Chris Osmond

Cuban on pay for performance

I have a new post in the works, but in the meantime I am encouraged to find Larry Cuban thinking through some of the same important stuff I did last month (albeit a lot more thoroughly). Check him out!

Nicholas Kristof has a posse

I am horrified by the Wisconsin legislature’s end-run on teachers’ collective bargaining rights last week, but thrilled by the national conversation on teacher quality and compensation that it’s triggered. Today we see heavyweight Nicholas Kristof weighing in with a great summary of the issue and the stakes, and I am right with him through most ofContinue reading “Nicholas Kristof has a posse”

Okay, computer.

The world does not need another fanboy post about Radiohead. I get it. But my recent experience with 1997’s OK Computer has me thinking about some pretty trenchant education topics, so here I go. (Plus, many of my students were six years old – six! – when it dropped, so I wonderContinue reading “Okay, computer.”

A Tale of Three Divas

My head’s buzzing after last night’s Grammys. To wit: 1 – I do not dig The Arcade Fire. I respect them, I get them, and I am thrilled to see Merge Records get this big boost, but the band itself leaves me cold. The thing is, they seem so serious about NOT leaving me cold. TheirContinue reading “A Tale of Three Divas”

Gunning Down the Dream

My students and I had such interesting talks yesterday about Nathan Heller’s meditation on the career of Natalie Portman, especially as it’s illuminated by Ray McDermott and Herve Varenne’s monster 1995 essay “Culture as Disabiity.” Why are we (or at least Heller) uncomfortable with Portman’s maintenance of so many identities, so many role positions? IsContinue reading “Gunning Down the Dream”

Privatization, Teach For America, and “Common Sense”

Thanks to Rob Helfenbein at IUPUI for sharing this via Facebook. http://seattleducation2010.wordpress.com/2011/02/04/why-i-am-not-a-defender-of-the-status-quo-in-education-because-the-status-quo-is-failed-ed-reforms/ I am grateful for the bright line it draws between competition and privatization, which so many students don’t see initially. And why would they? We are easily dazzled by the idea that “competition encourages innovation” when it is divorced from its free-market roots.Continue reading “Privatization, Teach For America, and “Common Sense””

audit culture in Charlotte-Meck

Check out this broadcast of WFAE’s “Charlotte Talks,” which discusses upcoming funding challenges in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools but along the way gives some insight into the “audit culture” as it looks in school right now. I only heard the first 15 min live but imagine the rest of the hour is also time well-spent. http://wfae.org/wfae/19_100_0.cfm?id=6878&action=display What mostContinue reading “audit culture in Charlotte-Meck”