
Every couple weeks or so, Tom shares updates on his professional and personal projects. He calls it his F.Y.I. newsletter. Sign up below for the easiest way to stay abreast.
Technology is a double-edged sword. It might make new kinds of innovation possible, but it also can have problematic effects…
Read More »Race to the Top is the Obama Administration’s education reform initiative. It overlapped with former President Bush’s No Child Left…
Read More »It goes without saying that teaching is almost always portrayed in television and film thinly. Teaching is a craft, a…
Read More »Over the past month, teachers in West Virginia, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Arizona, Colorado, and North Carolina led mass protests, accusing state…
Read More »I was elated to read EdSurge’s write up of an English teacher in Massachusetts who teaches distant reading to high…
Read More »Want an educational jolt? Watch the first four minutes of Yo-Yo Ma’s Tiny Desk performance, where he follows up his…
Read More »There really is so much to learn in this world. This particular topic wasn’t on my list. Butt now it…
Read More »As public education spread in 19th century cities, many feared that private interests were trying to undermine schools’ public purpose. In particular, the…
Read More »I once mused to a friend that if policymakers did nothing other than improve the quality of food served to…
Read More »Unlike any other country to which the United States is compared, we do not define the right to public education at a national level. It’s not in the federal Constitution, nor the Bill of Rights. Instead, public education was a bit of an afterthought, inserted into state constitutions beginning well after the birth of the country. The result? We have 50 different definitions for the purpose of and right to public education. No wonder it’s so challenging to effect change. How does YOUR state define the right to public education? Tom made an interactive map to help you find out.