Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2013 | 7:10 a.m.
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Some brotherly advice to Tech frat member: Don't send out emails about 'rapebait'
I have never quite understood the appeal of fraternities and sororities – I prefer to pick my friends one at a time rather than by the dozen. I also hate theme parties. Nor do I get how fraternity and sorority members keep getting themselves in hot water by patently insane ...
Are schools doing too much for kids and none of it well?
I began working after school as a waitress when I was 13 and continued through graduate school. I realized quickly that restaurants offering limited menus were a better bet than those that tried to be all things to all diners. When you saw both fettuccine alfredo and fried rice on ...
SAT scores: 'A strong measure of accumulated opportunity'
Bob Schaeffer of FairTest: National Center for Fair & Open Testing sent me a note and a chart related to the AJC story on how closely Georgia's SAT scores align with family income. The FairTest chart draws from the College Board's College-Bound Seniors 2013: Total Group Profile Report and College-Bound ...
AJC special report: SAT scores rise with family wealth. A notable exception in state: Norcross High
The AJC education team looked at recently released 2013 SAT scores for metro Atlanta high schools and found something that critics have long said: Scores are closely tied to a factor beyond any student's aptitude: the amount of money their parents have. For its special report, the newspaper matched high ...
Slowing the race
After living in Japan for five years, where praise of children was spare and authentic, writer Christine Gross-Loh returned home to the United States where children earn trophies for matching their socks.At a visit to the local shopping center, for instance, Gross-Loh watched with surprise as a father congratulated his ...
Response to recent conversation
Commenters on the AJC Get School blog had a wide range of responses to an AJC investigation into standardized testing errors and to a call by critics of the practice for an end to high-stakes testing in which children are evaluated for promotion and graduation based largely on test scores. ...
Moderator’s introduction
Today, I write about a new book on parenting that highlights cultural differences that impact children’s success in schools, including a belief among U.S. students that talent is innate — that you are either good at, say, math, or not. In contrast, Japanese students believe effort and hard work can ...
Cherokee board member incurs censure, fine. And Kelly Marlow still faces more trouble ahead.
Many Cherokee parents probably hope their school board sideshow ends. But there are a few more acts left in the tragicomedy starring board member Kelly Marlow. Her colleagues voted this week to censure and fine her for ethical violations. One of her violations was sending a letter to the district’s accrediting ...
Remember the 'I Quit Teach for America' essay? Here's the counterpoint. 'I stayed.'
Tre Tennyson spent two years with Teach for America at an Atlanta school and is planning now to teach in China. He wrote this piece in response to a former TFA at the same APS school where he taught who wrote about why she bailed out of the program a ...
High school: Can't we make it better?
I have been talking to metro Atlanta teens at every opportunity and I am hearing the same stories about their high schools. Classes are big. Teachers can’t teach because of unruly students. Teachers tell me that their administrators are pushing them to teach to higher standards and assign more meaningful ...
Lessons from abroad: Effort over talent
After living in Japan for five years, where praise of children was spare and authentic, writer Christine Gross-Loh returned home to the United States where children earn trophies for matching their socks. At a visit to the local shopping center, for instance, Gross-Loh watched with surprise as a father congratulated ...
Moderate reformers need to jump into polarized education debate where truth gets trampled
The best thing you will read about the education debate this week. This essay from Education Week is by David Rutkowski, an assistant professor of educational leadership and policy studies at Indiana University Bloomington, and Leslie Rutkowski, an assistant professor of inquiry methodology at the university. Please go to Ed ...
A matter of time: Should school start later for sleep-starved teens?
School buses begin rolling before dawn in many Georgia communities where high school students are due in class by 7:30 a.m. Research shows that adolescents and teens do better with later school starting times, but administrative needs, bus schedules and after-school activities often collude to prevent any major tinkering with ...
U.S. Ed Secretary Arne Duncan: Petty politics in Washington hurting our children
Here is a condensed version of U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan's comments today to the National Press Club: (You can read the full speech here. ) In what seems to have become an annual ritual, I’m here again today to report on the state of education in America. What I ...
A banned book is back on the shelves in North Carolina after national outcry
Anthony Hatcher is an associate professor of communications at Elon University. Below he shares his view on the rationale of the Randolph County, N.C., school board in banning Ralph Ellison’s 1952 novel “Invisible Man” from its schools. Last week, the board reversed itself in a special meeting reported in detail ...
Moderator’s introduction
A conference in Atlanta brought together some of the brightest minds in education. I highlight their comments, most of which touched on the same theme: Make use of new technologies to customize education to the student. Many of the education innovators complained about the obsession with testing in schools, a ...
Saving Morris Brown. Its alumni rally around the college
Morris Brown College, which filed for bankruptcy protection last summer, is facing serious challenges. As the AJC reported in July: Founded in 1881 by members of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, today Morris Brown is a shell of its former self. At least two former college administrators, Dolores Cross, president ...
Response to recent conversation
Commenters on the AJC Get Schooled blog had a range of reactions to Thursday’s release of the 2013 national and state SAT scores. After a leap last year, Georgia’s 2013 average score remains unchanged and below the national average. The stagnant national scores led the College Board to call for ...
Call to arms
A platinum-plated panel of education reformers, innovators and commentators shared the same message at last week’s (co)lab-Collaborative Leadership Summit in Atlanta: Schools are broken. Sir Ken Robinson, a creativity expert and YouTube superstar, delivered the pronouncement with wit and a British accent. “If you were running a business the way ...
"These kids are good organs in a sick body."
A passionate plea about bilingual education. I am interested in what ELL teachers think of this speech. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bo3KFUzyMUI
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