In the simplest terms, a “stakeholder” is one who is invested in that which is at risk. In the world of education, it refers to the people who stand to benefit from the success of our education system. That seems like a really broad statement, so I set out to try to find out when […]
In the 1980s, The Washington Post’s director of polling, Richard Morin, coined the term, “dog-whistle politics” He was making reference to a tactic used in polling in which the language of polling questions was developed in a manner that causes the respondent to understand the question to mean something entirely different than it actually means. […]
Anyone who has a child on the autism spectrum, particularly on the lower end formerly known as Asperger’s Syndrome, understands what I mean when I say these children have quirks and obsessions. My son wasn’t diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome until mid-way into the fifth grade, but in retrospect, he navigated through a number of obsessions, […]
So, I recently experienced one of the most chaotic and stressful events to ever take place in all of my years of teaching. The school in which I teach went into full-on lockdown, under crisis. Now, I’ve experienced lockdowns before, but never at this level of intensity, lengthiness and police presence. As you can imagine, […]
It is safe to say that the general public is unaware of the nuances of the budget battle taking place at the State Capitol, this week. On one side, the business lobby is applying pressure to its Republican legislators to maintain the State’s tax policies that benefit business and industry by providing exemptions for virtually […]
Each year, in response to questions from parents, I try to post an article that will provide parents with the information they need to make an informed decision about state assessments. Rather than just pointing to the first article I wrote three years ago, it is necessary to write a new one each year because […]
After taking about 8 weeks to rule on a lawsuit filed by citizens of Louisiana, Judge Todd Hernandez of the 19th Judicial District in Baton Rouge, ruled that ordinary citizens do not have the right to challenge John White’s right to remain in the position of Superintendent of Education. This is the second lawsuit dismissed […]
Whether you are a parent or a teacher, no doubt, you are familiar with the phrase “Every Child Can Learn.” It is a powerful statement made mostly by supporters of the education reform movement, and it is designed to shift the burden of student success away from the student and places it square on the […]
What do you think of when you hear the words “children living in poverty?” If you close your eyes, what would you imagine a room full of “children living in poverty” would look like? It turns out that in education, the faces of children living in poverty cover a very broad spectrum. Since the birth […]
I’m going to go out on a limb and say that if you don’t know who Deyshia Hargrave is, you might be living under a rock. On Monday, January 8th, Hargrave was in attendance at a Vermilion Parish School Board meeting in Abbeville, LA when she was removed from the meeting and arrested for questioning […]
