The Family Friendly Schools Act: A Set Up For “Soft Policing” Schools To Profit Impact Investors? On November 6, 2019, former San Francisco District Attorney, California Attorney General, Senator, and presidential candidate Kamala Harris introduced the Family Friendly Schools Act . If passed, the bill would create a five-year grant program to restructure 500 elementary schools to “better align”
Educator Unions Stand Together Deeply Saddened by Another Tragic School Shooting and Deaths Leaders Demand an End to Gun Violence and Quick Action by Lawmakers Four state and national education union leaders issued the following statement in the wake of the early morning shooting at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita, California that has already claimed the lives of two students and critically
Pennsylvania: Protect Your Public Schools and Their Funding! Say NO to Vouchers! If you live in Pennsylvania, please let your legislators know that you oppose the diversion of public funds to private and religious schools. Stop the DeVos agenda now! Vouchers do not help students or schools or districts! Multiple studies have shown that vouchers divert funding from public schools and reduce servi
Teachers at D.C.’s only unionized charter school sign a contract, a first for the city Teachers and staff members at Mundo Verde Bilingual Public Charter School are nearing a historic moment: They’re a vote away from settling with their bosses on a union contract, the first time that has happened at a D.C. charter school. Workers at the popular language immersion charter school in Northwest Wash
Betsy DeVos Accuses FBI Of Ignorance, Blames Public Education (And More) Never let it be said that Betsy DeVos won't go out of her way to blame US public education for all the ills of the country, real or imagined. In retrospect, it seems like an oversight that she hadn't had a "Kids These Days" moment, but now that omission has been corrected. The young FBI agents are ignorant, and public educa
CHICAGO’S TEACHERS APPROVE THEIR CONTRACT Chicago teachers, members of the Chicago Teachers Union bargaining unit numbering 25,000, have approved the agreement negotiated between the CTU bargaining team and the Chicago Public Schools board of education. The vote came two weeks after an eleven day strike that put thousands of teachers on the picket lines and in the streets for nearly daily mass p
SCHOOLS, EDUCATION ISSUES IN DC’S WARD 8 Our November 14, 2019 featured a discussion of issues in Ward 8 schools with the DC council member for the ward, Trayon White, along with Anacostia high school social worker Nathan Luecking and DCPS community engagement officer and Ward 8 parent Sharona Robinson. DC’s eastern- and southernmost ward, Ward 8 has the most children in the city–and some of its
Do NYS Graduation Measures Adequately Prepare Students for Career and/or College? We all know that the primary purpose of high school is to keep teenagers and parents apart to reduce patricide, matricide and infanticide, that being said … Over the past month I have blogged a number of times over the current year-long process to review graduate measures, commonly known as high school graduation r
The Wrong “Scientific” for Education The release of National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 2019 scores in math and reading , announced as an “emergency” and “devastating,” has thrown gasoline on the rhetorical fire that has already been sweeping across media—a call for “scientific” research to save public education in the U.S.: Schools Should Follow the ‘Science of Reading,’ Say Nati
Watch Out for Talking with the Times on HCC HCC or probably any other topic. The last several years have seen the Times skew their writing on public education. Whether it's because part of their writing is funded by the Gates Foundation (and the Times clutches its pearls if you even suggest that the Foundation gives them guidance on what to write and how to write) and/or input from the Editorial
Some Questions for the Ohio House of Representatives The Ohio House of Representatives has passed a bill that would prevent public school students from being penalized for their religious beliefs in science (and, I presume any other) class. In other words, a student in a geology class could assert that the Earth was 6,000 years old…a student taking astronomy could claim that the stars are simply
Does the bill just passed by the Ohio House allow students to be wrong in science class without penalty if they cite religious reasons? (Update: Interview with bill sponsor, more detail) Did lawmakers in Ohio’s House pass legislation that says it’s okay for students to be wrong in science class as long as their reasoning is based on religious beliefs? That’s what critics in the state are saying
OH: Outlawing Facts The Ohio House of Representatives is ready to help students take a bold step forward into the post-fact world. Wednesday they passed (and when I say "they," I mean the s olid vote-as-a-bloc GOP ) HB 164 . It's called the "Ohio Student Religious Liberties Act of 2019" and it sets out to accomplish a few things: It removes the limits on exercising expression of student religiou
Education Research Report THIS WEEK Education Research Report Recent trends in adult literacy in the United States by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 16h Between 2012/14 and 2017, the average scores for U.S. adults with less than a high school education increased in literacy, while, for adults with a high school education, they decreased in both literacy and numeracy. The National Center for Education Stat
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 Around The Web In ESL/EFL/ELL by Larry Ferlazzo / 9h BiljaST / Pixabay Five years ago I began this regular feature where I share a few posts and resources from around the Web related to ESL/EFL
KEEP UP/ CATCH UP WITH DIANE RAVITCH'S BLOG A site to discuss better education for all Slaying Goliath: The Passionate Resistance to Privatization and the Fight to Save America's Public Schools CLICK HERE TO Pre-order NOW TODAY Kentucky: New Governor Invites Teachers to Lead Inaugural Parade! by dianeravitch / 29min Newly elected Governor Andy Beshear has invited teachers to lead his inaugural p
Wendy Lecker: The fallout of school takeover laws What does Colin Kaepernick have to do with public schools? By silently kneeling during the national anthem to protest racial injustice, Kaepernick displayed the kind of civic engagement that is the goal of public education. Kaepernick’s actions inspired other athletes, at the professional, college and high school levels, to join in the silent, re
Follow These #EdJustice Superstars on Twitter | Schott Foundation for Public Education Follow These #EdJustice Superstars on Twitter It’s that time of the year again... the Schott Foundation’s second annual list of 10 Education Justice Superstars to follow on Twitter! Spice up your feed with knowledge and inspiration from these influential and energized advocates. They’re leading the way, pushing
Striking Teachers Are Fighting For Much More Than Paychecks | OurFuture.org by People's Action Striking Teachers Are Fighting For Much More Than Paychecks While national news outlets hail the conclusion of a historic teacher strike in Chicago, another important story often overlooked by national reporters is the ongoing struggle to defend public education in the months that follow successful stri
State Superintendent Tony Thurmond Appoints Stephanie Farland as the New Director of the Charter Schools Division Stephanie Farland , a consultant on charter school oversight in California, said she sees the benefits that students can receive when there is no labor agreement. But she also sees the price that young or new teachers pay because of high involvement, home visits and long hours. “Char
PTA Fundraising and Spending; Let's Talk A really informative article from The Atlantic on PTA fundraising. Wonder if the new Board make-up, what with a former president of the SCPTSA and a former SCPTSA Board member, might have the courage to tackle this one. But there is not just an "opportunity gap" but this: A 2017 report from the left-leaning Center for American Progress found that of the r
Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007 Twenty-Second School Shooting Of The Year – How Many More Have To Happen? by Larry Ferlazzo / 3h The New York Times article headlined California School Shooting Is Another Nightmare Made Real – and the videos below – tell the story of what happened yesterday. It was the twenty-second school shooting t
Something stinks about the takeover of HISD [Opinion] Residents of this community are increasingly frustrated with the upheaval in the Houston Independent School District. As Houstonians who work directly with the educators, parents and students in the district, we don’t blame them. But something doesn’t add up in the state’s decision to take over HISD. Houston schools have been on an improvemen
Report: Michigan’s takeover of Detroit schools was ‘a costly mistake’ The state was supposed to solve intractable problems that elected school officials in Detroit could not. It made things worse, according to a newly released report on the 15 years during which the Detroit school district was largely controlled by state-appointed officials. The study, which was commissioned by the current schoo
Michael Bloomberg Says He May Run for President: Why He Won’t Be my Choice New York City’s former three-term mayor, Michael Bloomberg, a multi-billionaire businessman, is exploring whether to join other Democrats running for President in 2020. It is said that he would be a Democratic centrist, and we know that he has contributed positively to the national conversation promoting gun control and a
Vulture Voucher Bill Latest in Mike Turzai’s Quest to Please Betsy DeVos in PA The best way to help a struggling public school is to cannibalize it. At least that’s what Betsy DeVos thinks – and so does her Pennsylvania puppet Mike Turzai. The Republican Speaker of the state House is expected to propose a school voucher bill Monday that will treat Harrisburg Schools as nothing more than carrion
Education Through Friendship: One Man’s Story (Part 1) I have been writing this blog for over a decade. It has focused nearly always on how state and district policies–most of which aim to reform practices– are formed and what happens to them as they trickle down into classrooms. In other words, I have described and analyzed the institution of schooling both past and present and how policies, if
Los Angeles: UTLA Endorses Bernie Sanders Tonight, the United Teachers of Los Angeles endorsed Senator Bernie Sanders for the Democratic nomination for president. LOS ANGELES — United Teachers Los Angeles, the second-largest teachers’ local in the country, is proud to endorse Senator Bernie Sanders for US President in the 2020 Primary Election, making UTLA the first teachers’ union in the countr
Charter School Industry’s Data Plan Goes Bust I think that it is incredibly ironic…that the same people who have resisted charter school transparency are now the ones demanding [public schools] to be transparent. ” – LAUSD Board Member Jackie Goldberg The School Performance Framework (SPF) should have been killed off the moment it was revealed that Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Boa
Poverty vs District School Performance This ranking lists all Louisiana school systems and certain individual schools in order of increasing poverty. The table includes the district performance scores and the letter grade as assigned by the LA Department of Education for 2019. (Click on the image to magnify) It is noteworthy that the districts and schools with the smallest percentage of high pov
The problem with K.J.’s comeback Sacramento didn’t author Kevin Johnson’s political downfall. Will the city support the accused molester’s makeover as a celebrity restaurant owner? Dear Sacramento, Did you forgive or forget? Or did you never believe the girls at all? It’s a late Friday morning inside Fixins Soul Kitchen, and Oak Park’s buzziest new restaurant is steady with early lunch traffic.
Education is political On a recent Sunday morning, I woke up to see tremendous chatter on social media concerning the budget impasse in the North Carolina General Assembly. The discussion included the lack of educator raises, the failure to expand Medicaid, unacceptable working conditions, and a shortage of support staff. This discussion quickly evolved into the formation of a new social media g
Oakland School Board meeting turns chaotic after protesters take over, forcing board to leave OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) -- Wednesday's Oakland School Board meeting turned into chaos after protesters upset about school closures disrupted things and then took over the meeting forcing the board to leave. "Out with the school board, in with democracy," said one speaker. It took only minutes for proteste
The Implications of Sacramento City Unified's Ongoing Budgetary Challenges for Local and State Policy Authors: Carrie Hahnel , Hannah Melnicoe Year of publication: November 2019 Sacramento City Unified School District (SCUSD), California’s thirteenth largest school district, faces a looming deficit and must make significant budget adjustments to avoid state intervention. This case study explores
Pearson In Your Pants Pearson, the edu-product giant that hopes to eat the world, just announced a new product. It's part of the overall Pearson vision-- and nobody does large-scale vision like Pearson. They see everything happening in a "digital ocean. " They have ideas about an "assessment renaissance" so huge that it took me five posts to write about it ( here's the shorter version ). And jus
Students take their future into their own hands on climate change activism Why aren’t schools helping them? When high school senior Destiny Watford learned that state officials had approved a building permit for a giant incinerator that would burn 4,000 tons of trash every day and emit more than a thousand pounds of lead and mercury every year, less than a mile away from her school in Baltimore,
Too few parents talk to their kids about race and identity, report finds Ten percent of parents discuss race often with their children Too few parents and teachers are talking about race, gender and other identity traits with children often enough, which means they are missing out on critical opportunities to teach children to become tolerant of differences from an early age. That’s one of the m
Walton Foundation and UNCF Collaborate to Lure Young African Americans into Disruption Movement A friend share this link about a program in which the United Negro College Fund is funded by the far-right Walton Family Foundation to give summer internships to young African Americans to work in organizations that undermine public education, unions, and the teaching profession. The purpose of the pr
Statewide Red for Ed Day of Action to see national backing at rally next week The national president of the American Federation of Teachers will join teachers, school administrators and legislators next week as public education advocates plan a statewide rally for public education . The day, dubbed the Red for Ed Day of Action, will kick off with a morning rally Tuesday at the Indiana Statehouse
Should a Cooperating Teacher Make Things More ‘Real’ for His Student Teacher? Thought experiment: You’re a successful veteran male HS teacher, firing on all instructional cylinders. You take your first student teacher. Your classes this year are right where you want them—the students have begun to trust each other and their own ideas and skills. They’re functioning well. And now—you’re going to
Equity in Theory, Privilege in Practice In the latest episode of Have You Heard , we tackle a fraught and timely question.Why do progressive parents so often act to preserve their own privilege, and that of their children, even as they say they’re committed to challenging inequality? We talk to Margaret Hagerman, author of White Kids: Growing Up with Privilege in a Racially Divided America . Ful
Today's Grievances I have a girl in my class who imitates me. Sometimes she stands behind my back and mimics my movements. Other times, she anticipates exactly what I'm going to say, stands up, and says it before I can. I have to say, I find this very disappointing. The key issue, in my view, is having teenagers in my class who are smarter than I am. I mean, who the hell do they think they are d
How School Choice Works: The School Has the Choice to Close Mid-Year and Transfer Its Students How school choice works: Florida parents and students think they have chosen a charter school. School decides to close mid-year. Parents and students are informed less than three weeks prior to closure that they will be transferred to another charter school. Original, “chosen” school has apparently mad
NAEP Board Gets DeVosian Additions Education Secretary Betsy DeVos just announced six new appointees (and one returnee) to the National Assessment Governing Board. These are the folks that oversee the National Assessment of Educational Progress aka NAEP aka the nation's report card aka that big standardized test that everyone tries to use to prove a point every year . So who did we get? Returnee
Teacher morale has 'reached a tipping point,' new survey shows With work stoppages cropping up in all corners of the U.S. , it’s clear that many American teachers are in a bad way. The sunny optimism that likely propelled them into the field is rapidly fading as the result of low salaries, insufficient funding, and the often complicated social-emotional needs of their students. This is according
Accountability for some? HFT Members are asking what about failing charter schools? Suggesting that politics, not concern for students, is behind the Texas Education Agency decision to take over the Houston ISD school board, Houston Federation of Teachers President Zeph Capo Monday charged the state agency with a continued attempt to privatize education in the state — supporting charters not pub
Tonight! A Bipartisan Requiem (or Celebration) for the Failure of No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top Political Morning Education reports a big event in D.C. tonight where partisans of the test-and-punish education policies of the past twenty years will gather to rededicate themselves to their failed programs. Will these advocates for accountability accept any accountability for the misguid
More than 765 Charter Schools Closed in Three Years Currently, about 3.2 million students are enrolled in roughly 7,000 privately-operated charter schools across the country. This represents less than 7% of all students and 7% of all schools in the country. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, more than 765 charter schools closed between 2014-15 and 2016-2017, 1 leaving tho
Organizations with the Audacity to Blame Teachers for Poor NAEP Reading Scores! The latest “criticize teachers for not teaching the ‘science’ of reading” can be found in “Schools Should Follow the ‘Science of Reading,’ say National Education Groups” in the Gates funded Education Week. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation funds most of the organizations in this report that criticize public schools
Campbell Brown’s “The 74” Does Not Like Elizabeth Warren Campbell Brown was a CNN anchor. Then she became the new face of the Education Disruption movement after the disappearance of Michelle Rhee. Brown advocated for charters and vouchers and she opposed teachers’ unions and teacher tenure. She claimed in various articles in the New York City press that the schools were overrun by teachers who
FTC Cracks Down On Edu-Influencers One of the small tricks that education marketers have developed is to enlist teachers as brand ambassadors. Teachers are, after all, the voices most often trusted by other teachers, so it's got to be a real boost if you can get Mrs. Teachwell to tout your product on Twitter or Instagram or Pinterest. And the beauty of it is that Mrs. Teachwell may come cheap--
A New Goal in My Pedagogy-Stress Reduction Throughout my many years teaching at Fordham, I was probably not best known for my kindness. Yes, I gave my students lots of personal attention and and made sure they had an opportunity to express themselves, but I also pushed them HARD, asking them to write long research papers that had to be handed in ON TIME. No one took my courses without doing a lo
What Does the Slippage in NAEP Reading Scores Mean about our Schools? our Children? our Society? The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is considered the most reliable indicator of trends in American public education. The test is administered to samples of students and is used to track long-range trends. Nobody reports on the NAEP scores of specific students. Nobody judges school
Education in DC’s Ward 8 Our show, Nov. 14, will focus on issues around public education in Ward 8, DC’s eastern- and southernmost ward with the city’s largest number of kids–and some of its poorest residents. We will be talking about the variety of issues that the ward faces with respect to public education, including safe passage; budget cuts to neighborhood schools; health; and charter school
Why Are Teachers Targeted and What Can We Do About It? After reading yet another week of press coverage that shows little or no awareness of who we are or what we do, I have to take a moment and look at why we are where we are in the press. There are a number of reasons, and none of them are good. Fifteen years ago, crappy press coverage and too many conversations with people who didn't know wha
Shanker Blog: Social Identity Development in the Age of Accountability According to a recent NPR article , the “majority of parents” do not talk to their children about social identity, which refers to group membership based on characteristics such as religion, gender, national origin, race, family makeup, and socio-economic status. The article presents results from a report , co-published by Th
On Getting an Award On October 25, 2019, I received an award from the Alumni of the Stanford University Graduate School of Education for Lifetime Achievement. Three other graduates of GSE received awards for Excellence in Education. Here is what I said upon receiving the award. I thank my family and friends who have come out tonight. Two people who I wish were here tonight are not. They helped m
The Importance of Leaving Footprints- Lessons From the Slave Narratives and "Footnote Four" During the last few years, it has been a matter of extreme frustration to me that I have been able to do little to prevent our country from "going off the rails." I saw what was coming four years ago, warned people about it, and had virtually no influence on anybody that didn't already share my views In t
The Stink of Segregation Needs to End in Steel Valley Schools I am a teacher at Steel Valley Schools . I am also an education blogger . In order to belong to both worlds, I’ve had to abide by one ironclad rule that I’m about to break: Never write about my home district. Oh, I write about issues affecting my district. I write about charter schools , standardized testing , child poverty , etc. But
What's really behind the city, state and national drop in NAEP scores The results of the biennual national tests called NAEPs were released on October 30, showing stagnant or declining test scores in reading and math in nearly all states in the decade since 2009. “O ver the past decade, there has been no progress in either mathematics or reading performance, and the lowest-performing students ar
TN's Latest Grades on School Funding Tennessee has been at or near the forefront of education reformers' thirty-year crusade to come up with a cheap and easily-measured scheme to gauge education productivity. In 1992, Tennessee formalized its chosen "accountability" strategy by writing into state statute Bill Sanders' value-added algorithms, which the wizened tobacco-chewing agricultural statist
Are teachers allowed to think — or expected to simply follow directions? Last week I published a story about the degrading exercise teachers go through in securing basic supplies for their students because the schools don’t. I asked teachers to tell me about their supply stories and received more than 1,200 responses, and they are still coming in. This is a look at another problem teachers face,
St. Paul group steps up fight against new charter schools District board chairwoman signs onto the campaign seeking moratorium. A group committed to reining in charter school growth in St. Paul is sharpening its message and strategy. Members appeared before the school board recently to pursue support for a moratorium on new charter schools and the expansion of existing ones. Such moves are chall
Little Rock teachers to go on strike over district’s control LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Little Rock teachers will go on strike for one day this week over an Arkansas panel’s decision to strip their collective bargaining power and complaints about state control of the 23,000-student district, union officials said Monday. Full Coverage: Strikes The strike that will take place Thursday will be only t
On Poetry and Prose: Defining the Undefinable As a professor of first-year writing, I spend a good deal of time helping students unpack what they have learned about the essay as a form and about writing in order to set much of that aside and embrace more nuanced and authentic awareness about both. Photo by Taylor Ann Wright on Unsplash Teaching writing is also necessarily entangled with teaching
'We need answers': HISD teachers still in dark over takeover HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Five days after the state announced it was taking over HISD , plenty of questions remain. At union headquarters Monday afternoon, the Houston Federation of Teachers offered its take on the Texas Education Agency's decision to appoint a board of managers and superintendent to oversee the state's largest school d
Are Black girls being pushed out of San Francisco Schools? I’ve been reading Dr. Monique Morris’ book “Sign and Rhythm, Dance the Blues this long weekend. It has so many great quotes, I can’t stop highlighting it! This quote serves as a summary of the themes covered in her book: “Black girls, are overrepresented along the school discipline continuum, we need to understand the conditions they per
Jane Nylund: Oakland Is in the Sights of the “Destroy Public Education” Crowd, Who Control the Board Jane Nylund, parent activist in Oakland, wrote the following warning after reading about the ouster of the Disrupters in Denver. Parents and activists and concerned citizens must organize and oust the agents of Disruption: Oakland also must flip 4 board seats next year. The Walton-bought board ha
How Schools Are Using The Trump Impeachment Inquiry As A Teachable Moment For the fourth time in history, Congress is considering impeaching the president of the United States. For teachers around the country, it's an opportunity to explore concepts and skills that are often relegated to textbooks. We asked social studies teachers from around the country how — if at all — they're using this teac
When a Bake Sale Isn’t Enough: Crowdfunding for School Projects From international food festivals and popcorn sales to fun runs and penny wars, many educators are taking matters into their own hands to raise much-needed funds. With nearly half of public school funding nationwide coming from local taxes, annual budgets vary drastically from one school district to another. According to the Nationa
Record levels of stress ‘put teachers at breaking point’ ‘Burnt-out’ school staff are suffering severe psychological problems, reveals report Teachers are suffering from more severe psychological problems than at any point this century, experts have warned. In an alarming report they reveal the school workforce is being pushed to “breaking point”. Education Support , a charity that gives mental
Success Academy Class Of 2020 Sheds 239 Scholars Along The Way The New York Post recently ran an editorial about the SAT scores of the Success Academy senior class of 2020. Of all the different numbers they referenced, one that I took note of was 114 — the apparent number of students in the senior class. The class of 2020 is the third graduating class of Success Academy. The class of 2018 had 17
Stand Up for Student Data Privacy Don't let the feds do to COPPA what they did to FERPA. Is your child's information for sale to the highest bidder? I hope not. Children's Online Privacy Protection Act ( COPPA ) is a law created to protect the privacy of children under 13. From the Missouri Watchdog blog : The Federal Trade Commission is considering several changes to this law that protects chil
In Memoriam of WWII Latino Veterans and Their Families Thank you to all of the veterans who have courageously served our country. This post is dedicated to my tÃa Minnie Cadena who recently passed and was a participant in the University of Texas Voce Oral History Project and my tÃo John G. Reyes who was KIA 1944. This post is also dedicated to the all of the Heilig, Scott, Vasquez and Cadena who
Valerie Jablow: D.C. Ripped Off By Charter Real Estate Deals Valerie Jablow is a parent in D.C. whose blog follows the ethical scandals of public officials and the charter industry in her hometown. This one is a doozy. It is so crazy that I can’t summarize it. Somewhere in this Pink Panther-style story are the moneymakers. The guys who finance the real estate: Turner Agassi. Tennis star Andre Ag
How ZIP codes determine the quality of a child’s education ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) — Students at Allentown’s Harrison-Morton Middle School look forward to hearing the squeaky wheels of the technology cart approaching their classroom, though the iPads they hold may not be the latest models and time with them is limited. A luxury in Allentown schools, such technology has become a necessity for many su
Oakland school board closes meeting to public, citing protests Open meetings expert says shutting out the public runs against spirit of state’s law. W hen the Oakland school board meets next Wednesday, it may again decide to ban the public from its meeting due to fears that protesters who have disrupted previous meetings will return. But an expert warns that meeting in a room separated from the
'Home is here': DACA walkout features love for Oklahoma ‘Home is here’: DACA walkout features love for Oklahoma G iven the criticism of immigrants these last few years , one might be surprised by the message Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals students are delivering to our city. But the “home is here” message DACA students preached during Friday’s OKCPS walkouts exemplifies the best of Oklaho
Betsy DeVos Might Outlast Them All Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is one of the Trump administration’s most reviled Cabinet members. Here’s why she’s here to stay. Betsy DeVos ’ confirmation hearing in January 2017 made her a universal punchline. When asked about her thoughts on guns in school, she famously pointed to the need to protect students from grizzly bears. When asked about her opinion
What Better Measures Student Achievement--Teacher Grades or Crappy Tests? The NY Post is on the case of students who pass English and math but fail state tests. Evidently the only conclusion they can reach is that this is grade inflation. As usual, neither City Councilman Robert Holden, the fraud-alleging complainant, nor the paper has bothered to examine what is actually on those state tests. T
School Closures Threaten to Destroy Neighborhoods, This Time in Cleveland Right now in Cleveland, Ohio we can watch the latest battle in a war that has spread across the nation’s big city school districts. It is a fight about the definition of a high school—a misunderstanding between the technocrats who have imposed something called “portfolio school reform” school choice and the families who wa
La. Schools Graded F for 4+ Years Mostly Serve Low-Income Students of Color On November 06, 2019, Louisiana’s 2019 school and district grades were made public. To herald the occasion, the Baton Rouge Advocate published an article entitled, “44% of Louisiana Public Schools Need Major Improvements; 45K Students Attend F-Rated Schools.” This headline comes one week after Louisiana’s 2019 National A
FTC poised to remove parent consent, weaken children’s privacy law. COPPA The Federal Trade Commission is considering several changes to this law that protects children’s online information. The FTC is accepting comments from the public, deadline December 9, 2019. Let them hear from you; tell the FTC: Do NOT Weaken COPPA. Do NOT Give Edtech a Consent Exception. See Sample letters here , here , h
Happy Birthday, Mom Edition (11/10) Today is my mother's birthday, so there will be cake involved later. She's a pretty swell lady, so it's a day worthy of cake. Also, if you look to the right, you'll see that I've revamped the blog list and added a section of websites of interest that aren't necessarily blogs. So you can poke through that if you like. In the meantime, here's some reading from l
Educators Question State Takeover of HISD HOUSTON— American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten and Texas AFT and Houston Federation of Teachers President Zeph Capo issued the following statements in response to the Texas Education Agency’s announcement that it plans to take over local control of the Houston Independent School District: Capo said: “This is a power grab to disenfran
CURMUDGUCATION CLICK HERE Digital Curriculum And Lesson Management Is A Crock 74 by Peter Greene / 20h Ed Tech overpromises in so many areas, but one the great lies is that implementing This Year's Great New Program is going to save teachers just oodles of time. It never does. It particularly never does when it comes to the kind of software leviathan's used to manage curriculum and lesson plans.
What is ‘Quality’ Music? Choosing the Best Materials for Our Students Back in the day, when I was an early-career teacher, I was sitting at the judges’ lunch table, at a music festival. It was my first time serving as an adjudicator and the other judges were well-known veteran band directors. One of them was expounding on the poor literature choices made by young band directors. He claimed that
Experts Worry Active Shooter Drills In Schools Could Be Traumatic For Students A regular drumbeat of mass shootings in the U.S., both inside schools and out, has ramped up pressure on education and law enforcement officials to do all they can to prevent the next attack. Close to all public schools in the U.S. conducted some kind of lockdown drill in 2015-2016, according to the National Center fo
EdAction in Congress November 10, 2019 Tell senators to VOTE NO on DeVos ally nominated as appellate judge The Senate is expected to vote early this week on Steven Menashi’s nomination to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit—a position in which he could do even more harm than he already has. Just days ago, the New York Times confirmed that as acting general counsel under Education Se
NewBlackMan (in Exile) CATCH UP WITH MARK ANTHONY NEAL NewBlackMan (in Exile) Athlete in Progress: Dina Asher-Smith by Mark Anthony Neal / 9h 'Nike has joined forces with American designer and Off-White founder Virgil Abloh to release Athlete in Progress , a new women’s line inspired by the drama, adrenaline and tenacity of track and field players. To debut the collection, Abloh invited a host of
The Show-Trial Rhetoric That Took Down a Charter-School Founder About 10 years ago, Steven Wilson founded the Ascend charter school in Brooklyn. Ascend is now a network with 15 schools; they serve mostly poor kids of color from kindergarten to high-school age, and they work. Test scores there outstrip New York City averages . Some charter schools have become notorious for excessively punitive di
John Thompson: How Billionaire “Reformers” Messed Up the Public Schools of Tulsa John Thompson, historian and recently retired teacher in Oklahoma, assays the damage that corporate reformers and their patrons have inflicted on the public schools of Tulsa. The district is overflowing with Broadies and has Gates money. What could possibly go wrong? The Tulsa Public Schools (TPS) offers an excellen
Feinstein and Other "Democrats" Supporting DC Vouchers Got this email from Pete Farruggio: Just got this letter from California senator Dianne Feinstein (below) defending her support for vouchers, and revealing that she intends to interfere with the school system in Washington DC by co-sponsoring a voucher bill with a Republican. With her billionaire husband, she represents to me the state of th
Portrait of Half an ATR A few days back, I wrote about another attack on tenure , quite similar to many that had preceded it. Someone sent me this piece on ATRs , which somehow eluded my attention. The headline screams, " DOE spends $100M per year keeping excess teachers on the payroll ." The word "excess" suggests these teachers aren't needed, which is far from correct. In my experience, though
Digital Curriculum And Lesson Management Is A Crock Ed Tech overpromises in so many areas, but one the great lies is that implementing This Year's Great New Program is going to save teachers just oodles of time. It never does. It particularly never does when it comes to the kind of software leviathan's used to manage curriculum and lesson plans. The sheer volume of data entry for these programs
The Return of Moss Adams to SPS Who is Moss Adams? I'll let them tell you: Moss Adams is a fully integrated professional services firm dedicated to assisting clients with growing, managing, and protecting prosperity. The district used Moss Adams, oh so many years ago, when the district had a superintendent in the form of Joe Olchefske (who ran this district into debt with a slate Board who rubbe
Big Education Ape TOP POSTS THIS WEEK 11/9/19 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 Washington Post TOP POSTS THIS WEEK 11/2/19 #REDFORE
