Russ Walsh

Common Core Backlash: Is It Just About Testing?

Today, the New York Times published an op-ed entitled Rage Against the Common Core, by David L. Kirp, a professor of public policy at UC Berkeley. Kirp ties the backlash against the Common Core to the Obama administrations push for testing and accountability.

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Challenging Andy Smarick's Defense of Standardized Testing

It looks like the test and punish crowd is beginning to get worried about all the backlash against high-stakes testing. Lately, I noticed a little spittle forming at the corners of the mouths of the test them to death champions such as those at the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation. Jumping into the fray this past week was one of my reformy favorites and New Jersey's own, Andy Smarick.

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Hope, Poverty, and Grit

Calling on our political leaders and plutocrats to show some grit.

When I was a kid “grit” was the stuff that was left in the bottom of the bath tub after I showered following a full day spent on a dusty baseball field. “Grit” was also the stuff in the Lava soap my auto mechanic father used to get the grease off his hands at the end of the work day.

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John Kuhn's Fear and Learning in America: A Review

John Kuhn is one part story teller, one part evangelist and one part passionate champion of public education. Through personal narrative, historical reference, sound research and righteous indignation he lays waste to the corporate education reform movement in his compelling new book. What I love about Kuhn's writing is that his well told stories and carefully cited sources give way at times to bursts of passionate advocacy that have the reader, at least this life-long educator, primed to storm the beaches of the Gates Foundation or the Halls of Teach for America if necessary, to do what is right by children, teachers, parents and public education.
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Fighting Back at Standardized Tests: A Teacher’s Guide

Fighting Back at Standardized Tests: A Teacher’s Guide A guide for teachers who want to strike back at the over use of standardized tests
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The House That Gates Built

When I taught in the primary grades, I loved to read aloud to children cumulative story books like There was an Old Woman Who Swallowed a Fly, The Napping House, and The House that Jack Built. Here is a reformy version of that last title. If you want to read the original you can find it here.
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Wise Words for Plutocrats from Dr. Martin Luther King

Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity. - MLK When I read this quote from Dr. King this morning my mind went immediately to the corporate education reform movement. If you throw into the mix an obscene amount of money, you get something truly dangerous. I believe that most of the voices of corporate education reform are sincere and they are certainly conscientious in the sense that they are diligent and wish to do the right thing. I am sure that their desire is to have a positive impact on society and that they see education as a key area where they can have this impact. And so Bill Gates, Eli Broad, the Walton Family and others spend their millions on a sincere effort to improve schools and schooling.
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The Seven Blind Mice of Education Reform: A Field Guide

Perhaps you know the ancient parable from the Indian subcontinent, The Blind Men and the Elephant. The story has been told and adapted many times. If you don’t know it you can find a video adaptation here. In a picture book retelling of the story, Ed Young, the Caldecott Medal winning author, recasts the men as mice for The Seven Blind Mice. If you don’t know that story you can find it read aloud here. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLIRKYvwbyo)
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