Andrew Wilk

Andrew Wilk teaches both English and English as a Second Language (ESL) at Parkland College in Champaign, Illinois, and during the 2014-15 academic year he was nominated for the Teaching Excellence Award at the college in recognition of his work in the classroom. In addition to teaching at both the secondary and college level, he worked for many years in the private sector, holding professional and administrative positions in advertising, journalism and healthcare. Wilk has published over 100 commentaries on topics ranging from politics to education, and he has also published a novel, “A Day at the Fair with Chili Boy.” He writes on his blog, Common Sense. He received his B.A. from Yale University and M.A. from the University of Connecticut, and he holds a Professional Educator License in Illinois.

Posts By Andrew Wilk

Achievement Gap

Too Many Students Drop Out of Community Colleges. Here's How We Fix It.

"Persistence" is a buzzword most educators at community colleges hear a great deal. We know too many community college students enter classes in the fall and soon disappear from campus—often before...

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Teaching

Our Classrooms Could Use a Little Bit of Silence

I recently watched—for perhaps the hundredth time—the mother of all classic horror movies, the original 1931 Dracula starring the incomparable Bela Lugosi. The movie is always a pleasure, but...

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California

Scandals Don't Just Happen in Politics, They Also Take Place In Our Classrooms

New York, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Detroit, Chicago and Los Angeles: These cities and countless others across the United States have dealt with scandals involving their public school systems over the...

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School Discipline

Illinois Is Trying Out a New School Discipline Law, But Will It Make Schools Safer?

Perhaps it is to be expected in our politically polarized country, but opinions about the state of discipline in our public schools fall into two fundamentally irreconcilable camps: There is far too...

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School Funding

Will We Still Do Right by Kids When the Money Runs Out?

Over the last couple of decades we have seen a parade of federal education reforms— No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top, the Every Student Succeeds Act, among others—followed by a circuitous parade...

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student achievement

‘Counterfeit’ Diplomas: We’re Killing Our Kids With Kindness

I recently had my developmental (remedial) English students complete an essay assignment that required them to read and respond to an editorial in The New York Times entitled “The Counterfeit High...

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