History of IDEA
Jeannie Oakes, Founder and Former Director
Youth Voice in School Finance
NEW REPORT: Los Angeles' road to A-G for all
Without Dollars and Sense Powerpoint
Past Educational Opportunity Reports
Why the National Writing Project should be saved
- 08-26-2010
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Guest blog by Mary Tedrow/Washington Post
Most of us know the old adage: Watch what they do, not what they say. Education Secretary Arne Duncan says he supports classroom teachers. Really? And he does this by dumping the National Writing Project, the best professional development program I’ve experienced in nearly 30 years of teaching? I’ve had some time to calm down since the U.S. Department of Education’s slightly premature August 4th announcement of the Investing in Innovation (i3) grants. The list of the top four "winners" had my blood boiling – in part because the current winner/loser paradigm in DOE’s lingo grates on me. How can we actively promote any policy that implies that some will be losers in the education game? Or is it a race? The top two i3 grant winners in terms of dollars are KIPP (Knowledge Is Power Program) and Teach for America, each receiving $50 million in grant money to be spent over the next five years. Both programs rely on the concept that young go-getters will invest a short but intense period of their lives teaching the nation’s most challenged students -- and bumping up building-level test scores. Burnout is expected, after which they will get on with their high-powered lives. (more…)
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