Blog

https://medium.com/@miriamkfreedman/ah-those-sats-and-acts-and-the-story-that-just-wont-disappear-58e0daf1f198 Just to let you knw, I changed the title for the Medium.com piece--to make it more about the SATs and ACTs and all students--not just those who use accommodations. I hope you'll check it out and give it a thumbs up. Your thoughts? How should this story end?

Here’s a great way to start the new year! An excellent article by Christina A. Samuels, "Special Education's Future" in Education Week. https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2019/01/09/special-education-is-broken.html I hope it helps us gain momentum for a national conversation to fix all that’s broken in special education. The article gave me many "aha" moments as it sounds like what I've been writing for many years and what's in my recent book, Special Education 2.0--Breaking Taboos to [...]

https://www.joannejacobs.com/2019/01/to-reduce-inequality-teach-knowledge/#comment-228187 Here's a great article to start 2019. Thanks you, Joanne. Teaching real information and skills matters--especially for students who don't get "enrichment" at home. Yet, our current education fads steer us in the wrong direction--e.g., no need to teach phonics, no need to teach facts (they can look it up in Google), no need to know the number facts, no need to memorize poetry, no need for the [...]

https://medium.com/@miriamkfreedman/the-radical-way-to-fix-public-schools-55768fc12308 Here's the solution. It first appeared in the TABs near Boston years ago. Then, in educationnews.org in 2011 and now in Medium.com. Crazy? For sure but what do you think? Agree? Disagree? Let's talk! The radical way to fix public schools! If we are really serious about fixing/improving/rebuilding public schools, there is one way to do just that! It is the single, quickest, and most [...]

College for all? It's not working. We spend much on those heading to college and far too little on those who are not. Our balance is way off. An important read. Thanks for raising this important issue---that needs to be raised over and over again. It's about time that we question the colleg-for-all mantra that has dominated public education. Ultimately, we can fairly ask who that mantra serves? The colleges or students? Instead, we should focus on what works for different [...]

Dear friends and colleagues, Happy holidays! I hope your holidays are joyous with family and friends and that we’ll share a wonderful new year of peace, prosperity, and meaningful education reforms. I’m staying put in California—if you make it to the Bay Area, let me know. It’s a good time to review the work year and raise hopes for the new. Yes, I know we’re all super busy now but just maybe, maybe you’ll enjoy collecting reading ideas for the end-of-year break. With that [...]

Here's the link....https://medium.com/@miriamkfreedman/happy-birthday-special-education-its-time-for-a-real-redo-d541867d5fb2 And here'sthe post. On December 2, 1975—43 years ago, President Gerald Ford signed the special education law to end the exclusion of students with disabilities from schools. The law succeeded, even beyond its mission. We now educate all students with disabilities—some 6+ million—almost 14% of all students, while the law planned for 10% of students. Schools have [...]

Here's the Wall Street Journal article, https://www.wsj.com/articles/act-scores-show-drop-in-college-readiness-especially-in-math-1539768600?mod=searchresults&page=1&pos=1#comments_sector I was struck by the article's last two words, discussing the ACT's usefulness because it allows comparisons of students on a "common metric." We assume the metric is "common." The same for all students. It's a belief, but is it still real? As my loyal readers know, I have my growing doubts about [...]

as reported in Diane Ravitch's blog. https://dianeravitch.net/2018/08/30/mercedes-schneider-reports-on-the-college-boards-big-goof-with-the-sat/ Here's another College Board mess (add this to all the earlier discussion about their accommodation policy which does not notify anyone when tests are given under nonstandard conditions--especially with time and a half or twice as long... so that the SAT ( and ACT) are no longer standardized! Here, apparently, the College Board gave the [...]

https://dianeravitch.net/2018/08/22/carol-burris-finds-good-news-in-latest-ednext-poll/ It's always fascinating to read the ups and downs of this annual poll. Issues include teacher pay, charters, vouchers, funding, etc. As a staunch supporter of public education, I"m concerned about a huge missing piece: special education. It involves about 13-14% of our students (roughly speaking, far more than twice those who attend charters or use vouchers) and the cost for their education is [...]