Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: TOMORROW'S SHOW : TOMORROW'S SHOW Eve Ewing (top) and Sarah Chambers. Tomorrow on Hitting Left, our in-studio guest will be Eve Ewing. Eve is a sociologist of education whose research focuses on racism and the inequality of public school system. She's currently doing a post-doc at the University of Chicago. Her first collection of poetry, essays, and visual art, Ele
Louisiana Believes: Exclusion is the Best Policy – Educate Louisiana : Louisiana Believes: Exclusion is the Best Policy Do you remember your earliest years in school and receiving your first invitation from a classmate to attend their birthday party? What about the first time you discovered that a classmate had a birthday party and invited your classmates but didn’t invite you? It is generally th
CURMUDGUCATION: Personalization and the Outliers : Personalization and the Outliers Henry Ford was an early proponent of personalization. "Any customer can have a car pained any color that he wants," said Ford in 1909 , "so long as it is black." There have always been limits to personalization. I like to wear hats, but my head is some sort of extra-large melon, so while hat manufacturers may offe
Truth in Edvertising – Have You Heard : Truth in Edvertising Is $1,000 per student kind of a lot to be spending on marketing? That’s how much Success Academy spends, putting the charter network on par with a typical large corporation. In the latest episode of Have You Heard, Jack Schneider and I wade into the murky business of education marketing or *edvertising.* Fast growing and completely unre
The Upside to Teacher Resignation Letters Going Viral : The Upside to Teacher Resignation Letters Going Viral A few years ago, Alyssa Hadley Dunn noticed that some of her former students were sharing over social media resignation letters written and posted online by public school teachers. Dunn, assistant professor of teacher education at Michigan State University, was a bit rattled that these he
How to Handle Your Celebrity Status - Teacher Habits : How to Handle Your Celebrity Status I went to Walmart the other day to pick up some adult beverages and help destroy local businesses. As I quickly weaved around an Easter display, I heard: “Mr. Murphy!” It was a student from my school. Not one of my students. I didn’t even know his name. But he quite obviously knew mine. He wanted his mom to
What Betsy DeVos’s Emphasis on ‘Choice’ Means for School Segregation | The Nation : What Betsy DeVos’s Emphasis on ‘Choice’ Means for School Segregation The education secretary’s policies stand to make divisions in our schools and neighborhoods worse, not better. When questioned on her commitment to principles of diversity and equality in public education, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos keeps re
Chester Finn Jr. Calls for an End to Teacher Tenure | Diane Ravitch's blog : Chester Finn Jr. Calls for an End to Teacher Tenure In this post , Chester (Checker) Finn Jr. questions the need for teacher tenure. Getting rid of tenure, he says, will save money, as it has in higher education, where money is lavished on administrators’ salaries and facilities, but not faculty (except for the Big Names
Boston Charter School Teacher Named ‘National Teacher Of The Year’ « CBS Boston : Boston Charter School Teacher Named ‘National Teacher Of The Year’ BOSTON (CBS/AP) – The 2017 “National Teacher of the Year’ award has gone to a public charter school teacher in Dorchester. Sydney Chaffee of the Codman Academy Charter Public School is the first National Teacher of the Year from Massachusetts since t
Betsy DeVos Is Visiting A Public School This Week With One Of Her Famous Foes | The Huffington Post : Betsy DeVos Is Visiting A Public School This Week With One Of Her Famous Foes She and Randi Weingarten will be setting aside their differences on a trip to Ohio. When President Donald Trump first nominated Betsy DeVos for U.S. secretary of education in November, labor leader Randi Weingarten did
Majority of Californians polled favor vouchers for private schools | EdSource : Majority of Californians polled favor vouchers for private schools Rejecting President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, Californians overwhelmingly said in a poll released Wednesday that they favor designating their school districts “sanctuary safe zones” to protect undocumented students and their families from f
NAACP to Hold New York City Hearing on Issues Surrounding Quality Education : NAACP TO HOLD NEW YORK CITY HEARING ON CHARTER SCHOOLS, PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND ISSUES SURROUNDING QUALITY EDUCATION *New York—The NAACP’s Task Force on Quality Education will hold a hearing in New York, Thursday, April 27, at Harlem Hospital Center & Pavilion in the Herbert G. Cave Auditorium, second Floor, 506 Lenox Avenue
Minnesota proceeds with caution — and questions — as it complies with federal education law under DeVos | MinnPost : Minnesota proceeds with caution — and questions — as it complies with federal education law under DeVos A little over a year ago, Barack Obama signed into law the biggest K-12 education reform in over a decade: the Every Student Succeeds Act, a product of years-long compromise in C
Will the Supreme Court give a big boost to the Trump-DeVos ‘school choice’ agenda? - The Washington Post : Will the Supreme Court give a big boost to the Trump-DeVos ‘school choice’ agenda? Will the Supreme Court boost the Trump-DeVos “school choice” agenda? It just may. The court on Wednesday heard a case called Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia v. Pauley . It involves a Lutheran church in Mis
How the right-wing Koch and DeVos families are funding hate speech on college campuses across the US : How the right-wing Koch and DeVos families are funding hate speech on college campuses across the US On March 2, eugenicist Charles Murray attempted to give a lecture at Middlebury College in Vermont, with little success. Protesters shouted him down and he was sequestered in another room to answ
CURMUDGUCATION: Are Charters a Rural Solution : Are Charters a Rural Solution In a piece that has circulated a bit, Karen Eppley, an associate professor of curriculum and instruction at Pennsylvania State University suggests that charter schools might be the solution to many rural education problems. While the article is not as gung-ho about charters as the title suggests (I know-- writers rarely
Education Law Prof Blog : Nevada Pushing Work Around for the Voucher Program Declared Unconstitutional Last Year; David Sciarra Calls It a Trojan Horse Last year, advocates for public education in Nevada secured a majority victory. The Nevada Supreme Court found that the state's voucher program violated the state constitution's provisions for supporting public education. The program funded vouche
Early Signs Betsy DeVos Will Not Support Civil Rights : Early Signs Betsy DeVos Will Not Support Civil Rights It was just an Easter egg roll. But it seemed like an occasion that could give the Trump White House an easy opportunity to show racial inclusiveness. But as the Daily News reports, when the White House staged its first annual Easter Egg Roll, it forgot to invite local school children. Ne
NEA’s charter school policy statement. | Fred Klonsky : NEA’s charter school policy statement. The NEA’s charter school taskforce policy statement will be discussed at an upcoming NEA Board of Directors meeting. Charter School Policy Statement As Recommended by the Charter Taskforce to the NEA Board of Directors Introduction Charter schools were initially promoted by educators who sought to innov
In Ohio a School Voucher Expansion Has Been Introduced in the Legislature. What Does It Mean? | janresseger : In Ohio a School Voucher Expansion Has Been Introduced in the Legislature. What Does It Mean? In Ohio, where privatization has been expanding since the 1990s—with five kinds of school vouchers plus a large and unregulated charter school sector—Kevin Huffman, a state senator from Lima has
Erik Prince acted as Trump envoy in Russian meetings: report | MSNBC : Oh Brother Betsy DeVos 's Blackwater Brother Erik Prince acted as Trump envoy in Russian meetings
Schooling in the Ownership Society: Billionaire hedge-fund fraud and charter school patron gave $1M to Trump inaug : Billionaire hedge-fund fraud and charter school patron gave $1M to Trump inaug Steven Cohen, chairman and CEO of Point72 Asset Management, big Trump donor. Scandal-ridden billionaire hedge-funder and charter-school bank-roller Steven A. Cohen is back in the news again. Turns out Co
Union leader sees Ohio school visit with Betsy DeVos as a lesson for U.S. education secretary - The Washington Post : Union leader sees Ohio school visit with Betsy DeVos as a lesson for U.S. education secretary This should be interesting. American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten says she views her Ohio school visit alongside Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on Thursday as a less
Teachers Practice MicroPolitics* | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice : Teachers Practice MicroPolitics* Besides managing a classroom of 20 to 30 or more students, besides teaching lessons every day, teachers also practice politics. Arguing that superintendents and principals, in addition to their managerial and instructional roles, are political in leading districts and schools
Stacking the Deck? : Stacking the Deck? “ Moreover, ‘lower achieving students’ is not a protected class. ” -Brian Bauer, GHCHS This week, Granada Hills Charter High School (GHCHS) will attempt to win its sixth national Academic Decathlon championship in seven years. If this were a high school sports team instead of an academic one, the improbability of this accomplishment would probably be more o
Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 4/19/17 Featured Post Louisiana families must give up special education rights for school vouchers | The Lens Teaching with Conscience in an Imperfect World | Teachers College Press 6 by
