Blog

Greetings to my readers and fellow reformers, Sorry I have been out of touch--and did not have a guest blogger. My reason? I finally made it to Morocco, the land very high on my bucket list. I was born in the middle east and wanted to feel that part of the world again. Morocco is an amazing combination of France/Spain, the middle east, and Africa. The trip was wonderful trip--about 12 days! I loved the colors, spices, fabrics, rugs, camels, donkeys, dry satiny air, makeup colored sand, [...]

I read Philip Howard's thoughtful piece in The Atlantic. Right on! And what a perfect title. I was not surprised (and glad) to see his opening salvo was about special education--quoting facts and figures also found in my book, Fixing Special Education and my other writings. Special education is indeed an amazing example of a well-intended system that has spun out of control. http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2012/03/12/Why-Land-of-the-Free-Is-a-Legal-Swampland.aspx#page1 Mr. [...]

James Q. Wilson died last week. I did not read his work while he lived, but did read this article about his 'broken windows' theory for cities. If there's a broken window and no one fixes it, it means that no one cares and we can go around smashing more windows. If some one fixes it, then we do care--and the city is perceived to be a safer and better place. Voila! Apparently Mayor Guliani used this theory in NYC -- and indeed, the city became a safer place--a destination city for [...]

Thank you for giving voice to what many educators and parents sense. Something is not quite right here... We want it to work, but as with many education reforms, good intentions often create unintended consequences and mediocre outcomes. How should we fix this quandary? As I see it, schools should educate according to best practices--not slogans or notions of rights. The LRE (least restrictive environment) requirement of the special education law is a legal--not pedagogical- one. It's [...]

As a lawyer, I read with great interest news of an upcoming book, Failing Law Schools by Brian Tamanaha. As well, here's a New York Times blog about it. The argument is that there are too many new lawyers of the wrong type and, yet, not enough lawyers to serve all people. A quandary. Law schools should differentiate for different types of students and future clients: some research based schools for academics and high end clients and some practice oriented schools for the general public [...]

I'm reading another fascinating book, Finnish Lessons by Pasi Sahlberg. He tries to answer questions we have about what makes Finnish schools so successful on international tests. The words that stick out for me are: Trust Professionalism Shared Responsibility. Especially trust--as parents and students trust teachers, and vice versa. Educators are esteemed. It's a wonderful profession there. For me--as I write about and work in our special education system, which is, alas, built on [...]

I just read the biography of Steve Jobs.... and recommend it highly. (By Walter Isaacson). At the end, in his own words, Jobs tells us what he wants his legacy to be....In terms of giving customers what they want, that was not his approach. His approach was to figure out what they were going to want before they do! In that vein, he quoted Henry Ford, who once said, "If you'd asked customers what they wanted, they would have told me, 'A faster horse!'" And what does this have to do with [...]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/06/education/despite-focus-on-data-standards-for-diploma-may-still-lack-rigor.html?_r=2&ref=nyregion An amazing article in the NY Times of a few days ago. How sad! After years of NCLB 'reform' and effort, we have come to this--lower standards on state tests. Perhaps more students pass, but with what skills really? Where will this all end for the U.S.? Let's hope New York's current reformers--the state's commissioner of education and the chancellor of the [...]

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/shop-four-letter-word-jim-berman I love this title--Shop is not a four letter word. How did we go so wrong in ending this valuable option for so many students and for our nation? One article I found fascinating was Alison Fraser's study of the success of vocational and technical schools for all sorts of learners in Massachusetts. http://www.pioneerinstitute.org/pdf/wp42.pdf. Check it out!

As an avid reformer, I read the Education Commission of the States (ECS) report, “12 for 2012” with great interest. It deals with pre-K education, funding, Common Core, individualizing instruction, teacher quality, among other key issues. Interesting and quite comprehensive. Important and definitely worth reading. I’m sure it will be useful for educators and policy makers. http://www.ecs.org/html/Document.asp?chouseid=10029 But if I may, I am a former teacher and currently, an attorney [...]