This post is an essay I recently published in Kappan. Here's a link to the original. I also presented these ideas in a talk. Here's a link to the PowerPoint slides of that talk. The story is in the title. See what you think. Americans are overschooled By David F. Labaree | Mar 9, 2026 | Backtalk No … Continue reading Americans Are Overschooled
The post is an essay by Eli Stark-Elster from his Substack. Here's a link to the original. His argument is that -- although there's a lot of talk now about the damage that social media are doing to children and major efforts to ban social media use for anyone under 16 -- there's a bigger … Continue reading Eli Stark-Elster — School Is Way Worse for Kids than Social Media
This post is a piece I published in Teachers College Record in 2014. Here’s a link to the original. It’s an analysis of two major players in the world movement for educational accountability: OECD’s Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), and the US No Child Left Behind law. The core argument is this: Both PISA and NCLB, I argue, … Continue reading Let’s Measure What No One Teaches
This post is a piece by my favorite education writer, Jay Mathews at the Washington Post. Here's a link to the original. It's his discussion of a new book by Tom Loveless at the Brookings Institution, Between the State and the Schoolhouse: Understanding the Failure of Common Core. The book is an examination of why … Continue reading Jay Mathews — Why Plans to Raise Educational Standards Will Never Work
This post is about a 1975 paper by James G. March, which was published in, of all places, the Texas Tech Journal of Education. Given that provenance, it's something you likely have never encountered before unless someone actually handed it to you. I used it in a number of my classes and wanted to share … Continue reading James March: Education and the Pursuit of Optimism
This post is an essay by Perry Bacon that was published recently in the Washington Post. Here's a link to the original. The title tells the story. Crisis is an overused word in the politics of American education, and his analysis shows that it doesn't fit the data. See what you think. We don’t have an … Continue reading Perry Bacon — We Don’t Have an Education Crisis in America
This post is a recent piece by Larry Cuban that appeared on his blog. Here's a link to the original. The title tells the story. But they way he tells the story is delightful. Policymakers and Teachers Live in Different Worlds Larry Cuban Here’s a story about the different worlds that U.S policymakers and teachers live in … Continue reading Larry Cuban — Policymakers and Teachers Live in Different Worlds
This post is a recent essay by Beckie Supiano from the Chronicle of Higher Education. Here's a link to the original. There's been a lot written lately about the effect that the pandemic had on student learning, and this piece picks up on some of that analysis. But what I find so compelling about this piece … Continue reading How School Reform Deformed Student Learning
This post is a piece from a recent edition of The Economist. Here's a link to the original. It focuses on a key issue in educational policy in the developing world. When you expand educational opportunity to a population that has had little access in the past, where do you focus your efforts? As the … Continue reading India’s Education Problem
This post is a paper I published Educational Theory in 2008. Here’s a link to the original. In is included as a chapter in my new book, The Ironies of Schooling. In this essay, I examine the paradox of educationalization in the American context. I argue that, like most modern Western societies, the United States has displayed a … Continue reading The Winning Ways of a Losing Strategy: Educationalizing Social Problems in the US
