Latest News and Comment from Education

Sunday, November 3, 2019

CATCH UP WITH CURMUDGUCATION + ICYMI: It's November Already Edition (11/3)

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: It's November Already Edition (11/3)


ICYMI: It's November Already Edition (11/3)

One storm front pushes through and all of a sudden it's much less like summer and much more like winter. But when it's cold outside, that's a good time to hunker down inside and read. Remember to share, folks.

Schools and Surveillance  

Buzzfeed offers a package of pieces about some of the creepy surveillance going on out there (for our own good, of course). It's all plenty alarming.

Education Technology Running Rampant  

As always, the view form China is scary. I can tell you that the headband thing was apparently scrapped later in the week, but still... Alan Singer has some thoughts.

Bus Struck In Sinkhole  

Not remotely education related, but in western PA we love ourselves a good sinkhole story.

My Tour of Achievement First    

Senator Sam Bell took a tour of an Achievement First charter school and came away...well, not favorably impressed, that's for sure.

What's Blockchain Actually Good For?  

Wired takes a look at the promises of blockchain. It was going to fix everything. including carrying your digital credential profile. So far, it looks as if one more technowonder has seriously overpromised beyond what it can actually do.

The Haunted Third Grade Classrooms Children Fear  

Nancy Bailey with a look at the bad policy that is third grade reading retention. Spoiler alert: it still doesn't work.

The Big Lie About the Science of Reading: 2019 Edition    

Paul Thomas breaks down some of the baloney surrounding the "science" of reading, with a special look at the new NAEP scores.

Stop Devaluing the Wisdom of Teachers  

Joseph Murphy at EdWeek points out that researchers don't have a monopoly on "evidence," and maybe classroom teachers actually know a thing or two about teaching.

NOLA Book Cooking  

Mercedes Schneider (she's indispensable) has been following the story of the administrator who told teachers to fix their grades. It's not pretty.

Why Democrats Are Rethinking School Choice  

From Have You Heard comes a great interview with Jon Valant. Thoughtful, nuanced stuff about the tides affecting the charter movement.



CATCH UP WITH CURMUDGUCATION



Why Market Forces Will Not Provide Charter School Accountability

It has been a rough day at my house. The IRS is auditing me and needs me to send them money now. My computer has a virus. My Microsoft Windows is expired and will shut down soon. And if I don’t re-enter my personal information, my email, Netflix, and bank accounts will all be shut down. The only good news is that I still have a chance to buy great insurance, and I’m still waiting to hear back fro

NOV 01

DeVos Honored By Prominent Dominionist Group

Dominionism argues that the US should be a literal Christian nation, its government run by Christians. It comes in varying degrees of severity , with varying amounts of nationalism mixed in. One of the major proponents of American (i.e. US) dominionism was D. James Kennedy , a minister and broadcaster in Florida. Sample quote : To be a true Christian citizen means to "take dominion over all thing

OCT 31

Solnit, Books, Rand, and Young Readers

If you are not a regular follower of Brain Pickings , you should be. Thoughtful and erudite and really, really human, the site has for over a decade presented Maria Popova's essays spun off the works of others. I've met many authors I was glad to know on her site. This post focuses on author Rebecca Solnit and A Velocity of Being , a collection of 121 illustrated letters written to young readers.

OCT 30

DeVosian NAEP Nonsense

I wasn't going to write about NAEP for any number of reasons, but then I happened t o look at Betsy DeVos's comments on this year's results and, well, this whole blood pressure thing happened. So to get my numbers back down, I'm going to talk through the nonsense she issued forth, notable for its disconnection from reality, its devotion to public education bashing, and, most of all, its bizarre di
PA: A Chance To Improve Teacher Evaluation

No sooner had I written about t aking back teacher evaluation , then a note crossed my desk about SB 751 and HB 1607. Pennsylvania's teacher evaluation system is currently pretty lousy. There is nominal commitment to the Danielson model, a time-consuming pre- and post- observation process that involves a big bunch of online paperwork and Q & A answering, a cumbersome process involving Student Lear




For This Blog, Another Mile Marker

Some time in the last couple of days, this blog hit the 8 million views mark. I mention this mostly to make one point-- if you wonder whether or not anybody else cares about this stuff, the answer is yes-- a whole bunch of people. It has been one of the most common reactions I've had here-- "I thought I was crazy, that I was the only person who could see what was happening." So, again, I say, you

OCT 29

CAP Wants The Feds To Boost Charters

The Center for American Progress is supposedly a left-tilted thinky tank, but when it comes to education, they really love corporate reform . Here on this blog, I literally ran out of ways to title sa post "CAP is still working hard to push common core" (seriously-- just use the search bar in that upper left corner). CAP became a little rudderless when Hillary Clinton's candidacy failed; till then

OCT 27

ICYMI: Nearly Spooky Edition (10/26)

Here's the reading for the week. Remember to pass it on. School Choice Has Not Cured Philadelphia's Ailing System The Inquirer takes a look at choice in Philly and the various problems it hasn't fixed. The History of Privatization Talking Points Memo takes a look a privatization across a series of articles, including public education. Teach For America Will Not Save Us Larry Lee blogs about one of

OCT 26



Taking Back Teacher Evaluations

There's a slowly-rising tide of writing out there focusing on principals and evaluations, quietly returning focus to the idea of making evaluations meaningful. It's a welcome change, because the status quo for the past over-a-