All Week @ THE CHALK FACE
A Review of My Book by Someone Who Had Never Heard of Me
D. Forman had never heard of me. She had never read my blog, and she did not know that I had recently published my first book, A Chronicle of Echoes, a well-researched whistle blower on numerous major players exploiting American public education in the name of “reform.” She found my book when perusing the Amazon.com site; read the […]
The Conversation: Racial segregation returns to US schools, 60 years after the Supreme Court banned it
The Conversation: Racial segregation returns to US schools, 60 years after the Supreme Court banned it. via The Conversation: Racial segregation returns to US schools, 60 years after the Supreme Court banned it.Filed under: PAUL THOMAS: Becoming Radical
MAY 15
More on the USDOE Principal Ambassador Fellowship Program
On May 14, 2014, I wrote this post on the US Department of Education’s (USDOE) Principal Ambassador Fellowship Program (PAF). I note that via PAF, it is possible for US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to monitor and control local districts of education. My concern is that districts employing Duncan’s PAFs unwittingly open the door to site-level […]
My Speech to the Graduates: Don’t Listen to Graduation Speakers
My Speech to the Graduates: Don’t Listen to Graduation Speakers. via My Speech to the Graduates: Don’t Listen to Graduation Speakers.Filed under: PAUL THOMAS: Becoming Radical
Congratulations Mayor Baraka and Newark!
Congratulations Mayor Ras Baraka! Thank you Newark! Congratulations to all of you who help assume mayoral responsibilities! Ras Baraka and the students, teachers, and families of Newark have risen up and handed a pivotal defeat to corporate reformers. Your grassroots efforts repelled the last minute infusion of cash from the Billionaires’ Boys Club. You took […]
MAY 14
Arne Duncan’s “Principal Ambassadors”: Federally Monitored “Local Control”??
A notable corporate reform ploy is to starve school districts of funding and then turn around and offer some “assistance”– which amounts to little more than a district’s selling its autonomy to the corporate reform machine. Corporate reform is flush with cash, and it wants to leverage its cash in order to trap school systems […]
My Interview with Counterpunch
Sacramento jounralist Seth Sandronsky learned of the release of my book, A Chronicle of Echoes, and requested an interview on the book and other issues, including questions about my personal history and varied education reform topics. His interview is posted in the online publication, Counterpunch May 14, 2014 An Interview With Mercedes K. Schneider Bill Gates […]
MAY 13
College Dropout Bill Gates, Who Spends Millions on Harvard, Gets Honorary Doctorate
In 2007, Bill Gates spoke at Harvard University’s graduation. Gates dropped out of Harvard to start Microsoft. In 2007, Harvard awarded Gates an honorary doctorate. Gates has never had to follow a predetermined program of study in order to earn a college degree via traditional coursework. Moreover, since 1996, Gates has donated $262 million to Harvard in […]
MAY 11
Emeritus Professor Jack Hassard Reviews My Book
I first read of Georgia State University Emeritus Professor Jack Hassard in connection to his work on the Gates funding of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). In my search of Gates’ CCSS spending, I examined spending specific to the keyword “Common Core” with one addition (Fordham Institute). The total Gates CCSS spending from my search was $173.5 million. Hassard broadened […]
A Valuable Research Tool: The “Way Back Machine”
In exposing corporate reformers at their game, I have found that information sometimes “conveniently” disappears from websites once such information is publicized in a less-than-complimentary blog post. There is a way to view web pages that have been removed or otherwise altered: The “Way Back Machine”: https://archive.org/web/web.php The “Way Back Machine” is a search engine […]
On Foma and Mendacity: Letting the Cat Out of the Bag
On Foma and Mendacity: Letting the Cat Out of the Bag. via On Foma and Mendacity: Letting the Cat Out of the Bag.Filed under: PAUL THOMAS: Becoming Radical
For Mother’s Day, embrace the complications
It’s hard for me not to be slightly cynical on special days like this because they’re largely capitalist confections created by skilled marketers. Take a look at how far we’ve come from the original connotations of “Mother’s Day,” from the Zinn History Project. What began as a call to action, now we eat brunch and exchange […]
MAY 10
inBloom, BloomBoard, and the Undeniable, Corporate Reform “Need” for Student Data
On April 21, 2014, the Gates-funded data warehouse inBloom publicized that it was shutting down. The New York Times called it a “setback for the nearly $8 billion prekindergarten through 12th-grade education technology software market.” InBloom CEO Iwan Streichenberger calls it “a real missed opportunity for teachers and school districts seeking to improve student learning.” I’m sorry, but making
Rhetorical and/or philosophical question
Let’s say that your school, a low income area of an affluent major city, enrolls some of the most, shall we say, challenging upper elementary students you/I have ever seen. Day after day after day, they fight instruction and they fight among themselves. Their education is interrupted in what starts each day as minutes, then […]
Back live next week. For now, enjoy a studio version with public school parent Michelle
Enjoy your brunches. Then, listen to mom Michelle discuss her multi-year test refusal for her children.Filed under: SHAUN JOHNSON, PHD: Musings from the Chalk Face Tagged: at the chalk face, optout, testing
Behind the Scenes on the Chicago Teachers Union Anti-Common Core Resolution
On May 7, 2014, the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) passed a resolution against the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). That evening, I wrote this post and included my own experience and conversations on Lewis’ position on CCSS. In the post, I figuratively note that this is now a battle between Lewis and American Federation of Teachers (AFT) […]