Holy Cross Prof. Jack Schneider and StudentsFirst Founder Michelle Rhee Host Blog on Education Week

blog for Education Week called “K-12 Schools: Beyond the Rhetoric.” Rhee, a champion of education reform which “seeks quantifiable gains in student achievement,” and Schneider, who refers to himself as a “vocal critic” of this movement, will use the blog as a space for constructive discussion, moving away from debate that often turns into what Schneider calls “a war of words.”

“[T]hough we are uncertain about what the ultimate outcome of this dialogue will be, both of us agree about the importance of finding common ground.  We think that sound bites are fundamentally misleading,” Schneider writes. “We are convinced that the more we shout at each other from our separate corners, the further apart we will grow.  And we believe that beneath the surface of so much disagreement is a point of consensus about the importance of educating the nation's children.”

Schneider and Rhee begin this dialogue with their first topic on April 21, “Debating the Merits of Standardized Testing.” Keep up with the conversation on Education Week.

• May 15: Teacher Preparation: Neither Frivolous Nor Unnecessary
• May 13: Alternate Routes Into Teaching: Promises and Pitfalls
• May 7: Talking About Teachers Unions
• May 5: A Road Map for Future Conversations
• May 2: What Would Better Professional Development Look Like?
• April 30: What's Driving Teachers Out?
• April 28: What Defines Teacher Competency?
• April 25: Do Standardized Tests Measure What We Value?
• April 23: Disagreeing About the Use of Value-Added Measures

 

This “Holy Cross in the New” item by Evangelia Stefanakos ’14.