All Week @ THE CHALK FACE
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About the radio show
Join Drs. Shaun Johnson and Tim Slekar
LIVE Sundays at 6PM EST and Wednesdays at 7PM EST
on Blog Talk Radio for progressive, pro-public education talk radio.
Call in to speak live with Tim and Shaun during the show, (805) 727-7111.
You can also listen to our Monday "Sunday-Replay" at 7PM EST, and re-broadcasts of the archives every Tuesday and Thursday at 7PM EST.
Visit the @ the Chalk Face radio main page for more information on the show and syndication.
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School Board Privatization: Committee for a Better _________ (Your City Here)
Not far from my home, on a vacant lot next to a major highway, I noticed an advertisement for our upcoming local school board elections. The name of the candidate is not familiar to me, but each time I pass the board, I wonder, “Who is funding you?” The purchasing of local school board races […]
The Qualities Of Good Schools Are No Secret.
THE QUALITIES OF GOOD SCHOOLS ARE NO SECRET.. via THE QUALITIES OF GOOD SCHOOLS ARE NO SECRET..
The (NY, DC, LA, and CA) Story of Eureka Math
In Louisiana, there has been a bit of mystery surrounding the only math curriculum “selected” in March 2014 by the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) and the Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE) and promoted as “LSU-developed Eureka Math.” It sure sounds like… dare I write it… grass roots CCSS math development, huh? Then comes […]
SEP 10
Louisiana’s NCLB Waiver, Complete with Promised CCSS and PARCC
No Child Left Behind (NCLB) was not reauthorized in 2007. Nor was it reauthorized in 2008. Nor has it been reauthorized in 2014. NCLB, with its nonsense “100 percent proficiency in reading and math by 2014,” has been lingering on legislative life support, even as 2014 is surely coming to an end. But the beauty […]
SEP 09
PARCC and SBAC States Agree to Deliver Student-level Data to USDOE
In September 2010, two assessment consortia “won” federal Race to the Top (RTTT) money for the “design, development, and evaluation of the assessment system” known as Race to the Top Assessment (RTTA): The Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) and the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC). PARCC received $170 million, and […]
SEP 08
Common Core: It Seemed Like a Good Idea Until It Existed
In 2008, Education Next asked 3,200 respondents (700 of whom were public school teachers) about their thoughts on having “the same set of educational standards” in order to “hold schools accountable.” Respondents were divided into sub-samples and asked one of the two following questions. Included are the percentages of respondents who chose among three response options: Question […]
EngageNY : Robotic Teachers Wanted.
Came across this gem when trying to decipher my son’s 4th Grade math homework (which included the inane task of making 50 dots to represent multiplying by tens). EngageNY contains scripted curriculum modules at a price of $12.9 million for the K-8 lessons. I find it insulting that a teacher should be told to add emotion and energy […]
EngageNY modules: Stunning incompetence.
Another questionable lesson from the curriculum modules found at NYSED’s propaganda website EngageNY.org Once again, why did NYSED spend $12.9 million of taxpayer money on scripted lessons for K-8 when New York’s teachers can produce superior (and appropriate) curriculum. Thoughts on this Kindergarten homework assignment? […]
SEP 07
Laura Chapman on Education Weekly’s “Philanthropic” Funding
The post below is from the comments section of my September 6, 2014, post, Gates, Other “Philanthropy,” and the Purchase of a Success Narrative. It was written by Laura Chapman, veteran arts educator whose well-researched observations on the entangled funding of privatizing reform are often featured on education historian Diane Ravitch’s blog. Below, Chapman briefly examines the numerous philanthr
A grave mythology is propagated by our own colleagues.
I am certain that any educator and reader of this website has been confronted with the following: You are against standardized testing. Therefore, you are against all assessment. You are against test-based accountability. Therefore, you are against all accountability. High-stakes are removed. Therefore, you have no incentive to work hard. For many years now, I […]
Sorry to say, many teachers are instruments of oppression
There are teachers who, despite how they’ve been mistreated by accountability, embrace some measures of accountability because they’ve worked with fellow teachers who are indeed trifling and deserve a swift kick out the door. It takes willful ignorance, nay, stupidity of the supreme order, to think you are, as an educator, serving your profession by […]
Received via email: “Subject: Major injustice committed by TFA”
I am posting the full-text here. I can’t substantiate these unsolicited claims. But I think many of them ring true with other accounts we’ve read online. I’m pretty sure that Ms. Rojas wanted to be heard, so I’d like to honor that. To whom it may concern, I would like to express how unfair it […]
Data paranoia hits home. Conclusion: meh.
For the record, I use Class Dojo. In fact, one of the developers was @ the Chalk Face for an interview in August. I wouldn’t mandate its use, but I do recommend it because I actually like it. One of the primary reasons is its simplicity. The interface is crazily easy and I can create any […]
SEP 06
Gates, Other “Philanthropy,” and the Purchase of a Success Narrative
Billionaire Bill Gates funds the media. This is no surprise to me. What did surprise me is the discovery that he meets with the media he funds (and others) regularly behind closed doors. Yep. Gates Briefs a Media He Pays For (And Then Some) In February 2013, journalist Tom Paulson wrote a piece on Gates’ […]
Video: Is Lafayette Parish Schools Selling a “Visual Strategy” or Common Core?
Let’s examine a program known as Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS). They’ve been around for a while. It is important to note that VTS predates test-driven education “reform,” both the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and No Child Left Behind (NCLB): VTS is a well-known program developed by Abigail Housen and Philip Yenawine more than twenty years ago, […]