There have been so many excellent posts and articles about school reform (and videos, too!) this year that it’s been extraordinarily difficult to narrow them down.

So, I gave up. I’m keeping The Best Articles & Posts On Education Policy In 2011 — So Far, which covers the first six months of this year, and making this “Part Two” post so that it only covers the last six months.

In addition to Part One, you might also be interested in these previous editions:

The Best Articles & Posts On Education Policy — 2010

The “Best” Articles (And Blog Posts) About Education Policy — 2009

The “Best” Articles About Education — 2008

The “Best” Articles About Education — 2007

Here are my choices for The Best Articles & Posts On Education Policy In 2011 — Part Two (not listed in order of preference):

How Online Learning Companies Bought America’s Schools is from The Nation.

Roxanna Elden has hit another home run with her post “Five School Reform Sound Bites That Hurt Teacher Buy-In.”

I’m going to humbly include Why schools should not grade character traits, a piece I wrote for The Washington Post.

Paradoxes of the Finland Phenomenon is by Joe Bower.

Atul Gawande’s feature article The New Yorker, Personal Best: Top athletes and singers have coaches. Should you?, sure sparked a lot of discussion on instructional coaches. I did an interview with Pam Moran, the Superintendent of the District featured in Gawande’s article. It is, be far, the most important piece on instructional coaching I’ve seen.

Linda Darling-Hammond’s Getting teacher evaluation right at The Answer Sheet may be THE piece on teacher evaluation.

The Grass Is Greener: Learning from Other Countries is by Yong Zhao.

Bias toward Numbers in Judging Teaching is by Larry Cuban.


School ‘Reform’: A Failing Grade
is by Diane Ravitch.

What Americans Think About Teachers Versus What They’re Hearing is from The Shanker Blog.

Why Are Finland’s Schools Successful? is from The Smithsonian Magazine.

Scapegoating is by Richard Kahlenberg.

When an adult took standardized tests forced on kids is from Valerie Strauss’ blog at The Washington Post.

Feedback is welcome.

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