Kozol has a new book out, Fire in the Ashes: Twenty-Five Years Among the Poorest Children in America. He starts his book tour in late August. Learn more.
Rethinking Schools in the media
An interview with curriculum editor Bill Bigelow on KBOO Community Radio's Old Mole Variety Hour.
August 29, 2011
Rethinking Schools editor and 30-year Milwaukee teacher Bob Peterson was quoted extensively in this story about Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's plans to expand the private school voucher program.
In this Milwaukee Journal Sentinel opinion column Barbara Miner, a frequent contributor to Rethinking Schools magazine, urges legislators to "just say no" to Wisconsin Governor Walker's proposal to expand the private school voucher program statewide.
Editor Bob Peterson talks with Bill Resnick on Portland, Oregon's KBOO radio about the Wisconsin worker protests and what's at stake for unions and workers across the country.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Rethinking Schools Editor Stan Karp was interviewed on Portland, Oregon's KBOO radio on December 6, 2010. Listen to the interview, as he talks with the "Old Mole's" Bill Resnick about the limitations and problems of charter schools:
Rethinking Schools founder and editor Bob Peterson was interviewed on The Takeaway program (a co-production of WNYC Radio and Public Radio International, in collaboration with The BBC World Service, New York Times Radio and WGBH Boston) October 11, 2010 about where efforts to broaden the discussion of Columbus' role in history stand in 2010. The interview is available for listening here:
http://www.thetakeaway.org/2010/oct/11/educators-amend-columbus-day-lessons-schools/
A version of Kelly McMahon's Rethinking Schools article, "Testing Kindergarten: Young Children Produce Data -- Lots of Data," (Winter 2009-2010) was published September 2 by the Progressive Media Project. The Progressive magazine editor Matt Rothschild told us it was their most popular article for a time, with over 3,000 hits in a 24 hour period.
http://www.progressive.org/mpmcmahon090210.html
Rethinking Schools founder and editor Bob Peterson is featured in the new book Fire in the Heart: How White Activists Embrace Racial Justice by Mark R. Warren, published by Oxford University Press. See Chapter 6.
http://mark-warren.com/fireintheheart/?page_id=51
Rethinking Schools founder and editor Bob Peterson is quoted in an In These Times article by Roger Bybee, who urges advocates of egalitarian public education to "frame the issue in a way that puts educational achievement — or the lack thereof — in its proper context."
http://inthesetimes.com/article/6326/its_the_poverty_stupid
With school systems under pressure to cut costs, library services are endangered all across the country. Some communities have mustered an array of grassroots and web-based tools to save their schools' libraries. In the August 1, 2010, article "Everyday Advocacy: Making a Case for Libraries Is Easy with Web Tools. Here’s How to Get Started," School Library Journal uses the experience of RS editor Bob Peterson's students in organizing to save their school's library as an example.
The progressive news website CommonDreams recently posted the editorial from the summer issue of Rethinking Schools, "What's Up with All the Teacher Bashing?" CommonDreams has over 200,000 subscribers, and by July 7 the article had already generated almost 100 written comments at the site.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/07/06-7
CommonDreams.org has just selected Bob Peterson's Summer 2010 Rethinking Schools article, "A Librarian in Every School, Books in Every Home: A Modest Proposal" as a featured viewpoint at its website.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/06/26-3
The Nation magazine reports that, contrary to previous news stories, the three U.S. hikers seized by Iran in July 2009 were not in Iranian territory, but in Iraq when captured. One of the hikers, Sarah Shourd, had been working on an article for Rethinking Schools on her work teaching Iraqi refugees in Damascus, Syria.
http://www.thenation.com/article/36562/us-hikers-were-seized-iraq
For ways to support Sarah Shourd, Shane Bauer, and Josh Fattal:
http://freethehikers.org/
Rethinking Schools writer Renee Watson ["Five Years After the Levee Broke -- Bearing Witness Through Poetry," Summer 2010] was a student of Linda Christensen's at Portland's Jefferson High School. Watson has two books coming out this year, and thanks Christensen: "I owe a lot to Linda Christensen. She's a jewel."
http://www.oregonlive.com/books/index.ssf/2010/06/former_portlander_renee_watson.html
A story on Free Speech Radio about high school dropout rates in Philadelphia includes commentary by Rethinking Schools editor Wayne Au on the impact of high stakes testing.
http://mattpetrillo.com/2010/06/19/drop-out-rates-stay-high-in-americas-urban-high-schools/
The Zinn Education Project, a collaboration of Rethinking Schools and Teaching for Change, just gave away 500 copies of Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States to 20 teachers around the country who had sent in stories of how they teach a more honest, multicultural, and critical history to their students. (Eighty teachers had submitted stories.) For example, see this news story that ran in a Camarillo, Calif. newspaper about one of the recipients, Angelica Chavez:
http://www.thecamarilloacorn.com/news/2010-06-18/Schools/Giving_context_to_history_textbooks.html
Other reports on the activities and impact of the Zinn Education Project are posted at: http://www.zinnedproject.org/news. See "Teaching Outside the Textbook Across the Country."
On June 6, The Sunday Oregonian, Oregon's largest daily newspaper, published a version of Bill Bigelow's Summer 2010 Rethinking Schools article, "Those Awful Texas Social Studies Standards -- And What About Yours?"
www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2010/06/rewriting_social_studies_bash.html
Listen to Stan Karp’s interview on federal education policy as part of a The National Radio Project’s coverage of education issues:
http://www.radioproject.org/2010/05/how-we-survive-the-crisis-in-k-12-education/
Listen to Barbara Miner talk about her article on Teacher for America that appeared in the Spring 2010 issue of Rethinking Schools. She appeared on FAIR’s weekly radio program, CounterSpin.
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=4064
Rethinking Schools editor and board member Larry Miller was elected to the School Board of Milwaukee Public Schools in April of 2009. He taught in Milwaukee Public Schools for over 18 years at Custer High School, Metropolitan High School and W.E.B. Du Bois High School. His two sons are graduates of Milwaukee Public Schools.
http://MillerMPS.Wordpress.com/
On Sept. 24, a new film, "Waiting for Superman," will draw media attention to public education across the country. Unfortunately, most of it will be negative. So we've started a project to talk back to the film and the message it promotes. We hope you will join us at NOTwaitingforsuperman.org.
The message of the film is that public schools are failing because of bad teachers and their unions. The film's "solution," to the minimal extent it suggests one, is to replace them with "great" charter schools and teachers who have less power over their schools and classrooms.
This message is not just wrong. In the current political climate, it's toxic.
http://www.teachersforjustice.org/2010/06/core-wins-leadership-of-chicago.html
http://www.chicagotribune.com/topic/hc-ubinas-blog-schoolreform0616-20100616,0,2853648.column
Rethinking Schools editor Bob Peterson gives us a quick round-up of recent events in the media.
http://rethinkingschools.org/opt-in/100803.shtml
The lead segment on "Democracy Now" for July 30, 2010 was about the Race to the Top; it took off from Obama's major RttT defense at the National Urban League's 100th anniversary convention, and included interviews with Diane Ravitch and Leonie Haimson, from Class Size Matters.
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/7/30/obama_defends_sweeping_education_reforms_in
A good July 4 essay on current education policy
http://www.openleft.com/diary/19339/left-ed-burning-down-the-house
http://dferwatch.wordpress.com/
http://www.schoolsmatter.info/search/label/KIPP%20research
http://www.fairtest.org/better-way-assess-students-and-evaluate-schools