Five Best Blogs: Fewer Kids, More -- Or Better? -- Teachers

Trading students for employees EIA:  Twenty-seven states had fewer students in 2009 than in 2008, but 16 of them hired more teachers... America May Need Fewer Teachers In The Future, But It Will Probably Want More Yglesias:  information technology means we’ll “need” fewer teachers, but I’m not sure how much need really has to do with it... Building Better Teachers Kevin Drum: We had better figure it out before we commit to some massive nationwide program to train better teachers... Twilight for Education Policy's Idols Conor Williams:  One of the most frustrating things about the current education reform wars is the cults that form around dominant personalities...  Testing STudents To Grade Teachers NYT:  What do we know about using student achievement tests to judge teacher performance?... Teachers as temps PressTV:  The corporate education project has nothing to do with growing new generations of smarter, socially aware, independent-thinking citizens, but is designed to raid public treasuries through wholesale contracting-out of public schooling... Mark them tardy to the revolution Steven Pearlstein:  The battles over standardized testing and adoption of common national standards were just the warm-up.

Comments

[Mary]

Thank you for posting the link to Conor Williams' wishful thinking exercise, Twilight for Education Policy's idols.

He posted a comment on his own screed this afternoon, complaining his efforts to kick up a manufactured controversy over Diane Ravitch's bout of ill temper haven't gotten any traction.

I posted my own comment to him theis morning before work, but he has chosen to censor it. Well, its his blog, after all.

Here is the comment:
chemtchr
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0 minute ago (5:57 AM)
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In this mealy-mouthed attempt to extricate himself from his complicity with hucksters and liars, Conor claims he's arguing against the personalities wars, then accuses historian Diane Ravitch of some vague culpability, manifested in her complaint about her treatment in a meeting in the office of the governor of New Jersey.

Diane Ravitch is my spokesperson, Conor. Michelle Rhee was and is yours. There are two sides.

Rhee is agressively expanding her political funding, and her foundation is about profits for the e-learning scams of her cronies, not about the children trapped in them, or the taxpayers bilked by them.

Rhee has been exposed for lying outright on her resume, and covering up massive test score fraud on her watch in the DC public schools. She never raised urban test scores, and has no idea how one would go about teaching. And she's your spokesperson. Deal with that, instead of attacking the reputation of honest people.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/conor-williams/twilight-for-education-po_b_867140.html