Author Archives: garyrubinstein

I recently listened to two illuminating podcasts about Success Academy.  Hosted by Education Post CEO Chris Stewart on the Citizen Ed podcast, the first interview was with Robert Pondiscio, author of ‘How The Other Half Learns’ and the second was … Continue reading →

For the past thirty summers, Teach For America has trained their new recruits in a five-week crash course known as ‘the institute.’  The first institute trained 500 corps members in Los Angeles.  As TFA grew, more institutes were added and … Continue reading →

But is that a lot? The New York Post seems to think so.  Three times in a recent article they suggest that this is 100% of the seniors.  The title “Entire Success Academy senior class accepted to college” certainly implies … Continue reading →

The Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) charter network is renowned as the ‘gold star’ of charter schools in the country.  With over 200 schools throughout the country and over 100,000 students, KIPP is the kind of network that reformers are … Continue reading →

A big topic among teacher bashing reformers, nowadays, is how easy teachers have it as they attempt to work remotely.  In my last post I wrote about how some prominent reformers found no shame in kicking teachers while they were … Continue reading →

Teaching during a pandemic is challenging. And some teachers are facing more hardships than others.  There are teachers who have been infected with Covid-19.  There are teachers who have family members who have been infected and are currently fighting for … Continue reading →

As an ashamed TFA alum, I receive their quarterly alumni magazine, ‘One Day.’  In the most recent issue, which I also saw on their Twitter feed, was an article called ‘Undefeated: Inside Five Baltimore Turnaround Schools that Refuse to Fail.’ … Continue reading →

I’ve often thought, over these past eight years of following the politics of education, that one day this saga will make a great book.  What I didn’t expect was that that one day would be today. In ‘Slaying Goliath: The … Continue reading →

Since 2011 I have been following the biggest, and most predictable, disaster of the education reform movement — the Tennessee Achievement School District (ASD).  It was formed in a perfect storm of reform theory.  First, Tennessee won Race To The … Continue reading →

Education Reform propaganda at The74 would try to make you believe that while low income students generally graduate from college at a rate of about 9%, charter school graduates complete college at a rate of 3 to 5 times that. … Continue reading →