Op ed takes Teach for America to task

by David Safier An op ed in Sunday's Republic questions the value of the Teach for America program and the success of its teachers. (Full disclosure: I'm friends with one of the authors, Carole Edelsky, a retired ASU prof, but I didn't know about the op ed until I saw it this morning.) According to … Read more

Dr. Word: Is it Margaret Dugan or Margaret Garcia Dugan?

by David Safier In the comments section of a post about Huppenthal's hagiographic misrepresentation of Ben Franklin (translation: Huppenthal painted a rosier-than-deserved portrait of Ben and the slavery issue), Tom Prezelski asked a tangential but interesting question: [H]as anybody publically asked Margaret Garcia Dugan why she has stopped using the name "Garcia?" All through the … Read more

Horne wants names of teachers participating in UA/ASU studies

by David Safier Tom Horne wants university researchers to turn over the names of teachers who participated in UA and ASU studies. The studies conclude that Horne's English Immersion program is having a negative effect on students. This would be a frightening request at any time, but the idea of giving this kind of ammunition … Read more

Does Horne know anything about what a classroom is like?

by David Safier Maybe a real teacher might recommend doing this, I don't know. But I can't think of one who would. Ed Supe Tom Horne, in his never-ending crusade against Raza Studies classes at TUSD, wants the district to videotape every minute of every ethnic studies class, every single day. In other words, he … Read more