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http://www.joannejacobs.com/2011/03/breakfast-with-arne Interesting.   I also read Dana Goldstein's summary of Arne Duncan's breakfast with bloggers. Wish I'd been there! If I were, I'd cite the need to reform special education--and the fact that this issue is usually ignored in discussion about education reform. We mention class size, unions, collaboration, etc., etc., etc.,  but ignore a huge chunk of what goes on schools. Special education is the ONLY entitlement program there. It [...]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carleton-kendrick/a-harvard-interviewers-ha_b_829111.html?ir=College I enjoyed reading this piece, though it saddened me to see young people packaged and devoid of the love of learning and pursuit of their own passion.  We all seem to get swept up in this madness--the consumer and herd mentality. I recall l that when we moved to Massachusetts, my daughter's 4th grade teacher told the class that they had to write neater FOR COLLEGE? What?!  My daughter came [...]

Fixing Special Education–ONE MONTH AT A TIME It’s time for STEP Three!  As you know, every month in 2011, we’ll post a STEP  to FIX special education.  There are 12 steps. By December, our systemic transformation should be well underway! Please share your comments and let us know the steps you are taking to fix special education.   March 2011—Step Three to bring about climate change in our schools  Reduce the bureaucratic morass. Paperwork is NOT education. Documents DON”T [...]

http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/coach_gs_teaching_tips/ Thank you, Coach G for this great post.   This blog adds an important word--enabling children to not learn. By lowering expectations, giving them extra time to turn work in, etc. etc. etc. Instead of enabling self-defeating behaviors, the Coach tells teachers (and parents?)  to help students be organized, dependable, persistent, and punctual!  A great read, indeed! It actually goes along with my book--Step 8.The chapter is in Fixing [...]

Here's an excellent op-ed by David Brooks.  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/11/opinion/11brooks.html?emc=eta1 So long as our huge entitlement programs are untouchable, we cannot fix the budget and we will lose our freedoms. That's just the way it is. As I read it, I realize again that the ONLYentitlement program in our schools is special education. In developing budgets and planning education programs for all students, schools lose freedom and have to work around this entitlement. It takes [...]

http://www.gse.harvard.edu/blog/news_features_releases/2011/02/report-calls-for-national-effort-to-get-millions-of-young-americans-onto-a-realistic-path-to-employa.html Thank you, Harvard Graduate School of Education, for finally bringing this discussion forward. It's long overdue. Our national policy of promoting college for everyone is NOT appropriate and NOT working.  Ironically, as we try to get all students 'ready for college,' many are not. Thus, colleges are looking more and more [...]

An excellent post. Check out my comments in it, especially as the issue relates to students with disabilities. Your thoughts? I'd love to hear.. http://hechingered.org/content/rote-memorization-overrated-or-underrated_3351/

Fixing Special Education–ONE MONTH AT A TIME  It’s time for STEP Two!  As you know, every month in 2011, we’ll post a STEP  to FIX special education.  There are 12 steps. By December, our systemic transformation should be well underway! Please share your comments and let us know the steps you are taking to fix special education.   February 2011—Step Two to bring about climate change in our schools  Eliminate the fear of litigation that grips our schools.   Philip K. Howard’s book, Life [...]

http://educationnext.org/challenging-the-gifted/ Thanks for focusing on gifted kids.  Long overdue!  It's too bad, however, that this is the label we use--as the retort is that everyone is gifted in something, that it is elitist, and that the so-called 'gifted' will take care of themselves. Clearly, this article tells us, that they need our focus for their sake and, I would add, for our country's. I have always believed that we can get more traction to focus on these students if we use a [...]

http://www.denverpost.com/nationworld/ci_17132312#ixzz1BTr2tyHx. Another wow today. How troubling this study is--we have placed the goal for all kids to go to college (a mistake, in my view) only to find out that they don't really learn much there. Now what?