The personal blog of Gary S. Stager, Ph.D.
Within the past two years the Inspector General of the Department of Education has issued a series of alarming reports on conflicts of interest and violations of the NCLB law that occurred during the implementation of Reading First by Department of Education staff and its consultants and contractors.
I believe this period in American education will be characterized as the pedagogy of the absurd. Nothing better illustrates this than DIBELS…
The inspector General of the US Department of Education has documented flagrant conflicts of interest and illegal impositions of curriculum in negotiating the NCLB state contracts. Here are my views on what is needed to even partially undo the damage done.
Redundancy has something to be said for it. In language, redundancy is one thing that makes human communication possible.
But when the exact same phrase is used redundantly in the 670 pages of the NCLB law (strictly speaking the 2002 NCLB revision of the ESEA law) it would seem that there must be a compelling reason for such redundancy…
Recently my local newspaper reported the shocking fact that in a Tucson middle school, labeled as failing, half the students were “reading below grade level.” That would also mean that half are reading above grade level, a fact the article did not report…
In spite of the scandal in the administration of Reading First uncovered in the Inspector General’s report and in spite of the alarming number of …
One of the most remarkable achievements of American democracy was its provision of free universal compulsory education for all its children and young people. No …
Once a decade or so, the New York Times publishes a hysterical article about “the reading wars,” in which the argument for systematic phonics instruction …
“Things take longer to happen than you think they will, but then they happen faster than you thought they could.” – Al Gore As summer …
Nearly a decade ago, The Huffington Post published an article I wrote, Wanna be a School Reformer? You Better do Your Homework! Today, all the …