The Most Important Education Articles (By Me) That You Probably Missed in 2020 There were so many explosive stories in 2020. From the never ending antics of our clown President to the Coronavirus to the continuing rise of White Supremacy, it seemed you couldn’t go more than a few days without some ridiculous headline assaulting your senses. As a result, there were a lot of worthy, important arti
Stop Trashing Joe Biden’s Cabinet Picks Especially his choice for Secretary of Education—but lay off the nit-picky nastiness around the others, too. Yes, YOU might have chosen others. Your favorite candidate may have been left behind. But much of Cabinet-choosing is inside baseball, beyond the ken of Joe Citizen. Stop bellyaching. Biden’s selections all seem pretty experienced, professional and
Pandemic Relief and the Georgia Elections by Ben Jealous by Ben Jealous | @BenJealous | special to NewBlackMan (in Exile) Fair warning: this isn’t a traditional Christmas-week column. If we think of clarity as a kind of gift, though, we can be grateful that the effort to pass a much-needed COVID-19 relief bill in the waning days of this Congress makes one thing crystal clear: hurting families an
AND NOW FOR THE SECOND MOST READ PIECE OF THE YEAR… The second most-read article of 2020 comes from September and focuses on the Schwinigans at the Tennessee Department of Education. The Department has been a constant source of bad practices and ineptitude since Ms. Schwinn arrived from Texas, where he ran herd over a number of controversies, just like in Delaware, and California. Remember those
Whatever Happened To the Edison Schools? Beginning in the 1980s, researchers, policymakers, and business leaders identified what they called “good” or “effective” schools where mostly minority and poor children attended.. These “good” schools scored high on standardized tests, graduated high percentages of their students, with most getting admitted to college. These policymakers and school leade
Teacher Evaluation Will Show Whether Biden Is Friend or Foe For a while, I was wondering why we would even bother negotiating an observation system with the city. I mean, here we are, all of us, doing a job none of us had trained for or even conceived. How can our supervisors come in and determine exactly how much we suck at these jobs? For one thing, they've never attempted them themselves. I m
A Quiet And 'Unsettling' Pandemic Toll: Students Who've Fallen Off The Grid For American families and their children, school is more than just a building. It's a social life and a community, an athletic center and a place to get meals that aren't available at home. The pandemic has disrupted — and continues to disrupt — the lives of U.S. students in profound ways. Many kids haven't set foot in t
What Joe Biden Said About Charter Schools During the Campaign Joe Biden was very clear about his position on privately managed charter schools during the campaign. In this video, he was asked by Lily Eskelsen Garcia what he would do about charter schools, and his position was clear: Charter schools should not be funded at the expense of public schools. No federal funds for privately funded chart
I Know the Secret to Making Your Dreams Come True I know the secret to making your dreams come true. In an essay written for New Philosopher magazine (content not available online), Oliver Burkman discusses what's called Littlewood's Law, named for a British mathematician by the name of John Edensor Littlewood: Let's suppose . . . that you're awake and active in the world -- as opposed to sleepi
Trump Issues Order for Back-Door Vouchers Someone wrote an executive order, dated December 28, and signed Donald Trump’s name to it, declaring that the emergency conditions created by the COVID make it vital to use federal funds for vouchers. Don’t waste a minute! Scoop up federal funds and put your child in a substandard voucher school! We know that Trump didn’t write the executive order becaus
| A clearinghouse for information on class size & the proven benefits of smaller classes Please give so we can continue our work for smaller classes & student privacy in 2021 Dear Friends — 2020 was a difficult year for Class Size Matters as it was for many non-profits. If you support our mission of smaller classes, so that all students no matter what their background can receive the help and fe
Trump Issues School Vouchers Via Executive Order Today the White House (if Donald Trump wrote this thing, then I'm the Queen of Rumania) issued an executive order "expanding educational opportunity school choice" to create "Emergency Learning Scholarships for Students." It instructs the Secretary of Health and Human Services ( that would be Alex Azar ) to use funds from the Community Services Bl
Education Research Report Big Education Ape: THIS WEEK Education Research Report - https://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2020/12/this-week-education-research-report_26.html Head Start generated large increases in adult human capital and economic self-sufficiency by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 1d This paper evaluates the long-run effects of Head Start using large-scale, restricted 2000-2018 Census-ACS d
Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007 Big Education Ape: THIS WEEK IN EDUCATION Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... The latest news and resources in education
DGW’s THIRD MOST READ ARTICLE OF THE YEAR As we close out a year that has rocked so many lives, in so many ways, I’d like to spend the last days of the year reprinting the three most widely read pieces from the last year. One a day. Sometimes looking back provides context and opens our our eyes to perceiving the events of today through a fresh lens. The number 3 most read column comes from May a
Of course, teachers are considering quitting because of the pandemic "The coronavirus pandemic has put significant pressure on America’s teachers. Some have been asked to weigh risks to their personal health and teach in person . Some have been asked to teach from behind computer screens and perfect distance learning . Many have been asked to do both . These pressures are taking a toll on teache
Please give so we can continue our work for education equity, smaller classes & student privacy in 2021 And a recap of a difficult, extraordinary year... Dear friend --- 2020 was a difficult year for Class Size Matters as it was for many non-profits. If you support our mission of smaller classes, so that all students no matter what their background can receive the help and feedback from teachers
A counting problem, and a real problem with counting How many ways can we give eleven identical candies to four children? it is obviously possible (necessary) for some to get more than others, and there is not even a guarantee that each child gets something. That’s equivalent to asking how many solutions there are to: (including 0 in the natural numbers). Now, you could give all eleven to the ol
Big Education Ape THE TOP BANANA TODAY'S EDUCATION HEADLINES Martin Henry Freeman, First Black College President in the US, Honored With Sculpture in Vermont https://www.theroot.com/martin-henry-freeman-first-black-college-president-in-1845953447?
