A friend of mine, we will call him Mark, was considering teaching in two different charter schools this past spring. He had a clear first and second choice. However, his second choice would pay him significantly more than his top. …
Monthly Archives: October 2013
Raj Chetty and Tennessee Education Policy
by bced13 • • 0 Comments
I thought about including this piece in my edlinks yesterday, but it’s so well written and gives a good research based perspective on several areas of strong interest to educators that I wanted to reprint the whole thing. Reprinted with…
Bullying Numbers in SCS Up: Edlinks 10/27
by bced13 • • 0 Comments
Several edlinks from the past few days: Tennessee department of education comes out with a report on bullying last year, reporting 5,478 confirmed cases. MCS/SCS makes up over one fifth of all cases in the state. Michael Kelley at the…
Growing Irreplaceables Pt.2: Develop Successful School Leaders to Keep the Best Educators
by bced13 • • 0 Comments
I’m blessed to work at the Soulsville Charter School. Our parents are fantastic, our facilities first rate and our student’s motivated and hard working. Yet it would all fall apart were it not for the excellent administrators that drive our…
Growing our Irreplaceables Part 1: The Need to Retain and Recruit Quality Educators
by bced13 • • 0 Comments
One of my colleagues, we’ll call her Sharon (not her real name), taught for two years in a high performing charter, and she loved it. Whenever we got together, all I’d hear was about how fantastic Sharon’s kids were and…
Diane Ravitch: Danger in Oversimplification
by bced13 • • 0 Comments
One of the greatest challenges in teaching math is helping students make the connection of how the subject applies to the real world. As a case in point, I just finished teaching my students a formula called point-slope. It’s easy…
Why Do Teachers Quit?
by bced13 • • 2 Comments
From the Atlantic: This is a great article on the stress of the teaching profession and why some chose to stay and why some chose to leave. Here’s the opening, I highly recommend reading the whole thing, especially for policy…
Introducing Chalkbeat Tennessee
by bced13 • • 0 Comments
At Bluff City Education, we aspire to be a voice for teachers but also to provide a roundup of news stories on education policy as it impacts educators, parents and Students in Tennessee. To contribute to that second mission, there’s…
State Rep. Needs A Fact Check on Pre-K: Edlinks 10/20
by bced13 • • 0 Comments
Several edlinks from the past few days: State Rep. Bill Dunn (R-Knoxville) has written a decidedly anti-Pre-K editorial in the commercial appeal. I have a couple thoughts on this. First, why is a representative from a small government part who…
Let’s Make Charters Sustainable for Teachers
by bced13 • • 0 Comments
I wrote last week about the importance of considering the future of public education in Memphis as we expand school choice options. To give you an idea of the rate of expansion, in 2003, Memphis contained 3 charters with no…