Why I Hate Standardized Tests

Submitted by Debbie Wei on Wed, 02/04/2009 - 17:27 | Permalink

My sons are now 18 and 20 years old and both have been able to get in to college. But it wasn’t easy. I knew it would be a problem when they were in kindergarten and 2nd grade respectively.

Can we do anything about our neighborhood high schools?

Submitted by Eric Braxton on Mon, 02/02/2009 - 19:38 Posted in High schools | Permalink

Over the last thirteen years I have spent a fair amount of time in Philadelphia’s neighborhood high schools, first as Director of the Philadelphia Student Union and now in my new role as Small Schools Project Coordinator at the Philadelphia Education Fund.

Make Teaching, Not War

Submitted by Alesha Jackson on Mon, 02/02/2009 - 17:13 Posted in Class notes | Permalink

Over our monthly meeting of food and sharing, some teacher friends and I interrupted our regular weekend respite by talking about school. Why is it, we wondered, that language about teaching is peppered with innuendoes of war? News anchors tell us that we are “on the front lines” or “in the trenches.” Inside school, we “cover” each other in our absences and wage wars on reading.

Welcome to the Education Law Corner

Submitted by Len Rieser on Thu, 01/29/2009 - 11:13 Posted in Education law corner | Permalink

Well, the moment has come for my own inauguration – into blogging, that is – and I admit to some nervousness. But I have only myself to blame; as a longtime member of the Notebook, I’ve nodded an enthusiastic “yes” every time someone said that we should start creating more on-line material. So I could hardly refuse when asked to write a few paragraphs each week on something that’s happening in the area of education law.

Welcome to our redesigned site

Submitted by thenotebook on Wed, 01/28/2009 - 21:36 | Permalink

We just launched our new site! Please take a moment to look around, this site has several new features. Most notably, the Notebook has expanded to another medium: blogging.

And we need your help with naming our blog.

Notebook in the News

Submitted by thenotebook on Sat, 01/24/2009 - 13:24 | Permalink

You may have noticed us mentioned in another Philadelphia publication recently. The Philadelphia Inquirer featured the Notebook on the front page of its business section. That article shared the great news about our Knight Foundation grant with the entire region.