A metropolis divided
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The crowd at Thursday’s forum on segregation in Minnesota’s schools numbered about 60, ranging from young activists to well-established professionals. Continue Reading
Spotlight on success in Minneapolis schools
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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. Continue Reading
Getting inclusive about gender
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“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.
Suspicions of cheating at Blue Ribbon Schools
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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. Continue Reading
Congressional conservatives play Supervillain with student debt
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There’s a bit in the first Spiderman movie where a villain, the Green Goblin, dangles the hero’s crush and a bus full of children off a bridge. Continue Reading
The long-term reform plan: Vouchers for all
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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. Continue Reading
In school counselors, Minnesota’s way behind
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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. Continue Reading
OPINION | Teachers, layoffs, and “doing something”
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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. The nominal purpose of this bill is to fix the problems connected to seniority-guided decision making. The real purpose is political, an attempt to pit progressives against teachers.The natural progressive impulse when confronted with a social problem is to try to do something. This gets us in trouble sometimes, and never more so than when conservatives use it to make us fight among ourselves. Continue Reading
OPINION | A question of professionalism
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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. As we enter the closing stages of the fight over teacher seniority, waiting for the governor’s signature or veto of a final version of H.F. 1870, the question of professionalism deserves some discussion.It should be clear that teachers right now are not treated as the creative professionals they are. They aren’t paid enough, and they’re overworked. Continue Reading
Graph of the day: Obamacare increases preventive care in MN
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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?
Take a look:
