Mark Maynard | no child left behind

Bill Ayers: “The road to the massive cheating scandal in Atlanta runs right through the White House”

By Mark | April 3, 2013

Continuing our recent conversation on the misguided work of education reform advocate Michelle “we can test our way to better schools” Rhee, I thought that I’d share this comment, which was sent out yesterday by our friend Bill Ayers in response to news that 27 former educators in the Atlanta public school system had reported [...]

Exploring Michelle Rhee’s destructive influence over Michigan education reform

By Mark | January 10, 2013

I’m spending my evening getting acquainted with Michelle Rhee, the controversial former chancellor of the Washington, D.C. public schools, who’s gone on to a lucrative career as a hired gun in the fight to destroy teachers unions and privatize American public education. While I’d heard about her in the past, and I’d known that she’d [...]

Posted in Education, Michigan, Politics | Also tagged Catherine Ferguson Academy, charter schools, collective bargaining, D.C., David Tepper, dismantling of public education, District of Columbia, education reform, for-profit charter schools, Jeff Clark, Kevin Johnson, Michelle Rhee, Michigan Education Association, Norm Donohoe, Oregon, PACs, Paul Scott, Philip Anschutz, privatization, Proposition 2, public education, Rupert Murdoch, StudentsFirst, tenure, threats to public education, Tim King, Waiting for Superman | 31 Comments

On the optimism and pity of the non-Americans passing us by

By Mark | February 27, 2012

My friend Pete and I eat lunch together a few times a month. Pete, who’s an academic, tells me of his travels to fascinating places like Malawi and Sweden, where he’s either conducting field research on the spread of parasitic diseases, or sharing his findings with leaders in the field of world health, and I [...]

Posted in Mark's Life, Observations, Uncategorized | Also tagged American flag lapel pins, back pain, best places to live, Canada, Department of Education, education reform, environmental protection, Gini coefficient, growth, immigration, income inequality, infant mortality, investing in the future, life expectancy, Malawi, Mitt Romney, neo-feudalism, optimism, parasites, Pete Larson, Presidential politics, public education, republican primary, RIck Santorum, Stockholm, Sweden, tax the rich, teaching for the test, the future of American cities, The Greatest Canadian, the state of the world, Tim Hortons, Tommy Douglas, Toronto, urban development, Vancouver, wind power, windmills | 14 Comments

CEOs running our schools… what could possibly go wrong?

By Mark | April 11, 2011

If you’ll recall, a couple of weeks ago I posted some video here of State Senator Rebekah Warren commenting on Governor Rick Snyder’s Emergency Financial Manager Act. Warren noted, among other things, that there was no requirement that those emergency financial managers deployed to take over our State’s failing school systems have any background in [...]

Posted in Education, Michigan, Uncategorized | Also tagged Chris Hedges, critical thinking, Education, education reform, Eli Broad, Emergency Financial Manager, Emergency Financial Manager’s Act, Finish school system, Finland, Leadership Academy, Michael Bloomberg, parasitic teachers, Rebekah Warren, Rick Snyder, Superintendents Academy, teachers and their evil agendas, Texas Miracle, trends in American education | 12 Comments

The Creativity Crisis

By Mark | July 19, 2010

I wasn’t aware, until reading this article in Newsweek just now, that we had an accepted scientific way in which to evaluate and measure creativity. I also didn’t know that, since the 1990′s, the creativity scores of American students have been steadily inching downward. I’m not surprised, of course, given the trend in education toward [...]

Posted in Education, Rants | Also tagged Bush administration, creativity, creativity crisis, Department of Education, E. Paul Torrance, innovation, Jonathan Plucker, Kyung Hee Kim, scantron, teaching, teaching for the test, teaching in public school, trends in American education | 13 Comments

Tag Archives: no child left behind

Bill Ayers: “The road to the massive cheating scandal in Atlanta runs right through the White House”

Exploring Michelle Rhee’s destructive influence over Michigan education reform

On the optimism and pity of the non-Americans passing us by

CEOs running our schools… what could possibly go wrong?

The Creativity Crisis

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