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on December 09, 2019
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The New York Times ‘1619 Project’ revisited

Written by Katherine Kersten
in Education

The newspaper's slavery-at-the-fore reframing of American history distorts this country's progress and the exceptional ideals that drive it.  This Sunday Cover Op-Ed originally appeared in the Star Tribune on December 8, 2019. In August, the New York Times launched the “1619 Project” with great fanfare. The self-proclaimed goal of the project — a series of more than 30 essays and artistic productions — is to “reframe” history, convincing Americans that our nation’s “true founding” occurred not in 1776, but 400 years ago, in 1619, when 20 or so slaves came ashore in the Jamestown colony. The Times maintains that America’s “founding ideals were...

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on December 09, 2019
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Tis the Season of Progressives Fleeing Charter Schools?

Written by Mitch Pearlstein
in Education

It’s not that politicians on the right never run frantically away, for opportunistic political purposes, from positions they previously held, it’s just that I enjoy it more when politicians on the left do it. Tis the season of fleeing charter schools. Elizabeth Warren, for instance, who in the past has praised the “extraordinary results” of many charters in Massachusetts and said their successes (in the words of a recent Washington Post editorial) should be shared with other schools, “took a page from the union playbook in calling for a clampdown on public charter schools.” Enter the fray my old friend Chris Stewart (essentially...

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on December 06, 2019
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Americans strongly support school choice, confidence in public schools improving is low

Written by Catrin Wigfall
in Education

The RealClear Opinion Research survey confirmed the popularity of educational choice (68 percent) among voters in every category, from age to race to political party. Support for a federal tax credit program that would provide scholarships for students to attend the public, private, or career and technical schools of their choice came in at 70 percent. Respondents were not optimistic, however, about the future improvement of the country's k-12 public education system. ...

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on November 26, 2019
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Personalized Learning: Why this rising trend in education is concerning

Written by Catrin Wigfall
in Education

The explosion of personalized learning in k-12 education has resulted in more than 90 percent of schools using digital tools to individualize classroom instruction. But research showing personalized learning is an effective approach for improving student learning is incomplete at best. Photo Source: Frederick Florin / Getty...

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on November 25, 2019
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Proposed licensing changes would require all new educators to receive ‘equity’ training

Written by Catrin Wigfall
in Education

The Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board (PELSB) announced the proposed teacher licensing changes will “set forth the knowledge and skills that all teachers must demonstrate to receive their license" and include a "sharpened focus on educational equity." But equity does not mean treating all kids equally, and if these rule changes pass, teachers will be trained to favor some students at the expense of others. ...

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