Dropout Nation: Coverage of the Reform of American Public Education Edited by RiShawn Biddle

Rewind: The Dropout Nation Podcast: Get Rid of Poor-Performing Teachers (and the System that Protects Them)

RiShawn Biddle — Sat, 27 Nov 2010 16:00:50 +0000

Photo courtesy of GothamGazette.org

As you wind down from the Thanksgiving weekend, listen to this Dropout Nation Podcast, on the need to get poor-performing teachers out of classrooms. The damage wrecked by ineffective teaching — and the culture of mediocrity they foster — is promoted and sustained by schools of education, collective bargaining agreements, state laws and cultures within districts.

You can listen to the Podcast at RiShawn Biddle’s radio page or download your iPod, Zune, MP3 player or smartphone. Also, subscribe to the podcast series. It is also available on iTunes, Blubrry, Podcast Alley, the Education Podcast Network, Zune Marketplace and PodBean. Also, add the podcast on Viigo, if you have a BlackBerry, iPhone or Android phone.

The Dropout Nation Podcast: Ending the Poverty Myth in Education

RiShawn Biddle — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 16:08:54 +0000

On this week’s Dropout Nation Podcast, I take a look at the myth perpetrated by defenders of American public education’s status quo that poverty is the root cause of the nation’s educational failure and dropout crisis. Contrary to such arguments, poverty isn’t a factor in low student achievement; it is the systemic problems in education (including low-quality teaching and curricula) that has caused so much damage to our poorest kids.

You can listen to the Podcast at RiShawn Biddle’s radio page or download directly to your iPod, Zune, MP3 player or smartphone. Also, subscribe to the podcast series. It is also available on iTunes, Blubrry, Podcast Alley, the Education Podcast Network, Zune Marketplace and PodBean. And the podcast on Viigo, if you have a BlackBerry, iPhone or Android phone.

The Dropout Nation Podcast: Five Steps Toward Fostering Great Teachers

RiShawn Biddle — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 11:24:29 +0000

On this week’s Dropout Nation Podcast, I offer some important steps towards recruiting and developing more high-quality teachers. Eliminating tenure, eliminating seniority-based benefits and embracing the use of student performance data — along with moves such as the dismissal of 241 poor-performing teachers last week by D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee — are important steps towards improving teacher quality. But we must also improve how we recruit, train and reward good-to-great teachers in order to improve instruction for every child and foster high quality performance throughout all of American public education.

You can listen to the Podcast at RiShawn Biddle’s radio page or download directly to your iPod, MP3 player or smartphone. Also, subscribe to the podcast series. It is also available on iTunes, Blubrry, Podcast Alley, the Education Podcast Network, Zune Marketplace and PodBean. Also, add the podcast on Viigo, if you have a BlackBerry, iPhone or Android phone.

Rewind: The Dropout Nation Podcast: Building Long-Lasting Connections Between Teachers and Students

RiShawn Biddle — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 13:32:28 +0000

Steven Evangelista with Eva Moskowitz. Photo courtesy of GothamSchools.org

For those who read the New York Times report on the use of Facebook by students to praise their teachers — or Bijan Sabat’s own thoughts on the matter — listen to this Dropout Nation Podcast on Harlem Link Charter School co-founder Steven Evangelista and how his rediscovery of one of his former students — and where the kid landed — is forcing him to look at one of the biggest challenges to stemming the nation’s dropout crisis.

In an age in which Facebook and Twitter can help friends and family deepen connection, why isn’t American public education using technology and social media — including school data systems — to broaden the crucial bond between teacher and student (especially a student who needs those bonds to stay on the path to graduation) long after the child leaves the classroom. Unfortunately, the same rules that hinder the development of school data system — a matter about which I discussed in A Byte At the Apple also complicate this work.

You can listen to the Podcast at RiShawn Biddle’s radio page or download directly to your iPod or MP3 player. Also, subscribe to the podcast series. It is also available on iTunes, Blubrry, Podcast Alley, the Education Podcast Network and Zune Marketplace.

The Dropout Nation Podcast: Building Long-Lasting Connections Between Teachers and Students

RiShawn Biddle — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 13:41:05 +0000

On this week’s Dropout Nation Podcast, I profile Harlem Link Charter School co-founder Steven Evangelista and how his rediscovery of one of his former students — and where the kid landed — is forcing him to look at one of the biggest challenges to stemming the nation’s dropout crisis. In an age in which Facebook and Twitter can help friends and family deepen connection, why isn’t American public education using technology and social media — including school data systems — to broaden the crucial bond between teacher and student (especially a student who needs those bonds to stay on the path to graduation) long after the child leaves the classroom?

The Dropout Nation Podcast: Get Rid of Poor-Performing Teachers (and the System that Protects Them)

RiShawn Biddle — Sun, 16 May 2010 12:21:28 +0000

On this week’s Dropout Nation Podcast, I discuss how poor-performing teachers damage the educational destinies of students, bring down the morale of their colleagues and foster the nation’s dropout crisis. The damage wrecked by ineffective teaching — and the culture of mediocrity they foster — is promoted and sustained by schools of education, collective bargaining agreements, state laws and cultures within districts.