Matthew Lynch – Despite legislative changes that have made schools accessible to everyone, the mindsets of individuals who attend or work in schools have been slower to adapt and change.

Michael F. Shaughnessy – Data from the National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS), using a sample of traditional college-aged students, shows that 58 percent of students who attended a community college took at least one remedial course, while 44 percent took between one and three remedial courses, and 14 percent took more than three such courses.

Michael F. Shaughnessy – The crises of the war led to many shortages: shortages of labour to keep the home fires burning, shortages of materials, especially food, since less could be imported; shortages of money Children were urged to help on all three fronts – to do the work men and women had done (before they were drafted into war-work); to salvage metal and paper and to produce food (Dig for Victory!) and to save money and raise money (throughout entertainments, bring and buy sales, bob-a-job days).

Michael F. Shaughnessy – Exposing the Public Education System: Understanding & Transforming the Failure of Education’s Political Bureaucracy is a book that explains how public education has failed us all…

By Alfie Kohn – Love them or hate them, the proposals collectively known as “school reform” are mostly top-down policies: divert public money to quasi-private charter schools, pit states against one another in a race for federal education dollars, offer rewards when test scores go up, fire the teachers or close the schools when they don’t.

Sandra Stotsky – As a condition of receiving federal Title I funds, require states to use a set of K-12 standards in mathematics, science, and English that have been judged to be internationally benchmarked by a state-level committee of discipline-based academic experts, chosen by presidents of colleges/universities in the state.

Michael F. Shaughnessy – Our report points out the fact that we don’t deal with just one STEM challenge, but two. On the one hand, our science and technology firms need a new generation of workers that are proficient in math and science concepts. These are the workers that make STEM businesses “go,” and are the backbone of the American STEM workforce.

Dr. Tom Haladyna – Recent news reports of suspicious achievement test scores in our public schools point to the failed practice of using a single student achievement test given once a year to determine the effectiveness of our teachers.

Michael F. Shaughnessy – First, we must start with education and assure that we are investing the most resources in preparing our citizens from cradle to grave to be prepared to compete on the world stage. Education is the best investment any individual and government can make in its future.

Sonam Shahani – The fact that it’s been so long since I’ve written speaks to how busy this semester has been. As a full-time student teacher in 5th grade, it has taken me months to get used to the full-time job schedule.

James Alexander, Ph.D., Professor – It seems as if Americans are constantly bombarded by reports of doom related to our educational system. A recent documentary, Waiting for Superman, has highlighted the disturbing and sad situations in our schools.

John Jensen Ph.D. – A common-sense axiom is that if an action gets you what you want, you do it. And if doing more of it gets you more of what you want, then you do more of it. If running a step takes you closer to the end of a marathon, you keep running.

Dana Woldow – The conversation around improving public education increasingly is being dominated by ultra wealthy guys who have no background in education and whose own kids do not attend public schools; even celebrity chef Jamie Oliver is chiming in.