In the wake of the murders at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High, the great state of Florida decided to make a giant leap forward in establishing a surveillance state , proposing a data base that would collect giant massive tanker cars full of data from every public sources imaginable as well as social media. It will provide a one-stop shop for singling out every troubled child in the state. What could
This post is week 7 of 8 in the 8 Weeks of Summer Blog Challenge for educators. I've been doing the challenge because why not? Mostly I've been answering as my pre-retirement self, but we may mix it up a bit this week. Here's the prompt: Check-in on where you are in your summer learning journey and your overall professional journey . When I was still teaching, I was always... somewhere. Every sum
Originally posted at Forbes (June 29) So apparently, thanks to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, we're all going to talk about busing some more. That's a conversation many Americans have been having, sort of, for a long time. When Joe Biden was a freshman congressman, I was a high school junior. In my rural small town and mostly white high school, we were aware of racial and racist strife as something
Florida Education Commissioner is angry with Duval Schools Superintendent Diana Greene. Grr mad. Really really mad. Corcoran was previously the speaker of the house, where he pushed a variety of privatization moves. In particular, he pushed the " Schools of Hope ," a cool plan in which public schools that were having trouble w ould be targeted for direct charter competition , with lots of incentiv
California is in the midst of a legislative battle over charters , with the charter business suffering the prospect of a crackdown after years of happy life in the Land of Do As You Please. There are many issues and voices flying about, but the Pasadena Star-News just chose to speak up for one of the odder old arguments of charter fans-- that charter schools shouldn't have to hire qualified teache
Opponents of school choice in its many forms often talk about processes and institutions and policies, but one way to grasp choice-created problems is simple, old fashioned, and non wonky. Just look at who is holding the purse strings. In the public school system, the money is controlled by some combination of taxpayer-elected local school board members and taxpayer-elected state legislators (the
Are lesson plans a big fat waste of time? Well, yes, and no. But is something currently killing them? Sadly, yes. Why Lesson Planning Is Invaluable I read this piece arguing against them and kind of dismissed it and forgot about it until Nancy Flanagan brought the subject up again (Do you follow Nancy Flanagan regularly? You should). As usual, I agree with most everything she said in defense of l
This post is week 6 of 8 in the 8 Weeks of Summer Blog Challenge for educators . I've been doing this challenge because why not. I answer the prompts as my pre-tirement self. Here's this week's question: How are you planning to implement change next school year? This often depended on the change. For lots of changes, I just did it. Changing how I approached vocabulary? Just did it. Changing the r
Yes, we're getting the house painted. If that's not fun, I don't know what is. But in the meantime, here's some reading for you. How Did We Miss This? The story of the Indiana cyberschool collecting money for ghost students. Palm
