by David Safier When a Tucson elementary school has 70% minority students and 75% of the kids are on free or reduced lunch, and that school has the highest library checkout rate of any TUSD elementary school, you gotta figure someone’s doing something right. The school is Drachman Montessori Magnet School. Every year it has … Read more
by David Safier I wrote earlier about the $6 billion dollars the Feds wasted on its phonics-based, drill-and-kill Reading First program. The Department of Ed’s own study concluded that students in classrooms using the Reading First materials showed no more reading improvement than those who learned reading without the benefit of the $6 billion boondoggle. … Read more
by David Safier I’m no fan of Arizona’s AIMS testing or the whole No Child Left Behind emphasis on standardized testing. But I ran across an article about state testing of high school students who are taking vocational courses, and that’s standardized testing I can support. You’ve probably read that Arizona is working to revitalize … Read more
by David Safier (TASL) Arizona’s Department of Ed has come up with a wonderful way to solve the math/science teacher shortage: volunteer teachers. There’s really only one problem with the wonderful new plan. It won’t work. Here’s how it’s supposed to work. Scientists and engineers will volunteer (that’s right, no pay) to teach one math … Read more
by David Safier Tom Horne does not like TUSD’s Ethnic Studies program, and he especially hates the Mexican-American/Raza Studies part of it. But it looks like Raza has succeeded where most other school programs have failed by raising students’ AIMS scores and increasing their graduation rates. And if there’s anything our Ed Supe loves, it’s … Read more