While I know that some forms of determining merit pay for teachers can be unfair, in general I think tying pay to performance is an excellent, indeed necessary idea. Now the Florida Education Association is trying to block $700 million in grants from the federal government because it’s tied to incentive pay. Bad idea, I’d…
The idea of equally dividing incentive bonuses between all teachers, good, average, or bad apparently makes sense to the Boston Teachers’ Union. They want to block incentive bonuses given to teachers based on performance and instead divide the money between all teachers equally. Note also that the money is coming from private foundations. That’s at…
I recently wrote with appreciation about my Seventh-day Adventist education in Biblical studies over on my Participatory Bible Study blog. Today a friend sent me an e-mail directing me to a post on Inside Higher Ed, discussing a problem with the teaching of evolution at La Sierra University, a Seventh-day Adventist school. I didn’t attend…
Because of many of my political positions, not to mention my theological ones, many people suppose that I would think public education was the be-all and end-all of education. And I do believe that making education available to everyone is an essential of civilized society. The problem is that writing a health care bill titled…
I’d like to get some more information on this story about a charter school that would target high school dropouts. I know we’re all fighting over money right now, but it seems like this is a good place for innovation. It’s always possible that there really is a problem with the way the money will…
By “it” I refer to the the case of Vanessa Mills v. Thomas Mills in Wake County, North Carolina. Timothy Sandefur has written on this, and we also have a short response from Doug on Stones Cry Out. Under a large number of conditions I might agree with Doug, but on reading this ruling, I…
The U. S. News Blog reports that schools in some states, including my home state of Florida, are making it possible for Middle School students to take advanced courses that might normally only be available in High School. My reaction to this is positive. Anything that improves education is a good thing. As I remember…
Well, actually you should have the freedom to be dumb, but not on the public school budget. For all those who wonder why I strongly oppose so-called academic freedom bills applying to the High School science curriculum, see this site. Cool, no?
I took the title of this post from one of the speakers in the video embedded below. I’ve followed this IUPUI case for some time, mostly via Dispatches from the Culture Wars, but also through the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE). This case is particularly egregious, but political correctness, or the idea that…
Glenn Branch and Eugenie Scott have an article in Scientific American titled The Latest Face of Creationism in the Classroom, detailing the latest approach to getting creationism in the classroom. Since I touched on this briefly in two previous posts, I thought I’d link to this longer article so people can get the context. I…
