Moderation may top many lists of New Year’s resolutions, but it’s in short supply as holiday break winds down. Richard Rothstein dances on the grave of No Child Left Behind, pronouncing it incoherent, unworkable and doomed. “It will not be reauthorized,” he writes, “not this year, not ever.” His article in the American Prospect condemns NCLB for narrowing curriculum and derides the NCLB-inspired notion that teachers can make up for socioeconomic differences “simply by trying harder.”
Jonathan Kozol gets called out in the Weekly Standard. Playwright Jonathan Leaf, a former teacher, goes for the takedown, describing Kozol’s books as full of “barely credible details.” Kozol vehemently opposes charter schools, vouchers, testing and descibes himself as a defender of public education even while attacking public schools as “dehumanizing.” Leaf lays on the full smackdown calling Kozol “a deeply frustrated man…[who] spends his life promoting resentment.”
Over at the gleefully intemperate NYC Educator, reality-based educator has been on a two-day vitriol bender since reading in the NY Daily News about a school that brought kids back to school the day after Christmas for test prep, and offered an Xbox 360 for top scores on the upcoming state ELA test. Judging from the comments on the site, he’s not the only one who’s upset.
Happy New Year.
Recent Comments