Robert Reich: The Stealth Attack on Education in America

By DTRTFK | January 10th, 2011
DoTheRightThingForKids.org

This syn­di­cated edi­to­r­ial in the K.C. Star should be a wake-up call to all who care about the future of edu­ca­tion in this coun­try and in our own back­yard. Budget cuts in school dis­tricts in both Kansas and Missouri reflect national trends and have impli­ca­tions for the American work force in the future.

The stealth attack on edu­ca­tion in America
By ROBERT REICH
Tribune Media Services

Over the long term, the only way we’re going to raise wages, grow the econ­omy and improve American com­pet­i­tive­ness is by invest­ing in our peo­ple — espe­cially their educations.

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Senate Panel Recommends Long Range Goals

By DTRTFK | January 7th, 2011
DoTheRightThingForKids.org

Missouri’s Education Reform Panel has released a report that pro­poses a long range agenda for the State’s pub­lic schools with a goal of improv­ing stu­dent per­for­mance and teach­ing effec­tive­ness. Recommendations include char­ter schools state-wide, a sys­tem for eval­u­at­ing teach­ing and award­ing merit pay, and a sin­gle state depart­ment of edu­ca­tion. Read more at the the Missouri Education Reform Council website. […]

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Chicago Tribune: Next mayor to face urgent challenge

By DTRTFK | January 3rd, 2011
DoTheRightThingForKids.org

By Diane Rado, Tribune reporters Like the menu at a potluck sup­per, Chicago Public Schools has a dizzy­ing array of offer­ings, from clas­si­cal, mag­net, selec­tive enroll­ment and gifted schools to char­ters and con­tract schools and career and mil­i­tary acad­e­mies. The smor­gas­bord is a tes­ta­ment to Chicago’s myr­iad attempts to fix bro­ken schools and keep middle-class par­ents from fleeing […]

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Why Michelle Rhee Isn’t Done With School Reform

By DTRTFK | December 15th, 2010
DoTheRightThingForKids.org

This Newsweek arti­cle about Michelle Rhee, the for­mer chan­cel­lor of the Washington D.C. pub­lic schools, and her plans for a Studentsfirst, is an excit­ing one

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The Rubber Room — New York City Department of Education’s Purgatory for Teachers

By DTRTFK | February 2nd, 2010

With almost 80,000 school­teach­ers, over 1.1 mil­lion stu­dents and 1,400 schools, New York City is home to our country’s largest school sys­tem. Stories con­cern­ing the New York City Department of Education’s Rubber Room have shed light on an issue in pub­lic edu­ca­tion that plagues all school sys­tems. Have teach­ers unions in their efforts to pro­tect dues pay­ing mem­bers, lost sight of the impor­tance of edu­cat­ing our stu­dents? Click on the link above to read more and decide for your­self: Is it best for the children?

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Who is Teaching Our Teachers?

By DTRTFK | January 30th, 2010

According to Arthur Levine of Columbia Teachers College, there are 1,300 schools of edu­ca­tion and no more than half are accred­ited.  When the aca­d­e­mic suc­cess of our stu­dents depends on the qual­ity of their teach­ers, we must exam­ine this star­tling sta­tis­tic. In fact, when it comes to improv­ing stu­dent achieve­ment, there’s no sub­sti­tute for an […]

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Meet the Press talks with Arne Duncan

By DTRTFK | November 17th, 2009

How will the unlikely polit­i­cal team of Rev. Al Sharpton and Rep. Newt Gingrich help Education Secretary Arne Duncan spread the word that it is finally time to chal­lenge the sta­tus quo, close the achieve­ment gap and raise the bar for America’s stu­dents? David Gregory talks with this team about the Race to the Top Fund and what it means to our schools. Click above for a full tran­script of the program.

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Parent Academy

By DTRTFK | November 8th, 2009

What do Miami, Philadelphia and Boston have in com­mon? All offer par­ents of new­born and school age chil­dren classes and work­shops on par­ent­ing skills. Because par­ents are the most impor­tant teacher in a student’s life, they must be engaged in their children’s edu­ca­tion. Classes that teach every­thing from math lit­er­acy to eti­quette are free to par­ents wish­ing to par­tic­i­pate. Parent pro­grams that are the most suc­cess­ful tar­get fam­i­lies in need and rein­force lessons over a period of time. Time mag­a­zine shares infor­ma­tion about Miami’s Parent Academy in its arti­cle dated November 8, 2009. http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1931170,00.html?artId=1931170?contType=article?chn=us

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Idea That Works — Putting Teachers in Charge of Schools

By DTRTFK | October 29th, 2009

Imagine a group of teach­ers and com­mu­nity mem­bers run­ning your local school, decid­ing school cal­en­dars and set­ting staff work hours inde­pen­dent from their district’s cen­tral office. This type of self-governing model is prov­ing effec­tive in improv­ing stu­dent per­for­mance. Read more about what states are putting this model to the test and add your com­ment by click­ing on the link above.

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Book Review: Cheating Our Kids — How Politics and Greed Ruin Education

By lindsay | October 20th, 2009

No one can accuse Joe Williams of cen­sur­ing a par­tic­u­lar per­son or group of peo­ple for the per­ceived decline in pub­lic edu­ca­tion over the last sev­eral decades.  In Cheating Our Kids:  How Politics and Greed Ruin Education (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005), Mr. Williams asserts that there is plenty of blame to go around—from teach­ers’ unions to […]

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