Editors On March 1st 2013 it was announced at the Campbell Collaboration that a systematic review of merit pay (aka performance-related pay, bonuses, incentives etc.) for teachers was to be conducted this year. The title of this review is: Merit Pay Programs for Improving Teacher Retention, Teacher Satisfaction, and Student Achievement…

Editors “Our curriculum is based on years of analysis of the world’s most successful school systems, from east Asia to Massachusetts, and is backed by leading academics such as scientist Daniel Willingham” (Elizabeth Truss MP, Conservative Minister for education) “Antidote to Twitter idiocy: The science behind Gove approach on curriculum: http://www.danielwillingham.com/1/post/2013/02/the-science-in-goves-speech.html”…

Editors A further excerpt, this time from the writings of another strong critic of the corporate education reform movement, Leonie Haimson (@leoniehaimson), who leads Class Size Matters in New York City (“a non-profit, non-partisan clearinghouse for information on class size and the proven benefits of smaller classes”) and who was a…

Editors What follows is a summary of the concerns raised by Andrew Hartman (@HartmanAndrew), teacher of history at Illinois State University and author of Education and the Cold War: The Battle for the American School, regarding the alternative teacher certification organisation Teach For America. Teach For America (TFA) provides the model…

Editors Listening to Sean (Robin Williams) speak to Will Hunting (Matt Damon) at Boston Common at the beginning of the film Good Will Hunting, it struck us that Sean’s words of wisdom could well have been aimed at teaching to the test, narrowing of the curriculum, rote-learning and education-as-product rather than…

Editors Renowned historian of education, educational policy analyst, and research professor Diane Ravitch today summarises nicely how education ‘reform’ “now in full operation in states across the nation” works in the US. First, set an impossible goal, say, 100% proficiency for all students. Second, say that there can be “no excuses,”…

Editors J.L.Talmon’s ‘The Origins of Totalitarian Democracy’ (Secker & Warburg, 1952) celebrates its 60th anniversary this year. Talmon became a Professor of History but not before doing his PhD at the London School of Economics (LSE) in the UK, and, interestingly for UK readers of our blog, among other people in…

Editors The Royal Academy of Engineering report, Jobs and Growth: the Importance of Engineering Skills to the UK Economy, published today, calculates that the UK needs an annual minimum of 100,000 graduates in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) just to maintain the status quo in UK industry. According to the…

Editors With much anticipation, we listened yesterday afternoon to England Education Secretary, Michael Gove’s, statement to the House of Commons on his proposed reforms to the current nationwide GCSE examination. We were listening not only for the predictable bitchiness that accompanies any statement Gove makes to the Commons but also for…

Editors The BBC report that the UK Shadow (in the broadest sense of the term) Secretary for Education, Stephen Twigg, believes “England’s schools should learn from Japan”. He obviously hasn’t been reading the Economist recently. “THE yells of children pierce the night, belting out the elements—“Lithium! Magnesium!”—as an instructor displays abbreviations…