Tag Archives: teacher survival

At Risk Kids: A Road Map to Intervention

Summary: Children of poverty often need more intensive services to succeed in school; a blueprint for doing so out of the University of Oregon School of Education merits a review.

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School Reform: Why One Success Does Not Beget Another

Summary: Looks as though the difficulty of replicating the success of one school in another may come down to clever access or lack thereof to extra resources. The first school has been innovative in program, but often by leveraging additional … Continue reading

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Schools and Culture: The NRA Wants Guns in the Schoolhouse — Say What?

Gotta hand it to the NRA. Back to the Newtown wall, they come out guns blazing, as though there is not insanity in the wash of weapons in our culture, but for sure the solution is in further armament. We … Continue reading

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School Reform: Testing and Data — Does the Tail Wag the Dog? Part B

Summary: A continuation of the last post which explores the relationship between testing, the data it collects, and the legitimate role and limits of both in school reform. Already the digital data perspective has altered how we think of and … Continue reading

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Schools and Politics: Charters Schools and Teachers’ Unions

Summary: Last week, as part of a discussion of charter schools, I cited the Harlem’s Children Zone as an umbrella project that has changed the “context” of associated schools, and thereby the expectations of students and the realities from which … Continue reading

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Charter Schools: The Emerging Lessons

Summary: A review of lessons from charter schools so far unfortunately boils down to more money for staffing to reach at risk kids, and creative changes in the context through which kids approach school, also likely to require more funding. … Continue reading

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Schools and Culture: The Wearing Down of Teacher, Part B

Summary: Last post I reacted to news that 46% of teachers leave the profession in their first five years, and suggested some of the reason has to do with ills in the culture, ills that create students too little connected … Continue reading

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Schools and Culture: The Wearing Down of Teacher

Summary: 46% of American teachers quit the profession within their first five years; what role does contemporary culture and the characteristics of the kids it turns out play in this appalling statistic? Recently I read with astonishment a reference in … Continue reading

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Schools and Bureaucracy: Reflections on Survival and Other Personal Idiosyncrasies: Part C

Summary: Being the last installment of a series of reflections on long term survival in the belly of the educational beast.….. Despite the relentless bureaucratic monolith, pockets of encouragement and support for individual vision occur, which have helped my longevity. … Continue reading

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Schools and Bureaucracy: Reflections on Survival and Other Personal Indiosyncrasies — Part B

Summary: Continuing reflections on survival during a career in schools. Another benefit of working in schools snuck up on me, and was particularly accentuated by a growing love of mountaineering and the birth of my children. School vacations are rather … Continue reading

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