Catch up with CURMUDGUCATION
Spotting Fakes and the Death of Reading
by Peter Greene / 22min
I've looked once before at the Stanford study which found that students-- middle school, high school and college-- can't tell the difference between real news and advertisements, fake news, or just general detritus on line . The researchers themselves called the results shocking; that may be only because they haven't previously spent enough time around middle school, high school and college studen
YESTERDAY
Opposing DeVos
94by Peter Greene / 18h
The edubloggochatosphere have pretty much blown itself up over the designation of Betsy DeVos to the position of Secretary of Education. Oppositions runs across the spectrum, from progressives who are upset by a super-privatizer taking over responsibility for public education to conservatives who thought they were promised an outsidey, drained-swamp, Common Core smasher and instead are looking at
Trump: The Ultimate Privatization
28by Peter Greene / 18h
People are still trying to unpack what kind of Presidency we have coming up. It suddenly seems so obvious to me that I can't believe I didn't get it before. I've already made my case that Trump is a kind of naked neo-liberal , as witness by his preference for privatization. Let's get Betsy DeVos in the Ed Department because her whole adult life has been about turning public education into a privat
FL: Another Charter Fiasco
70by Peter Greene / 1d
Folks will be looking at Michigan (particularly Detroit) for the immediate future, as it's the state where Education Secretary-in-Waiting Betsy DeVos has purchased the power to implement many of her beloved education reforms, in particular, the unfettered proliferation of charter schools accompanied by little or no oversight. But it's not the only place where DeVos has helped spread the charter lo
NOV 24
Thanksgiving: Playing for Change
12by Peter Greene / 2d
Happy Thanksgiving! I said a lot of what I have to say about the holiday last year. Short version: as a national holiday, it is problematic, but as a day to take stock and pause to be personally thankful, it's essential. I am one fortunate son of a bitch, and what I have been given (especially because I don't really deserve any of it) means I have an obligation to give and to share. This year, we
DeVos, the Acton Institute. and Child Labor
500+by Peter Greene / 2d
Now that Betsy DeVos is set to be our next Secretary of Education, we have a few weeks to unpack some of her intriguing associations. We already know the basics-- DeVos is a rich patron of the GOP establishment, DeVos wants vouchers very badly, and DeVos wants tax dollars to flow freely to white Christian schools. If you want to now what DeVos policies look like in practice, simply look at Detroit
NOV 23
Betsy DeVos-- Secretary of Education
2Kby Peter Greene / 2d
According to the Washington Post, according to an associate of DeVos, Betsy DeVos will be Victor Von Trump's choice as Secretary of Education . It's important to remember that we've known we were never going to get a half-decent Secretary of Education, and that it was always only a question of what form the shafting of American public education would take. I'm going to hold your hand right over th
Pearson Hurt By Common Core
26by Peter Greene / 3d
Yesterday's Wall Street Journal reports that Pearson bet big on Common Core and came up snake eyes or triple lemons or whatever gambling metaphor for losing your prefer. The Journal article (it's behind a paywall but if you squint real hard, you can read it through the "don't you want to subscribe" haze) says that two factors led to losses for the edu-biz giant-- one self-inflicted, and one market
NOV 22
Trump's Naked Normal
26by Peter Greene / 3d
People keep reposting the latest Trumpian shenanigans and saying, "This is not normal." On the one hand, I get what they're saying. On the other hand, as I've watched this administration unfold like a pile of maggots bursting out of a rotting deer carcass, it's dawning on me that Trump is actually normal. Fully normal. Nakedly normal. As Jon Stewart pointed out, we don't really live in a new Ameri
Dear Dan Rather
100+by Peter Greene / 3d
Dear Dan: I just noticed your post on Facebook in which you said Some disasters hit us with a sudden and unexpected fury like 9/11 or Hurricane Katrina. But some boil beneath the surface wreaking destruction without enough of us paying attention. If you want to see the hair on the back of my neck stand up in anger ask me about one such disaster - our support for public education. Please excuse me
NOV 21
MI: State Tells Students To Get Lost (If you can read this, don't thank Gov. Snyder)
100+by Peter Greene / 4d
Last September, seven Detroit school children filed suit against the state of Michigan for depriving those children of an actual education. The state's defense is... well, not encouraging. Let's dispense with the obvious first. While I don't have a lot of background on the case, I'm going to guess that the seven school children didn't save their lunch money and then put in a call to California law
NOV 20
Real Teacher Accountability
15by Peter Greene / 5d
Reformsters repeatedly circle back around to the question of teacher accountability. If we give up evaluation system and test-based data and methods for turning professional development into a beautiful array of mini-competency-badges, they worry, how will we ever hold teachers accountable for doing a good job? How will taxpayers know they're getting their money's worth? I know one good model for
Deasy To Start Newest New Conversation
10by Peter Greene / 6d
Oh, those new conversations. Reformsters have been calling for them for years. back in the fall of 2014, new conversations were all the rage. There were plenty of reasons to be doubtful -- the old conversation had been mostly about how teachers had screwed everything up and should just sit down and shut up and listen to their betters. That, and the desire for a new conversation seemed to be linked
ICYMI: Yikes, There's Snow Edition (11/20)
5by Peter Greene / 6d
As always, share the originals for anything here that you like. And in the meantime, let it snow. TFA Wants My Money: Why I Said No Perhaps Kevin Huffman shouldn't have sent his fund-raising letter to one of the TFA alumni