Teaching Practice
This weekend, the Times ran a story on legal training that echoed recent reports on the shortcomings of teacher education. In it, David Segal writes: Law schools have long emphasized the theoretical over the useful, with classes that are often overstuffed with antiquated distinctions, like the variety of property law in post-feudal England. Professors are […]
DVR Unplugged
From New York City to Nevada, the heat is on teacher tenure. Predictably, the Times quotes NEA President Dennis Van Roekel pushing back against the momentum. However, in so doing, Van Roekel asks a great question: “Why aren’t governors standing up and saying, ‘In our state, we’ll devise a system where nobody will ever get […]
Summit 2011: What’s New? What’s Next?
The first NewSchools Summit took place in Silicon Valley in October 1999. That gathering brought together 200 education entrepreneurs to learn from each other and discuss ways to build ventures that would provide excellent educational opportunities for all children. Eleven years later, talk of education innovation is everywhere – from network television to blogosphere debates […]
Learning to Teach … Better
Earlier this month, when the Tennessee state board of education released data showing that teachers trained by Teach For America were among the most effective new teachers in the state, the blogosphere sounded off with the familiar strains of a TFA debate. Critics searched for ways to discredit the report’s conclusions and boosters enthusiastically called […]
More Heat than Light
For evidence that the terrain has shifted for education entrepreneurs, one need look no further than last week’s much-publicized hearing convened by State Senator Bill Perkins (D-Harlem) in downtown Manhattan. In what has been described as hours of “volatile” and “testy” debate, supporters and opponents of New York charter schools traded barbs over charges of fiscal […]