All Week @ THE CHALK FACE
Why Tenure is Essential
I usually find it easier to communicate with conservative reformers like Mike Petrilli or Rick Hess. Unlike their liberal counterparts, they don’t have to contort themselves into crusaders for equity and justice. They don’t have to pretend that attacks on teachers and other workers is some sort of civil rights crusade. These defenders of Scott […]
South Carolina Officially Vamboozled
South Carolina Officially Vamboozled. via South Carolina Officially Vamboozled.Filed under: PAUL THOMAS: Becoming Radical
A few thoughts on #Vergara and Inequality
Why don’t the billionaires encourage parents to sue because of large class size creating inequality? Why don’t the billionaires encourage parents to sue because of a lack of school nurses & counselors creating inequality? Why don’t the billionaires encourage parents to sue because of a lack of music & art creating inequality? Why don’t the […]
A few thoughts on inequality and #Veraga
Why don’t the billionaires encourage parents to sue because of large class size creating inequality? Why don’t the billionaires encourage parents to sue because of a lack of school nurses & counselors creating inequality? Why don’t the billionaires encourage parents to sue because of a lack of music & art creating inequality? Why don’t the billionaires encourage parents […]
JUN 12
AFT’s American Educator: Voice of the Rank and File or Tool of the Reformers?
Guest Post: By Bianca Tanis Teachers are dosed with Common Core propaganda daily. A few times a year, this comes in the form of the American Federation of Teachers’ quarterly journal, American Educator. It is not surprising that the summer 2014 issue (which focuses primarily on early childhood) is chock full of “career and college ready” […]
POST VERGARA FALL OUT: Nothing says it any better than this from Brian Jones:
POST VERGARA FALL OUT: Nothing says it any better than this from Brian Jones:.Filed under: SHAUN JOHNSON, PHD: Musings from the Chalk Face
Fighting Vergara in California and Elsewhere
As a former legal historian and inner city teacher, I’m offended by Judge Rolf Treu’s one sentence legal justification of the key issue in Vergara v California. The judge ruled for Students Matter and struck down the hard-won rights of teachers based on a citation of California legal precedents that seems facile to me. Some […]
What We Tolerate (and for Whom) v. What the Rich Demand: On Teacher Quality
What We Tolerate (and for Whom) v. What the Rich Demand: On Teacher Quality. via What We Tolerate (and for Whom) v. What the Rich Demand: On Teacher Quality.Filed under: PAUL THOMAS: Becoming Radical
That Full-page Union-bashing Ad in USA Today
Remember that five-story billboard in Times Square in December 2013 and the accompanying full-page ad in the New York Times blaming American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten for 2012 US PISA scores? Both were the work of a union-busting “nonprofit,” the deceptively-named Center for Union Facts. Well, on June 12, 2014, the same union-busting group posted this full-page ad cel
Meditating on Teacher Unions and Tenure Post-Vergaras
Meditating on Teacher Unions and Tenure Post-Vergaras. via Meditating on Teacher Unions and Tenure Post-Vergaras.Filed under: PAUL THOMAS: Becoming Radical
JUN 11
La. BESE Member Jane Smith to Governor Jindal: Drop CC and PARCC
Below is an open letter written to Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal by Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) member and Jindal-appointee, Jane Smith. Smith wants to encourage Jindal to follow through on his plans to drop CCSS and PARCC in Louisiana. Let me add, it is certainly time. Using the words of the song […]
Higher Education Leaders who know nothing.
OK. Today might just be the day that I quit. If the leaders of our academic institutions have really decided to sign onto to something that has no empirical support specifically (that common core standards and high stakes tests better prepare students for college) and at the same time totally disregard tons of empirical support […]
My Book, A Chronicle of Echoes, is Now Available on Kindle
My newly-released whistle blower book detailing the expliotation of American public education, A Chronicle of Echoes: Who’s Who in the Implosion of American Public Education, is now available on Kindle. For some reason, the Kindle link is separate from the link for the paperback and hardcover. The Kindle link lacks all reviewer information that is available for people […]
This Week in “Please Shut Up”: Arne Duncan
This Week in “Please Shut Up”: Arne Duncan. via This Week in “Please Shut Up”: Arne Duncan.Filed under: PAUL THOMAS: Becoming Radical
Gates Moratorium Another Scam: Beware the Roadbuilders pt. 2
Gates Moratorium Another Scam: Beware the Roadbuilders pt. 2. via Gates Moratorium Another Scam: Beware the Roadbuilders pt. 2.Filed under: PAUL THOMAS: Becoming Radical
JUN 10
Duncan Dumps on Oklahoma in a June 9 Press Conference
US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan was asked in a June 9, 2014, press conference about Oklahoma’s decision to drop the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin– who also happens to be the chair of CCSS license co-owner National Governors Association (NGA)– signed Oklahoma HB 3399 into law on Thursday, June 5, 2014. Here are the two questions asked of […]
JUN 09
My response to @NCTQ’s attempt to legitimize bullsh!t—#optout!
It’s official. Anthony Cody just posted on the Education Bloggers Network that NCTQ will host a “media conference call” to release its 2014 Teacher Prep Review. Please understand that I am not in any way upset with Anthony. He simply shared a press release from the propaganda machine that calls itself the National Council for Teacher […]
Living in Dialogue: The Problem Isn’t Just Common Core, but the Entire Reform Agenda
Living in Dialogue: The Problem Isn’t Just Common Core, but the Entire Reform Agenda. via Living in Dialogue: The Problem Isn’t Just Common Core, but the Entire Reform Agenda.Filed under: PAUL THOMAS: Becoming Radical
Listening to a Teacher from a “No Excuses” Charter School
Listening to a Teacher from a “No Excuses” Charter School. via Listening to a Teacher from a “No Excuses” Charter School.Filed under: PAUL THOMAS: Becoming Radical
Maxine Greene and the “Frozen Sea Inside of Us”
Maxine Greene and the “Frozen Sea Inside of Us”. via Maxine Greene and the “Frozen Sea Inside of Us”.Filed under: PAUL THOMAS: Becoming Radical
JUN 08
Why Would WashPost Wait Three Months to Release a Gates Interview?
On Saturday, June 7, 2014, Lyndsey Layton of the Washington Post published this article based on a 28-minute interview she had with billionaire Common Core State Standards (CCSS) funder, Bill Gates. In the interview, Gates spills quite a bit of “insider information,” not the least of which is that in the summer of 2008, then-Council of Chief State […]
Defenders of the Status Quo
It never fails, at least in my state of New Mexico. Whenever one of us “little people” dares to speak up against the inept, dizzying, and out of control nonsense that continues to come from the “reformers” in our state government and education department, we are accused of “defending the status quo.” In other words, […]
To Jindal: Dump Common Core, PARCC, and White
Governor Bobby Jindal is apparently trying to muster up the courage to remove Louisiana from the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and associated Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Career (PARCC) assessments that he signed Louisiana on for in the first place. Of course, Jindal has changed his position due to his national political ambitions. […]
The well-meaning liberals of the world aren’t going to like the front page of the Washington Post
How Bill Gates bought us the Common Core. Thank you, and it wasn’t even my birthday. As a matter of fact, our right-wing brothers and sisters might not like this either since they believe this is a massive communist conspiracy. I’m also doubting, however, that many teachers know about this. I either hear glowing endorsements […]
JUN 07
Topical wisdom from one of my most favoritest education books of all-time
We are where we are in public education right now because of you. Yes, you. No, not you, dear reader, but the rest of you. Willful ignorance, it’s called. There was a time when I cared a great deal about the divisions of labor in the education workforce. I wrote this in 2009: Moreover, Sugg […]
A comment on a new report critical of co-locations in NYC, from a co-location insider @dianeravitch @edprogress @eduquity
I am a K teacher in a public school that co-locates with a charter. Our school is at a temporary site on the first and third floors of a building, while the charter is on the second. Although, we share a playground and “cafetorium” on the first floor. My anecdotes could fill volumes on what […]