Curmudgucation Week
NEA Gets It Wrong Again
I would probably not pick at NEA so much, were it not that I am paying them enough money each year to buy myself a nice toy, support a local food pantry, or get a bit ahead on paying off my kids' college loans. But never have I forked over so much money for the privilege of belonging to an organization that annots me so much.I say all that because I'm about to bitch about something that, on its fa
First Loser in NY Anti-Tenure Lawsuit
In the end, there can be only one.Even though it's all about the kids, according to the NY Post only one group gets to stand center stage for the big New York Tenure Takedown Lawsuit. Previously the Campbell Brown nameplate case was going to have to share the big Caring for Kids spotlight with Mona Davids (of New York Parents Union), but Davids is now saying, none too cheerfully, that her law firm
YESTERDAY
TNTP's Teacher Pay Proposal Is Dopey
I picked the title because I didn't want to make you wade through this whole post just to get to my bottom line. That's one thing I learned from reading the TNTP report "Shortchanged: The Hidden Cost of Lockstep Teacher Pay" The other thing I learned is that you can't be afraid to recycle the same old shinola with a spiffy new spin. I can promise you that you probably won't find a thing
Spell Check & Educrats
A few days ago I tried composing a post on my tablet. I like the equipment; it's new and shiny and it lets me get things done while sitting on the couch with my wife instead of hunched over my desk.But for whatever reason (no doubt a setting that I haven't located and changed yet) it is an aggressive fixer of my spelling. And my battles with the spell checker remind me of the role that technocrats
Bellwether Flubs Teacher Evaluation Argument
I am fascinated by the concept of think tank papers, because they are so fancy in presentation, but so fanceless in content. I mean, heck-- all I need to do is give myself a slick name and put any one of these blog posts into a fancy pdf format with some professional looking graphic swoops, and I would be releasing a paper every day.Bellwether Education, a thinky tank with connections to the stand
AUG 28
Expecting Less Than Excellence
Most teachers have heard it in the last year or two. It is apparently hardwired into all administrative training about new evaluation methods.You will not live in Excellent (or above average or super-duper proficient or whatever language your state prefers). You will only visit. You will live in Mostly Pretty Okay (or whatever).Imagine if we started out the year by telling our students, "You'
Mike Petrilli Interprets Reform Backlash (Part 1)
This week Mike Petrilli took a stab at interpreting some of the pushback on reformster programs in what we can hope is a step in his journey to a more enlightened opinion. The column is actually an excerpt from a speech that he delivered to the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce, which is interesting in that Chambers have not generally have not been open to a message of "Hey, we might have got
AUG 27
PARCC and Test Prep
When PARCC wrote a press release earlier this month addressing some testing concerns, most commentators focused on this quote:“High quality assessments go hand-in-hand with high quality instruction based, on high quality standards,” said Laura Slover, the Chief Executive Officer of the PARCC nonprofit. “You cannot have one without the other. The PARCC states see quality assessments as a part of in
Law Professor Says Duncan's Actions Un-Constitutional
An upcoming article in the Vanderbilt Law Review argues that the administration's waiver program is both illegal and a very, very bad precedent. University of South Carolina law professor Derek W. Black has written articles about the intersection of federal power and school law before, but none quite as feisty as "Federalizing Education By Waiver." And folks have questioned the legality
AUG 26
Four Reformy Problems in a Single Tweet
@NeeravKingsland @CtrEdEcon @smarick @amandaripley How do we measure schools' progress without annual tests?— Michael Petrilli (@MichaelPetrilli) August 24, 2014This is the kind of statement that brings me up short. It's neither notably nefarious, nor is it larded with some deliberate obfuscation, and yet it is loaded with so many assumptions.Measure schools' progressIs "schools' progress&quo
The Cult of Order
Many, many, many reformsters are members of the Cult of Order.The Cult of Order believes in blind, unthinking devotion to Order. Everything must be in its proper place. Everything must go according to plan. Everything must be under control.It is not new to find cult members in education. We all work with a least a couple. Desks must be just so. The surface of the teacher desk must be pristine and
AUG 25
ACT Report Finds ACT Really Important
Okay kids. Here's today's lesson in critical thinking (which, as you may have heard, is built right into the heart and sinew of the Common Core).When a business releases a study showing the importance and effectiveness of that business's product, is there a possibility that the study might be aimed at something other than Telling the Whole Truth?The folks at ACT must be really sweating these days.
AUG 24
Objectivity Is a Unicorn
Objectivity is a unicorn. It's inspiring to believe in, pretty to create pictures of. Some folks love the idea of objectivity so much that they dress up horses or try their hand at photoshop. But at the end of the day, it doesn't actually exist.Nevertheless, we continue to enshrine the idea of objectivity in places where it does not exist. Writers have repeatedly reminded us, for instance, that in
AUG 23
I've Launched at EdWeek
As noted a while ago, I have taken on blogging for Education Week, and the new blog launched a few days ago.The EdWeek blog will be called "View from the Cheap Seats," and I'll be posting there at least weekly. I even get a cool graphicky thing for the header!I am excited about the potential for reaching a new audience. The first post is about the absence of the teacher voice from educat
Superintendents Speak Up
On the first day of school, my wife's superintendent got choked up.He was delivering the usual kick-off speech, and she said he started to talk about testing and numbers and the students. He reminded his staff that students were not just test scores, not just a number, and that the work they did as teachers was so much more than could be measured by numbers. It looked, she said, as if he was on th