Amalgamated Clothing Workers. Chicago Labor Day Parade.
If you haven’t read my brother’s post on why Rahm’s longer school day proposal is full of holes, you should.
Some GOP members of the Michigan legislature want to out source teaching through private contractors. Mother Jones gives the scoop. H/T: Shutterbug.
By the way, if you haven’t stopped by the web site of the Michigan-based Great Lakes Center for Education Research and Practice, it is a great resource for teachers and other educators.
In March of 2011, the mother of a straight-A Hartford student called up the principal to say that her daughter, Caridad, “will not be taking the test.”
Here is the YouTube video of Texas Superintendent John Kuhn at the DC SOS rally last July. Yep. I said Texas. Yep. I said superintendent.
The Obama administration’s vindictive prosecution of the Tar Sands protests.
In the absence of a national consensus on the primary purposes of K-12 education, it is presumptuous — and unwise — for a handful of politicians and academics to mandate a curriculum.
The most interesting and successful teachers and schools I know build their curriculum carefully to create a coherent intellectual experience for their students — rather than follow someone else’s bland prescription.
For example, I hope that in the coming week many kids along the East Coast will be exploring hurricanes, and I hope that next fall teachers will make use of the fact that it’s an election year, regardless of what the curriculum designers have in mind.
If we have our eyes on both the particular class we’re teaching as well as the particular ideas we’re exploring, we can’t map it all out ahead of time. And the route followed ought to be decided by teachers in the field — not “curriculum experts.”
DEBORAH MEIER
Hillsdale, N.Y., Aug. 31, 2011
From the New York Times Sunday Dialogue: Which school reforms will work best?
Fred Klonsky 
I believe the Broad and Gates’ moneys are going towards outsourcing education essentially through charters and even private special education groups. So far in Los Angeles our Special Education speech teachers have been outsourced and sleazy Deasy’s goal is to privatize all of special education. I suppose this will keep the students’ scores separate from the rest? Los Angeles had a pretty good special education department. So much for helping students.