CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: Really Big List Edition (2/3)

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: Really Big List Edition (2/3)

ICYMI: Really Big List Edition (2/3)

Was it the cold? Did we all just have more time to wander the internet? I don't know, but it's a huge list this week. Remember to share-- that's how the word gets out.


LA Strike: Charters Are An Existential Threat To Public Education   

The LA strike was extraordinary in that it addressed so much more than wages and benefits, but also addressed policy as well. Here's a good look at where the LA charter movement fits in the bigger picture.

The Headband Obsession with Student Concentration.

From the "You Can't Make This Stuff Up" files, the program that's going to read student minds via fancy science headbands.l

Betsy DeVos Fabricating History To Sell Bad Education  Policy

DeVos has been talking a lot lately-- well, at least for her-- and much of it has been a sales pitch based on history that is not exactly accurate

Only Two Percent of Teachers Are Black Men Yet Research Confirms They Matter. 

Let's go over this again- we need more black men teaching in the classroom.

Teacher Strike Interview

NEPC fellow Terrenda White creates some context for the strikes of the last year, up to and including the current struggle in Denver

Betsy DeVos's Favorite Teacher Story Wants Her To Stop

DeVos likes to tell a story about a teacher named Jed to help make some of her points. Rebecca Klein tracked Jed down; turns out he wishes DeVos would knock it off.

Can Altschool Save Itself From Failure

This might be the "if you only read one piece this week" article. Susan Adams is the education editor at Forbes, and she took a good hard look at Max Ventilla's super cool ed tech charter, Altschool, and probably got one of the most fluff-free looks at it ever (complete with cringing PR people). Joins Andrea Gabor's book in pointing out that some of these guys thinking they can business model their way to ed reform are actually using bad business models.

Shark Tank Recap: Teaching Harvard Grad Financial Lesson

Speaking of bad business. A Harvard grad goes on shark tank with her idea for mail order Montessori and her tail of having blithely burned through a mountain of investor money. Things do not go well for her.

This Is How Horribly Teachers Are Paid In The US

The story here is that this piece ran in Vice, not exactly known for their prodigious education coverage. This is brief, solid, and sad.

DC C charter Administrators Have Some Of The Highest School Salaries In Town; Their Teachers, Some Of The Lowest

City Paper goes digging, and has to work at it, because of course Freedom of Information Act doesn't apply to charters. Most amazing part-- a charter wouldn't let a teacher see her own salary schedule to know what steps up she might expect.

Another KIPP Teacher

Need another reminder of how awful a Teach Like A No Excuses Champion school can be. Here's are some words from a teacher who used to be a KIPPster.

Their Levers Are Destined To Fail.

A new-to-me blog with a post looking at the different ways reform has tried to bring teachers to heel.

America Is Falling Out Of Love With Billionaires

Not exactly an education story, except of course it is. Are US citizens getting fed up with the oligarchs?

Here We Go. Another Koch Push 

More news you didn't want to hear-- the Koch brothers have decided to help fix education some more.

When Schools Say "All Means All," What Do They Really Mean.

Peter DeWitt talks about safeguarding our LGBTQ students

10 Out Of 15 PA Cyber Schools Are Operating Without A Charter

Steven Singer calls for a little less cyber charter baloney and a little more-- or just some-- oversight.

Broken Promises: Camden's Renaissance Charter Schools

Jersey Jazzman with yet another tale of charter shenanigans.

That's it. I mean, that's not really it, because there is always more (which reminds me-- your recommendations are always welcome).



CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: Really Big List Edition (2/3)

Measuring Success: A Study in Contrasts

23by Peter Greene / 2d

Two items tossed my feed this week that underline contrasting ideas about what constitutes success in education. First, let's go to the Jackson-Madison County school system of Tennessee. At JMCSS folks are pretty excited because they've made such strides with the addition of a unified curriculum. They know this worked because they have all sorts of growth data, much of it exceeding expectations. N

JAN 31

How American Should American Schools Be?

by Peter Greene / 2d

Part of the impetus behind modern education reform is the idea that more of the education system should be operated by businesses. Many merits and drawbacks of that approach continue to be debated, but one aspect is rarely discussed. Modern business is multinational, so we need to ask--how much control of our educational system do we want to send outside of U.S. borders? Charter schools have been

JAN 30

MA: Turnover Starts To Give Charters A Clue

37by Peter Greene / 3d

Teacher churn in Massachusetts charter schools is high ( about 30% ). And apparently at least some charters have decided to do something about that. But as this article by Carrie Jung at WBUR indicates, there is some sort of mystery involved. Maybe there are clues in there. I do give the charters involved credit for at least thinking about the issue-- in many modern charters, teacher churn is a fe

JAN 29

There Is No Teacher Shortage

14Kby Peter Greene / 4d

I've made this point a dozen times in other contexts, but let me take a day to address it directly. There is no teacher shortage. Oh, across the nation there are districts that are having trouble filling openings with fully-qualified certified teachers. But there is no teacher shortage. "Shortage" implies a supply problem. Like maybe people are born teachers and for some reasons, the gene pool has

JAN 28

The Truth About Davos, AI, and Firing All the Humans

71by Peter Greene / 5d

This article ran last week, and it made my ICYMI list Sunday, but you really, really need to see this. Kevin Roos went to Davos for the New York Times to see what the masters of the universe are up to, and his most striking discoveries was " The Hidden Automation Agenda of the Davos Elite. " The short version is simple. In public, they are going to talk about how much Artificial Intelligence will

TN: Legislator Says Bring On Fashion Police

by Peter Greene / 5d

Tennessee state representative Antonio Parkinson (D) considered all the issues facing education and decided that the one he wants to address is-- parent dress codes . Schools may be figuring ou t-- slowly-- that body-shaming students and chasing them down for ripped knees might be counterproductive. But this Memphis lawmaker wants to crack down on the parents : "People wearing next to nothing. Peo

MD: Failing Five Year Olds

500+by Peter Greene / 6d

Maryland joins the ranks of those states that have kindergarten exactly backwards. News overage of this Alarming Crisis starts with this sentence : Less than half of Maryland’s children have the behavior and academic skills they need to be successful in kindergarten, according to a new state report. Only 47% tested as "ready" (that's up 2% from last year). And I want to smack my head so hard that

JAN 27

ICYMI: Here Comes Another Arctic Blast Edition (1/27)

by Peter Greene / 7d

So it's going to get cold again. But in the meantime there are useful things to read about education. Here's the list for this week-- remember to share what you think needs to be shared. Denver's Portfolio Model School District is a Failure Thomas Ultican breaks down some of the details in the long-running reform experiment in Denver schools. Automation at Davos This is pretty stark stuff. The dif

JAN 26

Is Competency The Hot New Thing?

65by Peter Greene / 7d

Tom Vander Ark thinks that competency is the up-and-coming next big thing in education. He just said so a few weeks ago at Forbes , but he's been saying so for several years now . Vander Ark has been at the education reform biz longer than most, but his career also includes the launch of K-Mart's competitor to Sam's Club, point man for the Gates small schools initiative , and an attempt to launch

OK Legislator To Teachers: Shut The Hell Up

7Kby Peter Greene / 7d

Oklahoma has worked hard to get itself in the front of the pack of States Most Hostile To Public Education. Maybe not number one (relax, Florida), but right up there. Ultra-low teacher pay. Slack charter rules . The kind of state where the idea for improving education is to gear it more toward providing meat widgets for employers. The kind of state where a serious idea about improving teacher pay

JAN 25

WV: Legislative Extortion

84by Peter Greene / 8d

Last spring, West Virginia's teachers stood up and stood up loud, shutting down every single school in the state. They were out with five demands -- better wages, health insurance, defeating an expansion of charter schools, keeping seniority, and killing a "paycheck protection" bill. They won, the governor signed a pay raise , and teachers won the right to shout at the end , "Who made history? We

DeVos Has A Hammer

80by Peter Greene / 9d

Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has been busy lately, making actual somewhat-public appearances and talking about all her favorites subjects. Thursday it was the 87th annual United States Conference of Mayors Winter Meeting, and her remarks included many of her favorite points. But she's not just beating a drum; she's working with a big, heavy hammer. Bang bang bang. Here are some highlights: D