Ed's (Not) Dead Podcast - The All Things Education Podcast

How do you implement standards based grading within the constraints of the performance / letter-grade system? "Become totally evidentiary..." "Spend...time determining, what is excellent, almost excellent?" "Am I going to separate out behavior, from mastery?"

Show Notes: During today's show, we debrief Betsy DeVos' terribly embarrassing interview on 60 Minutes  during our first segment. What are the impacts of having an education secretary with such little experience and investment in and around public schools? In our second segment , we have  Tara García Mathewson from The Hechinger Report about the lack of physics teachers in schools with high povert...

Show Notes: During today's show, we discuss the Marjory Stoneman Douglas HS shooting  during our first segment. Despite all the noise on this issue, as educators, how do you think we should improve what we do to keep students and staff safe in our schools? We discuss the major points in the case, who is on each side, and the implications for teacher unions moving forward. In our second segment , w...

Show Notes: During today's show, we discuss the following topics  during our first segment : From The Denver Post, we discuss the pros and cons of shortening the school week:  "The four-day week, once a tool of rural districts, is coming to a Denver metro school district." Funding issues are causing school districts across the country to cut days from the school week. Achievement levels seem to st...

Show Notes: During today's show, we discuss the following topics  during our first segment : From EducationNext , we discuss Chester Finn's piece entitled: Emphasis on Thinking Skills over Facts in Schools Contributes to Truth Decay . Are teachers teaching thinking skills devoid of facts? What is the difference between math/science facts and social studies facts? Is there room for interpretation?...

Show Notes: During today's show, we discuss the following topics  during our first segment : From the Washington Post, we discuss the previously lauded Ballou High School where it was just discovered that many students who received a diploma missed an extensive amount of school (so much so that they probably shouldn't have graduated by traditional metrics).  More than 1 of every 10 students receiv...

Show Notes: During today's show, we discuss the following topics  during our first segment : From the New York Times (linked below), the way schools are evaluated may be changing. We discuss how a new study shifts how we look at "underperforming" schools. This study suggests that policy makers and education leaders may be thinking about student outcomes in all the wrong ways! In our second segment...

Show Notes: During today's show, we discuss the following topics during our first segment : From the Washington Post piece on private school enrollment (below), how are private schools contributing to school segregation? To what extent are private schools necessary for a high-functioning education system? In our second segment , we have THE Zaretta Hammond on our show, author of Culturally Respons...

Show Notes: During today's show, we discuss the following topics during our first segment: Clandestine meeting between Randi Weingarten (President of TFA) and Steve Bannon, former top advisor to President Trump. Reed College, a private liberal arts school in Oregon, is experiencing ongoing and persistent student protests over a required humanities course : "Lectures for one of Reed College's signa...

Show Notes: During today's show, we discuss what some Kansas education policy makers are planning on doing with their public schools (hint: it's probably not a good idea). From the Lawrence Journal-World, we discuss the idea of no longer adhering to age-level grading, the impacts it may have, and why it actually might be a decent idea (to some degree). In our second segment, we have a very special...

Show Notes: During today's show, we discuss how Florida is in the process of "resegregating" their schools and what that means for closing the opportunity gaps across the nation. Using Moriah Balingit's article from the Washington Post (linked here) we discuss why it is happening, and what we should be thinking about in regard to its impact across the country. Then, we have the absolute pleasure i...

During this episode of Ed's (Not) Dead, we welcome Dr. T.J. Vari and Dr. Joseph Jones on the show. Dr. Vari and Dr. Jones cofounded TheSchoolHouse302 blog, which is a leadership development institute startup firm. Both Joe and T.J. are well-versed in topics of school leadership and we are so glad to have them on the show for episode 5. Today, we discuss TJ's and Joe's framework on hiring and retai...

During today's episode, the Ed's (Not) Dead hosts talk about teacher autonomy and what are and what to do about failing schools. Episode 4 ends with an incredibly mundane discussion about Betsy Devos's "uplifting" speech to...children. Our driving questions: * How much autonomy should teachers have between their instruction and their classroom routines? * What defines a failing school and what sho...

In Episode 3 we are Back to School! Back to School also means that it's time for principals to start the all important job of instructional leadership: providing teachers with support and feedback for improvement. But why does it happen that when some teachers struggle, they are not evaluated accurately? We examine a recent article by esteemed education writer, Jay Matthews of the Washington Post...

During this episode, we will be talking about vouchers, algebra requirements, and Betsy Devos' love of bears. Vouchers have become an incredible dicey topic within education circles, and indeed are the "new, new thing" especially with our current department of education secretary at the helm. We will be talking about why this might not be the best way for our students and their education. In Calif...

It's summertime and for principals that means staffing and for teachers, it's time to switch schools, take on a new challenge in a new position, or find that first teaching position. During this episode, we're going to discuss how to hire the best teachers which is an inexact science but crucial to school improvement. Also, we're going to dive into Rahm Emmanuel's new and controversial educational...