PSS

Choice Cuts Week Ending 2011-01-28: No Snow Stories, We Promise

News items of interest to parents this week, from all over the media.

Len Lipkin

Pitfalls of an Elite Education Part 2: A Race to Nowhere? [Video]

In part 1 of this series I wrote about an article, "The Disadvantages of an Elite education" which I soon found only highlighted some of the potential disadvantages of private schooling. I also recently came across a new documentary (is it me, or do there seem to be a lot of documentaries focusing on our educational system lately?) called Race to Nowhere (trailer below). RTN is about how relentless academic and social pressures are affecting the lives of middle- and high-school kids across America.

Len Lipkin

School Success Criteria Vol 2: Teachers

In yesterday’s post, the first of a series outlining what makes a school successful, I started the article by stating that I was unhappy that teachers are disproportionately punished for bad performance in schools. Newsweek’s cover story this week is titled “Why We Must Fire Bad Teachers” tells the other side of the story–that teachers should be blamed when blame is due, What...