Steve Ford

Steve Ford's picture

Biography

About me

I was a classroom teacher in the St. Paul Public Schools for 22 years before retiring in June 2009. The last fourteen of those years were spent at Capitol Hill Magnet School, where I taught writing almost exclusively. My goal in retirement is to continue my commitment to improving the writing skills of young people. I am reaching out to school districts and training institutions to offer my services and advice; in addition, I am substitute teaching, tutoring, writing children's literature, and developing a writing text for parents, teachers, and students.

Personal Web site: 
Steve Ford Writing
Column: 
Chalk Break

Why does even the easy stuff seem so hard?

By Steve Ford, Chalk Break

Over the last week or two a couple of (education) news items caught my eye: The first was an article ("Schools find active kids make smarter students") that ran in the Star Tribune on August 23. Meadowview Elementary School in Farmington, Minnesota was featured for its effort to increase the amount of physical activity its students experience during the school day.

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Chalk Break

Another Sunday, another education reform moment

By Steve Ford, Chalk Break

Last week I wrote a long piece about student failure, teacher tenure, education reform, and where the fingers of blame should be pointed. I described being uplifted by Exxon Mobile ads during The Masters final round on Easter Sunday.

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Chalk Break

FREE SPEECH ZONE | Bashing teachers and trashing tenure not the way to reform

By Steve Ford, Free Speech Zone

This past Easter Sunday, as I took a break from gardening to watch the Masters, I was overcome with hope, not manifested by the risen Christ, and certainly not by Tiger Woods’s prospects for a come

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Testing . . . testing . . . are we having fun yet?

By Steve Ford, Chalk Break

Our students are in the midst of the annual standardized testing marathon. When they ask their teachers why they have to take them they are informed that the results are an indication of how well they are doing in school, and that their teachers, school principal, and the district superintendent need to know what changes to make in order to improve student learning.

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Chalk Break

Sifting Through the Voices of Education Reform

By Steve Ford, Chalk Break

For a long time I have been trying, pretty much unsuccessfully, to convince the upper crust of the education reform movement (State Department of Education, school districts, superintendents, principals, school board members, and pundits) that their commune is largely uninformed by the ideas and suggestions of the real experts: teachers.

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Chalk Break

FREE SPEECH ZONE | By whose standards are our high school grad candidates judged?

By Steve Ford, Free Speech Zone

Okay, I'm a writing teacher; my standards for minimal writing proficiency among our young people are high--too high, apparently.

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FORUM RESPONSE | Those promising improvement had better deliver

By Steve Ford, TC Daily Planet

Unfortunately, I was unaware of the February 5th breakfast; I would like to have attended.

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Dave Jennings makes common sense

By Steve Ford, Chalk Break

Anyone who listened to Gary Eichten's interview with Dave Jennings last week had a rare opportunity to hear from someone who truly understands the myriad issues surrounding education and its reform.

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Chalk Break

SPNN interview with Valeria Silva falls short

By Steve Ford, TC Daily Planet

Michael Wassenaar's SPNN interview (appearing here on December 27) with Valeria Silva, the new leader of the Saint Paul Public Schools, lasted for about 30 minutes. As a very recently retired SPPS classroom teacher, I was listening to Ms Silva for the first time, and I was interested to hear what she had to say about the "fix" we're in.

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