CURMUDGUCATION:
Welcome to Common Core Hospital
Nurse Duncan: Welcome to Common Core Hospital. How may I assist you?Chris: My name's Chris Wobble. I was just in a car accident. My arms seems to be broken in about three places.Nurse Duncan: All righty, then. We just need to do some assessments here to see what shape you're in. As a major health care provider, your health data determines our success rate. Now first we're going to take your blood
Quarter Million Served
Some time this week, this blog passed the 250K mark. A quarter million.I've been up and running since August of last year, but it took me a couple of months to figure out what I was doing, and not till January of this year did my writer's gland really kick in. So I've done a huge amount of business in a short amount of time.There are several takeaways from this, I think. Because I don't think the
YESTERDAY
North Carolina To Teachers "Please Go Away"
There are several state legislatures that are working hard to earn the "Worst Legislature in America" medal. Florida, where it's cool to use terminally ill children as political tools and their families as punching bags, has always been a strong contender. New York State staked its claim by taking the extraordinary measure of overruling local government because they didn't like its decis
MAY 29
Transparency For Reals
Reformsters loves them some transparency. However, "transparency" what they means is "we want to show your school scores and teacher VAM scores and other fun data-ish stuff to the whole world." But if that's transparency, then Phyllis Schafly is a stripper. "Transparency" means that the man behind the curtain will pass out some numbers and we will treat them as revela
What Reformy Thing Most Needs To Die?
It's a fun thought experiment. If you could erase one aspect of the Reformy test-driven high-stakes privatizing Core-loving status quo, which would it be. If you had the political power to eliminate one head of the public-education-crushing hydra, which decapitation would lead your list?Yes, this is like playing "What would you do if you won the lottery," and yes, the various parts of th
MAY 28
What Should Conservatives Be For In Education
Over at the Young Guns network, Frederick Hess has asked and answered the question, "What should conservatives be for in education?"It's a good question. Conservatives have let themselves get boxed into a corner on the new test-driven high-stakes privatization status quo in education. On the one hand, the Obama administration has implemented education policies that are like a conservativ
#AskArne: Teach To Lead To Lead The Teaching Leaders
Bad news: Arne and the US DOE are back with another scrumdiliicious video interview with his royal Arneness.Good news: It's not all completely ridiculous. And as always, I'll watch it so that you don't have to. More times than usual, it turns out. I like to watch with the sound off to get a better non-verbal read, but the only captions available are the auto-captions, which are apparently set to &
MAY 27
Reasons To Oppose Common Core (and Reasons Not To)
"I'm arguing with my brother-in-law (or uncle or cranky neighbor of postal delivery person) about the Common Core, and I need some points to really shut him up."Can we help? Lots of folks have answered this need, and done it well (in particular, I recommend Anthony Cody's "Ten Colossal Errors.") But your brother-in-law may require something a bit more pithy. Let me offer some s
Test (In)Security
One of the features of High Stakes Testing is a level of security usually associated with large bales of money, important state secrets, and the recipe for Bush's Baked Beans. On facebook, in the category of "Ethical Dilemmas Nobody Ever Thought She'd Face," teachers are arguing about whether it's okay to photograph or copy any of the PARCC or SBA exams. I have a thought-- but first, let
MAY 26
Conservatives Don't Really Like School Choice
resourcescompetition doesn't foster excellencecompetition doesn't even foster competition
I'm Not Blogging Today
I realize that title launches me into some sort of post-modern metablogging fogbank, but hey-- it's the 21st century.Shortly I'll head out the door to march with a 158-year-old community band in a small town Memorial Day parade, followed by a program in the city park. Because this is all within walking distance, my wife and I will stroll home afterwards, stopping to visit her family.Along the way
MAY 25
CAP Serves Some CCSS Baloney
The Center for American Progress came down hard for the Common Core last week, providing yet another field test for the 100% baloney sandwich that is the Core's urban poor talking point menu.In "The Common Core Is An Opportunity for Educational Equity,", CAP asserts, "The Common Core State Standards hold promise for low-income students, students of color, English language learners,
MAY 24
AP Now Stands for Assessment Prep
In Which I Have To Take Back Some of the Nice Things I Said About AP Courses When I last wrote about the AP courses (this morning), I praised the looseness of the course design. I should have known better. Alert readers pointed me at the news from AP-land; apparently the looseness is now seen as a design flaw to be fixed.Some courses, like the Literature and Composition, still sum up the basics in
When Data Are Not Data
My favorite story of the last week ran in Valerie Strauss's "The Answer Sheet" on the Washington Post site and dealt with Arne Duncan's reaction to the increasingly loud chorus of VAM debunkers.The research showing VAM as ineffective is piling up. Research by Polikoff and Porter eviscerated, finding no real predictive power and suggesting that what VAM measures is not what we mean when w
Ap A-Ok?
The US DOE, among its many promotional and marketing activities, has been pushing hard for AP classes. This week they aimed loud praise noises at the state of Colorado for increasing AP participation in the state. The laudatory article declares success because more students take and pass the AP courses.But before parents and students get too excited about the spreading and blooming of AP courses,
What! Already?
The end of May is always hard. Tests, prom, yearbook distribution, my birthday, and suddenly it's finals and summer vacation. Already? Seriously?I know there are teachers who count down to the first day of summer vacation like it's Christmas morning. I am not one of those teachers. For me it's more like the countdown of a ticking bomb.There has never been enough time in the year. When I started te
