“Empowerment” Against Democracy: Tinseltown and the Teachers’ Unions
“You know those mothers who lift one-ton trucks off their babies?” says Jamie Fitzpatrick, a working-class mom (played Maggie Gyllenhall), in a confrontation with a corrupt union rep in Daniel Barnz’s edu-drama, Won’t Back Down. “They’re nothing compared to me.” … {…}
Chicago Teachers on Strike
Update (9/10): read Bill Barclay’s background on the strike here. Update (9/12): watch Dissent contributor and editorial board member Joanne Barkan discuss the strike on Al Jazeera English. After unsuccessful negotiations between Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Teachers Union, … {…}
Hired Guns on Astroturf: How to Buy and Sell School Reform
For Barkan’s other writing on the self-proclaimed “education reform movement,” click here, here, and here. If you want to change government policy, change the politicians who make it. The implications of this truism have now taken hold in the market-modeled … {…}
Calling the Shots in Public Education: Parents, Politicians, and Educators Clash
The gap between calls for parental engagement in education and institutional realities is wide. Educators say they value parent participation, but by that they often mean a junior partner role in which parents monitor homework, make sure kids get to … {…}
Criminalizing Kids: The Overlooked Reason for Failing Schools
The nation’s dropout rate reached crisis levels in 2009, and test scores posted by its poorest public schools were also grim. Only 70 percent of first-year students entering America’s high schools were graduating, with a full 1.2 million students dropping … {…}
Eyes on the Curriculum: How One Charter School Resisted Test-Driven Pressures
Who would believe that Albert Shanker, the late, controversial president of the American Federation of Teachers, was one of the original backers of the charter school concept, publicizing the name and idea in his weekly “Where We Stand” column of … {…}
Web Letter: Taking Sides on Education Reform? An Exchange Between Joanne Barkan and Claire Robertson-Kraft
Web Letter: Taking Sides on Education Reform? An Exchange Between Joanne Barkan and Claire Robertson {…}
Four Myths About Teachers
It’s been a tough year to be a teacher, especially a unionized one. Popular opinion holds that unions protect bad teachers at the cost of poor kids’ education. If only we teachers would stop being lazy and complacent, American students … {…}
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Unfair Hike: Brazilians Protest Rising Public Transit Costs· June 18, 2013 ·
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Partial Readings: Whistleblowers and Job Security· June 17, 2013 ·
