Category Archives: Teacher Accountability

Bonehead

Posted on August 1, 2011 by Mike

Reformists din their lament that America’s public schools turn out so few graduates who are ready for higher education, witness the number (presumably unprecedentedly higher) of students who must take some sort of remedial (bonehead) classes. Academic standards are in … Continue reading →

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Thoughts on Bad Teachers

Posted on January 6, 2011 by Mike

Politicians, Pundits, Polemicists, and some Professors Who Probably Know Better harp at us through the media that American Public Education is sick unto death. It needs to be reformed from top to bottom. The very assumptions that form the basis … Continue reading →

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Performance Reviews

Posted on November 21, 2010 by Mike

This summer, 7-9-2010 to be exact, on NPR, I heard a review of Samuel Culbert’s book Get Rid of the Performance Review. Although Culbert’s book is aimed at the corporate world, I was struck by how many of his points … Continue reading →

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Good Teachers and Bad

Posted on November 1, 2010 by Mike

I taught for 44 years. The bulk of that experience was in public high schools. I was fortunate that in all that time, I never taught in a truly bad school, such as are depicted in the media as being … Continue reading →

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Grading the Teachers, part 2

Posted on October 4, 2010 by Mike

The L. A. Times published the school district’s test scores by teacher, by name, on or about August 14, 2010. The picture accompanying the article was of John Smith, a “bad” teacher. This struck me at the time as being … Continue reading →

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Teacher Bonuses

Posted on September 29, 2010 by Mike

The Politicians, Pundits, Polemicists, and even some Professors who, of all people, should know better, keep telling us that teachers, especially union members, keep up a mindless litany of “no” at any suggestion of progress. Well, there are some proposed … Continue reading →

Posted in Education Reform, Teacher Accountability, Teacher Compensation, Teacher's Unions | Comments Off

Figurative Language

Posted on September 21, 2010 by Mike

A friend recently sent me this list of examples of student writing. You have probably seen it before. It follows the comments. We English teachers (and perhaps others, if they assign writing) have always had our little chuckles over student … Continue reading →

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Teachers as Writers

Posted on September 15, 2010 by Mike

Once upon a time, a decade or few ago, the constituency of public schools considered it important for us English teachers to teach kids to write coherent, meaningful, and reasonably correct English prose. In those halcyon days of yore, we … Continue reading →

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Grading the Teachers

Posted on September 9, 2010 by Mike

Politicians, Pundits, Polemicists, and Professors Who of All People Should Know Better, love to lament that “teachers unions reflexively reject anything that smacks of accountability.” Or so said Leonard Pitts of the Miami Herald, who usually hits the nail right … Continue reading →

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Denver Schools’ Test Scores

Posted on August 13, 2010 by Mike

One of the benefits of travel lies in reading newspapers from other parts of the country and learning what is going on there. So it was that when I opened the Denver Post of August 11, 2010, I saw the … Continue reading →