Monthly Archives: September 2012

“Poverty Should Not Matter. Ever.”

Posted on September 26, 2012 by garyrubinstein

I saw, today, a post on Pass The Chalk by 2010 NYC TFAer Jarell Lee called ‘Poverty Should Not Matter.  Ever’.  Jarell is living proof that ‘poverty is not destiny’ as he grew up very poor, yet went on to … Continue reading →

Posted in Teach For America | 11 Comments

New Orleans: Joke Of The Day

Posted on September 25, 2012 by garyrubinstein

I almost feel bad for these guys.  My sense is that they so want to believe that their reforms are working that they view every score release through this lens and they don’t even realize how pathetic they are. In … Continue reading →

Posted in Research | 8 Comments

Grasping at Straws in New Orleans

Posted on September 20, 2012 by garyrubinstein

New Orleans was the home of a very important battle in The War of 1812.  Exactly two hundred years later, 2012, New Orleans is again the focus of another type of battle, one of how to best help our schools. … Continue reading →

Posted in Research | 7 Comments

Pass The Chalk Roundup #4 I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship

Posted on September 17, 2012 by garyrubinstein

The Chicago teacher strike is a huge moment in this modern education reform battle.  In recent years, particularly, teachers around the nation have been slandered, beaten down, displaced when their schools got shut down to make more space for charters, … Continue reading →

Posted in Teach For America | 7 Comments

Analyzing Released NYC Value-Added Data Part 6

Posted on September 15, 2012 by garyrubinstein

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Less technical post about VAM:  What ‘value-added’ is and is not As if there weren’t enough already, I found yet another few flaws in ‘value-added,’ flaws which, I … Continue reading →

Posted in Research | 18 Comments

What ‘value-added’ is and is not

Posted on September 13, 2012 by garyrubinstein

Because of the Chicago teacher strike, more people than ever in this country are beginning to learn about some of the big issues in education reform.  The most important, in my estimation, is also, unfortunately, the trickiest to understand — … Continue reading →

Posted in Teach For America | 29 Comments

I am not a bully

Posted on September 10, 2012 by garyrubinstein

Let’s face it.  Teachforus.org is not the most happening place.  With 40,000 potential bloggers, all this site gets is an average of four or five posts a day.  I write most of the posts on this site and I get … Continue reading →

Posted in Teach For America | 30 Comments

Strike One

Posted on September 10, 2012 by garyrubinstein

From what I’m hearing, the Chicago Teachers will begin a strike tomorrow.  For those who haven’t been following the story, it starts a few years ago when Stand For Children ‘tricked’ the union into signing a contract that would make … Continue reading →

Posted in Teach For America | 4 Comments

My Review of ‘Won’t Back Down’ (spoiler alert)

Posted on September 7, 2012 by garyrubinstein

As the lights dimmed and the opening credits rolled during my preview of ‘Won’t Back Down,’ I got a little nervous.  Based on some of the commercials I had seen, I thought there was a chance that it was going … Continue reading →

Posted in Teach For America | 47 Comments

TFA-fication: Pass The Chalk roundup #3

Posted on September 4, 2012 by garyrubinstein

There’s a slang term called ‘Disneyfication’ which describes when something has been ‘cleaned up’ to make it happier than it’s true nature.  The Disney version of the sometimes gruesome Grimm fairy tales in addition to their revisionist history of Pocahontas … Continue reading →

Posted in Teach For America | 1 Comment