Computing at as part of the Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU. Link Update: My friend Peter, had the following [...]

Online classes were just emerging as I left college.  There was a piece on Morning Edition this morning about the technology and trends in general and an instance of them at on University of Illinois branch.  I think this technology is inevitable and it does have some egalitarian advantages, as the president of the University [...]