Kids on the Move

By Mary Ellen Flannery About 13 percent of American children, most of them poor, Black, or learning English, will switch schools four or more times by eighth grade – a record of disruption that almost certainly limits their opportunities to achieve, according to a recent report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office. The report, commissioned [...]

After-School Programs Prove Key to Closing Gaps

By Mary Ellen Flannery When the last bell rings at Van Buren Middle School in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the real “work” begins – that is, the after-school apprenticeships in fields as far-ranging as Mexican dance and community action. This is not school, plus two hours. It’s not the same books, desks and assignments but more [...]

Twenty-Five Years Later, McAuliffe’s Legacy Endures

By Kevin Hart It was a historic mission that was not to be. On January 28, 1986, 25 years ago today, the space shuttle Challenger exploded just 73 seconds into its flight, claiming the lives of seven crew members, including New Hampshire social science teacher and National Education Association member Christa McAuliffe.   “We mourn [...]

Turning Horror Into Hope

By Meredith Barnett With a bullet lodged in her hip, Pam Simon lay in her Tucson, AZ hospital bed and thought about hope. It was Sunday, January 9. It was 24 hours after the January 8 shooting at a Tucson Safeway that left six dead and 14 wounded, including Simon, who is a retired teacher, longtime education [...]

Snow Days Mean No Pay For Some Support Professionals

By Kevin Hart From Maine to Michigan to Montana, nothing brings a smile to Snow Belt students’ faces faster than a snow day. But these unscheduled interruptions to the school year have a dark side for many hourly and per-diem education support professionals, who may experience lost wages and lighter paychecks when school is canceled. [...]

Obama Promotes Education to Meet “Our Generation’s Sputnik Moment”

By Kevin Hart Saying that a changing economy and increased global competition had created a “Sputnik moment” for America, President Barack Obama encouraged increased investment in public education with a focus on career and college readiness in his State of the Union address this evening. While acknowledging a need for fiscal discipline and strategies aimed at [...]

Educators to Policymakers: Please Step Into My Classroom

By Kevin Hart During this evening’s State of the Union address, President Barack Obama is expected to lay out a series of initiatives designed to make the United States more competitive, including a focus on improving public education. America’s educators are eager to contribute their ideas to the cause. As part of the “Please Step [...]

State Legislatures Underfunded Pensions

By Kevin Hart If Lady MacBeth were observing the current political discourse on public employee pensions, she might be inclined to quip that some elected officials seem to be protesting too much. As states grapple with unfunded pension liabilities, many elected officials are calling the plans unaffordable and relics of the past. Meanwhile, many of these same [...]

Leading Economist: Gates Value-Added Research Deeply Flawed, Ignores Its Own Data

By Kevin Hart One of the country’s leading economists is warning that a Gates Foundation study on value-added teacher evaluation not only fails to meet key academic standards, but that it dangerously misinterprets its own data. Last month, the Gates Foundation released the first report of the Measures of Effective Teaching project, and the report [...]

Long Days, Growing Challenges

By Kevin Hart There’s an old saying that a teacher’s work is never done — and a new poll on teacher work hours seems to prove it. While the average school day in America may last from 7-8 hours, the real work day for many teachers begins before the sun rises and ends well into the evening, as [...]

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