Alternative education

Arne Duncan demonstrates a breathtaking lack of awareness about the effects of Race to the Top (RTTT). Far from being chastened by what is going on in schools around the country, the Secretary is doubling down on his test-driven offensive.

in a new paper, the highly influential Consumer Financial Protection Bureau endorses mandatory personal finance classes in grades K-12.

“The young do not know enough to be prudent, and therefore they attempt the impossible, and achieve it, generation after generation.” – Pearl S.

Schools will become moral institutions only when children are free to quit.

John Taylor Gatto writes about how play teaches empathy, how to endure, how to have leisure, adventure, independence, self-reliance, and more.

The new way to get a great job and avoid college debt: avoid college. As tuition costs skyrocket and unemployment among recent post-grads is at an all-time high, many kids are taking a different path.

Want to do well on that upcoming test? Consider a little meditation, a new study in the journal Mindfulness suggests.

The reading passage starts: 'Dear New York State, I am not fond of your tests. They do not show you who I am, or who my teachers are....'

We have to start measuring our success in the happiness of our children, not in the height of our data plots, if we are to avoid more misguided leadership and foolhardy fads.

NAPLAN is a high-stakes test - schools are held publicly accountable for its results - and high-stakes tests are known to lead to unethical, unscrupulous, and sometimes corrupt behaviour.

We’re fans of the pro-hero approach, rather than using an anti-bullying framework,  but given that most educational institutions still think and act in terms of anti-bullying, this recent study by the American Educational Research Association…...

In the spring of my career, I found myself questioning the choice of my life's work. The students did not appear to be motivated, the paperwork was overwhelming and the constant change of educational direction was discouraging.

Dennis Van Roekel, the president of the National Education Association, the nation's largest teachers union, came out in favor of a two-year moratorium on adverse consequences for schools and teachers that have been proposed in connection with the...

Joseph McDonald, a professor at NYU Steinhardt, (pictured far left) moderated Friday morning's NYU Steinhardt Education Policy Breakfast Series Common Core

Jack Hostager is a high school sophomore enrolled in an Eastern Iowa High School. His blog, Straight from the Desk, seeks to add the seldom heard voice of the student.

As children, young children, everything meant playing and art. We saw the world as a playground and a canvass. It didn’t matter whether or not we could actually draw. What mattered was the thrill of creating something beautiful.