OKLAHOMA CITY — The Atlanta test cheating scandal fresh on their minds, Oklahoma teachers have had a higher-than-usual level of anxiety over a security flub by a test vendor. Continue reading Latest Test Security Issue Creates Anxiety for Teachers
OKLAHOMA CITY — It was a tough Monday morning for Oklahoma Rep. Scott Biggs (R-Dist. 51) as he tried to sell SB 301 to skeptical GOP and Democratic House members in the Education Committee*.
The bill is intended to establish a dedicated investigator of the state Board of Education to make sure that teachers suspected of being “sexual predators” can’t move from one school district to another when legal prosecutions fall apart.
But the committee wasn’t buying it — not even the Republicans.
Continue reading OK House Ed Comm Dismantles Sloppy “Predator” Bill
Are quality teachers found or developed? This is not just a rhetorical exercise. The answer has everything to do with how we go about the whole management of our teacher workforce. Continue reading Quality Teachers Are Developed — Not Found
We teachers live in two worlds: One is of collaboration and democracy. The other is of contest and domination.
We’ve done well with that first world, the one of collaboration. It’s that second one of the contest and mental brutality of eliminating the competition that we have a hard time swallowing. Continue reading Teacher, You Live in Two Worlds
Education reformers love to strike a heroic pose as they refer to themselves as engaging in “disruptive innovation”. Thing is, that’s not what they are doing. It’s more like what corporate raiders did in the 1980s. Continue reading Education Reform is Not Disruptive Innovation
Now, more than in the last 50 years, teachers have to be tougher in fighting for our profession. It’s time to overcome our desire to elect model teachers as our union leaders. Instead, for that particular role, we need model advocates. Continue reading Why Teachers Union Leaders Have to be Tougher
Especially for those of us who have taught high school for many years, this is true: If you shake us awake at 2 AM we can immediately recite a list of reasons why one should not be too reckless in this life. It’s because we witness the recklessness of teens daily and in very large numbers. Continue reading The Deeper Issue That Could Kill the Teaching Profession
Eleven days out from the election and the all-Republican, Fallin-hand-picked Oklahoma State Board of Education is a model of affability. Continue reading They Still Don’t Get It — Teachers Can’t be Bought
In Texas and now in Colorado conservatives on the far right have been in a panic about history students actually learning history. Whether being earnest in their own beliefs or being duped by corporate propaganda efforts, these conservatives want desperately to put a lid on history study at the high school level that might explore all of American history.
Continue reading Training Our Way to a New Oligarchy? Not Yet!
