There is some interesting news out of the UAE this week; the teacher licensing exams in Dubai have been piloted and are ready for large scale testing of teachers in the country. There are a huge number of issues related to this that cannot possibly be covered in one post. There are measurement issues…
Experiment: Explain the rightness/wrongness that we all live with. Something weird that results from moving overseas is the realization that one’s home country is right about a lot of things. But also, how much is right about the new country. And, how they’re both totally wrong about some things too. For example, something curious happened between the…
Experiment: Write a blog post instead of a message on Facebook that no one will ever read. I follow the World Economic Forum on Facebook. They frequently post about education but only rarely do I agree with their analyses. Sometimes, I post angry responses, but that feels a bit like spitting into the wind. But…
Experiment: Figuring out why the statistics don’t seem to tell the whole story. Here are two charts of the same question showing the responses according to political party affiliation. These come from the PDK/Gallup Survey of Education. I’ll admit some confirmation bias that I expected the results to be bad, but I did not guess the difference in responses…
Experiment: Synthesize a few different pieces of literature In current systems of accountability and appraisal, teachers are usually the focus. We ensure that standards are clear for teachers, that curriculum is aligned, and that expectations are high. These accountability measures come from state agencies or legislation which assume a sort of “inputs” and “outputs” model.…
Experiment: Writing about something I don’t believe. . . oh, this is too hard! The case for the privatization of schools is an incredibly complex topic. I’ll summarize these main points: The purpose of government and the protection of freedom Education should be local, truly democratic and imposed by federal government The purpose of education…
Emily Winchip 