Week #3

Topics

• Education reform: Waiting for Superman wrap up
• Some links in response to Waiting for Superman:
  • Strauss, Valerie. "What 'Superman' Got Wrong, Point by Point," The Washington Post, September 27, 2010.
  • Ravitch, Diane. "The Myth of Charter Schools." The New York Review of Books, November 11, 2010.
  • Rhoten, Diane. "We Are Not Waiting for Superman. We Are Empowering Superheroes." Startl.org. September 24, 2010.

Activities

• How does reform address (or fail to address) the problems in education?
• Learning Environments Jigsaw (PDF)
• What are the major problems in education? Brainstorming
• Result of brainstorm: list of major problems (PDF)

Readings

• "No Child Left Behind," Education Week, August 4, 2011.
• Jennings, Jack, and Diane Stark Rentner. "Ten Big Effects of the No Child Left Behind Act on Public Schools." Center on Education Policy, November 1, 2006.
• No Child Left Behind: Elementary and Secondary Education Act
• Weiss, Joanne. "Education's 'Race to the Top' Begins," Education Week, September 13, 2010.
• Robelen, Erik W. "Race to Top Winner Embed STEM Projects in Plans," Education Week, September 9, 2010.
• Race to the Top Official Site
• Elmore, Richard. School Reform from the Inside Out: Policy, Practice, and Performance. Harvard Education Pub Group, 2004. ISBN: 9781891792502.
• Cuban, Larry. Frogs into Princes: Writings on School Reform. Economic Policy Institute and Teachers College, 2008. ISBN: 9780807748596.