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Rotherham: We need a national commission on inclusion for transgender student athletes
When I was in high school I worked part time at a dry cleaners. One day, a regular customer came in and asked to speak with me privately. He was, he told me, about to undergo a process to change his gender that involved some physical changes and was concerned that because the legalities would...
By Andrew Rotherham | June 24, 2021
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Rotherham: Who the next ed secretary will be is the wrong parlor game. The real question — which party will get its act together on education first?
Voters delivered a split verdict in November’s election. Joe Biden defeated an incumbent president by the largest margin since FDR in 1932. Yet he’s poised to be the first president since Grover Cleveland to come into office without a Senate majority. That mixed message continued down ballot despite the sense that 2020 would be a...
By Andrew Rotherham | December 9, 2020
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Rotherham: Kick out school resource officers? Sure. But counselors must be brought in to take their place
The killing of George Floyd is rightfully sparking a hard and overdue look at the American relationship with law enforcement, in particular, about race and policing. In the education world, that means the role of police in schools — especially school resource officers, or SROs — is again under scrutiny. When schools in Minneapolis announced...
By Andrew Rotherham | June 17, 2020
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Rotherham: Phonics. Whole language. Balanced literacy. The problem isn’t that we don’t know how to teach reading — it’s politics
Policymakers are focusing on the craft of teaching reading. They must also focus on the politics. Last year’s NAEP scores continued a lackluster streak and set off a predictable bout of handwringing. This time, it was reading instruction — or, more precisely, our national pandemic of ineffective reading instruction — catching the flak. In response,...
By Andrew Rotherham | March 2, 2020