Photograph; Bebeto Matthews/AP Images By Paul L. Thomas, Ed.D. | Originally Published at The Becoming Radical. January 22, 2014 Students Should Be Tested More, Not Less by Jessica Lahey is not a compelling case to test students more, but another example of journalism failing to represent accurately [...]
I personally have questioned the construct of “leaders,” for I believe none of us ever follows. We may look to another, listen, and still ultimately we think for ourselves. We wonder…is what that person says, does, feels, or believes correct for me? Oh, I do not deny [...]
The perpetual question is when is progress progressive. When is a following a trend to an earnest desire to bend? Intellectually we know that nothing happens in an instant. Change, while constant, is incremental. There is a need for constant vigilance. So we ask, who can we [...]
Photograph; Mayor Bill de Blasio and his new schools chancellor, Carmen Fariña, tour the Bronx School of Young Leaders. Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times Originally Published at The New York Times. January 15, 2014 One door closes and another opens. In every life change comes. We know [...]
By Paul L. Thomas, Ed.D. | Originally Published at The Becoming Radical. January 14, 2014 At mid-nineteenth century, public schools were under attack by the Catholic church; Bishop John Hughes “described the public schools as a ‘dragon…devouring the hope of the country as well as religion’” (Jacoby, [...]
By Paul L. Thomas, Ed.D. | Originally Published at The Becoming Radical. January 8, 2014 The new Common Core and related tests are likely to continue a three-decade pattern of traditional schooling either integrating the new standards and tests into the existing structure of schools or using [...]
By Paul L. Thomas, Ed.D. | Originally Published at The Becoming Radical. December 17, 2013 Rep. Andy Patrick, R-Hilton Head Island (SC), has made two flawed claims recently, one about leadership and another about teacher evaluation (“S.C. lawmaker proposes teacher evaluation plan,” Charleston Post and Courier, December [...]
You may have heard the news; scores are not sliding, the scales are. Cheating is competing. Schools that are failing are sailing and parents? Well, they are but pawns in Superintendent John White's game. And what does Superintendent John White say? "There wasn't any intent to cover [...]
Michelle Rhee (Credit: AP/Jeff Chiu) By Jeff Bryant | Originally Published at Salon. December 6, 2013 Rhee, Nicholas Kristof and Arne Duncan exaggerate test results again to advance an ugly anti-public school agenda When President George W. Bush asked the American people, back in 2000, “Is [...]
