John King to Superintendents: Be “Judicious” When Deciding Whom to Fire
New York Education Commissioner John King sent this Field Memo to district leadership on August 2, letting them all know that the results of the Common Core-aligned state standardized tests would soon be released. Finally! He also had some things to say that are quite troubling. If you remember, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and […]
Just a quick thought on teaching as a “calling.”
It isn’t. Well, not exactly. It shouldn’t, at least, be framed entirely that way. A “calling” to me implies religious or spiritual significance. For teachers, are they expected to walk through hot coals, endure a thousand lashes, for the sake of the children? After all, they are flesh and blood human beings with needs, desires, […]
How Education Reform Works Today in Four Simple Steps. By John Stoffel
How Education Reform Works Today in Four Simple Steps 1. Fund research (often with taxpayer support). • Tell researcher your hypothesis. • Have researcher gather data. • Have researcher compare data to your hypothesis. • Have researcher change data to match your hypothesis. 2. Fund three groups with imposing names • 1st group warns nation […]
Have you heard of Blue Engine? Well, take a seat.
I want you to read the following poem by Shel Silverstein, one that is the inspiration for a new “reformy” organization called Blue Engine. The little blue engine looked up at the hill. His light was weak, his whistle was shrill. He was tired and small, and the hill was tall, And his face blushed […]
YESTERDAY
Brian Jones interviewed by Reclaiming the Conversation on Education
“The students, the learners themselves have to have power.” Brian P. Jones Saw this on Tumblr this morning and wanted to disseminate it. Last spring I participated in a conference at Barnard College called Reclaiming the Conversation on Education. At one point, someone pulled me into a classroom to do an interview about the landscape […]
Let the Excuses Begin: Defending the Status Quo!
Smells like a lot of excuses coming from the “no excuses” crowd—and a heaping serving of status quo gravy on top: The most embarrassing posting on Education Week ever (and that’s saying a lot): Rick and Tony
James Baldwin (Aug. 2, 1924 – Dec. 1, 1987) | the becoming radical
James Baldwin (Aug. 2, 1924 – Dec. 1, 1987) | the becoming radical.
Reflections on BOCES PD re: Second Grade Math
Yesterday, I went to a BOCES offered “training” in the Math Modules for second grade. I made the choice to attend this and the upcoming one about ELA modules simply because I wanted to see and hear what other teachers are saying AND to find out what the BOCES employees have been told in Albany. […]
AUG 01
Control for this!
Last night my wife had a totally different idea than I about how to handle a parenting situation. I insisted that my “Dad way” was needed. My wife simply looked at me (the wrong way) and I decided to loudly (yell) say that I “was sick of being undermined when it comes to being a […]
Why Can’t DFER Deal Will Education Evidence?
Mac LeBuhn, of Democrats for Education Reform (DFER), started his six-part book club series on Jal Mehta’s The Allure of Order with the solid statement on its conclusion that the standards-based accountability policy paradigm “is an ill-conceived and inadequate response to America’s domestic and international achievement gaps.” But, LeBuhn downplays Mehta’s findings. Mehta, for instance, […]
“Track and Improve Your School Culture”
LiveSchool is a start-up in the total surveillance urban school business that offers a tech tool for meting out rewards and punishments. It is unapologetically based on the “banking model” of education, and it has been embraced by Bloomberg and other Wall Street hustlers as a way to make a dirty buck on the backs […]
#TFA neophytes will now get to adopt wards of the state. No joke.
You too can become a surrogate for any child who is a ward of the state of IL. It’s just that easy. See here to “join.” Submit your own proposal to be a surrogate parent. Why would we let TFA do this? Because poor kids, that’s why.
I had to try to DCSD school choice selector.
Edushyster brought me to this and I had to try it out for myself. This has to be one of the most inane ideas I’ve seen a while, and I want to know what bonehead earning six figures came up with this: the School Choice Selector. Here’s the opening image: First, you have to sort […]
From St. Louis’s Leafy Suburbs: Equal Education for All Unless You’re Black or Poor
“I think that any time you disturb a culture — you’re bringing in a variable that is unknown — I think it has the ability to create some unrest because you don’t know how the variable’s going to play out in the culture you already have.” No, that wasn’t George Wallace in 1963–that was Pam […]
John Merrow, Welcome to Our World of the Ignored
At his Taking Note blog, John Merrow laments: “The op-ed below has been rejected by four newspapers, three of them national publications. One editor’s rejection note said that Michelle Rhee was not a national story.” On Twitter, Rachel Levy, though, noted: “That @John_Merrow story that no one will print? I did so 2.5 yrs ago.” Her […]
JUL 31
Humility: A Lesson Most Needed and Least Often Acknowledged | the becoming radical
The list of what public schools need in the US is long and complex, but a great starting point would be lessons in humility for those who have decided they know best when all the evidence suggests otherwise. READ FULL POST HERE: Humility: A Lesson Most Needed and Least Often Acknowledged | the becoming radical.
Kindergarten CCSS madness? Buckle up Robin!
My recent post of first grade vocabulary from the New York State Education Department’s EngageNY website created a tremendous discussion. Is Common Core curriculum produced by Core Knowledge© age appropriate? Is this a symptom of the Common Core in general? Does the Common Core address the cognitive development of primary aged students? Once again the […]
Hear that folks? A wonk at AEI says we can draw any conclusions we want about data
Fantastic. Phew. .@kevincarey1 Not defending or disparaging. You can come to whatever conclusion you like based on the data. point was, look it up. — Andrew P. Kelly (@AndrewPKelly) July 31, 2013
The “New Paternalism” versus the Fordham Institute’s Assault on Teachers
I have fond childhood memories of my Hog Nosed snake, and how he would alternately strike out like a rattlesnake and then flop on his back, playing possum. I loved that critter and it is in the same spirit that I address the theorizing of Mike “the New Paternalist” Petrilli. Petrilli will alternately exhibit the […]
Bennett and Flo Rida, match made in heaven #NCSC13
What happened in IN, you know, with former state supe Bennett and fixing the grades of a big donor’s charter school? Didn’t I just wax philosophical about my previous reverence for those in “Central Office?” I did. But these are the ones that fudge data and school grades. Where do they get these people, anyway? In […]
My appearance on Baltimore’s @marcsteiner show. Thanks, brother.
Check it out here or listen below. There was a time that I revered those that made it into “Central Office.” The pay is good, often in the six figures. You wear suits. People ask your opinion. But then I grew up. How do people get these jobs? Hard work, sure enough. But these aren’t, […]
Barbara Madeloni running for MTA President
Friend and stalwart sister in arms Barbara Madeloni is running for President of the Massachusetts Teachers Association. If you’re in the state, or know someone who is, consider throwing your support behind this campaign.
JUL 30
Parcc 90210
PARCC will be field testing its assessments in fourteen states and DC next spring. Normally I would be firing up the opt out machine to protest another waste of my children’s time but a fellow education advocate gave me a different idea: She stated “the only thing worse than no data is bad data” referencing how […]
With support from @drjohnthompson, the case of the missing teaching experience #optorcop
This is really the last time I need to comment on this because we have to move on. I told you, dear reader, of my attendance at a recent Fordham event on the potential for opt outs of test-based accountability. Here’s video of my question, comment. When I try to assert my credibility in debates […]
To follow up on Chris Cerrone’s great post on #ECE
Chris Cerrone has a great post up including some examples of first-grade vocabulary from CCSS. Can it be argued as a good thing that first graders are now going to be taught the meaning of Ziggurat? I thought the CCSS was not supposed to be a checklist of things. Check out our most recent interview […]
JUL 29
Holy Mesopotamia Batman: First Grade CCSS vocabulary.
I have been giving the New York State Education Department’s new Common Core curriculum modules a study over the last few weeks. I see these modules as an insulting scripted curriculum that favors test preparation skills over learning. I teach middle school social studies so new reforms such as the Common Core have not had […]
Hey… hey power? Meet truth. Watch this exchange. Amazing.
Former school employee, not sure if she was a teacher or not, but she’s absolutely right: middling class individuals are held to a standard such that private or public errors in judgment have the potential for long-lasting consequences. Then you have this guy, blasts his junk all over the Internet, and he wants the highest […]