Together, the following eight articles outline how the standards-tests-punishment machine has subverted public schools from their democratic promise. With action, we can write a future where education isn't a soulless profit machine for the few.
Featured Books
Featured Books
Rethinking Bilingual Education
Rethinking Bilingual Education is an exciting new collection of articles about bringing students’ home languages into our classrooms.
Reading, Writing, and Rising Up - 2nd Edition
For almost two decades, teachers have looked to Reading, Writing, and Rising Up as a trusted text to integrate social justice teaching in language arts classrooms.
Rethinking Multicultural Education 2nd Edition
This new and expanded edition collects the best articles dealing with race and culture in the classroom that have appeared in Rethinking Schools magazine.
Volume 22, No.3 - Spring 2008

Think Less Benchmarks
A flawed test does more harm than good
"Thanks to the folks at the Discovery Channel, that TV channel with the nifty little logo of the earth spinning, my 8-year-old students have four more opportunities to stop learning and fill in the bubbles."
A new era requires new thinking
Teaching in Dystopia
Testing’s stranglehold on education
"The problem is this: Testing is killing education. Not only is it narrowing the curriculum generally, it promotes bad pedagogy, while making some private companies very rich in the process."
Reading First, Libraries Last
Scripted programs undermine teaching and children's love of books
"In these bleak NCLB days of regimented, scripted reading programs and financially drained school districts, I am deeply worried about the future of elementary school libraries."
The Scripted Prescription
A cure for childhood
Testing mania reaches the pre-K classroom. "It saddened me to think that my daughter's first impression of school was based on taking a test and failing it."
When it comes to Reading First, don’t believe the hype
Textbook Scripts, Student Lives
A math teacher goes beyond the standardized curriculum
"Textbooks, published by corporations that have much to gain by maintaining business as usual, aren't likely to press students to envision a future any different from the past and present."
Contrary to their spin machine, Disney’s princesses are far from role models
"A part of American school curricula for more than 200 years, the past tense was deemed by school administrators to be too expensive to keep in primary and secondary education."
TV Selfishness and Violence Explode During 'War On Terror
2nd graders discover new trends in TV since 9/11
"Six years into the 'War on Terror,' my 2nd-grade Spanish immersion students found that aggression, selfishness, and insults have exploded on national television."
Queer Matters
Educating educators about Homophobia
"While we were excited to support the opening of the educational closet, unintentionally we became seen as the 'residential experts' for all things queer."
Feeding Two Birds With One Hand
Why educators should demand a national health care plan
"I can't imagine any teacher union leader or local school board member who wouldn't welcome a new federal program that would make the issue of healthcare benefits a moot point in bargaining."
Building Teacher Solidarity
Larry Kuehn talks about building ties between teachers in Canada, Mexico, and the United States
“I would really like to see a new movement that gives the kind of hope
for change that there was when I came into teaching in the late 1960s.”
Top-down mandates masquerade as social justice reforms