Posted by Editors
Andreas Schleicher, Events, In The News, OECD, Politics, Teacher Bashing
Wednesday, March 14th, 2012

For those of you who don’t know, the ISTP – 2012 International Summit of the Teaching Profession is being held today and tomorrow in NYC, USA. Our initial reaction to these events is always that they are a good opportunity to see the world, have a few dinners at taxpayer expense and pontificate on matters [...]
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Diane Ravitch, In The News, Schools
Wednesday, July 20th, 2011

Save Our Schools March & National Call to Action! July 28-31, 2011 in Washington, D.C. and around the country We’re putting the Public back in public schools! We, a collection of people from all walks of life and every corner of this nation, embody a mixture of ideas and opinions regarding how we can improve [...]
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In The News, Labour, McKinsey & Co., Michael Barber, Tories
Wednesday, March 30th, 2011

The word on the grapevine and now at least one UK daily is that McKinsey’s Mr. Targets himself, Sir Michael Barber, was all set to return as chief of the Department for Education. We’re not the only ones dismayed by this news as so were senior civil servants apparently. While other notables such as Chris [...]
Posted by Editors
Education Philosophy, Exams, In The News, Pasi Sahlberg, Politics, Research, Schools, Teaching
Monday, March 21st, 2011

In the following Boston Globe article, Learning from Finland How one of the world’s top educational performers turned around, Pasi Sahlberg of Finland’s Ministry of Education and Culture and former Washington-based World Bank education specialist illustrates very succinctly why current UK and US education policy is on the wrong track. “IF AMERICANS harbored any doubts [...]
Posted by Editors
In The News, McKinsey & Co., Michael Barber, Teach First, Tories
Wednesday, March 16th, 2011

The news that three senior McKinsey & Co consultants are in the dock for the US’s most serious insider trading scandal in generations makes us wonder if this consultancy firm is really the right one to lead UK education policy. Prosecutors allege that a billionaire hedge fund founder, Raj Rajaratnam, was given tips about McKinsey [...]
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Diane Ravitch, Education Business, In The News, Media Watch, Teacher Bashing, Working Conditions
Tuesday, March 8th, 2011

Former champion of tests, standards and targets, now a defender of teachers and critic of vulture philanthropists and business interference in education talks to John Stewart (12:30 secs onwards).
Posted by Editors
Academies, ARK, In The News, McKinsey & Co., Michael Barber, Ofsted, Tories
Monday, February 28th, 2011

Private Eye report that Sally Morgan, new Ofsted honcho, and adviser to school privatisation champions, ARK, will work only 2 days but be paid £45K pa. Aside from the fact that no-one is worth that much for a couple of days work, it also means that the head of the schools inspection body gets to [...]
Posted by Editors
Free Schools, In The News, McKinsey & Co., Michael Barber, NUT, Research, Teach First, Tories, Working Conditions
Saturday, February 26th, 2011

This was going to be a post about the Tory White Paper. We took a look at it but what really caught our eye was how many times Sir Michael Barber got a mention. In fact, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Barber was Education Secretary given the amount of space devoted to his work [...]
Posted by Editors
Alfie Kohn, Education Philosophy, In The News, NCLB, Standards
Thursday, May 3rd, 2007

The Case Against “Tougher Standards” By Alfie Kohn People who talk about educational “standards” use the term in different ways. Sometimes they’re referring to guidelines for teaching, the implication being that we should change the nature of instruction — a horizontal shift, if you will. (In the case of the standards drafted by the National [...]