Up until last night, I was 100% certain that I was not going to write a year-end blog for a number of reasons. First of all, I have only had a blog ‘presence’ for about 2.5 months now, so I figured that my review would be, uh….blah. Then I thought, people aren’t going to be [...]

Georgia’s State Superintendent of Schools, Kathy Cox, released the December 2009/January 2010 newsletter. It included a list of the 17 schools that moved-off the NCLB ’Needs improvement’ list, as well as a summary of Georgia’s performance on the 2009 National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP). The assessment, administered every 2 years, compares academic performance of 4th and 8th [...]

three are pointing back at you. Yes, I went there with song lyrics again. Couldn’t help it. Dealing with ’education rhetoric’ overload. Last week I wrote about the single parent-bashing that has been going on in the media, especially as it relates to Education. Since I wrote that blog ‘off-the-cuff,’ I didn’t have time to do any research on [...]

DISCLAIMER: After reflecting on some dialogue on Twitter, I took some time to process last night. I then started reading the bible to find some reference on dealing with ‘conflict,’ because we tend to shut people out when we disagree (2 Corinthians 7). I checked my ‘cliff notes’ in the margin of my bible and [...]

Gazillionaire Oprah Winfrey recently donated $1.5 million dollars to the Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta, GA. I applaud Ms. Winfrey’s commitment to improving educational options, especially for students from low-income families as they tend to get fed the short-end of the stick. There has been a great deal of fanfare around Ms. Winfrey’s donation, as there [...]

Gazillionaire Oprah Winfrey recently donated $1.5 million dollars to the Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta, GA. I applaud Ms. Winfrey’s commitment to improving educational options, especially for students from low-income families as they tend to get fed the short-end of the stick. There has been a great deal of fanfare around Ms. Winfrey’s donation, as there [...]

Proof that education change is slow to come to Gwinnett County: The Gwinnett County Board of Education voted to extend Superintendent Alvin Wilbanks’ contract for 2 additional years, until 2012. Wilbanks is currently the superintendent of the largest school district in the state of Georgia; he is also one of the longest-serving superintendents in the country. [...]

I’d think that: The Emancipation Proclamation actually called for the continued enslavement of Africans We were happy slaves Juneteenth was created to give African Americans another reason to have a cookout Malcolm, Martin, Medgar, and Rosa were fictional characters Brown v. Board of Education upheld and legalized school segregation There is no such thing as [...]

I’d think that: The Emancipation Proclamation actually called for the continued enslavement of Africans We were happy slaves Juneteenth was created to give African Americans another reason to have a cookout Malcolm, Martin, Medgar, and Rosa were fictional characters Brown v. Board of Education upheld and legalized school segregation There is no such thing as [...]

December 12, 2009 Dear Mssrs. Scafidi & Robinson: For the past few days, I have been reviewing the charter petitions recommended by the Charter School Commission. I must admit that I am disappointed and quite disturbed. Explanations cited by the Commission are in direct contradiction to the legislative intent of charter school law. Furthermore, either [...]