Category Archives: AlterNet
AlterNet: Now That the SAT’s Writing Section is Gone, It’s Time to Rethink How We Teach Composition
AlterNet 2013
While I am often critical of mainstream media’s contributions to the education reform debate, I want to pause at the end of 2013 and point you to my pieces posted at AlterNet, in part to ask that you visit AlterNet often and acknowledge the wonderful work done their in terms of education.
I hope as well you have found or will find my work there has contributed positively to the cause:
Why Charter Schools Are Foolish Investments for States Facing Economic Challenges
Posted on: Dec 18, 2013, Source: The State
South Carolina’s children deserve data-based and lean school reform policy, and not advocacy-based experiments.
Learning and Teaching in Scarcity: How High-Stakes ‘Accountability’ Cultivates Failure
Posted on: Nov 8, 2013, Source: AlterNet
In-school-only reforms will never be the solution for children in high-poverty schools.
The Central Issue at the Heart of America’s Growing Education Gap
Posted on: Oct 3, 2013, Source: AlterNet
It’s time for some new thinking about how to address the persistent inequalities that plague our education system.
Posted on: Sep 17, 2013, Source: AlterNet
Forget low test scores, says one of the nation’s foremost education experts in her new book. The privatizers are the real threat to America’s schools.
Whatever Happened to Scientifically Based Research in Education Policy?
Posted on: Sep 12, 2013, Source: AlterNet
No Child Left Behind calls for scientifically based research. But what if that research calls for repealing No Child Left Behind?
The Similarities Between the Charter School Movement and the War on Drugs
Posted on: May 20, 2013, Source: TruthOut.org
How both are creating an underclass, significantly among African American males.
The Rise of the Dogmatic Scholar
Posted on: Apr 4, 2013, Source: AlterNet
Free market think-tanks pay off scholars who are now increasingly found in universities.
Corporations Are Behind The Common Core State Standards — And That’s Why They’ll Never Work
Posted on: Mar 18, 2013, Source: AlterNet
Why do we keep enforcing more and more standards and testing that educators don’t trust?
Why Sending Your Child to a Charter School Hurts Other Children
Posted on: Mar 6, 2013, Source: AlterNet
Parents should fight for quality education for all, not just their own kids.
Schools Can’t Do It Alone: Why ‘Doubly Disadvantaged’ Kids Continue to Struggle Academically
Posted on: Jan 30, 2013, Source: AlterNet
A report on childhood poverty proves once again that no single measure can cure poverty’s ills.
BOOK REVIEW: “Reign of Error”: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America’s Public Schools | Alternet
Whatever Happened to Scientifically Based Research in Education Policy? | Alternet
Corporations Are Behind The Common Core State Standards — And That’s Why They’ll Never Work | Alternet
U.S. public education has a long relationship with pursuing high standards for students, teachers, and schools, reaching back to the Committee of Ten in the 1890s proposing a uniform curriculum for college-bound students. Advocates of child-centered education, such as psychologist G. Stanley Hall (1844-1924) challenged establishing standards and core courses (such as English and math); however, eventually the business model of efficiency based on standardized goals and test-based accountability won the debate. American schools were destined for decades of policies designed to raise standards and increase test scores.
dr. p.l. (paul) thomas 