Volume 13, No.3
Spring 1999
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Why the Testing Craze Won’t Fix Our Schools
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Alternatives to Standardized Tests
There's only one thing worse than requiring students to reduce all learning to a single "correct" answer, and that is reducing assessment and accountability to a single standardized test.
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Social Studies Tests from Hell
The problem with Oregon's latest high-stakes test goes beyond any particular question. Its essential wrong-headedness lies with the assumption that learning is nothing more that fact-collecting.
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Testing Against Democracy
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Appropriate Use of Tests
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Hallmarks of Good Assessment
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Standards and the Control of Knowledge
How can parents and educator make sense of the increasing reliance of state-mandated standards and tests? How might such standards impact efforts to forge a truly multicultural curriculum?
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The Forgotten History of Eugenics
High-stakes testing has its origins in the eugenics movements and racist assumptions about IQ. We forget, at our own peril, that this legacy hangs over current demands for increased testing
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Chicago Teacher Paper Under Fire
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Limitations of the ITBS
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Welcome to Measurement Inc.
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Reclaiming Assessment
Instead of sending its essays off to a for-profit scoring company, Portland teachers score papers as part of a discussion about what is good writing and good writing instruction.
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Dancin’ Circles
Even the most rigid of state testing plans will never be able to control what every child does or thinks or writes. There may be hope.
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The Straitjacket of Standardized Tests
A Portland teacher wonders: Where is the standardized test that can measure passion for learning, respect for others, and human empathy?
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Monkeys, Pouches, and Reading
What does it do to young children, and how does it distort good teaching, when reading success is determined on the basis of a single test?
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“High-Stakes” Harm”
How can teachers maintain their critical stance toward assessment, yet still help prepare students to take ‘high-stakes’ tests?
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How Many Must Die?
Eight years of sanctions have taken their hardest toll on the people of Iraq. An estimated 1 million people, including 750,000 children below the age of five, have died as a result of scarcity of food and medicine.
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Prominent Voices on Iraq
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U.S. Sanctions on Iraq
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The Influential E.D. Hirsch
Hirsch's message strikes a chord with many teachers and parents. But what are the assumptions behind Hirsch's prescription for school reform? And will his proposals get us where we need to go?
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Drive-By School Reform
How hit-and-run approaches to reform can turn schools into passive targets of intervention, rather than active partners in change.
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Ed-Web: Africa-Descended Culture on the Web
Volume 13, No.2
Winter 1998/1999
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What Now for Bilingual Education?
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Does Bilingual Ed Work?
It seems logical: if a student needs to learn English, put them in an English-language classroom. But research and experience underscore the importance of bilingual education.
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Out Front
An "out' high school teacher discusses what schools can do to fight the pervasive problem with homophobia.
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$22 Million Siphoned from MPS to Pay for Private Schools
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What Color is Beautiful?
A kindergartner says he doesn't like his dark skin. His teacher grapples with how best to respond and finds a valuable resource in Nina Bonita.
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Trivial Pursuit Testing
An education professor takes the Massachuesetts teacher certification test. His conclusion? The test is excellent - if the goal is to train winners in competitions of Jeopardy or Trivial Pursuit
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Equity Takes a Hard Hit
Across the country, concern with equity is dwindling as voters, school boards, and federal courts look instead to "race neutral" policies
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Tracking and the Project Method
A fifth grade teacher reflects on alternatives to tracking, and how he deals with teaching to a range of skills so that all the children learn.
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Keeping Schools on Track
Research has documented the inequitable effects of tracking, yet the practice persists. Why do so many reformers sidestep the issue?
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Terriblehorriblenogoodverybad
Some days are like that. And some practices, such as tracking, are much worse
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What’s the Fuss?
Are the debates over bilingual education grounded in what is educationally best for children — or over issues of assimilation versus cultural pride?
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The Poetry of Protest
Martín Espada’s poetry is a weapon for justice for those who aren’t white, who don’t speak English, whose work as migrant laborers is exploited.
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Philip’s Transformation
An elementary teacher explains how she uses the book Crow Boy as part of a curriculum based on respect for differences — and helped reach a student who entered her classroom angry and alienated.
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The Trial
One early elementary teacher explains how she explores issues of homelessness. Her goal: to increases student compassion and understanding, yet sidestep an “us” vs. “them” dichotomy.
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Revolving School Doors
The high cost of housing means not only homelessness but, for many poor families, frequent moves. Some children switch schools once or more a year — with dire effects on learning.
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Past and Present
An Encounter with the Elders
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Hooking up with Commercial-free Education
Volume 13, No.1
Fall 1998
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Standardardized Tests
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Reconstituting Jefferson
Reconsitution is a nationwide trend, and example of "get tough" policies. At my school, it was mean-spirited and shallow - and did nothing to address the school's real problems
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Reconstitution Trend Cools
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What Happened to the Merger?
Did NEA delegates vote "no" because of irreconcilable differences, or do they just want time to ponder the proposal?
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New Battlegrounds
As charters and voucher schools decry the "burdens" of special education, advocates for students with disabilities prepare to defend hard-won rights
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Staying Past Wednesday
Death, an ever-present reality in life, is too often silenced in the elementary classroom. Does it have to be that way?
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Culturally Authentic Bias
Just because a book is "multicultural" doesn't mean it is free of stereotypes. Many cultures have stories replete with bias.
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The Voucher Threat
Many public schools in urban areas have such problems that it may be tempting to consider vouchers a legitimate reform. Don't be fooled. The very survival of public education is at stake.
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Of Eagles and Chickens
How a Teacher Uses a Modern Fable to Teach about the African-American Struggle for Identity
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Of Eagles and Chickens
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Great Eagle Wisdom
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Letters 13.1
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Lessons from the Other Side
A community-activist who is now a school board member offers tips to parents on how to effectively approach their school board.
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Transforming Teaching
Milwaukee’s teacher-run councils helped enrich districtwide reform. Their demise leaves a vacuum for progressive teachers searching to promote classroom-based innovation.
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K-12 Reform Goals
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Alternatives to Grade Retention
“No social promotion!” is the latest sound-bite of reform. But if the goal is to improve classroom learning, other strategies make more sense.
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Unz: Moving on to Arizona
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Resources on the Unz Initiative
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Religious Right Launches “Exodus 2000”
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Victory for Funding Equity
A New Jersey decision mandates extra money for low-income districts.
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MPS Suspensions Skyrocket
MPS suspensions have increased over 30% in recent years. In middle school, there were more suspensions than actual students.
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A Mother Speaks Out
What happens when schools fail to take action against harassment of gay and lesbian youth?
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Tinsel Town Teachers
You want to write a movie script, capture your finest teaching moments on film? Here’s how.
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13.Ed-Web: Native American Websites
Volume 12, No.4
Summer 1998
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What Will Be The Future of Teacher Unionism?
A review of United Mind Workers: Unions and Teaching in the Knowledge Society, by Charles Taylor Kerchner, Julia E. Koppich and Joseph G. Weeres. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1997.
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NEA-AFT Unity
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Internet Filtering
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Resources on Censorship and the Internet
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Teachers As Learners
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The Hows and Whys of Peer Mentoring
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The Standards Movement
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What the Tour Guide Didn’t Tell Me
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The Price of Paradise
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Resources on Hawai’i
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Teacher Alert!
Phonics Fads Sweep Nation’s Schools
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Exploding the Western Canon
San Francisco Adopts Diversity Requirement
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Federal Law Mandates ‘Abstinence-Only’ Sex Ed
Fundamentalists Pushed Stealth Legislation
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Vows of Abstinence Break More Easily Than Latex Condoms
An Interview with Jocelyn Elders
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The History of Sexuality Education
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A Look At the ‘Sex Respect’ Curriculum
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Resources on Sexuality Education
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SEX, etc.
A Newsletter by and for Teens
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The Bell Curve: Stealth Book of the 1990s?
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Where’s the R-Word? Speaking Out on Textbook Silences
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Always Consider Yourself a Student
An interview with classroom teacher Bisse Bowman
