Port City Notebook

News, views and random observations around Alexandria

Archive for May 2015

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A Parent Responds to Alexandria Gazette Article Concerning the New T.C. Principal

Regular readers of the Port City Notebook know that I have been frustrated for many years by the coverage of our public schools in the local news media and the extent to which it often falls short of the standards of responsible journalism. A recent article in the Alexandria Gazette, Getting To Know T.C. Williams High School’s New Principal, is a perfect example. Before Dr. Jesse Dingle has even landed […]

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What I’m Reading: The Smartest Kids in the World (and How They Got That Way)

In The Smartest Kids in the World (Simon & Schuster, 2013), Time magazine writer Amanda Ripley sets out to answer a puzzling question: How are a few countries able to educate all of their kids to succeed at high levels, while the U.S., which spends more per student than most countries, cannot? Ripley uses the Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA, developed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and […]

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