Deborah Carter: The Reality of #Teaching
Maryland Teacher and member of the Badass Teacher Association, Deborah Carter, summarizes the reasons she teaches. This week, a girl called me a bitch. A mom emailed the same day, demanding that her 11th grade son receive full credit for an assignment that did not come close to following the directions (and was turned in […]
#Occupylafayette, happening now, shaking my head
Parents, students, and educators occupied Lafayette ES in Chicago, slated for closure. This is a brilliant form of protest, everyone there should be applauded for their courage. This is quite a beautiful building in the picture. I cannot imagine what the city is planning to do with it. Below is an image from a friend […]
Chiefs for #butthurt?
I wanted to quickly follow-up with an image and a question based on Jim Horn’s post earlier today about Chiefs for Change. Sorry Jim, I had to do it. Chiefs, are you butthurt? It’s OK, you can tell us.
The End Might Be Near for Common Core
Especially in the last few months, John Merrow has hit some tape-measure home runs. Merrow’s strike outs can be just as amazing. His last whiff is a doozy. Merrow tried to use some humor and experimental prose to criticize the recent trend where, supposedly, “the arrival of the Common Core apparently means the end of the […]
Chiefs for Change Angered by Duncan’s Temporary Flirt with Sanity
As pressure mounts from parents, students, educators, and admininstrators against high stakes testing and Common Core Corporate Standards, Team Obama has finally blinked. ED will offer a one year reprieve to those 37 states formerly bribed with RTTT money to adopt the CC and teacher eval based on Common Core national tests. Such a move […]
The End Might Be Near for Common Core
Especially in the last few months, John Merrow has hit some tape-measure home runs. Merrow’s strike outs can be just as amazing. His last whiff, is a doozy. Merrow tried to used some humor and experimental prose to criticize the recent trend where, supposedly, “the arrival of the Common Core apparently means the end of the […]
Chief Wonk tells a funny, interesting enough if it wasn’t also milquetoast
It’s this guy, Rotherham. Bellwether, or what have you. Some consulting firm. Some kind of professional love affair brewing between Duncan and Weingarten? M-haps. Although, I would have used the Tiffany version instead. Tagged: Duncan, rotherham, weingarten
Breaking Non-News! The Rise of Poverty and the Fall of the Middle Class Affect Schools
The next time you see the world’s richest corporation, Exxon Mobil, trying to use school bashing to divert attention away from their obscene wealth, minimal tax rate, job export plan, and climate change denial positions, be reminded of the other facts that help us understand what may have contributed to our international test score positions–25th […]
Teaching in Dystopia: The Common Corpse
Offred (June) in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale examines a subtle distinction about words: “We lived, as usual, by ignoring. Ignoring isn’t the same as ignorance, you have to work at it” (p. 56). In the dystopia of Gilead, Handmaids gradually and then fully conform to their status: “That is what we are now. The […]
Speaking more truth to Parent Revolution plutocrat power
“The resolution by board member Steve Zimmer requires the district to independently verify the signatures and how they’re gathered by Parent Revolution, the group that helps to organize parents in efforts to take over schools. The district will also increase the amount and types of information available, such as an analysis of five years of […]
Using the Los Angeles school privatization pushers’ own propaganda against themselves
“Several studies of Los Angeles schools showed substantial gains from class size reduction. One found that smaller classes increased reading scores by 9.5%, math scores by 13.9% and language scores by 14.5%, with double these gains for “high need” students. Two other controlled studies also show significant gains in Los Angeles, with effect sizes that […]
6-18-13 @ THE CHALK FACE knows SCHOOLS MATTER
@ THE CHALK FACE knows SCHOOLS MATTER: [image: gears] I’ve visited @NCTQ, we should all be underwhelmed #teacherprep by Chalk Face, PhD Paul Thomas and Jim Horn have already warned us about NCTQ and its thoroughly biased “advocacy.” There are some updated links in there, here’s a few more on the new report specifically: From NPR; NCTQ’s chief hypocrisy; And MSNBC. and the Wall Street Journal. Kind of a mixed bag here. I’m not sure if there’s […] Microsoft No. 1–in Turning Over Data to NSA by Jim Horn You might say that Gates got the ball rolling. From the PRISM slide show rec... more »