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Eduwonkette

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Eduwonkette was an initially anonymous blog written by education researcher Jennifer Jennings. It was originally published independently, but was “quickly” picked up by Education Week where it now appears.[1] Gothamist called the blog "a regular irritant to the Dept. of Education and the Bloomberg administration."[2]

"Eduwonkette" told an interviewer for The New York Sun that she preserves her anonymity because "Universities expect us to devote our time exclusively to research, and blogging is a hard sell in that environment," she said. "It's still a new enough activity that universities don't quite know how to appraise its value."[1]

Historian of education Diane Ravitch called Eduwonkette's work "brilliant."[1] Others criticized her for maintaining anonymity on the grounds that the identities, and thereby the biases, of participants in public debates on education ought to be known.[1] The blog broke stories that were later picked up by the press.[3][4][5]

In August 2008, a story in New York magazine revealed Eduwonkette to be Jennings, then a sociology graduate student at Columbia University.[6] On January 26, 2009, she announced that she was "hanging up her cape" to join the sociology department at New York University.[7]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d Green, Elizabeth (July 7, 2008). "An Anonymous Education Blogger Becomes Thorn in City's Side". The New York Sun. Retrieved 2008-07-07.
  2. ^ Hogarty, Dave (July 7, 2008). "Extra, Extra". Gothamist. Archived from the original on August 28, 2008. Retrieved 2008-07-08.
  3. ^ Wolf, Andrew (June 27, 2008). "Middle Management". The New York Sun. Retrieved 2008-07-07.
  4. ^ Wolf, Andrew (October 12, 2007). "Return to Evander High". The New York Sun. Retrieved 2008-07-07.
  5. ^ "Did predictable test questions inflate New York test scores?". SmartBrief. July 2, 2008. Retrieved 2008-07-07.
  6. ^ "Wonder Wonk Unmasked: How a sociology grad student’s anonymous blog tried to throw a lasso of truth around Bloomberg’s school-reform hype"
  7. ^ "eduwonkette hangs up her cape". January 26, 2009. Retrieved 2010-10-15.
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