TNTP is a Part of the Destroy Public Education Infrastructure By T. Ultican 8/10/2019 TNTP is one of several organizations that only exist because billionaires have financed them. Wendy Kopp founded TNTP (originally called The New Teachers Project) in 1997. She assigned Michelle Rhee, who had recently finished a two year Teach For America (TFA) tour, to run TNTP. Along with TNTP and TFA there ar
Stop Blaming Teachers For Cruddy Systems We are surrounded by systems. A heating and cooling system is right now controlling the temperature of your house. An operating system controls the device you’re staring at. Should you buy something online, you’ll be at the mercy of a web site’s checkout system. If you leave the house, you’ll either enter your city’s traffic system or take advantage of it
Reed Hastings: Stars In Every Position We’re like a pro sports team, not a kid’s recreational team. Netflix leaders hire, develop and cut smartly, so we have stars in every position . That's Reed Hastings in a 2009 interview about his then-juggernaut business, Netflix. I came across it recently and, because Hastings has approached education and charter schools with the same business attitude, ho
Jeremy Mohler: What Is Democracy? Bargaining for the Common Good Jeremy Mohler of the organization “In the Public Interest” wrote this reflection on the meaning of democracy: The word “democracy” either fires you up or makes your eyes roll. It’s so overused that even Donald Trump is wielding it to ramp up support for his administration’s meddling in Venezuela. There’s even a new documentary out
What Does "Personalized Learning" Even Mean? Personalized learning is all over the educational landscape these days, even though nobody can offer a clear and consistent explanation for what it might be. The field encompasses everyone from teachers designing more effective methods to businesses with a new edu-product to sell. Assuming for the moment that there is no solid, universal definition, l
Toni Morrison and Motherhood “There was something so valuable about what happened when one became a mother. For me it was the most liberating thing that ever happened to me. Liberating because the demands that children make are not the demands of a normal ‘other.’ The children’s demands on me were things that nobody ever asked me to do. To be a good manager. To have a sense of humor. To deliver
Pediatricians: Black Children Suffer Significantly From Racism Surprise! Racism—that “thing” white people say doesn’t exist—has dire long-term effects on the health of black children and adolescents, according to a report released by the country’s largest group of pediatricians. The report, crafted into a first-of-its-kind policy statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics, calls racism “a
HITTING LEFT WITH THE KLONSKY BROTHERS. JACKIE SERRATO AND ROSSANA RODRIQUEZ. Both Jackie and Rossana have been on Hitting Left before so we all laughed when they screwed up the intro. Live radio. We asked them both to come back because we wanted to spend some time talking about the recent events in Puerto Rico and issues of immigration and white supremacy. Mike had originally asked our old frie
PHOTOS: Where The Kids Across Town Grow Up With Very Different Schools On one side of the line — fresh paint and computer labs. Across that line? Old textbooks, broken chairs and, above all, many more students of color. Decades after Brown v. Board supposedly ended segregated schooling, these boundaries show a country where education remains deeply divided and unequal. "You know it as soon as yo
Trump: Kids scared of going to school because of gun violence ‘have nothing to fear' “They have nothing to fear.” That’s what President Trump said Friday when asked if he had any advice for students who are returning to class for the 2019-2020 school year and are afraid because of recent gun violence. His response came as he was answering questions from reporters on the White House lawn before d
Charter Schools Vs. Public School Students Transparency is key.” – CCSA Email marked “Confidential” The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is not always a welcoming place for a person who needs accommodations. According to a report released on October 25, 2017 , a child with a physical disability would be unable to enter through the main entrance of one-fifth of the schools within the D
Education Research Report THIS WEEK Education Research Report How Math Sequences in Grades 6–11 Relate to College Readiness in Math by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 20h A new study from REL Southeast examined the sequences of math courses that Mississippi students took in grades 6–11; the math achievement and demographic characteristics of students who took similar math sequences; and how math sequences,
Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007 This Week With Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... The latest news and resources in education since 2007 “Q&A Collections: Reading Instruction” by Larry Ferlazzo / 27min Q&A Collections: Reading Instruction is the headline of my latest Education Week Teacher column. All Classroom Q&A posts offering
Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all KEEP UP/ CATCH UP WITH DIANE RAVITCH'S BLOG A site to discuss better education for all Big Education Ape: My New Book Was Just Announced! | Diane Ravitch's blog - https://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2019/05/my-new-book-was-just-announced-diane.html Why I Do Not Support Cory Booker by dianeravitch / 46min Cory Booker has a long and
When ‘Back to School’ Means Back to Mass-Shooting Fears High-profile massacres have created ambient, worsening anxiety about gun violence on K–12 campuses. Phyllis Fagell, a counselor at the private K–8 Sheridan School in Washington, D.C., got an email from a colleague on Sunday that’s been on her mind ever since. The email itself didn’t contain any distressing information. It didn’t tell of a s
The Role of Philanthropy In Shaping the Future At this year's annual Social Impact Exchange conference Schott Vice President Edgar Villanueva spoke on a panel with other philanthropic leaders to discuss how funders can help address the systemic problems at the root of so many of the challenges we face, from education to health to economic mobility. Panelists included: Nick Donohue, President and
Setting the Table While Serving the Meal If there’s one piece of enduring advice that teachers like to remind each other of this time of year it’s that we should take the time to “set the table” during the first couple weeks of school. The table setting metaphor is a warning to not jump too quickly into the curriculum; we should instead take time to establish rules and procedures, practice and r
Defensive Charter School Advocates Charter schools are privatized arrangements imposed on society by the rich and their retinue. There is nothing public about charter schools. Nonprofit and for-profit charter schools lack most of the features of public schools and typically operate as deregulated businesses. Calling a charter school public is mainly for the self-serving purpose of illegitimately
Guest Post: Please Treat Teachers Like Dirt Last week I posted a blog on Forbes.com about the Phi Delta Kappa annual report on education. This year it features a focus on teacher morale, and I pulled the quote " Tired of being treated like dirt. " A reader-- Stacey Miller Chester-- wrote a reply on Facebook I just love, because I'm a sucker for good analogies and metaphors, and so I'm reprinting
Yong Zhao: The Achievement Gap Mania in America Yong Zhao is one of the scholars I admire most. He turns out book after book, each saturated with remarkable scholarship and learning. He is also a superb speaker, who fills his lectures with learning and humor. He recently posted the introduction to a book he published last year called Reach for Greatness. In it, he wrote about America’s obsession
Teachers and Teachers Unions: Essential to Recovering Equity After Years of Funding Cuts and Privatization | janressege r Teachers and Teachers Unions: Essential to Recovering Equity After Years of Funding Cuts and Privatization The annual Phi Delta Kappa poll came out earlier this week, and not surprisingly, writes the Washington Post ‘s Laura Meckler , “The poll found widespread teacher complai
Choosing Democracy: SCTA Calls for Censure of Superintendent and SCTA Calls For Censure of Superintendent and School Board President SCTA Calls For Censure of Superintendent and School Board President In a letter ( which you can view here ) to School Board member Lisa Murawski, the Chairperson of the SCUSD Fiscal Transparency and Accountability Committee, SCTA called for the censure of Superinten
What It's Like to Be Latina At This Awful Moment in US History I am an 'American of Spanish descent'. That's what my mom and dad taught us to say whenever asked. Spanish is my first language, and I was trained to not speak English with an accent. My mom was fair skinned, my dad was dark, but neither looked 'ethnic'- My dad's high school nickname was Spic. It's in his yearbook from 1948. I have b
'She is our Shakespeare’: Why this white male teacher assigns Toni Morrison “Reading Morrison’s work has never been comfortable for me — a white male — but that’s all the more reason to read it.” That’s part of the piece below, written by Justin Snider, an assistant dean at Columbia University, about why he assigns the work of the late Nobel laureate Toni Morrison in his classes. Morrison’s deat
Indian Hill And How To Bust A Union If you are a teacher in Pennsylvania, you have probably heard from the folks at Free To Teach (I'm sure there are at least two of them) about how much better your life could be without a union. Their most recent letter includes an example of a district where teachers are happily existing without any connection to the state or national unions. Free To Teach has
COLLATERAL DAMAGE. The stories coming out of Ohio and Texas remain painful to watch. For those of us who are not personally touched by the loss, it is impossible to imagine. Trump’s teleprompter response, tone deaf and lacking in any vocal affect, was simply bizarre. September will start the eighth school year since I retired from teaching. As we turn the last corner of summer into August I got
The Eight Ps of Parent Engagement Getting parents more engaged in school is a necessary variable in the equation of student success. In fact, parent engagement can have a direct impact on student engagement itself. Multiple studies prove that students whose parents are actively engaged in their schooling typically show the following: Higher grades Higher test scores Greater social skills Better
OKCPS name conflicts do not help students OKCPS name conflicts do not help students Only a couple of weeks before the scheduled start of its academic year, Oklahoma City Public Schools announced it was opening Putnam Heights Academy, the new home for the closed Seeworth alternative school program. The same day, OKCPS board member Charles Henry, Rep. Ajay Pittman ( D-OKC ), Rep. Jason Lowe ( D-OKC
THE GREAT I AM The essential question: how can we reflect the changes we want to see in the world? Because I don’t have students in front of me during the summer, I have time to ask myself existential questions that offer space for self-congratulations and self-flagellation. In Dominican culture, we laugh with friends and relatives about the accuracy of household weaponry like belts and sandals.
California Department of Education News Releases New Media Literacy Resources Available Online Posted 07-Aug-2019 New Multilingual Program Search on CDE Mobile App Posted 30-Jul-2019 Closing the Achievement Gap Initiative Appointment Posted 15-Jul-2019 New Report for College-Going Rates Announced Posted 11-Jul-2019 Guide Educating English Learners with Disabilities Posted 03-Jul-2019 Launch of M
First-Year Writing and the Gauntlet of Academic Citation “How much we should emphasize academic citation in the first-year writing classroom has long been a matter of debate,” explains Jennie Young , director of the first-year writing program at University of Wisconsin at Green Bay . Then Young argues: “However, I’d like to take it one step further: I suggest that we stop teaching it entirely.”
Pennsylvania Law Meant to Forbid Arming Teachers May Have Done Just the Opposite Pennsylvania teachers, don’t forget to pack your Glock when returning to school this year. A new law meant to close the door on arming teachers may have cracked it open . Despite warnings from gun safety activists , the bill, SB 621 , was approved by the legislature and signed into law by Gov. Tom Wolf this summer.
Ed Reform vs. Democracy It was not that long ago that I wrote a piece about how school choice, by shifting the locus of control for the education purse strings, tends to undermine democractic processes . After all, if only parents of school age children, or only rich folks who contribute to tax credit scholarships, get to decide which schools get paid, then the non-parent taxpayers who are footi
A Gift That Never Stops Giving–Being a Teacher* I wrote this post five years ago and re-post it now as both children and youth get prepared for the next school year. And teachers –both rookies and veterans–gear up for 2019-2020. A dear friend and I exchanged emails recently and she mentioned that she had heard from a student she had in 1960. She had taught in the New York area for a number of ye
Jersey journalist roughed up at session sponsored by charter school groups An independent New Jersey journalist was roughed up, his video camera was seized, and he was ejected from a New Brunswick conference sponsored by a number of pro-charter school organizations. The incident involving Charles Kratovil of New Brunswick Today at last Saturday’s session of what was billed the “Fourth Annual New
New Orleans’ Kennedy High School Grading Fiasco and Perforated Accountability In all-charter New Orleans, New Beginnings Schools Foundation (NBSF) operates three charter schools in New Orleans, one of which is John F. Kennedy High School. Kennedy is in the throes of an astounding fraud which resulted in almost 50 percent of its Class of 2019 being found to not have actually met state requirement
Big Education Ape: BACK TO SCHOOL: A parent’s guide to K-12 school success A parent’s guide to K-12 school success click on picture What Schools Can Do To Support Parents Recognize that all parents, regardless of income, education or cultural background, are involved in their children's learning and want their children to do well. Design programs that will support families to guide their childre
State Superintendent Tony Thurmond Announces New Media Literacy Resources Available Online SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond today announced that the California Department of Education (CDE) has created a comprehensive online media literacy resource page for educators. The page provides access to free K–12 resources, instructional materials, lesson plans, and cu
How Dwindling Human Interaction in Public Schools Hurts Us as a Society Look at the picture above. Is the boy going to pick on the girl, or will he invite her to play with the other children? In today’s impersonal school climate, how do students learn about those around them? When there’s no chance of bringing students together in school, how will children better understand their peers? School a
What Can We Learn From An Experimental High Tech Wunderschool Failure? Max Ventilla launched AltSchool quietly enough in 2013, but within two years it was a hot Silicon Valley startup. In 2015, $100 million of investment dollars from major education reform players like Mark Zuckerberg and the Emerson Collective spurred an impressive wave of press. In just 24 hours the Silicon Valley Wunderschool
'Tired Of Being Treated Like Dirt' Teacher Morale In The 2019 PDK Poll 'Tired Of Being Treated Like Dirt' Teacher Morale In The 2019 PDK Poll The title of the 2019 Phi Delta Kappa Poll of the Public's Attitudes Toward the Public Schools of " Frustration in the Schools, " and the focus in much of the coverage has been on the results about teacher morale. 75% of teachers say schools in their commun
Here Are The Democratic Presidential Candidates With The Most Donations From Billionaires A key part of the race to the White House is fundraising, and the candidates are trying to bring in donations from wherever possible. Dozens of American billionaires have pulled out their checkbooks to support candidates engaged in a wide-open battle for the Democratic presidential nomination. As of the las
Data breach, cyber attack: Hackers use ransomware, phishing on schools ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Look at school districts from the perspective of a hacker . Districts maintain reams of sensitive information about employees, students and families, all of it online and accessible to varying degrees to hundreds or thousands of employees – not all of whom were paying particularly close attention in this yea
Anatomy of a failure: How an XQ Super School flopped Innovation and equity didn’t mix S OMERVILLE, Mass. — Alec Resnick and Shaunalynn Duffy stood in Somerville City Hall at about 6:30 on March 18, a night they hoped would launch the next chapter of their lives. The two had spent nearly seven years designing a new kind of high school meant to address the needs of students who didn’t thrive in a
REPARATIONS AND THE STUDENT DEBT WARS The public college and university system in California was tuition-free during the sixties and into the seventies when the baby boomers were attending college in record numbers. Favorable budgets helped stoke the demand and new campuses were built to accommodate this explosion, propelled by an inclusive ethos special to this left-liberal era where a differen
Stop Using the Least Likely Example I’m at a Solution Tree Professional Learning Communities event this week. It’s fine, if a bit too salesy. As for the content, it’s pretty basic stuff. Speaker after speaker has stressed the importance of working as a team so that student achievement isn’t dependent on the teacher lottery because everyone is working together to ensure the success of every child
How a Truly Epic Charter School Fraud Unfolded in Oklahoma - Progressive.org How a Truly Epic Charter School Fraud Unfolded in Oklahoma A case of ghost students, straw teachers, and parent bonuses sets a new low for privately operated schools. Even as the audacity and creativity of charter school fraud, malfeasance, and corruption continues to astonish even some of the most objective observers of
Textbooks or Laptops at the Classes D evelopment of modern technologies has an impact on people’s lives in a great number of aspects, and education is not an exception. Today, students use their computers to prepare for classes, to find the materials for assignments online as it is a fast and easy way to have access to the required books, so it is important to compare the usefulness of textbooks
They read Toni Morrison in school — and she changed their world Among the many tributes paid on social media to Nobel laureate Toni Morrison, whose death was announced Tuesday, perhaps the most poignant are from women who read her works in school and found not only inspiration but also new ways to look at themselves and the world. Some teachers included Morrison’s works — among them, “Beloved,”
Post-Truth U.S. Doesn’t Have a Prayer Before I could examine a renewed interest in public school prayer prompted by a court ruling in South Carolina , school prayer was once again grossly misrepresented in the wake of two mass shootings , the cancer on the U.S. that political leaders refuse to diagnose or treat properly. Jack Sharp I taught and coached in a public high school in SC for 18 years,
Proposed Rule Change in Food Stamps Program Would Hurt the Working Poor and Make Thousands of Kids Ineligible for Subsidized School Lunch The Trump administration has proposed cutting access to food stamps—now called SNAP (Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program)— for over 3 million families, seniors and people with disabilities. The administration has threatened to narrow something called b
LAUSD’s Nick Melvoin: Betrayal of Trust INSIDE THE LAUSD BOARD-“ Thanks for your participation in yesterday evening’s meeting with Nick Melvoin. For reference, I attached my notes and next steps from our discussion. Please do not share these notes outside of this group.” -- Jason J. Rudolph, CCSA It appears that this school board member was a mole in the boardroom as the LAUSD defended itself ag
Inside The NAACP’s Civil War Over Charter Schools Leaders of the nation’s oldest civil rights group say that members are being paid by right-wing groups to infiltrate the organization and sow chaos. When three local NAACP branches in California passed April resolutions opposing the national group’s call for a charter school moratorium, school choice advocates greeted the news with glee. U.S. Sec
What Can We Expect Schools to Do about White Nationalism? As the news stories about back-to-back (to-back) shootings emerged, I waited for what was surely coming. Listening to talk radio while driving for an hour on Sunday morning, the stories from CNN, NPR, MSNBC and Bloomberg were similar: Shock and horror. Informed speculation about root causes. Serious conversation about domestic terrorism a
Walton Family Backs Bond-Market Experiment for Charter Schools (Bloomberg) -- Anand Kesavan spent more than a decade as a public finance banker working with state loan funds for clean water projects before a two-year stint as chief financial officer at KIPP Austin, a network of 10 charter schools in Texas’s capital. Now, he’s heading a non-profit backed by the family of Walmart Inc. founder Sam
Education Research Report Student Mobility, Backfill, and Charter Schools by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 1h By Neil Campbell and Abby Quirk Changing schools—especially midyear moves within the same community—is a challenge for students, families, and schools. Making new friends, connecting with new teachers, filling in gaps when curricula aren't perfectly aligned, and being assessed to receive necessa
A Dystopian Vision Of American Education In the wake of the latest wave of politically-driven, mostly white supremacist terrorism that left at least 31 dead in El Paso and Dayton, Trump and the Republicans are scrambling to create a narrative that acquits them and their leadership of culpability and collusion in the bloody affair. In the past few days, the GOP line has shifted blame away from Tr
Charter School Apologia | Dissident Voice Charter School Apologia The frenzied promotion of illusions about charter schools by the rich reflects their growing fear of losing the power to impose their narrow interests on the public. Mounting internal and external criticism of privately-operated nonprofit and for-profit charter schools rightly has charter school advocates and their wealthy supporte
The facts on the US children and teens killed by firearms Injury is the leading cause of death for U.S. children and adolescents, accounting for over 60% of all deaths in this group. Many of these deaths occur during fun, everyday activities, like swimming in the backyard pool or during a family car ride. But a disproportionate and disturbing number of these deaths in the U.S. occur as a result
How Do Teachers Teach–Then and Now Most policymakers, researchers, and parents believe that good teachers and teaching are the keys to school improvement yet these very same folks know little about how teachers teach daily. And that is the rub. Good teachers and teaching are the agreed-upon policy solutions to both high- and low-performing students yet reliable knowledge of how most teachers tea
Are 85% of TFA alumni really “working in education or careers serving low-income communities”? In a recent podcast on ‘Getting Smart,’ they interviewed TFA CEO Elisa Villanueva-Beard. At the 0:56 mark the host gave this series of numbers, straight from the TFA PR department, “Of the 53,000 alumni, 85% work in education or in careers serving low-income communities. That includes 1,260 school lead
Poll: Parents Continue to Stand Beside Educators In Fight for Funding Almost eighteen months after educators ignited the #RedforEd movement to call for greater investment in our public schools, parents – and the general public – are unwavering in their support. According to the 2019 Phi Delta Kappan (PDK) Poll of the Public’s Attitudes Toward the Public Schools , 74 percent of parents and 71 per
PA: Governor Calls Charters Private, Makes Advocacy Group Sad When Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf trotted out his budget last month, he made it a point to note that he was raising money for public schools-- and that he had some definite ideas about which schools are public and which schools are not. He wants to see more of those basic education dollars to school districts get distributed through
Equal Right to Representation In Education - Washington I know I mentioned this new Facebook group briefly but I do want to give them applause for their incredible work. From their Facebook page : We advocate for the necessity of a public advocacy service to guide families and help them understand regulations of special education and also support families with other issues of justice as they rel
Charter School Advocates Fume Over Final Reform Report California’s charter lobby remains fiercely opposed to far-reaching reforms found in a state Assembly bill. If some public schools advocates have been less than enthusiastic about Governor Gavin Newsom’s attempts to dilute charter school reform legislation, the governor shouldn’t expect any gratitude from California’s charter lobby. Despite
The US is militarizing its schools and day cares because its gun violence rates are comparable to failed countries and war zones The US ranks within the 20 countries with the highest rates of gun-related deaths per 100,000 citizens, joining El Salvador, which is one of the world's most violent places, and Afghanistan, which the Global Peace Index named 2019's least peaceful country . Schools, po
The Welcome Back Letter I’d Love to Give My Students – But Can’t I’m a very lucky guy. I get to teach language arts in an amazing urban middle school in Western Pennsylvania . I have reasonable autonomy , opportunities to collaborate with my co-workers and strong union protections . Even so, I know there are a lot of teachers out there who don’t have those things . Yet even after counting all my
2020 Candidates Views on Gun Control: A Voter’s Guide The politics of gun control have played a role in decades of presidential elections, but advocates for the movement appear poised to make their greatest gains yet should a Democrat defeat Donald Trump in 2020. The White House hopefuls are describing recent mass shootings as indicative of an urgent, uniquely American emergency — casting subseq
A Guide To Discussing Race With Your Students Guest Writer: Ali Andrews The reluctance to discuss racism in American public schools actively harms students of color. While structural racism shapes their lives, the topic goes largely unaddressed in schools, often by educators who simultaneously enact discriminatory policies. Opening up discussions of race in the classroom is essential for engagin
Gov. Tom Wolf calls charter schools ‘private,’ draws heated response from their largest advocacy group To say Gov. Tom Wolf struck a nerve with the charter school community when he recently referred to their schools as “private” is putting it mildly, but his administration is not backing away from that description. An organization representing those schools sent Wolf a letter on Thursday voicing
PARENTS REFLECT ON CASE TO BE REVIEWED BY U.S. SUPREME COURT Kalispell parents Kendra Espinoza and Jeri Anderson and Bigfork parent Jaime Schaefer are the faces of a Montana case regarding religious schools and funding that will have its day in the United States Supreme Court. What originated as a lawsuit in December 2015 (Espinoza versus the Montana Department of Revenue) now has school choice,
How financially troubled colleges rip off veterans How Betsy DeVos's Education Department makes it possible by propping up for-profit educational companies. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’s move to reverse Obama-era restrictions on for-profit colleges and reinvigorate the shady industry has backfired spectacularly. Since DeVos and team greenlighted the accreditation of one of the nation’s large
The Right Remains Wrong about Teaching, Learning, and Critical Thinking Everything about Williamson M. Evers is politically conservative, right-wing. Evers is a research fellow for the conservative Hoover Institution , explicitly dedicated to market economics and antagonistic to “government intrusion into the lives of individuals” (a libertarian strain of conservatism in the U.S.). Evers has als
A study of Latino students reveals two sides of the segregation debate Latino students are more isolated but also more evenly spread through schools, researchers say T he immediate coverage of an important July 2019 study on Latino children in America emphasized how they are increasingly “segregated” from white children at school. Reporters at both Politico and Education Week highlighted that th
Ed Reform Was Supposed To Crush Unions Every once in a while I stumble on an old article from back in the days when some reformsters would just say certain parts out loud instead of trying to be subtle or dog whistly. Take this piece from April of 2014 by Terry M. Moe. It's an excerpt from his book What Lies Ahead for America's Children and Their Schools , and it's really, really clear what this
The Presidential Candidates and the Press: Missing What’s Important The Washington Post ‘s Valerie Strauss noticed something in the Democratic presidential candidates’ debates so far: “Now it’s getting ridiculous: four debates among Democratic presidential candidates, and no questions—or serious discussion about K-12 education.” She notes that Michael Bennet alone made a plea to “fix our school
Why I Like Steve Bullock as a Democratic Candidate Steve Bullock, governor of Montana, entered the Democratic primaries late, and to most people he is a complete unknown. At NPE Action, we have been watching Steve Bullock with admiration, because he has been a stand-up guy for public schools in his state. He has been governor of the state since 2012. He beat a pro-privatization billionaire in 20
Book Review: A Contest Without Winners: How Students Experience Competitive School Choice Kate Phillippo , associate professor of cultural and educational policy studies at Loyola University Chicago’s School of Education, published a book in March 2019, entitled, A Contest Without Winners: How Students Experience Competitive School Choice. Kate Phillippo In her book, Phillippo offers details fro
CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: What A Miserable Sunday Edition (8/4) ICYMI: What A Miserable Sunday Edition (8/4) This has not been a great week in the US, but here we are again. Read some pieces about education if you can; otherwise, just go curl up with loved ones. Testing Craze Is Fading in U.S. Schools. Good. Here’s What’s Next . At Bloomberg, Andrea Gabor takes a look at testing and what may come af
Criminalizing Child Behavior at School An audiotape and police report has surfaced about an incident that occurred at Van Asselt Elementary School earlier this year. Here's the story as the Seattle Times reported it. Basically, a teacher was threatened with bodily harm by a 5th grade student who is less than 5 feet tall - only threatened but it appears he leaned into her using foul language - af
How to spot a student loan scam As many families deal with college financing this summer, the Better Business Bureau has reported an increase in fraudulent texts, emails and voicemails about loans. The Federal Trade Commission says consumers who suspect that they're the target of a student loan scam should file a complaint at ftc.gov and contact their lenders directly. But to keep consumers from
If #LAUSD's Nick Melvoin did engage in acts of moral turpitude… The esteemed Professor Diane Ravitch wrote about one of the newest revelations on the Michael Kolhaas dot org website. She writes: "He says that [Nick] Melvoin as a member of the board was privy to the LAUSD legal strategy in its perennial struggle with the charter lobby. He says that Melvoin shared this strategy with the charter lo
Our Children Are Not Safe I made the mistake of reading the El Paso shooter’s manifesto. At one point he concedes that an immigrant is someone willing to do a job no US citizen is willing to do, but then he immediately engages in a screed about the contempt he holds for the children of immigrants. And upon reading those words all of the nightmarish images trapped behind my eyelids spilled forth.
THE BEST RESOURCES FOR TEACHING & LEARNING ABOUT GUN CONTROL The shootings in Gilroy, El Paso and Dayton this week have, once again, brought the issue of gun violence (and white supremacy terrorism – see resources on racism here .) to public attention again. I have many lists lists of resources related to gun violence here . I have previously posted one on gun control, but it’s time to post a co
The College Chase Is Pushing Parents Over The Line The College Chase Is Pushing Parents Over The Line It has become one of the recurring themes in the news--the lengths that parents will go to in order to get their child into college. The big story was the college admissions scandal that uncovered the rich and famous bribing and lying to get their children into college. The scandal touched a nati
When do “not-for-profit” and “for-profit” mean the same thing? Welcome to Michigan’s dystopian charter schools Michigan, allegedly, does not permit for-profit charter schools. And yet one of the largest for-profit charter management corporations, National Heritage Academies (NHA), is headquartered in Grand Rapids, Michigan. And they take the “for profit” part seriously : NHA funds itself partly
Education Insider for August 4, 2019 Keep telling your senators to push for action on bills that help families and educators As the Senate begins its August recess, the list of House-passed bills awaiting action just grows longer. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is proud of his refusal even to consider legislation with broad-based support—in the House and among the American people—
TEACHERS’ ROLE IN THE PUERTO RICO UPRISING Rosello Funneled Money To Charter Schools In Puerto Rico. The Asociación de Maestros de Puerto Rico and the AFT demanded that federal recovery money restore public education on the island instead. As Americans lament the current sorry state of democracy in Washington, D.C., government by the will of the people was very much alive recently in Puerto Rico
Four Truths About For-Profit Charter Schools 2020 Democratic candidates taking a stand against for-profit charters is like bravely standing up in opposition to yeti attacks. Democratic candidates have been steering away from supporting charter schools. For a further-left candidate like Bernie Sanders, a call to end charter expansion is not far removed from his other anti-corporate positions. But
Justice John Paul Stevens on Gun Control I posted this originally on March 2, 2018, after the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Justice John Paul Stevens wrote a series of essays about the Supreme Court and its treatment of important issues like gun control. The Washington Post excerpted one of them here, in 2014. “Following the massacre of grammar-school chi
The Not-so-Secret War against OUR Public Schools About eight years ago my wife heard Diane Ravitch being interviewed on NPR . When Anchee got home, she told me I’d be interested, and I’ve been following Diane’s blog since and have read a few of her books on the war being waged against our public schools. Make no mistake about this issue; it is a greed-based war of power and corruption that mostl
Big Education Ape Top Posts This Week 8/3/19 The real story of New Orleans and its charter schools - The Washington Post Bill Gates spent hundreds of millions of dollars to improve teaching. New report says it was a bust. - The
