CATCH UP WITH CURMUDGUCATION + ICYMI: Discount Chocolate Edition (2/16)

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: Discount Chocolate Edition (2/16)

Discount Chocolate Edition (2/16)

Well, sure-- what else does one do after Valentines Day except shop for deep discounts on chocolate! While you're eating irresponsibly, here's some reading from the week. Remember to share.

School choice detrimental to public schools
A guest op-ed from a state senator in the Sun Prairie Star suggesting that choice is bad for Wisconsin.

Privatizing Oakland Schools
The Black Agenda Report takes a look back at Eli Broad's plan to privatize Oakland schools. It's  not pretty.

Coaching and Parent Politics
From a blog called Friday Night Wives, a look at the problems parents are causing in the world of school sports coaching.

Crumbling Schools, Dismal Outcomes 
Alexander v. Holmes was supposed to change everything for Southern black children; this article looks at how that isn't happen.

Ed department calls charter backers "desperate"  
Matt Barnum at Chalkbeat outlines the blowback from charter boosters who, it turns out, can be just as ugly to their former allies as they are to the rest of us. They are not taking the new budget proposal well, and the ed department is not saying "sorry."

Male teachers of color make a difference at Memphis schools  
USA today looks at how-- well, the headline tells it. A good look at how the isue is playing out in one city.

"If we don't learn from this one, shame on us"
The story of a Detroit charter that was set up to aio. A good explanation of why charter advocates ought to want regulation, and how DeVos-backed policies hurt students in Michigan.

The neoliberal misrepresentation of Indianapolis K-12 history
At Cloaking Inequity, a rebuttal to the recent reformy tale of Indianapolis ed history.

The temptation of training teachers
Adam Laats has another history lesson, looking at the history of the notion that we can train teachers in one effective teaching system and all will be well.

NJ Charters can't have it both ways
Charter history includes a lot of time spent in courtrooms arguing that charters are whatever it's most expedient for them to be. (Public? Private? Which one lets us kep our money?) Jersey Jazzman looks at the most recent version of the Both Ways argument, currently being put forward by New Jersey charters

Redefining reading achievement creates problems
Nancy Bailey looks at the odd assertion that, these days, children need to be taught to read sooner. For some reason.

The effective classroom. Do you know it when you see it?
Nancy Flanagan looks at the notion that just looking at a classroom will tell you everything you need to know about it.

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: Discount Chocolate Edition (2/16)

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FL: BEST Standards To Roll Back The Calendar

100+by Peter Greene / 2d

Somewhere Jeb! Bush is drowning his tears in his sarsparilla. His beloved Florida, the state that launched a thousand bad ed reform ideas, has tried to roll back one-- the Common Core./ Governor Ron Desantis dispatched a task force to drive a stake through the heart of the unbeloved standards and replaced them with B.E.S.T.-- Benchmarks for Excellent Student Thinking . No, it's not a name whose na

NC: Can Fed Money Get Charters To Accept Poor Students

by Peter Greene / 3d

North Carolina's charter schools have some issues, such as draining resources from public schools and increasing segregation in a state that has not exactly set a high standard for de-segregation . White flight segregation academies are turning into charters , and they're also looking at district secession (white flight via redrawing school district boundaries). But the federal government has awar

FEB 11

Trump and DeVos Abandon Charter Schools

500+by Peter Greene / 5d

Surprise! Never mind Sanders or Warren. Just like that, the charter supporters have found themselves abandoned by the Trump administration. The Trump budget axes federal support for charter schools , rolling the federal money for charters into a big fat all-purpose block grant, a big chunk of money retrieved from various programs that have been deemed redundant and ineffective. States will now get

FEB 10

Looks Like 2020 Is Going To Be A Big Betsy DeVos Year

100+by Peter Greene / 5d

Betsy DeVos may not be the most effective or qualified secretary of education ever, but she sure has managed to become the most famous (go ahead-- name five other education secretaries). And that fame is so very two-edged that she appears poised to be a major fixture on all sides of this year's election cycle. On the one hand, she has been tapped to be a card-carrying Trump surrogate , and is appa

FEB 09

ICYMI: Ice Edition (2/9)

25by Peter Greene / 7d

It's the weekend of our b ig ice carving festival here in town, and the weather is perfect. There are cool sculptures to see, and it's the perfect festival for people who don't like crowds because nobody wants to stand around in the cold. And the Board of Directors has a lovely time. In the meantime, here is some reading from the week. Nashville Art School Will Purge Non-Christian Faculty A religi

FEB 08

What Charter Advocates Want From States

71by Peter Greene / 7d

What exactly would charter proponents like to see in state charter regulations? As it turns out, we don't have to guess, because the National Alliance of Public [sic] Charter Schools regularly publishes a ranking of the states based on the "strength" of their charter laws. This year's edition is the 11th, and it's available right now ! Woot! If you are concerned about the rankings, I can give you

FEB 06

PA: DeVos Stumps For Trump, Masters Lying

98by Peter Greene / 9d

So this is apparently the school choice lie that Trumpists are going to lean on: “They want government control of everything — your health care, your wallet, your child’s education,” DeVos said. Democrats “want complete control over where, how, and what American students learn,” she said. “ They want to close every charter school , take away every educational option from low-income families, limit

NY: Police State High School Is On Line

by Peter Greene / 9d

A while back, I wrote about Lockport, NY, where for some damn reason, school officials had decided that what the district really needed was facial recognition software watching the students . As with most expansions of the surveillance state, the excuse was the ol d "This is for your own good." Facial recognition and tracking software will add an unprecedented level of security at the schools. Dis

FEB 05

Eli Broad Goes To Yale

24by Peter Greene / 10d

This ran over at Forbes back in early December, and in the Christmas rush I just forgot to port it over here to the mother ship for those of you who don't read me at Forbes. So it's not fresh, shiny news-- but it still matters. Billionaire Eli Broad has long worked to impose business solutions on U.S. education, believing that education has a management problem, not an education problem. As one B

FEB 03

USED Pitches Privatization To Wyoming

100+by Peter Greene / 12d

Mitchell Zais , Deputy Secretary of Education, last week visited Wyoming to stump for school choice . He wrote for the Wyoming Parent his version of the department's sales pitch for Betsy DeVos's Education Freedom vouchery program. Wyoming parents (and taxpayers), this is a bit of a snow job. Let me explain. He opens by recognizing that humans are individuals, so that he can say this: So why does

I Shot An Arrow Into The Air

30by Peter Greene / 12d

I shot an arrow into the air, It fell to earth, I knew not where; -- " The Arrow and the Song " Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Rick Hess recently wrote an EdWeek post offering f our insights about education policymaking , and as if often the case with Hess, I started to write a reply in the comments section and then it got too long and so here I am. Here's a quick recap of his four ideas-- This might

FEB 02

ICYMI: Sportsball Sunday Edition (2/2)

by Peter Greene / 14d

Human beings are funny creatures. Today we'll celebrate the prognostication of a giant rodent, invest a gazillion dollars in a sportsball contest, and get all excited because our date-labeling system will cough up a palindrome today 

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