(NOTE: This is the second time I’m publishing this post today. For some weird reason, the first time it was published RSS Feed Readers didn’t pick it up. I know it will look a little strange to have two identical posts showing up on my blog, but I also know that Twitter and Google+ readers have already bookmarked the previous version and I didn’t want to mess them up)

I usually just do a year-end list on this topic and many others, but it gets a little crazy having to review all of my zillion posts at once. So, to make it easier for me — and perhaps, to make it a little more useful to readers — I’m going to start publishing mid-year lists, too. These won’t be ranked, unlike my year-end “The Best…” lists, and just because a site appears on a mid-year list doesn’t guarantee it will be included in an end-of-the-year one (especially since this mid-year list is so long and will have to be trimmed-down). But, at least, I won’t have to review all my year’s posts in December…

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 — So Far:

On Treating Students & Educators ‘Like Rats in a Maze’ by Diane Ravitch

Teacher Evaluations through Student Testing by Linda Darling-Hammond

The Service of Democratic Education is a truly exceptional speech Linda Darling-Hammond gave at Teachers College of Columbia University.

On False Dichotomies and Warped Reformy Logic is from School Finance 101.

Five myths about America’s schools is an excellent Washington Post column by Post reporter Paul Farhi.

An excellent post appeared in The Washington Post’s “The Answer Sheet” titled NY regent: Why we shouldn’t link teacher evaluation to test scores.

I wrote Videotaping teachers the right way (not the Gates way) that also was in The Washington Post.

Mathematical Intimidation: Driven by the Data is by John Ewing, president of Math For America. He provides a good critique of value-added assessment.

Larry Cuban has written a very important post titled Teacher Resistance and Reform Failure

Who’s Bashing Teachers and Public Schools and What Can We Do About It? appeared in Rethinking Schools and is by Stan Karp.

What Do Teachers “Produce”? is by Diana Senechal and appeared in the Core Knowledge Blog.

The Test Generation is an article by Dana Goldstein that was published in The American Prospect magazine. It gives an excellent overview of what’s happening around the country, and particularly in Colorado, around high-stakes standardized testing.

The beatings will continue until teacher morale improves appeared in the Christian Science Monitor and is by Walt Gardner.

What I Learned at School is an op-ed in The New York Times. It’s written by novelist Marie Myung-Ok Lee.

Déjà vu all over again: A lesson from the history of school reform is by Mike Rose and appeared in The Washington Post.

Common Core Confusion – ASCD Edition is by David B. Cohen.

Race to Self Destruction: A History Lesson for Education Reformers is by Yong Zhao.

5 myths about teachers that are distracting policymakers is by Barnett Berry and appeared in The Washington Post.

I worked with a group of talented inner-city teachers from throughout the United States last year through the Center For Teaching Quality. We created a pretty thorough report, “Transforming School Conditions: Building Bridges to the Education System That Students And Teachers Deserve.” You can read my summary of the report in The Washington Post, as well as finding a link to the entire study.

The American Association of School Administrators has published the text of a speech (and the video) Diane Ravitch gave at their recent conference, and I don’t think you’re going to read or hear a better commentary on education anywhere. You can read the text of her speech here.

Here are links to the video of her speech, dividing into three parts:

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Blinded by Reform is by Professor Mike Rose.

In Performance Evaluations, Subjectivity Is Not Random is from The Shanker Blog.

Matthew Di Carlo at the Shanker Blog wrote How Many Teachers Does It Take To Close An Achievement Gap?

Here’s a great column from The Seattle Times pointing out that small class sizes were important to Bill Gates when he went to school, and are an important reason why he sends his kids to the school they attend.

The Columbia Journalism Review has an excellent article on the issue of newspapers publishing teacher rankings based on test scores.

Richard Rothstein has written a great piece titled Fact-Challenged Policy.

Evaluating New York Teachers, Perhaps the Numbers Do Lie is an article from The New York Times. Check-out the equation above the headline!

Gates’ Measures of Effective Teaching Study: More Value-Added Madness is by Justin Baeder at Ed Week.

The Teaching Experience appeared on the Shanker Blog.

“It makes no sense”: Puzzling over Obama’s State of the Union Speech is the title of an excellent post by scholar Yong Zhao.

The Children Must Play: What the United States could learn from Finland about education reform is a very good article in The New Republic.

Teachers: How do We Propose to Measure Student Outcomes? is a very good post by Anthony Cody at Ed Week.

PISA For Our Time: A Balanced Look is another excellent post from The Shanker blog.

Neither Fair Nor Accurate • Research-Based Reasons Why High-Stakes Tests Should Not Be Used to Evaluate Teachers comes from Rethinking Schools.

Though it appeared in late December of last year, I’m still including Teachers’ Union Leading School Reform? Impossible! by Anthony Cody at Ed Week.

Premises, Presentation And Predetermination In The Gates MET Study appeared at the Shanker Blog.

Why organizational misconduct happens: A look at the Atlanta cheating scandal by Aaron Pallas is clearly the best and most thoughtful piece I’ve seen on the Atlanta cheating scandal.

Though it’s not an article or post, The Daily Show with Diane Ravitch has to be on this list. It was a classic. Jon Stewart opened with what was probably the most insightful, funny, and effective response I have seen to on-going teacher-bashing. Ten minutes later, Diane Ravitch came on and did a fabulous interview. The first two videos are the two segments of the amazing opening piece on schools, and then the third is the interview with Diane Ravitch:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
Crisis in the Dairyland – For Richer and Poorer
www.thedailyshow.com
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Feedback is welcome.

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