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This week on CounterSpin: Tunisia is hardly ever in the US news, but when demonstrations by a largely secular movement led to the ouster of the country’s long-ruling, American-backed dictator, US elite media took notice. We’ll talk with Helena Cobban of JustWorldNews about what is happening in Tunisia.
Also on the show: There’s been some pushback to so-called educational reform efforts with their emphasis on standardized tests as the preeminent measure of educational value, for students and teachers. The resistance isn’t just about the limited nature of tests, there’s also evidence that they just aren’t that useful. Wayne Au of the University of Washington has looked at the measures being used to grade teacher effectiveness; he’ll tell us what he found.
LINKS:
–“Neither Fair Nor Accurate,” by Wayne Au (Rethinking Schools, Winter 2010)
