Blog

Blog Posts

Some of these posts have also appeared on the Washington Post ‘Answer Sheet’ blog, Psychology Today, The Huffington Post, or some combination of the three.

Posts from 2010-2014 marked with “##” are included in the anthology Schooling Beyond Measure.

• The Siren Song of "Evidence-Based" Instruction
• May 23, 2024
• Cognitive Load Theory: An Unpersuasive Attempt to Justify Direct Instruction
• March 4, 2024
• Aggressive Nostalgia
• October 25, 2023
• Pay Attention, Class: Here Come More Facts for You to Forget
• April 20, 2023
• The Caring Subversion of Nel Noddings: An Appreciation
• March 13, 2023
• How to Prevent Social Change: A Handy Guide for Educators and Parents
• February 28, 2023
• The Times Deeply Regrets These Errors
• December 23, 2022
• "Eduspeak" Reconsidered
• November 3, 2022
• Is It Enough for Learners to Be "Engaged"?
• September 30, 2022
• When the Myth of Progress Unravels
• May 16, 2022
• Last Time, the Religious Right Told Us Not Only What We Can Teach but How
• April 29, 2022
• Second Thoughts About Community and "Empathy"
• January 11, 2022
• Indoctrination
• November 4, 2021
• What Makes a True Skeptic?
• September 24, 2021
• When Racism Isn't the Only Problem
• July 14, 2021
• The Progressive Teacher's Role in the Classroom
• May 3, 2021
• Dewey, Piaget, and Frosted Mini Wheats
• March 8, 2021
• The Tests Are Lousy, So How Could the Scores Be Meaningful?
• December 19, 2020
• Fame Is the Name of the Game
• October 16, 2020
• All of Us Are Smarter Than Any of Us
• September 23, 2020
• Out of Control
• May 21, 2020
• Autism and Behaviorism
• January 21, 2020
• How Not to Get a Standing Ovation at a Teachers' Conference
• October 24, 2019
• It's Time to Rethink Education Policy
• October 15, 2019
• GENER(aliz)ATIONS
• July 16, 2019
• The Trouble(s) with College
• May 22, 2019
• Deconstructing "Scaffolding"
• March 6, 2019
• The Why Axis
• November 26, 2018
• Oprah and I
• August 23, 2018
• The Overselling of Gratitude
• July 11, 2018
• Who You Are Does Not Show Up on a Brain Scan
• June 4, 2018
• "...And I Turned Out Just Fine!"
• March 21, 2018
• When "Big Data" Goes to School
• March 7, 2018
• Do We Perform Better Under Pressure?
• December 18, 2017
• Transformation by Degrees
• September 25, 2017
• Don't Lecture Me!
• June 24, 2017
• What Student Test-Takers Share with Ejected Airline Passengers
• April 18, 2017
• Is Trump a Conservative Only by Accident?
• March 23, 2017
• "Free-Range Kids"? It Depends...
• February 7, 2017
• The Case for Abolishing Class Rank
• December 12, 2016
• Narcissist-in-Chief
• December 1, 2016
• The Bonus Effect
• September 27, 2016
• Do Our Expectations of Kids Aim Too High or Too Low?
• September 6, 2016
• Choice
• July 21, 2016
• The Failure of Failure
• June 23, 2016
• Why Lots of Love (or Motivation) Isn't Enough
• April 23, 2016
• The Overselling of Ed Tech
• March 12, 2016
• "Your Hand's Not Raised? Too Bad: I'm Calling on You Anyway"
• January 29, 2016
• What 'No Child Left Behind' Left Behind
• December 18, 2015
• All Aboard the LeaderShip
• October 31, 2015
• The Back-to-School-Night Speech We'd Like to Hear
• October 4, 2015
• Cheerful to a Fault: “Positive” Practices with Negative Implications
• July 11, 2015
• What's the Real Purpose of Classroom Management?
• June 25, 2015
• Learning as a Sandwich: Revisiting the Ingenuity (and Radicalism) of K-W-L
• June 2, 2015
• The Wrong Way to Get People to Do the Right Thing
• May 12, 2015
• The Grass Moment
• April 23, 2015
• Evidence? We Don't Need No Stinkin' Evidence!
• April 7, 2015
• Four Reasons to Worry About "Personalized Learning"
• February 23, 2015
• Progressive Labels for Regressive Practices
• January 31, 2015
• Why the Best Teachers Don't Give Tests (##)
• October 30, 2014
• The Illusion of Discovery
• October 1, 2014
• Perfect, It Turns Out, Is What Practice Doesn't Make (##)
• July 25, 2014
• Just Another Brick in the Wall: How Education Researchers Ignore the Ends to Tweak the Means (##)
• June 4, 2014
• The Trouble With Calls For Universal "High-Quality" Pre-K (##)
• February 1, 2014
• A Dozen Essential Guidelines for Educators (##)
• October 29, 2013
• Five Bad Education Assumptions the Media Keeps Recycling
• August 29, 2013
• “We’re Number Umpteenth!”: The Myth Of Lagging U.S. Schools (##)
• May 3, 2013
• Is Parent Involvement In School Really Useful? (##)
• February 6, 2013
• Why Do We Punish Children?
• January 2013
• Homework: An Unnecessary Evil? … Surprising Findings From New Research (##)
• November 26, 2012
• What Do Kids Really Learn from Failure? (##)
• October 3, 2012
• Lowering the Temperature on Claims of "Summer Learning Loss" (##)
• July 20, 2012
• What Makes a Terrific Parent?
• April 23, 2012
• Criticizing (Common Criticisms of) Praise (##)
• February 3, 2012
• The Risks and Potential of Required Community Service
• January 9, 2012
• Five Not-So-Obvious Propositions About Play (##)
• November 15, 2011
• Whoever Said There's No Such Thing As a Stupid Question Never Looked Carefully at a Standardized Test (##)
• September 16, 2011
• What We Don't Know About Our Students -- And Why (##)
• September 7, 2011
• Teaching Strategies That Work! (Just Don't Ask "Work to Do What?") (##)
• August 10, 2011
• Why Are Some People Always Late? And Other Human Puzzles
• July 25, 2011
• How to Write an Article About Current Parenting Styles
• June 30, 2011
• What Parents Aren't Asked in School Surveys -- and Why (##)
• May 23, 2011
• Studies Support Rewards, Homework, and Traditional Teaching. Or Do They? (##)
• March 31, 2011
• "But I Need to Assign Homework! Look at All I Have to Cover!"
• March 3rd 2011
• STEM Sell: Do Math and Science Matter More Than Other Subjects? (##)
• February 16, 2011
• Do Tests Help Students Learn or Was a New Study Misreported? (##)
• January 28, 2011
• "Politically Correct": The Lazy Bully's Label of Choice
• January 18, 2011
• Remember When We Had High Standards? Neither Do I (##)
• December 10, 2010
• "Ready to Learn" = Easier to Educate (##)
• November 18, 2010
• Operation Discourage Bright People from Wanting to Teach (##)
• November 1, 2010
• How to Sell Conservatism: Lesson 1 -- Pretend You're a Reformer (##)
• October 20, 2010
• School Would Be Great If It Weren’t for the Damn Kids
• September 17, 2010
• What Passes for School Reform: "Value-Added" Teacher Evaluation and Other School Reform Absurdities (##)
• September 9, 2010
• Competitiveness vs. Excellence: The Education Crisis That Isn't (##)
• August 9, 2010
• So What SHOULD Parents Do?
• April 2010
• Getting Rid of Grades: Case Studies
• January 2010
• Teachers Describe the Harms of Test-Driven School Reform
• December 2009
• Ted Sizer and Jerry Bracey: An Appreciation
• October 2009
• Twenty-first Century Skills? It Depends What You Mean...
• September 2009
• Bushobama
• August 2009
• More Evidence That Incentives Fail
• May 2009
• Teachers Who Have Stopped Assigning Homework
• September 2008
• Teachers Who Refuse to Hand Out the Tests
• May 2008
• Gleanings #3: Test Boycotts, Death to the Syllabus, and Why Secretaries of Education Are Never Educators
• April 2008
• Are Fewer Young People Reading for Pleasure?
• November 2007
• Gleanings #2: Fresh Writings on the Achievement Gap
• September 2007
• Parrot Math
• June 2007
• Gleanings #1: Resources on Inclusion, Gender, Classroom Management, and Assignments That Require No Thinking
• April 2007
• Close the Book on 'Book It!'
• March 2007
• Is The Homework Myth Popular with Students? Well, Sure. What's Your Point?
• December 2006
• Kohn et al. v. Massachusetts DOE
• August 2006
• Reindeer Ruminations
• December 2005