Education Flashpoints: Fighting for America’s Schools

Contents Preface: Resistance without Jargon About the Author Acknowledgments Introduction: Reclaiming the Conversation on Education Chapter 1. What Shall We Do With The Children? A. What's Good for the Mayor's Kids Is Good Enough for Ours B. These Kids Don't Have a Shot C. Being Gifted Means You Get All the Gifts D. Why Have "Specialized" High Schools? E. Hempstead Freedom Walkers Challenge Long Island Segregation F. Pablo's Kids March on Washington G. People With Guns Kill People and Children H. The School-to-Prison Pipeline Chapter 2. Defending Teachers A. Why Tenure for Teachers Is Important B. Tomahawks and Teachers C. Teach for America -- It's All About "Me"! D. Measure for Mis-Measure with Teacher Assessments E. Testing Teachers by Testing Kids Is an Awful Idea F. Fire Half of the Teachers! G. Who is Charlotte Danielson and Why Does She Decide How Teachers are Evaluated? Chapter 3. Teacher Education A. Are Schools of Education Why Children Don't Learn? B. We Need to Make Eye Contact C. Arizonafication of Teacher Education D. Anger in the Heartland over Unfair Teacher Tests E. Problems with Pearson's Student Teacher Evaluation System Chapter 4. Teacher Unions A. Redefining and Rebuilding the Teachers' Unions B. Why I Am Pro-Union and Pro-Teacher C. Chicago Teachers Strike for Us All D. The "People's Budget" Movement Chapter 5. Business, Politics and School Deform A. Matt Damon Can't Save the Schools B. Opposition Grows to School Deform C. Higher Education for the 21st Century D. Hacking Away at the Pearson Octopus E. Pearson 'Education' -- Who Are These People? F. Los Angeles Students Out-Fox Apple, Pearson and School Board Chapter 6. Who Makes Education Policy? A. Pretending to Confront the Global Achievement Gap B. Obama, Duncan and the Public Schools C. Thank You, Arne Duncan D. Race to the Top Mandates Impossible to Implement E. Empty Promises in the Obama Mis-Education Agenda F. What Is a 21st Century Job? G. Guest Essay: Governor Christie's War Against New Jersey Public Employees by Norman Markowitz Chapter 7. Where is the Chart for Charter Schools? A. Charter Schools are the Wrong Answer B. What Happens if the Charter School Companies Win? C. Charter Schools Don't Do Miracles D. Schools Enter Chartered Waters Chapter 8. Common Core - What Is It Good For? A. Common Core, What Is It Good For? B. Can Common Core Turn on the Math and Science? C. The 3rd Grade Science Fair: A Common Core Conundrum D. Common Core: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly E. What's Missing from Common Core is Education for Democracy Chapter 9. High-Stakes Testing A. What do the tests test? B. Do These Tests Have Educational Value? C. Cheating Students Who "Pass" the Test D. The "Wisdom" of Pearson's Pineapple Passage E. Pearson and the Atlanta School Mess F. Did the 'Melk Man' Learn to Cheat at Stuyvesant High School? G. Cheating on the Test -- I May Be Guilty Also! Chapter 10. Curriculum and Instruction A. Don't Know Much About - History, Geography, or Civics B. "Texas Conservatives Seek Deeper Stamp on Texts" C. If Massachusetts was a Country D. Math in the People's Republic of Massachusetts (and in the Country of California) E. Gideon's Math Homework Chapter 11. Reform or Deform? A. What If Our Schools Are Working? B. Do You Want to Buy the Brooklyn Bridge? C. Does the Ghost of George Steinbrenner Run the Schools? D. Bloomberg and Klein Fail E. Guest Essay: Following Finland's Example ... Backwards by Joel Shatzky Chapter 12. Resistance! A. To Students Who Are Fighting Back B. The Cupcake Resistance Movement C. In Seattle Opposition Grows to School Deform D. The Mayor's Powerful New Enemies E. In New Jersey the Children Shall Lead F. Teachers as Crap-Detectors