Author Archives: admin
Dangerous Charter Malaise
Dangerous Chartering Malaise || John Merrifield || June 21, 2015 In 1993, Vice President Al Gore’s “Re-Inventing Government” pointed out that “scandal,” not routine inefficiency drives policy change, and makes/breaks government careers. And I pointed out that the circumstances of chartered public schools were ripe with potential for a school choice movement-imperiling scandal. That would […]
Charter Schools Scandals
Posted on Sat, Dec. 10, 2011 Florida charter schools: big money, little oversight BY SCOTT HIAASEN AND KATHLEEN McGRORY shiaasen@MiamiHerald.com PATRICK FARRELL / MIAMI HERALD STAFF Jeremy Rosende participates in his first-grade art class at the Renaissance Charter School in Coral Springs. Preparing for her daughter’s graduation in the spring, Tuli Chediak received a blunt […]
TPS Principals
District School Principals: Unsurprising Recruiting Difficulties || John Merrifield || July 11, 2014 Who would want to do a job with mediocre pay, high expectations, and little authority in many of the areas quite likely to significantly impact their effectiveness? For examples, the vast majority of district school principals have little say in their school’s […]
Test Score Spin
Test Score Spin Defying Reality || John Merrifield || Nov 9, 2013 “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.“ — Thomas Jefferson The Obama Administration recently celebrated that the 2012 National Assessment of Educational Progress scores are up slightly […]
Taking Flak for Being on Target
Taking Flak for Being on Target: Vague Denunciation SOP by Defenders of the School System Status Quo || John Merrifield || November 11, 2016 Jesse Ortiz and I recently co-authored a chapter in, Improving Lives in Alabama: A Vision for Economic Freedom and Prosperity. On the basis of school system facts like persistent low performance […]
STEM Stuff
The Root of the STEM Problem || John Merrifield || July 30, 2013 A tour of any major university, including meeting the faculty, will establish the STEM problems. Interviewing department heads or even perusing the faculty directory may be sufficiently insightful. You’ll find that in the “STEM” fields of science, engineering, and math, and a […]
Sources of Extensive Terrible Experiences with the System
Arons, Stephen. 1997. Short Route To Chaos: Conscience, Community, and the Re-constitution of American Schooling. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press. Gatto, John Taylor. 1993. The Exhausted School. Oxford: The Oxford Village Press. McCluskey, Neal P. 2007. “Why We Fight: How Public Schools Cause Social Conflict.” Cato Institute Policy Analysis #587. http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa587.pdf Powell, Arthur G, Eleanor […]
School District Superintendent
School District Superintendent: The World’s Most Difficult Unnecessary Job || John Merrifield || Sept 26, 2013 “The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.” — Winston Churchill The evidence is there on both counts (very difficult, unnecessary), as is the basis to believe it. […]
School District Superintendent Churn
School District Superintendent Churn || John Merrifield || October 23, 2013 Earlier this month, I argued that school district superintendents have a very difficult, but unnecessary job. Today, because I am little behind – okay a lot behind – on my Education Week current events due diligence, I happened to grab the May 15, 2013 […]
Persistent Failure to Address the Roots of the Problem
Persistent Failure to Address the Roots of the Low Performance Problem || John Merrifield || February 16, 2015 A recent journey through my archives produced a 2009 Ronald Wolk (founder of Education Week) article marking the 25th Anniversary of the first ‘Nation at Risk’ report. Wolk discussed the five assumptions he thought caused us to […]