It's rare these days to run into upbeat coverage of education issues, so I encourage everyone to take the time to read through Beth Hawkins' MinnPost piece on Minnesota high schools recognized by the recent U.S. News and World Report rankings. As always, there are caveats and areas desperately in need of growth. Still, the overall story is one of progress.MORE »
“Good morning, boys and girls!” It's an innocuous greeting, one we can easily imagine being said by teachers everywhere. I tended to be a little more formal with my high schoolers, using “ladies and gentlemen.” It turns out I was reinforcing a pattern of gendered identification that started much earlier in my students' lives and may have done damage to their social and academic skill sets.MORE »
As if we didn't have enough evidence that testing mania had gone toxic, now we have accusations of cheating at what are supposed to be the schools we look up to.MORE »
This is a big country, and each state comes with its own personality and general ideological bent. Sometimes, that allows those of us in Minnesota to see the future.MORE »
We live in an exceptional state. Most of the time, this is a good thing – when it comes to most quality of life measures, Minnesota ranks way up there. It's surprising when we come in last for good things.MORE »
H.F. 1870, the bill to replace seniority with an unfinished teacher evaluation system, is wrapping up its time in conference committee on its way to likely passage from both houses of the Minnesota legislature. From there it goes to Governor Dayton's desk for signature or veto.MORE »
A friend recently reminded me of an old joke: What do you call the person who graduates last in their medical school class? Doctor. To me, that's a reminder that every field contains a range of abilities, and how employers manage that range in terms of pay, promotion, and retention sets the professional norms for that field.MORE »
So, we've established that Obamacare has been good for nearly 60,000 Minnesotan Medicare beneficiaries (to the tune of nearly $35 million). What about the rest of us?
We sometimes lose track of it in today's United States, but it used to be common knowledge among employers that 40 hours a week was the maximum that should be expected of employees if productivity was to be maintained.MORE »
As if we didn't have enough evidence that testing mania had gone toxic, now we have accusations of cheating at what are supposed to be the schools we look up to.
This is a big country, and each state comes with its own personality and general ideological bent. Sometimes, that allows those of us in Minnesota to see the future.
We live in an exceptional state. Most of the time, this is a good thing – when it comes to most quality of life measures, Minnesota ranks way up there. It's surprising when we come in last for good things.
