Okay, let’s get the boring, background stuff out of the way first, and fast. It’s painful but necessary. The federal government passed No Child Left Behind, commonly called NCLB, in 2002 under President Bush. The Department of Education says it passed with partisan support. The purpose of the legislation was to increase accountability for public […]
NCLB
Posted inCurrent Events in Education, Featured, High School, Middle School
Placing Highly Qualified Teachers
Every child deserves excellent teachers. For this reason I and a large number of my colleagues stayed together in a large urban middle school. All of us were not only properly certified and experts in our fields but we were involved in continuing education as well as being teacher leaders within our school and at […]
Posted inCurrent Events in Education, Featured, Opinion
No Child Left Behind: 13 Unlucky, Yucky Years
On January 8th, 2002, President George W. Bush signed a revolutionary law into action – the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). It was a pretty easy bill to sign into law: it was introduced in the House by Committee on Education and Labor Chair (and current Speaker) John Boehner, a Republican, and Sen. Ted […]
Posted inCommon Core, Current Events in Education, Opinion
The Coming Catastrophe in Education
Thought experiments are employed throughout the academic world, from mathematics and quantum mechanics to philosophy and economics. But rarely are they used in the world of education. And yet, like a gathering storm whose birth pangs only emit a gentle and benign breeze, there are early signs that American public education is possibly starting down […]
Posted inFeatured, Instruction & Curriculum, Opinion
NGLB – No Gifted Students Left Behind
Education has taken a major swing in the last five years with its new focus on the Response to Intervention movement. Â Through the RTI program, students that are in the bottom 20% of their class are to receive Tier I interventions in their regular education classroom. Â While many resources define this as differentiated instruction, many […]
Posted inFeatured, From the Front Lines, Instruction & Curriculum, Literacy, Uncategorized
ESL Students and State Testing
This is the time of year when school really begins to get stressful if you teach a testing grade. Walk into an upper elementary classroom between now and April and you can feel the pressure in the air. As an English as a second language teacher in New York City this is also the time […]