Press Room: Opinions
Displaying articles 30 to 40 of 58.
Tying Teacher Tenure to Student Scores Doesn't Fly
"When a student fails to flourish, it is rarely the result of one party. Rather, it tends to be a confluence of confounding factors, often involving parents, teachers, administrators, politicians, neighborhoods, and even the student himself," writes Justin Snider, teaches undergraduate writing at Columbia University and is a research fellow at the Hechinger Institute on Education and the Media, at Teachers College.
Published: 2/15/2010TC Faculty Question Education Secretary's Vision
Writing in Education Week, a group of the College's faculty members query Arne Duncan on some of the ideas he laid out in his address to the TC community.
Published: 1/11/2010-
Anna Neumann: Life with Tenure: Not What You Think
In an opinion piece in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Anna Neumann, Professor of Higher Education and the coordinator of the program in higher and postsecondary education, writes that institutions should help professors pursue their research passions. Neumann is the author of "Professing to Learn: Creating Tenured Lives and Careers in the American Research University" (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009).
Published: 1/10/2010 -
TC's Hatch Targets Flawed Assumptions in School Reform
TC faculty member Thomas Hatch argues in Education Week that many of the new school reform initiatives being promoted by the U.S. Department of Education rest on old and flawed assumptions of past efforts.
Published: 12/7/2009 -
The Promise and Perils of Charter Schools
Calling a new study grounds for enthusiasm about charter schools, TC Trustee John Merrow nevertheless cautions "buyer beware"
Published: 12/2/2009 -
"Standards Aren't Enough," President Fuhrman Writes in EdWeek
Commentary in Education Week co-authored by TC President Susan Fuhrman says draft national standards are only the first step in improving education. "Curricula, tests, textbooks, lesson plans, and teachers' on-the-job training will all have to be revised to reinforce the standards," the authors write.
Published: 10/8/2009 OPINION: Standards can't make separate equal
Yesterday an advocate of high academic standards and school accountability was sworn in as New York State commissioner of education. David Steiner seems convinced the best way to close the yawning achievement gaps across different racial and ethnic groups is to raise the bar via mandated standards that dictate what concepts are taught and tested in schools, while creating negative consequences for educators when students fail.
Published: 10/2/2009-
Media Literacy and the Fog of War
In a commentary in Education Week, Professors Margaret Crocco and William Gaudelli contrast coverage of the Vietnam War with current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan and argue that changes in the news media and other factors have put "recent wars in a more ambiguous cultural and psychological space for Americans." They call for teaching students to "read between the lines--to become media critics who understand who controls and shapes the information and images we see."
Published: 8/26/2009 -
A Question of Degrees
Professor Margaret Crocco takes on the issue of whether teachers need education degrees in an opinion column on the New York Times Web site in which she argues that "all teachers should have master's degrees that both deepen their content knowledge and help them learn how to shape content into subject matter for effective engagement in K-12 classrooms."
Published: 8/17/2009 -
Thinking Globally About Mental Health
In a commentary in TC Today, Assistant Professor Helen Verdeli argues that to "confront the mental health challenges of the twenty-first century, our field must adapt its methods to local settings and resources."
Published: 8/13/2009 -
How Accurate are Sites that Rank Public Schools?
In a column titled "Data Are Good; More Data May Not Be Better," published in Gothamschools.org, TC Professor Aaron Pallas takes a close look at schooldigger.com, a Web site that ranks public schools from best to worst based on a variety of data.
Published: 7/28/2009
