Originally posted on Diane Ravitch's blog: Linda Darling-Hammond of Stanford University offers common-sense ideas about closing the achievement gap. She says that testing is less important than teaching. No surprise there. She reviews an OECD study about teachers. What it shows is that teachers in the U.S. work longer hours under more difficult conditions than… Read more

Originally posted on Crazy Normal – the Classroom Exposé: In a recent online discussion, it was argued by one voice that the public schools have failed, because they don’t teach independent thinking. However, I disagreed. Evidence that the public schools work well—just not the way the one percent wants—comes from several surveys where the opinions… Read more

Originally posted on Diane Ravitch's blog: On June 7, Lyndsey Layton of the Washington Post wrote a blockbuster article about how Bill Gates pulled off the Common Core coup, which the headline calls “the swift Common Core revolution.” In a short period of time, less time than it takes a state to write standards in… Read more