Author Archives: educationalchemy

Upon picking up my two children, ages 5 and 7, from the bus stop today I was ready for our daily afternoon banter following my quintessential question, “How was school today?”  Usually, I get the vague “good” and sometimes even a great story about something fun or funny like when my daughter (in kindergarten) told me aboutContinue reading “Duck and cover: Back to the future”

Hot off the press. In time for 2013! Forget Pearson and those other high-rolling corporations.  I have designed the perfect teacher evaluation system! It’s available now.  And for those states who have received Race to the Top monies I am happy to say that we can do business together. I’ll only need a few millionContinue reading “NEW TEACHER EVALUATION SYSTEM FOR 2013!”

How is it that in spite all the decades of wisdom, research, experience, and knowledge created to the contrary, that corporations are dominating the educational landscape with bad educational polices? Of course the corporate reformers have power to sway public policy. They have a long standing skill set that we as educators don’t possess. TheyContinue reading “Indentured servitude 2.0: What we’re up against”

Is your state or school district a cautionary tale? There are few ways that you can tell if you are: Is your new school leader or state superintendent that is a graduate of the Eli Broad program for school reform? Has your state rolled out the red carpet for Race to the Top? Is yourContinue reading “ARE YOU A CAUTIONARY TALE?”

“Kierkegaard was right – there is an awful precipice before us. But he was wrong about the leap – there’s a difference between jumping and being pushed. You reach a point where you are forced to face your own needs, and the fact that you can’t terminate the situation settles on you with full force.”Continue reading “(VAMPIRE) CORPORATE ED REFORMERS: TELL THEM TO GO AWAY”

The Sacrament “Vampires, even the fictitious ones, had it right. They knew what humans didn’t, or couldn’t admit:  That love is the mysterious pull of the moon on the tide.  And water is just like blood.  The vampire seeks out blood, reaching for something greater than itself.  The compulsion draws down both the seeker andContinue reading “New from Amazon-check it out!”

Today I walked by a poster at a county school in Maryland, which advertised -(yes ADVERTISED)- a summary of what education “reform” is about. Among other items, it listed something it identified as “use of robust data.” I found this very curious. Exactly HOW is data robust?  “Isn’t that a taste or flavor thing?” I wonderedContinue reading “Pills, Micro-Chips, and Fruit Loops”

A while back I wrote a piece called “Like Water for Education”  using the analogy of what multinational corporations and world banking do to natural resources in impoverished developing nations to what is happening in education reform in the U.S. I thought I was just being metaphorical.  Lately, I’ve come to discover that it’s aContinue reading “From Metaphor to Global Nightmare: The World Bank’s Influence on US Education Reform Policies”

VAMPIRE AS CORPORATE ED REFORMER I teach a freshman seminar class about the “myth and lure of the vampire in modern society.”   Seriously.  It’s fabulous work. In an effort to my money where my mouth is, I am completing the same assignment required of my students last week: using notes from class and assignedContinue reading “Education Reform Sucks: Driving a Stake through High Stakes Testing”

Back several decades ago the food industry discovered something called “fast food” and it exploded on the American landscape as a vehicle for providing food fast in economically savvy ways that would bring food cheaply and efficiently to the “unwashed masses” (meant sarcastically) in every corner of the globe.  Fast forward a couple of decades.Continue reading “Fast Food Education Reviewing the Facts about Education Reform”