Author Archives

  • Well, That’s Clear As Mud

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    Last week, I wrote about what has become an annual event in Tennessee: the botching of the release of TCAP results. Last year, they came out late, which prevented many schools from being able to include them, as is required… Read More ›

  • A Pleasant Surprise from a Politician

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    As I travel along on this journey of educating myself on and advocating for education policy, I come into contact with quite a few politicians. The ones who I would count as friends of public education are usually pretty rare…. Read More ›

  • Here We Go Again

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    Here we go again. In Tennessee, like many states in the Union, we test our students using standardized tests every April. In May and June, the results come out and the questioning begins. The last couple of years have seen the questioning get… Read More ›

  • UNION STRONG

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    Enter into any conversation on education these days and you can bet it won’t be long until someone brings up the teachers unions. Some will try and evoke the image of the union as a mythical beast capable of bending all to… Read More ›

  • Watch Yer Back

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    As a person who often says bad things about people with money, I’m always a little wary of the reaction my writing may have on others. Being married to a teacher and considering that the majority of the stuff I… Read More ›

  • A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Reset

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    Nashville business leaders have decided that the education conversation, for whatever reason, is in need of a RESET. To begin this “reset,” the Nashville Public Education Foundation has commissioned a group out of Boston, the Parthenon Group, to do a study of Nashville’s… Read More ›

  • TN ASD: Brand on the Run

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    I figure the Tennessee Achievement School District (ASD) and its superintendent, Chris Barbic, are feeling pretty good these days. The legislative session is over in Tennessee, and they’ve managed to beat back the forces of darkness that wanted to abolish,… Read More ›

  • RESET?

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    Like many of you, I spend a great deal of time thinking about education. Once I started blogging, I was always thinking about things to write about and what I wanted to say. After 50-some posts, I still don’t have… Read More ›

  • BALTIMORE: A HARBINGER OF THE FUTURE

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    This week I watched the events of Baltimore unfold on my television, and I read the comments on social media. I can honestly say none of it surprised me. Even when Jeanne Allen jumped in with her tweet claiming charter… Read More ›

  • What standards could and should mean.

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    Coaching Little League baseball for 4-to-6-year-olds has been the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I confess that during the first month of games, I harbored a constant desire to get in my car and go home. The kids were all incredibly… Read More ›