teachers

Dad

~ Alexa Myers ~ 1 Comment

IMG_3930How do you put into words how much a person means to you; how much they have touched your heart and life? Words don’t seem adequate enough when this special someone leaves a hole in your heart that only they could fill. 

My dad, my father-in-law, took me into his heart and family when his son married me 24 years ago. I wish I knew then what I know now – this honorable, generous, loving, funny, sarcastic, stubborn, mostly right, practical joker would be my dad in more than name. He brightened our times together with his quiet, dry humor, which challenged my too-serious perspective. The joy and laughter that I so love in his son started with him, and continues today through his grandchildren, my children, which I get to enjoy every day. 

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Carol Burris Explains Her Opposition to Common Core

~ Alexa Myers ~ Leave a comment

dianeravitch's avatarDiane Ravitch's blog

Carol Burris, veteran principal of South Side High School in Rockville Center, Long Island, Néw York, retired this week, to the tears of students, parents, and staff. In this article, part of a blog debate at The Hechinger Report, she explains her negative view of Common Core.

She opposes the use of test scores to evaluate teachers, and she cites what is known as Campbell’s Law:

“When test scores become the goal of the teaching process, they both lose their value as indicators of educational status and distort the educational process in undesirable ways.”

VAM is so unreliable that the Hillsborough Teacher of the Year in 2014 received a negative rating!

The Common Core is an integral part of a failed national strategy, she writes:

“Now back to the Common Core. I am not sure what you mean when you say that I “personified” the standards and that I…

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