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Sunday, March 3, 2019

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: In Like A Snow-Covered Lion Edition (3/3)

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: In Like A Snow-Covered Lion Edition (3/3)

ICYMI: In Like A Snow-Covered Lion Edition (3/3)


Things to read from this week. Keep sharing. Keep posting. Keep putting the word out there. And don't forget to keep an eye on the bloglist in the right hand column. The more you read, the more you know.

When Will We Stop Blaming Teachers

Another look at TNTP's Opportunity Myth-- one more attempt to explain that education problems are teachers' fault.

Why Did Indiana Teachers Leave the Classroom

A survey looks at why Indiana teachers left the classroom. Zero surprises here, but one m ore confirmation that teaching conditions have finally gotten that bad.

Thoughts on the Graduation Exam Mess in New Jersey

New Jersey is wrestling with using the PARCC as a grad exam, something it was not remotely designed for. Let Jersey Jazzman sort out the foolishness.

Elementary Principal Reads Books To Students on Facebook Live

If you need a little lift, read about this principal who puts on her pj's and reads a story over Facebook live every Tuesday night.

In Many Charter Schools, Graduation Odds Are Slim

Another item from the Department of Unsurprising Results. Someone crunched some numbers and discovered that an awful lot of charter students don't make it to charter graduation day.

Invisible Champions of Student Justice 

Wendy Lecker takes a look at how black teachers in Georgia were instrumental in the pursuit of desegregation. If you don't know Horace Tate's name, you should.

Virtual Charter School With 91% Failure Rate  

This was a surprise-- a cyber charter school with even worse results than I imagined. 10,000 students went in- 851 stayed.

Skype A Scientist 

More good news. Someone came up with a program that uses Skype and scientists to combat misinformation.

Last Night We Lay Down In The Streets

As Philadelphia transitions from state appointed commission to local school board, a battle is shaping up over whose local voices will be heard. It's citizens versus corporate once again.

Newsome Fast-Tracks Bill For Charter Standards      

It looks like California may finally subject its wild-growth charter sector to some actual accountability.

The Hook of Standardization   

From Ohio, an argument that "an educational system driven by standardized testing has run its course."

Choice Is a False Pretext For Draining Money From Public Schools  

From Florida, the Sun-Sentinal editorial board calls out DeSantis' choicey plans as theft from the public system.            

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: In Like A Snow-Covered Lion Edition (3/3)




Will Florida Abolish The Common Core
This post ran at Forbes three weeks ago. Anyone notice anything happening since then that would change my mind? Didn't think so. Newly-elected Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced last week that he will, via executive order, remove every "vestige" of Common Core from the state. Unless he changes his announced plan, he probably won't. Yeah, probably not. Florida is unique in the US when it come

MAR 01

Teach For America: Now With Less Teaching
Teach for America has always been a work in progress, an evolving enterprise in search of a reason to keep existing. Once upon a time it was all about teaching and plugging holes in the system. Then it was about supplanting traditional teachers (and trying not to say out loud that they needed to be supplanted because they sucked and the Best and the Brightest had better swoop in like a shining whi

FEB 28

OK: Voting With 60,000 Feet
Fans of market dynamics have a deep and abiding faith in the power of the podiatric plebiscite. When parents vote with their feet, schools will get better. Unions and minimum wage are not necessary, because if workers vote with their feet, employers will be forced to improve their offer. And yet, we have Oklahoma and teachers. The red flags have been numerous. The Oklahoma State School Boards Asso

FEB 27

OH: Lorain Schools In State Of Emergency
The state takeover of Lorain City Schools continues to spiral out of control (if you are joining us for this ongoing mess, you can start the story here ). Here's what has happened in the last couple of days. After announcing last Thursday that teachers at Lorain High School would have to reapply for their jobs, CEO David Hardy went on the television box to do an interview to try to-- well, it's no

FEB 25

FL: Further Dismantling Public Education
Here are two not-entirely-academic questions: Is it possible to end public education in an entire state? Can Florida become any more hostile to public education than it already is? Newly-minted Governor Ron DeSantis and a wild cast of privatization cronies seem to answer a resounding "yes" to both questions. But how would you do it? What resources would you need? What tactical moves would you make

FEB 24

OH: Lorain CEO's Purge Announcement Raises Fury
Last Thursday night, David Hardy, the state-appointed takeover CEO for Lorain City Schools told the public that all teachers at the high school would have to reapply for their jobs. If you want to read about how they arrived at this point, that story is here . This is just the next chapter in the story. After telling the public, Hardy then sent a letter to staff (because when you want to drop thi
ICYMI: So Long, February Edition (2/24)
Well, that just flew by. Here's a good batch of reading from the week. Remember, if it speaks to you, help it speak to somebody else. Betsy DeVos vs. Student Veterans By easing up on predatory for-profit colleges, DeVos has really stuck it to veterans trying to get an education. TFA Celebrates New Research That Suggests That Corps Members Are Ineffective Teacher Gary Rubinstein takes a look at TFA

FEB 23

TN: Market Forces Are Not Magical
Shelby County is running up against two of the fallacies embedded in most charter school policy. One is the modern charter policy lie-- the notion that you can run multiple parallel school systems with the same money that used to run one system. The other is that charter systems don't need a lot of regulation because the invisible hand of the market will take care of it all. Shelby County Schools
Charter Schools Are Not Public Schools
Modern charter schools prefer to attach the word "public" to their descriptions. Many of the charter advocacy groups include "public charter" in their title. And truthfully, there are no regulations attached to the term--any school can attach the word "public" to its title without having to worry about any sort of penalty. So technically, any charter school can call itself a public school. Heck,

FEB 22

OH: Lorain, HB 70, And A Reformy Attack
I began my career in Lorain, Ohio, so the ever-spinning mess there is of personal interest to me. But it is also a picture of much of the damage being inflicted on public education in the name of reform. This is going to be a really long read, the longest I've ever posted on this blog, but it's a story worth telling, because here we find most of the problems of ed reform on display. I: Lorain Back

FEB 20

What Is Your State's Grade For Data Privacy Protection?
If data is the new oil, then schools are the new Ghawar field . Nearly every single person in a generation passes through a school, and virtually all of them encounter computer-based technology. And everything that a computer assesses, measures, and facilitates, it can also record and store. You may think that such data is fiercely protected by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA

FEB 18

Wasting Time In School
It's tax season, so it's time for this sort of meme-- These are just another version the compliant that teachers hear all the time-- why are we learning this? When am I ever going to use it? Every discipline has its own version. English-- when will I ever need to know subjects and verbs? Math-- when will I ever need to know the quadratic equation? Phys ed-- when will I ever have to do a shuttle ru

FEB 17

ICYMI: Winter Is Forever Edition (2/17)
I do this every Sunday, so you can skip back week by week, or just search "ICYMI" in the search bar in the upper left to read some of the good stuff coming from other writers in the education world. Remember to share-- that's