Blue Serials (2/1/20) Presidential Resurrection It’s been a weird 2020 so far in education news. As I’m sure you’ve already heard, President Trump announced that starting now, he’s going to allow students to pray in public schools if they so choose. He’s also going to institute a system whereby religious student organizations can meet on school grounds, as long as schools grant that access equit
Disregarding the Needs of the LAUSD’s Most Vulnerable Students First and foremost, our students with disabilities are general ed students…All of them. ” – Anthony Aguilar, LAUSD Chief of Special Education The end of 2019 brought a conclusion to the Chanda Smith consent decree and its modification. For the first time in over a generation, the delivery of special education services within the LAUS
2019 Education Justice Victories That Give Us Courage for 2020 Changing policies to achieve greater equity for children of color takes time, months, even years of dynamic mobilizing and building collaboration among parents, students, community members and educators. That’s why Schott builds and sustains long-term partnerships—they’re in it for the long haul and so are we. Grassroots organizing b
TIME Magazine: How the “Reform” Movement Has Failed America This article just appeared in TIME magazine, explaining how the “education reform” movement has failed America. This short article encapsulates the themes of my book SLAYING GOLIATH. Piling on tests and punishments for students and teachers and closing schools doesn’t solve any problems, and it certainly doesn’t improve education. The a
Charter network leader apologizes for ‘really dumb and unhelpful’ financial decisions The head of a Texas-based charter school chain publicly apologized for “really dumb and unhelpful” plans that included leasing a private jet for millions of dollars and spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on San Antonio Spurs tickets. It’s not the first time he has acknowledged errors in the chain’s opera
OUTSTANDING DISSERTATION AWARD IN EDUCATIONAL POLITICS AND POLICY Purpose: The purpose of the AERA Division L Outstanding Dissertation Award is to recognize the exceptional research accomplishments of recent doctoral graduates. Dissertations employing any theoretical and methodological orientation may be nominated as long as they make an important contribution to education policy and/or politics
A TEACHER Writes a Great Review of SLAYING GOLIATH in the Washington Post! Melanie McCabe, an English teacher at Yorktown High School in Arlington, Virginia, and an author, wrote this terrific and accurate review of SLAYING GOLIATH. Unlike the reviewer for the New York Times, who is not a teacher and gives no hint of ever having set foot in a classroom since she finished school and college, Mela
Feedback for Teacher Learning (David Brazer) David Brazer is a practitioner/scholar. Teacher and high school principal, Brazer has also been a professor at George Mason and Stanford Universities. He is now Director of Professional Learning at TeachFX. A few years ago, I met with Jamie Poskin the founder of TeacherFX and former graduate student of Brazer’s at Stanford. After showing me graphic di
John White’s Nonprofit, Propel America, Wants to Expand in Louisiana In June 2018, Louisiana state superintendent John White co-founded a nonprofit, Propel America , which is piloting its career pathway product in four states, including Louisiana– even as co-founder White holds the position of superintendent of the state in which his fledgling nonprofit began doing business. One can discover som
OH: More Voucher Nonsense I've frequently kvetched that a central fallacy at the heart of school choice is the notion that several parallel school system can be run for the cost of one. "Why," I ask, "can't politicians have the cojones to just say they think school choice is so important that they are going to raise peoples' taxes to pay for it?" Well, the legislature of Ohio (motto "We want to
NewBlackMan (in Exile) Is D'Angelo's 'Voodoo' The Perfect Album? A Conversation with Questlove and Rick Rubin by Mark Anthony Neal / 10h ' On the Broken Record Podcast with Rick Rubin and Malcolm Gladwell , Questlove talks about how he got involved with D’Angelo ’s Voodoo record, the process of it, and Rick Rubin shares that it's one of the greatest albums of all time to him.' -- Bringing Down T
Education Research Report THIS WEEK Education Research Report Ask a high school student how he or she typically feels at school, and the answer you'll likely hear is "tired," closel... by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 15h Ask a high school student how he or she typically feels at school, and the answer you'll likely hear is "tired," closely followed by "stressed" and "bored." In a nationwide survey of 21
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 Langston Hughes Was Born On This Day In 1902 – Here Are Two Good Lessons For ELLs Using His Poetry by Larry Ferlazzo / 50min American poet Langston Hughes was born on February 1st, 1902. One les
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 Slaying Goliath The Passionate Resistance to Privatization and the Fight to Save America's Public Schools CLICK HERE TO Order NOW A TEACHER Writes a Great Review of SLAYING GOLIATH in the Washington Post! by dianeravitch / 53min Melanie McCabe, a
Peter Greene What We Can Learn From Florida’s Voucher School Discrimination Flap - https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2020/01/31/what-we-can-learn-from-floridas-voucher-school-discrimination-flap/#671e4d2b78c7 by @petergreene on @forbes Common Core Is Dead. Long Live Common Core. - https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2020/01/30/common-core-is-dead-long-live-common-core/#3dee591c5e65 b
Parents, teachers sue Oakland school district over violent board meeting They seek damages in complaint from Oct. 23 meeting; drive to oust school board president progresses. OAKLAND — With Oakland Technical High School as the backdrop, a group of parents and teachers announced Thursday they are suing the Oakland Unified School District for injuries they say they suffered by police officers at a
Grassroots Education Network- New Year (2020) Newsletter The NPE Grassroots Education Network is a network of over 135 grassroots organizations nationwide who have joined together to preserve, promote, improve, and strengthen our public schools. If you know of a group that would like to join this powerful network, please go here to sign on. If you have any questions about the NPE Grassroots Educ
Carol Burris: What Michael Bloomberg Really Wants to Do in Schools Carol Burris wrote about Michael Bloomberg’s education ideas several years ago when she was a high school principal on Long Island in New York. You have to love New York City’s mayor. Michael Bloomberg speaks his mind, never holding back. While most self-proclaimed school reformers do the Dance of the Seven Veils, slowly revealin
Weingarten: Right wants states to use public dollars for religious schools WASHINGTON – The religious right wants the U.S. Supreme Court to force states to use public dollars for religious schools, Teachers President Randi Weingarten warns. In a message to her union’s 1.6 million members late last month, the AFT leader, a civics and government teacher from New York City, adds the religious right
Charter Schools Are Part of Private Law, Not Public Law Public law and private law are separate spheres of law that operate according to different standards and relationships. 1 Private law governs relations between private citizens, whereas public law governs relations between individuals and the state. This distinction is critical. Private law does not concern society as a whole; public law do
"What We Believe": A Black Lives Matter at School Activity book. A free and downloadable classroom resource! – Black Lives Matter At School "What We Believe": A Black Lives Matter at School Activity book. A free and downloadable classroom resource! Calling all educators : Thanks to stunning art and design by New York City educator Caryn Davidson, we now have an indispensable #BlackLivesMatterAtSc
Education Week: Philanthropists Are Losing Interest in K-12 “Reform” Due to Lack of Results Christina Samuels of Education Week reports that philanthropists continue to pour a large percentage of their donations into education, but are losing interest in K-12 due to the poor record of their efforts to “reform” the schools. ironically, this is good news because the philanthropic money was used to
In States with Oldest School Vouchers, School Choice Week Is Filled with Contention Wisconsin and Ohio have the oldest school choice programs in the United States. Milwaukee’s voucher program is 30 years old and the Cleveland Voucher Program is 24 years old. Both states have expanded vouchers statewide beyond the two cities where they began. It ought to be a red flag that in these two states wit
Targeted--NY ESL Teachers (and Students) I should've known the first time I heard Regents Chancellor Betty Rosa speak at George Washington Campus. There is a plan. Rosa said they'd changed Part 154 so that students could have more content instruction. At the time I didn't really grasp the implications. It's now clear to me that neither Rosa nor and of the other geniuses in Albany see English as
Response to “WHY I SUPPORT KEEPING NEW YORK STATE REGENTS EXAMINATIONS.” | Ed In The Apple Response to “WHY I SUPPORT KEEPING NEW YORK STATE REGENTS EXAMINATIONS.” RESPONSE TO “ WHY I SUPPORT KEEPING NEW YORK STATE REGENTS EXAMINATIONS. ” Marc Korashan This is an important starting point for a discussion of the broader question, what does a high school diploma mean? What do we expect high school
ON SHOWING UP AS OUR (IN)AUTHENTIC SELVES This weekend, I had the pleasure of attending my sixth straight EduCon conference in Philadelphia, PA, a gathering that usually lands on or around my birthday. Unlike previous years, I decided to come on my own at the behest of folks I consider friends like Chris Lehmann, Diana Laufenberg, and the good folks at the Science Leadership Academy. For those u
MI: Whitmer Stands Up For Reading Sense (GLEP Opposes) Of all the pieces of bad, dumb, abusive policy that have come out of the ed reformster movement, one of the worst is third grade reading retention. Michigan has it, and their governor wants to get rid of it. Guess who wants to stand up for it. Lansing in winter; much like April in Paris How did this damn fool policy get spread across the cou
Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007 It's Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... A VERY BUSY DAY The latest news and resources in education since 2007 TODAY Groundhog Day Is On Feb. 2nd – Here Are Teaching & Learning Resources by Larry Ferlazzo / 6h Cairomoon / Pixabay I just remembered that Groundhog Day is coming up! You might be inter
John Thompson: An Open Letter About a New School in Oklahoma City John Thompson, retired teacher and historian in Oklahoma, writes an open letter: Open Letter to Enes Kanter Mr. Kanter, Thank you for your continued support of children, especially low-income and immigrant students in Oklahoma City. And thank you for your opposition to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. I live halfway between
Religious institutions, school choice and tax credits in education OPINION: Should plaintiffs in a U.S. Supreme Court ruling about school choice be careful what they wish for? How the impacts of a decision on Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue could differ from expectations E ditor’s note: Montana parent Kendra Espinoza hoped a tax credit would help her pay for a private Christian school f
A DONOR NAMED “ANONYMOUS”: MYSTERIOUS $250,000 RNC CONTRIBUTOR HAS CLOSE TIES TO GÃœLEN MOVEMENT On September 4, 2018, a man named Ömer Adsız gave four large contributions to the Republican National Committee, one to the committee’s main fund and the rest to three different RNC expense accounts. In total, Adsız’s donations added up to the eyebrow-raising sum of $250,000, all given to the RNC in a
SCCTE 2020: Teaching Writing as a Journey, Not Destination (F.9, Saturday February 1, 8:30-9:15 am) SCCTE SCCTE Schedule Embassy Suites Conference Center Myrtle Beach, SC Fri, Jan 31, 2020, 8:00 AM –Sat, Feb 1, 2020, 1:30 PM Session F.9, Saturday February 1, 8:30-9:15 am PowerPoint available HERE See Also Teaching Writing as Journey, Not Destination SCCTE 2020: Teaching Writing as a Journey, Not
Bob Shepherd Reviews Annie Murphy Paul’s Review of SLAYING GOLIATH in the “New York Times“ Bob Shepherd has worked as an editor, author, assessment developer, curriculum writer, and most recently a classroom teacher in Florida. In this post, he reviews the review of my book SLAYING GOLIATH, which was written by journalist Annie Murphy Paul and published in the New York Times Book Review. To summ
Diane Ravitch on Disruption’s Educational Carnage No Child Left Behind was a disaster and school choice has failed. A new book points the way forward from the wreckage. It’s been 10 years since education historian and former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education Diane Ravitch became the school choice movement’s most vocal apostate by detailing its fallacies in her book The Death and Life of the
La. BESE’s Process for Selecting Next Superintendent Below are excerpts from a January 30, 2020, Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) press release related to the process of selection Louisiana’s next state superintendent: BESE adopts administrative process for selection of new State Superintendent Jan 29, 2020, 14:55 PM by BESE Admin At its meetings this week the Louisia
FL: Another Voucher Problem (And Not The One You Think) When the Orlando Sentinel revealed that many Florida schools-- 156 of them!-- were both receiving taxpayer dollars and openly discriminating against LGBTQ students, it was not exactly news. Rebecca Klein had the same story on a national level at Huffington Post back in 2017. Voucher money goes to religious schools, and some religious school
Slaying Goliath Slaying Goliath The Passionate Resistance to Privatization and the Fight to Save America’s Public Schools By Diane Ravitch Penguin Books Dear friends and colleagues, Three cheers for Slaying Goliath . Diane Ravitch and I have been agonizing together over the fate of public education (and the fate of teacher unions) for a long time. As usual we have different takes on it from time
Do You Have the Backbone for a PLN? The discussion around technology in education often revolves around wha t technology can or can’t do in regard to affecting kids’ learning. The fact of the matter is that technology in education only works for kids, if it works for their teacher.The best tec hnology in the world will not be effective if the teacher is not a committed advocate for it. That comm
LAUSD Candidate Elizabeth Badger Responds Don’t shoot the messenger, You might miss the message.” After reading my candidate profile of Elizabeth Badger, she called to express her displeasure and to demand a retraction. While she demanded a retraction of the article, I stand by what was written. I will, however, present her arguments along with the responses that were given to the candidate. Bad
ARE THE NEA AND AFT LEADERS GUN SHY ON A PRESIDENTIAL ENDORSEMENT THIS TIME? When Clare Kelly and Trisha Connolly, Evanston teachers and delegates to last summer’s National Education Association’s Representative Assembly, offered their new business item which directed NEA “to make endorsements for political candidates at the national level through direct membership vote only,” it was pretty much
Common Core, Camouflaged in Testing and Technology Common Core, Camouflaged in Testing and Technology Common Core State Standards (CCSS) might seem to have diminished, but the standards are still embedded in testing and technology and still hurting students. When the standards were first imposed on students, parents and teachers complained. Sandra Stotsky, now Professor Emeritus, was an outspoken
Did Rosa Parks Really Support Charter Schools? They say history is written by the victors. But fortunes change, and sometimes you can even reclaim a figure from the past who the last round of winners had cast in an unlikely role. Take Rosa Parks . She is universally hailed as a hero of the civil rights movement because of her part in the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Everyone knows the story . Parks,
2020 School Climate Survey for Families We want to hear from you! Please take the SCUSD School Climate survey to inform how our district and our schools are meeting the needs of our families and students. The survey will be open from February 3 to March 6, 2020. The district surveys families every year for their opinion on issues such as safety and feelings of connectedness to school. We hope yo
Advocates for school choice must stop whitewashing ‘choice’ Reformers must stop whitewashing ‘choice’ Freedom to choose in privatized school system is illusion where it fails to address inequality born of slavery and ultimate lack of ‘choice’ "It’s ironic when abortion rights supporters don’t back school choice,” said U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. But her attempt to point out some kind of
Ohio GOP Grovels at Feet of Fordham and ALEC Bill Phillis writes about the GOP’s pusillanimous capitulation to its masters and is prepared to sacrifice its public schools to satisfy DC-based Thomas B. Fordham Institute and ALEC, funded by Charles Koch, the Waltons, and DeVos. He writes: School choice zealots seem to be driving the state education policy train In spite of the harm being heaped on
Alfie Kohn: Autism and Behaviorism New Research Adds to an Already Compelling Case Against ABA When a common practice isn’t necessary or useful even under presumably optimal conditions, it’s time to question whether that practice makes sense at all. For example, if teachers don’t need to give grades even in high school (and if eliminating grades clearly benefits their students), how can we justi
Major resource infusion is in the works for 20 struggling L.A. schools Twenty struggling Los Angeles schools will get a mega-infusion of resources in an aggressive, experimental effort to show that L.A. Unified — if properly funded — can boost student achievement, L.A. schools Supt. Austin Beutner announced on Tuesday. The effort, tentatively called Project 2020, seeks to raise standardized test
NewBlackMan (in Exile) Looking Back On A 'Decade Of Fire' by Mark Anthony Neal / 16h 'In the 1970s, a string of devastating fires would help make the South Bronx a symbol of urban decay. In her documentary Decade of Fire , co-director Vivian Vázquez Irizarry , who grew up in the South Bronx, tries to dissect and counter that negative image through a personal lens. The documentary analyzes how th
Another attempted cash grab by the corporate ed crowd in Washington State: House Bill 2788 The League has opposed charter schools because they don’t have boards elected by the voters but instead the corporation running the schools appoints the board. Even though charter schools have been a big fail in Seattle, as we said they were in other states ten years ago , the corporate education advocates
2020 Medley #3: Are we planning for the future? WHAT MESSAGE ARE WE SENDING THE FUTURE? U.S. appeals court tosses children’s climate lawsuit I won’t be here to see the next century when today’s infants will be “the elderly.” It’s my responsibility, however, to do what I can to help keep the Earth habitable for my children, and for their children. …and for their children…and for their children. C
School Choice Plus Student Based Budgeting: Destroys Public Schools in Poor Neighborhoods Those who favor school privatization and school choice through the expansion of charter schools and school voucher programs frame their advocacy by privileging individual choosers. They assume that the mass of individual families’ choices in an educational marketplace will improve services for and protect t
No NY Teacher Should Have More than Two Co-teachers It's tough keeping up with the geniuses in Albany. They have so many ideas, and they are so smart that each one must be followed to the letter. They are not to be criticized because they are the Regents, the closest thing NY State has to popes, or saints, or statues so sacred birds won't poop on them. In their infinite wisdom, they rewrote CR P
Lessons Learned from Technology-powered School Reform On June 13, 2018. I was a member of a panel held at Mission High School during San Francisco Design Week. Software developers, and others who see themselves as designers of ed-tech products that will improve schools attended this panel discussion. The moderator asked each of us to state in 7-8 minutes “what hard lessons have you learned about
Letter to Seattle Public Schools Leadership Demands Accountability for Abuse in its Schools — & the District’s Silence It seems very quiet at the offices of the Seattle School District’s John Stanford headquarters, in spite of a bombshell story about the district’s tolerance of student abuse in the classroom by the adults in charge. The mismanagement of the district was on display and in the new
ON DATA PRIVACY DAY, PLEASE CONTACT YOUR STATE ATTORNEY GENERALS AND URGE THEM TO INVESTIGATE THE SELLING OF STUDENT DATA BY THE COLLEGE BOARD Today, January 28th is Data Privacy Day, the international annual day of action and awareness to promote the privacy of our personal data. The College Board and ACT sell personal student data at a profit. Yet twenty one states prohibit this practice by sc
First of a Series on Project-Based Learning In hopes that your children or grandchildren will be doing school projects later this year, for the next few weeks I will devote this space to project-based learning and some ideas for projects. Project-based learning has significant benefits. First of all, students become producers of knowledge, not mere consumers of information that others decree the
LEADING WHILE WOMAN: CHALLENGES, MAZES, LABYRINTHS, AND GLASS CEILINGS Today I’d like to relay a call for proposals for a special issue of The SoJo Journal: Educational Foundations and Social Justice Education entitled Leading While Woman: Challenges, Mazes, Labyrinths, and Glass Ceilings edited by Azadeh F. Osanloo, New Mexico State University, Azadeh writes, The SoJo Journal: Educational Found
Book Tour Diary: Early Days My new book SLAYING GOLIATH was launched in Park Slope, Brooklyn, on January 21. It was a delightful event, with Carol Burris and I discussing the book, talking about the national picture, and explaining the role of the Network for Public Education in pushing back against the Billionaire Combine. It was a lively and engaged crowd, including Lisa Rudley of New York Sta
Pennsylvania: Superintendents Form Coalition to Fight Privatization The Resistance grows! Press Advisory: Thirty Regional School Superintendents To Come Together to Defend Public Education, Joining Public District Leaders from Across the State to Urge Reform of Pennsylvania’s Charter School Law When: Monday, January 27, 2020 10 a.m. Where: Whitehall Elementary, 399 North Whitehall Road Norristow
BHM #16: John Muir Shares its Black History Pride! In honor of Black History Month , I’m reposting a previous series. Several years ago, (2015 to be exact!) I challenged myself to write 28 posts highlighting African-American History . In 2016, I finally reached my goal! While I have been so excited that Muir and other schools have a long tradition of celebrating Black history during Black Histor
Reading as a First-Mile Problem: Recognizing the Role of Poverty and Inequity in Literacy Development Literacy scholar Tim Shanahan answers the question Why Is It So Hard to Improve Reading Achievement? with the following: “Classroom implementation is the last mile in reading reform.” He eventually adds, “The last mile rhetoric shouldn’t be a hair-on-fire message, but one that acknowledges both
Join us for a National Twitter Chat Wednesday 1/29 – Black Lives Matter At School Join us for a National Twitter Chat Wednesday 1/29 To kick off the 2020 Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action we are hosting a twitter chat all day on Wednesday, January 29th. Beginning at 9 am/EST we will post questions related to the Week of Action. We hope to hear how you are participating this year includi
Donald Trump's Impeachment Book Club! | Eclectablog Donald Trump’s Impeachment Book Club! Amidst the overnight announcement of John Bolton’s upcoming tell-all memoir, based on his front-row seat for this administration’s extortion of Ukraine in order to cheat in the 2020 elections, other members of Trump’s inner circle are now drooling over the prospects of 7-figure book deals of their own. Altho
Carol Burris: The Five Biggest Charter Scandals of 2019 Carol Burris reviews here the five biggest charter scandals of 2019. There were many to choose from. Numero uno, of course, was the giant charter scam in California: 1. A3 Education: Eleven are indicted over their involvement in a charter scheme that defrauded California taxpayers of more than $50 million. In May, the California Superior Co
Shawgi Tell: Charter Schools Have No Valid Claim to Public Property Shawgi Tell is a professor of education at Nazareth University in New York. He has taken note of states where charter schools are given ownership of public property, where they buy property and supplies with public money but keep title to their purchases if their charter should close. He has seen states that require districts to
January 2020 Newsletter 2019 saw a marked increase in the number of reports involving scandalous behavior on the part of charter schools. Here is an important Answer Sheet blog I wrote that highlights the top 5 charter scandals of 2019. After you read it, share the link: https://www.washingtonpost. com/education/2020/01/27/5- most-serious-charter-school- scandals-2019-why-they-matter/ . As aware
The Responsibilty of Teaching Students to Become “Engaged Capable Voters”and the Slippery Slope The Campaign for Fiscal Equity (CFE) decision requires New York State to provide a “sound basic education,” and, goes on to define the term; … sound basic education should consist of skills necessary to enable children to eventually function productively as civic participants capable of voting and ser
McKinsey's New Baloney Sales Pitch For Computerized Classroom McKinsey is the 800 pound gorilla of consulting, a behemoth with their own set of values about how to drag everything into MarketWorld (I recommend Anand Giridharadas's Winners Take All for a closer look at how that world looks). They have occasionally dipped their toes into the world of education because, hey, there's a lot of money
LAUSD District 3 Election: The Hunter Becomes the Hunted What we accept as normal today with regard to education, I want your grandchildren to tell you that you were crazy to accept. ” – Bernie Sanders It has been over five years since my wife, Nicole, and I sat in a conference room in Eli Broad’s LAUSD headquarters and decided to take on the district’s bureaucracy. To be honest, I did not even
Should taxpayers have to fund private schools? - YouTube Should taxpayers have to fund private schools? enrique baloyra This week the Supreme Court heard a case over whether states must fund religious schools. In Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, the plaintiffs argue that their religious liberty is being violated after the Montana Supreme Court struck down a program that provides tax cre
Fact-checking Phonics, NRP, and NCTQ The “science of reading” movement often claims that a systematic intensive phonics-first approach to teaching reading is endorsed by science that is settled, that the National Reading Panel (NRP) is a key element of that settled science, and that teacher education is mostly absent of that “science of reading” (a message that has been central to NCTQ for many
It's Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... A VERY BUSY DAY The latest news and resources in education since 2007 Most Popular Posts Of The Week by Larry Ferlazzo / 12h I’m making a change in the content of the regular feature. In addition to sharing the top five posts that have received the most “hits” in the preceding seven days (though they may have originally been published on an earlier da
Blue Cereal "Share The Love!" Month! Candy Hearts & Saccharine Souls As you know from the rapid replacement of holiday displays which began at midnight on December 26th, Valentine’s Day is coming . February, it turns out, is the month of love. Well, not REAL love... but exploitative, crass, commercialized love, packed with artificial ingredients – cultural pressure to overspend, unnecessary emot
Thought Adam Schiff's impeachment presentation was good? Public school teachers do that every day | Eclectablog Thought Adam Schiff’s impeachment presentation was good? Public school teachers do that every day While I absolutely agree that Adam Schiff did a wonderful job presenting the impeachment case against the president, I must confess that I’m a little surprised at how amazed so many seem to
Who is Goliath? And Why Does He Need to Be Taken Out? Diane Ravitch’s book— Slaying Goliath: The Passionate Resistance to Privatization and the Fight to Save America’s Public Schools —arrived at my house two days ago. Like all of her other volumes, this one is already highlighted, underlined and sticky-noted to a fare-thee-well. (Apologies to school librarians everywhere.) Ravitch’s books are li
Mercedes Schneider: SLAYING GOLIATH is “A Book About Us” Mercedes Schneider is a high school teacher in Louisiana. She has been blogging since 2013 about the state and federal government’s determined efforts to force bad ideas on teachers like her. Too often, she writes, she has had to share bad news. But when she read SLAYING GOLIATH, she understood that she was part of a national movement to r
SC: A Bill of Rights For Teachers, Sort Of Like many other states, South Carolina is failing to hold attract and retain teachers . They're doing an especially lousy job holding onto beginning teachers; after the 2017-2018 school year, 34% of the first year teachers did not return to their classroom. Veterans are also bailing , because of "low pay, a burdensome testing system and a sense they are
Why We Should Talk About Opportunity Gaps Instead of Achievement Gaps Last week, the National Education Policy Center (NEPC) devoted its newsletter to exploring the meaning of the words we use to describe and compare educational attainment. NEPC reports that according to a web search, “use of the phrase ‘achievement gap’ has been trending downward in the past decade and a half. However, searches
Some of our graduates don't even know to Tighten a Nut Are schools neglecting practical knowledge and skills? Many of our students are graduating from high school with extremely limited practical knowledge essential to success in most jobs and everyday life. A good example is demonstrated by one large Louisiana company, which asks the following question to its job applicants: "In what direction
GOING FROM ENTERTAINING TO PRECISE ABOUT RCT AND #RIPKOBEBRYANT In 2018, I was invited to a mock trial entitled Public School System Charged with Fraud: Guilty or Not Guilty? about public education at Freedom Fest, a Libertarian conference that is held yearly in Las Vegas. Which basically says that if you have a conference in Vegas— I will say yes to just about any opportunity to speak. 🙂 I was
Slaying Goliath: We Are Not for Sale I have been blogging regularly about the impact of market-based education reform upon American education for seven years. I began this blog on January 25, 2013, following numerous months of responding in the comments sections of news articles often promoting the glories of test-based grading of schools and teachers and of fashioning the traditional, community
CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: Is It Still January Edition (1/26) Is It Still January Edition (1/26) Every Sunday (well, almost every Sunday) I post a collection of goodies from the week that I think are worth reading. In case, you know, you missed them. I also encourage you to share anything you like (use its "home" location to share so that they get any benefits of traffic). That's what's going on here
I Deserve All the Credit For My Students’ Success Last week my third graders took the chapter 6 math test on division. We use the Go Math! program and the tests aren’t easy. This wasn’t your father’s division test. There were multistep problems, word problems, intentionally misleading questions, and it was taken digitally, so I couldn’t give partial credit to the kid who showed understanding in
Church-Run Charter Schools? Supreme Court Argument Stirs the Discussion Could a closely watched U.S. Supreme Court case clear the way for charter schools run by churches and other religious organizations? Justice Stephen Breyer raised the question this week at arguments for Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue , one of the most significant K-12 cases before the high court in years. The deba
Craig Harris: How Foreign Investors Get Green Cards by Investing Millions in the Charter School Industry Thanks to a provision in the tax law, called the EB-5 program, wealthy foreign investors can buy green cards by investing in charter schools. Craig Harris, award-winning investigative reporter for the Arizona Republic, took a close look at this provision in the law that allows foreign citizen
Today in Creative Headlines Someone trying to alert me to the perfidy of teachers tweeted this headline at me the other day: FBI probes allegations of deep rooted academic fraud in NYC Schools . It sounds pretty scary, doesn't it? Boy, those teachers must be really terrible. Clearly they don't give a damn about children and are only concerned with themselves. That's the stereotype you get hit wi
Florida: State Funds Religious Schools Where Bigotry is Just Swell Leslie Postal and Annie Martin of the Orlando Sentinel identified nearly 160 religious schools that receive state funding but exclude gay students. Some refuse to enroll students whose parents are gay or hire gay staff. Discrimination is A-OK at these schools. This would not be a problem for Betsy DeVos, whose family has contribu
A Teacher's Dilemma: Help Students Or Harm Colleague Teachers face dilemmas daily in their classroom and school. Figuring out what to do and how to do it when personal and professional values clash is often the nub of a dilemma. Unlike a problem that has a solution (e.g., house is cold, turn up the thermostat), teacher dilemmas are messy because of conflicting values, feelings and relationships–
LAUSD Candidate Profile: Elizabeth Badger I believe charter schools ought to be transparent and adhere to all the rules and regulations of the Public schools.” – Elizabeth Badger Elizabeth Badger is passionate about Democratic party politics. According to her profile by Nick Melvoin’s group Speak Up , Badger is a lifetime member of the party who was a delegate to both of Barack Obama’s national
Selling Education Growth Models By Thomas Ultican 1/25/2020 Deformers in California are outraged. Along with Kansas it is one of only two states that do not use student growth models to measure school performance. In a 2019 brief published by Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE), USC Professor of Education Policy Morgan Polikoff writes , “Based on the existing literature and an examin
Big Education Ape TOP POSTS THIS WEEK 1/25/20 The real story of New Orleans and its charter schools - The Washington Post ‘Slaying Goliath’: Diane Ravitch argues in new book that public education advocates have beat back
