Does Political “Cover” Produce Effective Policy?
We don't go into teaching to raise test scores; we go into teaching to promote a much wider variety of skills that are poorly measured by tests, if they're measured at all....
Month: January 2015
American Myopia in Social Policy
Americans who decry paying more in taxes that would go to help "those people" need to recognize that, for purely selfish reasons, they should actually pay up....
The One and Only Larry Ferlazzo?
His incredible output of work, while teaching full-time, leads many observers to ask: can there really be only one Larry Ferlazzo?...
Riding with Paul Kelly, “Spring and Fall”
Kelly manages to write universal truths with a clever selection of particulars, and fresh images that avoid clichés of both lyric and thought....
State Policies Give California Window of Opportunity
The continuity in state leadership for education means California likely has a chance to see the effects of recent policy changes playing out over a longer time frame, with less disruption....
Diane Ravitch at Stanford (2013)
I had the privilege of introducing Diane Ravitch to the audience at Stanford’s Memorial Auditorium on September 30, 2013. Here’s the video of my introduction (by permission of Stanford Uni...
Fundamental Attribution Error
A hopefully useful re-post from my InterACT blogging days. This morning’s general session at the ASCD conference featured a talk by Chip Heath, a Stanford professor and author (with his brother, Dan...
Reinventing the Wheel
Districts, schools, departments and individuals coming up with their own ideas and their own systems likely produce more commitment to implementing and sustaining what they've chosen to create....
Halftime Report: 25 Schools Visited
As I enter 2015 with about 30 school visits still ahead of me, I pause to catch up on some of the teachers and schools I visited near the end of last year....
My Interview with The California Report
Back in December, Ana Tintocalis of The California Report interviewed me for a story on innovation in education. Here's the story behind the story that aired on KQED on Jan. 2 (with embedded audio)....