Weekend reads: What Joel Klein wishes he had told city teachers

By 
Jaclyn Zubrzycki
 | November 7, 2014, 10:46pm UTC
  • Joel Klein shares the letter he wishes he’d sent to New York teachers while he was chancellor, in an excerpt from his book. (Atlantic)
  • What the “performance revolution” in sports and music means for how we build better teachers. (The New Yorker)
  • Diane Ravitch reviews Yong Zhao’s new book that argues that Chinese schools are not, in fact, superior to American ones. (NYRB)
  • The former head of a D.C school donates a trove of education memorabilia to the Smithsonian. (Washington Post)
  • On striving for perfection while knowing it’s not attainable in the classroom. (HufPo)
  • Do schools really need principals? Some schools are pushing back against the idea of “principal-as-CEO.” (Slate)
  • Eva Moskowitz discusses the scalability of schools like Success Academy and lambastes unionized teacher forces in a video interview. (Reason)
  • Some of the War on Poverty’s college access programs are still having an impact 50 years later. (Education Week)
  • The Roots are creating a music education foundation after their Philadelphia high school suffered major budget cuts. (Mic.com)
  • Twenty-six groups and school districts will get federal innovation grants if they can find matching funds. (Politics K-12)
  • The NEA earned a distinction this week: New York Times crossword answer. It might be less than pleased about the prompt: “Common Core org.” (Russo)
  • A special education teacher says students who are empowered will stay in school and out of prison. (Hechinger Report)
  • One city parent laments that her son’s teachers simply do not use email. (Inside Schools)
  • Echoes from the Gap profiles a student named Cornelius and asks how he came to drop out of school. (Edtrust)
  • A parents’ guide to the Common Core explains the standards and the debate swirling around them. (Lifehacker)
  • Voters across the country this week rejected Common Core-supporting lawmakers. (Reason)
  • The New York Times announced a pair of schoolwide digital subscription options. (New York Times)
  • An international school in Flushing shares how to teach students who are alone in the country. (NPR)