Julia Steiny
This user hasn't shared any biographical information
Homepage: http://juliasteiny.wordpress.com
Rhode Island, Raise Your Rock-Bottom Expectations
Posted in Uncategorized on March 7, 2013
Published by EducationNews.org — Rhode Island sets ambitious academic goals, then dismantles them. Suddenly, in the wake of the state’s testing results, the Rhode Island General Assembly has whipped up legislation designed to quash any thought of the state having meaningful diplomas. How like them. Companion bills — H-5277 and S-177 — would eliminate the […]
Students Can Take More Responsibility for Success on State Tests
Posted in Uncategorized on February 28, 2013
Published by EducationNews.org — Test scores go up when the results make a difference to the kids. Otherwise many won’t takes tests seriously. Until the year 2000 I adamantly opposed “high-stakes” state testing, where failure would cost a kid a diploma. Why penalize kids for what the schools failed to do? But that year, in […]
The Diverse Schools Dilemma
Posted in Uncategorized on February 21, 2013
Published by EducationNews.org Michael Petrilli’s second son wasn’t even born when he was deep into researching where to send his boys to school. But you know how the zealotry of parenthood can change a man. He tells his personal story, peppered with much research, in a short, engaging new book The Diverse Schools Dilemma – A Parent’s […]
The Man Who Made Algebra Child’s Play
Posted in Uncategorized on February 14, 2013
Published by EducationNews.org — Dr. Henry Borenson wants kids not just to know algebra, but to like it. Dr. Henry Borenson began his career as a math teacher at Stuyvesant High School in New York City. Like Boston Latin, Stuyvesant uses an exam to cream the best public-school students. For those smartie pantses, algebra was […]
5th Graders Having a Blast with Algebra
Posted in Uncategorized on February 7, 2013
Published by EducationNews.org – Making algebraic variables child’s play I was forewarned, but still, it was a lovely surprise to spend a solid hour with a class of students constantly popping off with “I got it!” And “Ooooohhhhh!” And “I see!” These yelps of satisfaction sound just like the ones you hear from boys playing video […]
Time to Change Rhode Island’s Pink-Slip Policy
Posted in Uncategorized on January 31, 2013
Published by EducationNews.org — Rhode Island Legislators, Stop Ruining Four Months of School Last year on March 1, the City of Woonsocket, RI, laid off all its public school teachers, spreading considerable misery around town. The year before that, also on March 1, Providence pink-slipped each of their nearly 2,000 teachers. And, as is usually the case with […]
Michelle Rhee Throws Gas On Ed Reform Hostilities
Posted in Uncategorized on January 24, 2013
Published by EducationNews.org The ever-controversial Michelle Rhee and her organization Students First have issued a State Policy Report Card, grading states’ reform policies. Almost all the states got either a “D” or an “F.” Dummies. As the Chancellor of the D.C. schools, Rhee posed for the 2008 cover of Time Magazine looking witchy with a broom, symbolizing her efforts to […]
Equity or Excellence in Vocational Education
Posted in Uncategorized on January 17, 2013
Published by EducationNews.org — Open enrollment or selective admissions; equity or excellence? I first visited William M. Davies Career & Technical Center almost 20 years ago, for a story about workforce development. But the real story, back then — revealed only off-the-record — was that the school leaders were freaking out over the state’s mandate that the […]
Overcoming the Tyranny of the High School Schedule
Posted in Uncategorized on January 10, 2013
Published by EducationNews.org Students are milling around the small fleet of vehicles in the parking lot of Blackstone Valley Regional Vocational Technical School (BVTS). Lacking professional uniforms, they clearly weren’t the dental assistants expected to go out to speak to middle-schoolers about oral hygiene. If they were construction students they’d have tool belts. The Heating and Air […]
Inquiring Minds Want To Know Science
Posted in Uncategorized on January 3, 2013
Pubished by EducationNews.org During their sophomore year, biology students at William M. Davies Career & Technical Center fan out in teams to swab things all over the school. They’re on a quest to address this question: Since schools are breeding grounds for disease, exactly where would you be most likely to find pathogens, the infectious agents also […]
