Education Archives – https://ezkool.com/category/education-2/ Sun, 08 Nov 2020 03:12:01 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://ezkool.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/ezkool-logo-75png.png Education Archives – https://ezkool.com/category/education-2/ 32 32 12773863 The New School Year: History Will Guide the Future https://ezkool.com/2017/09/5new-school-year-history-will-guide-future/ Sun, 03 Sep 2017 16:10:37 +0000 http://ezkool.com/?p=66453 New school years always bring new challenges for children, parents and teachers. This school year, though, promises to be much trickier, because we are now debating United States History. Remember history? That’s the class that isn’t tested at the end of the year by the great national testing monopoly, Pearson. The PARCC tests focus on […]

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]]> 66453 America’s Educators Lead the Way https://ezkool.com/2017/07/1americas-educators-lead-way/ Sun, 09 Jul 2017 15:21:27 +0000 http://ezkool.com/?p=66382 If you care deeply about social and racial justice, value equal opportunity, detest discrimination and believe that this country needs to focus on its core values of tolerance, compromise, equality and democracy, then fear not. America’s educators have got your back. I returned from the National Education Association (NEA) convention in Boston last week feeling […]

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]]> 66382 Trump’s Education Secretary Blocked from Entering Washington School https://ezkool.com/2017/02/trumps-education-secretary-blocked-entering-washington-school/ Fri, 10 Feb 2017 17:47:39 +0000 http://ezkool.com/?p=65831 Fresh off her controversial nomination, controversial nomination process and eventual confirmation, the most inexperience Education Secretary in this country’s history, Betsy DeVos, was greeted by a not-so-welcoming group of protesters as she tried entering a school in Washington. Parents holding signs greeted DeVos when she arrived at Jefferson Middle School Academy in southwest Washington, not far […]

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]]> 65831 Readin’, Writin’ and ‘Ridiculous https://ezkool.com/2017/02/readin-writin-ridiculous56/ Sun, 05 Feb 2017 16:20:44 +0000 http://ezkool.com/?p=65824 There’s a certain perverse pride public educators should feel due to the fact that Betsy DeVos, the nominee for Secretary of Education, is, of all the Trump cabinet picks, the object of the most phone calls and other communications objecting to her confirmation. She’s also the only nominee that some Republican Senators will oppose. At […]

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]]> 65824 Trump’s Education Pick: Making American Public Schools Worse! https://ezkool.com/2016/11/99trumps-education-pick-making-american-public-schools-worse/ https://ezkool.com/2016/11/99trumps-education-pick-making-american-public-schools-worse/#respond Sun, 27 Nov 2016 16:32:06 +0000 http://ezkool.com/?p=65477 Just remember: Most voters rejected Donald Trump’s vision of the United States. They rejected his rhetoric, his vile comments about women and minorities, and they don’t want large tax cuts to the wealthy, a trade war with China or a Supreme Court that overturns hard-won democratic victories for women, gays, and those that desperately need […]

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]]> https://ezkool.com/2016/11/99trumps-education-pick-making-american-public-schools-worse/feed/ 0 65477 Back To School: A Different Kind of Division https://ezkool.com/2016/09/back-to-school-a-different-kind-of-division/ https://ezkool.com/2016/09/back-to-school-a-different-kind-of-division/#respond Mon, 05 Sep 2016 23:48:25 +0000 http://ezkool.com/?p=63989 The great divide in American public attitudes is most evident during Presidential election years, and this year is no different. Republicans and Democrats seem to be living in two different countries when it comes to their views on how much the government should be involved in people’s lives, the role of religion, support for social […]

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]]> https://ezkool.com/2016/09/back-to-school-a-different-kind-of-division/feed/ 0 63989 Chris Christie: Terrible as Governor But Qualified for VP https://ezkool.com/2016/07/5christie-terrible-governor-qualified-vp/ https://ezkool.com/2016/07/5christie-terrible-governor-qualified-vp/#respond Sun, 03 Jul 2016 21:23:25 +0000 http://ezkool.com/?p=63551 I sort of forgot that Chris Christie was still the Governor of New Jersey and an active politician until this week, so quiet was he on policy and bombast. But now he’s back. His first foray was to emerge with a set of checks made out to suburban school district students for $6,599 each.  This […]

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]]> https://ezkool.com/2016/07/5christie-terrible-governor-qualified-vp/feed/ 0 63551 Disuniting the Public Unions https://ezkool.com/2016/01/public-unions/ Sun, 10 Jan 2016 16:44:59 +0000 http://ezkool.com/?p=62045 The end result is in reach for those conservatives who have worked so hard to destroy public sector unions and along with them, the rest of the middle class. The Supreme Court will hear arguments on Monday in the case of Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association about the legality of public unions charging people who […]

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]]> 62045 College Is For Everyone… Except for Those It’s Not https://ezkool.com/2015/12/college-is-for-everyone/ Sun, 27 Dec 2015 17:24:51 +0000 http://ezkool.com/?p=61781 Seeing as how I’m an education dinosaur, having taught for the past 32 years, I’ve seen many a fad, meme, phase and reform come and go during my career. Each of these aforesaid events was billed as the new reality and the change that would ignite the staid and conservative field into a dynamo that […]

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]]> 61781 The Swift Fall of Testing – What Comes Next? https://ezkool.com/2015/11/the-swift-fall-of-testing-what-comes-next/ Sun, 29 Nov 2015 19:14:33 +0000 http://ezkool.com/?p=61270 I’ve been in the education business for 31 years and I’ve seen many a fad come and go, from Teacher-proof curricula to shared decision-making to Differentiation to Cooperative Learning, Curriculum Mapping, Goals 2000 and various reading programs that focus on inventive spelling, phonics, whole language and learning vocabulary in context. Many of my colleagues didn’t […]

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]]> 61270 Mrs. MacDowell 1 Exxon 0: Why I Knew in 1970 What Big Oil Still Denies https://ezkool.com/2015/11/mrs-macdowell-1-exxon-0-why-i-knew-in-1970-what-big-oil-still-denies/ Sun, 08 Nov 2015 16:53:43 +0000 http://ezkool.com/?p=60927 OK, let’s go back to the halcyon days of the 1969-70 school year when I was in fourth grade. My teacher was one of those cool, hip, young people who knew how to reach children, to excite them to learn, and to inject a bit of reality and responsibility into them as they began to […]

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]]> 60927 Education’s Dirty Little Secret https://ezkool.com/2015/11/educations-dirty-little-secret/ https://ezkool.com/2015/11/educations-dirty-little-secret/#respond Sun, 01 Nov 2015 23:33:54 +0000 http://ezkool.com/?p=60710 The week began with the president saying that there was too much emphasis on testing in schools.  In the middle of the week, the New York Times published a story about Success Academy Charter Schools that, among other things, noted the following: The network serves mostly black and Hispanic students and is known for exacting […]

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]]> https://ezkool.com/2015/11/educations-dirty-little-secret/feed/ 0 60710 Great Teachers Make Great Schools https://ezkool.com/2015/09/great-teachers-make-great-schools/ https://ezkool.com/2015/09/great-teachers-make-great-schools/#respond Wed, 02 Sep 2015 01:30:18 +0000 http://ezkool.com/?p=59749 Another school year. It’s my 32nd as a teacher and I can still say that I love what I’m doing and believe that I am contributing to the betterment of society. I just wish that at some point before I go to the Great Faculty Room in the Sky, you know, the one where the […]

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]]> https://ezkool.com/2015/09/great-teachers-make-great-schools/feed/ 0 59749 Education Roars Back https://ezkool.com/2015/08/education-roars-back/ https://ezkool.com/2015/08/education-roars-back/#respond Sun, 16 Aug 2015 23:12:24 +0000 http://ezkool.com/?p=59555 It’s August and the Back to School sales are ramping up in earnest, at least here in the nor’east. The sales started in July for the more southerly US climes, but that’s because they’re already back in the classrooms. In any event, it’s time once again to be thinking about education, and the issue is […]

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]]> https://ezkool.com/2015/08/education-roars-back/feed/ 0 59555 Education By Dummies https://ezkool.com/2015/06/education-by-dummies/ https://ezkool.com/2015/06/education-by-dummies/#respond Sun, 07 Jun 2015 18:15:48 +0000 http://ezkool.com/?p=59046 Politicians can talk all they want about how changes to the American education system such as the Common Core, new testing rubrics and teacher evaluation systems will vault us into the top tiers of learned nations over the next few years, but, really, that’s not going to happen if what’s happening in Arizona and other […]

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]]> https://ezkool.com/2015/06/education-by-dummies/feed/ 0 59046 Christie: It’s Not My Fault. Elect Me President https://ezkool.com/2015/05/christie-its-not-my-fault-elect-me-president/ https://ezkool.com/2015/05/christie-its-not-my-fault-elect-me-president/#respond Thu, 14 May 2015 00:04:22 +0000 http://ezkool.com/?p=58923 It’s one thing when you have something to run on. It’s quite another when you have to run away from your record. That’s the position Governor Christie finds himself in on the eve of his long-awaited announcement that he will run for president. Most candidates have a signature issue or can point to improving conditions […]

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]]> https://ezkool.com/2015/05/christie-its-not-my-fault-elect-me-president/feed/ 0 58923 Pensions in the Age of GOP Math https://ezkool.com/2015/04/pensions-in-the-age-of-gop-math/ https://ezkool.com/2015/04/pensions-in-the-age-of-gop-math/#respond Mon, 27 Apr 2015 00:41:51 +0000 http://ezkool.com/?p=58738 Things are getting a bit complicated in New Jersey for Governor Christie, and that’s having a major effect on when (and it will be when) he announces his bid for the presidency. Yes, he is waiting for the economy to improve and the George Washington Bridge scandal to go away, but now he’s added what […]

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]]> https://ezkool.com/2015/04/pensions-in-the-age-of-gop-math/feed/ 0 58738 CCRAP! More Testing Ahead https://ezkool.com/2015/04/ccrap-more-testing-ahead/ https://ezkool.com/2015/04/ccrap-more-testing-ahead/#respond Mon, 20 Apr 2015 00:20:50 +0000 http://ezkool.com/?p=58680 If you’re a regular American, you know, like the kind of person Hillary Clinton is trying to appeal to, you probably think that the PARCC tests are over and that the education system has moved on. Not so. This week marks the return of the standardized tests that no one likes, and are based on […]

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]]> https://ezkool.com/2015/04/ccrap-more-testing-ahead/feed/ 0 58680 Pearson Jumps the Shark on PARCC https://ezkool.com/2015/03/pearson-jumps-the-shark-on-parcc/ https://ezkool.com/2015/03/pearson-jumps-the-shark-on-parcc/#respond Sat, 14 Mar 2015 22:11:54 +0000 http://ezkool.com/?p=58305 We are truly in deep PARCC mode now. Perhaps the April/May test administration should include readings from the Pentagon Papers. Pearson Education, the company that produces the PARCC tests, and is reportedly being paid over $22 million dollars in New Jersey alone, is monitoring social media to check for security breaches and other untoward activity.  […]

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]]> https://ezkool.com/2015/03/pearson-jumps-the-shark-on-parcc/feed/ 0 58305 On Education: Can’t See the Forest for the Bushes https://ezkool.com/2015/03/on-education-cant-see-the-forest-for-the-bushes/ https://ezkool.com/2015/03/on-education-cant-see-the-forest-for-the-bushes/#respond Mon, 09 Mar 2015 00:10:58 +0000 http://ezkool.com/?p=58229 AFP PHOTO/Saul LOEB Remember the education president? That would be George H.W. Bush, who promised that he would focus on improving schools so that the United States would be number one in educating its children for the new millennium. His Goals 2000: Educate America Act had terrific political nuggets such as: All children in America […]

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]]> https://ezkool.com/2015/03/on-education-cant-see-the-forest-for-the-bushes/feed/ 0 58229 Teacher Hangs Herself In Classroom https://ezkool.com/2015/03/teacher-hangs-herself-in-classroom/ https://ezkool.com/2015/03/teacher-hangs-herself-in-classroom/#respond Tue, 03 Mar 2015 01:35:06 +0000 http://ezkool.com/?p=58167 No,  reports say her students were not in the classroom at the time, but they found her body hanging in the classroom when they reported for class. Jillian Jacobson, 31, was pronounced dead at the scene at El Dorado High School in Placentia, some 30 miles (50 km) southeast of Los Angeles, said a spokesman. […]

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]]> https://ezkool.com/2015/03/teacher-hangs-herself-in-classroom/feed/ 0 58167 Elected, Perchance to Govern? https://ezkool.com/2015/03/elected-perchance-to-govern/ https://ezkool.com/2015/03/elected-perchance-to-govern/#respond Sun, 01 Mar 2015 21:22:02 +0000 http://ezkool.com/?p=58161 Mitch McConnell, moderate. I thought I’d never see that characterization, but after last week’s embarrassing, incompetent, dangerous gambit the House Republicans played, he’s looking like the only GOP adult in the room. John Boehner seems to have lost his caucus and is now dependent on the far right to dictate what gets done in the […]

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]]> https://ezkool.com/2015/03/elected-perchance-to-govern/feed/ 0 58161 Christie Tells It Like It’s Not https://ezkool.com/2015/02/christie-tells-it-like-its-not/ https://ezkool.com/2015/02/christie-tells-it-like-its-not/#respond Sun, 15 Feb 2015 20:56:12 +0000 http://ezkool.com/?p=57986 It’s getting a bit too easy finding contradictions and hypocritical statements in what Governor Chris Christie is saying these days. That must mean he’s running for president. On his signature issue, pension and benefit reform, the governor went back on his promise to make a full payment for 2014, and his administration even argued in […]

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]]> https://ezkool.com/2015/02/christie-tells-it-like-its-not/feed/ 0 57986 The Best and Brightest Have Let Us Down https://ezkool.com/2015/02/the-best-and-brightest-have-let-us-down/ https://ezkool.com/2015/02/the-best-and-brightest-have-let-us-down/#respond Sun, 08 Feb 2015 23:38:56 +0000 http://ezkool.com/?p=57911 I get very tired very quickly when I hear that we need the best and brightest to become classroom teachers in the United States. For one, it’s incredibly insulting because it assumes that the teachers we have now in public schools are somehow subpar, which is not true. Further, it also assumes that the elite […]

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]]> https://ezkool.com/2015/02/the-best-and-brightest-have-let-us-down/feed/ 0 57911 PARCC Storm II: Sunshine Peeks Through https://ezkool.com/2015/02/parcc-storm-ii-sunshine-peeks-through/ https://ezkool.com/2015/02/parcc-storm-ii-sunshine-peeks-through/#respond Sun, 01 Feb 2015 17:11:00 +0000 http://ezkool.com/?p=57729 Another week, and more snow is expected in the northeast. There’s more over the PARCC testing storm as well, but this time, there is a ray of sane sunshine. Here in New Jersey, State Assemblyman Patrick Diegnan Jr. (D-Middlesex), chairman of the Assembly’s education committee, has introduced a bill that would detail a procedure for […]

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]]> https://ezkool.com/2015/02/parcc-storm-ii-sunshine-peeks-through/feed/ 0 57729 Salting the PARCCing Lot https://ezkool.com/2015/01/salting-the-parccing-lot/ https://ezkool.com/2015/01/salting-the-parccing-lot/#respond Sun, 25 Jan 2015 15:48:58 +0000 http://ezkool.com/?p=57612 Educators, are you getting excited? No, not about the next snowstorm, which looks like a whopper, but about the PARCC tests? You’d better be, because they are on the way and the impact will be measurable and unpredictable. For those non-educators, the PARCC tests are the standardized tests that students in grades 3-11 will take […]

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]]> https://ezkool.com/2015/01/salting-the-parccing-lot/feed/ 0 57612 Yes, Students Can See ‘Selma’ for Free https://ezkool.com/2015/01/yes-students-can-see-selma-for-free/ https://ezkool.com/2015/01/yes-students-can-see-selma-for-free/#respond Thu, 22 Jan 2015 12:43:40 +0000 http://ezkool.com/?p=57535 The producers of Selma have teamed up with Black business leaders from around the country for an unprecedented initiative to give students free access to the Oscar-nominated film. So far, nearly 100,000 middle schoolers have taken advantage of the program in cities like New York, Atlanta, Miami and New Orleans, BET reports. Due to popular […]

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]]> https://ezkool.com/2015/01/yes-students-can-see-selma-for-free/feed/ 0 57535 The New Smart https://ezkool.com/2014/12/the-new-smart/ https://ezkool.com/2014/12/the-new-smart/#respond Mon, 29 Dec 2014 01:10:31 +0000 http://ezkool.com/?p=57017 Yes, I know it’s the holiday break and students and teachers across the country are off, but really, this is just the calm before the storm. There are only two more months until the new PARCC tests are administered. Then there’s a 6 to 8 week break. Then more PARCC tests will be administered. These […]

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]]> https://ezkool.com/2014/12/the-new-smart/feed/ 0 57017 10 Year Old Embarrasses Politician on Live Television – Video https://ezkool.com/2014/12/10-year-old-embarrasses-politician-on-live-television-video/ https://ezkool.com/2014/12/10-year-old-embarrasses-politician-on-live-television-video/#respond Fri, 12 Dec 2014 13:51:34 +0000 http://ezkool.com/?p=56625 It happened in London, but the same thing can easily happen here, where our government has been infiltrated by Teapartiers and backward Republicans. The 10 year old decided to pose a math question to the Minister of Education, Nicky Morgan. But Morgan, equipped with her education position in the government, was no match for Leon’s […]

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]]> https://ezkool.com/2014/12/10-year-old-embarrasses-politician-on-live-television-video/feed/ 0 56625 Thirty Years an Educator https://ezkool.com/2014/11/thirty-years-educator/ https://ezkool.com/2014/11/thirty-years-educator/#respond Mon, 24 Nov 2014 11:20:51 +0000 http://ezkool.com/?p=56288 Thirty years ago today, I walked into York Preparatory School on New York’s Upper East Side for my first day as a high school history teacher. I had no formal training as a teacher except for my degree in History from Syracuse University. I had been working in advertising for a Madison Avenue firm that […]

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]]> https://ezkool.com/2014/11/thirty-years-educator/feed/ 0 56288