CATCH UP WITH CURMUDGUCATION + ICYMI: Just One Thing After Another Edition (6/7)

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: Just One Thing After Another Edition (6/7)

Just One Thing After Another Edition 

So things have been a little quieter than usual on this page (and I'm late today) in part because what the current conversation about Black Lives Matter needs is not more input from middle aged white guys, and partly because things have been a bit upheaved here at the Institute (not all bad-- the twins turned 3 since last Sunday's edition). But I still have a few things for you to read:

Weathering The Storm: School Funding in the Covid-19 Er
The Kappan offers some useful economic ideas for the post-pandemic era, courtesy of Bruce Baker, Mark Weber, and Dean Acheson-- all folks who really know this stuff. Four specific proposals (including the squawk-inducing recommendation to cancel aid programs that favor affluent districts).

Dept of Ed Discloses Illegal Seizure of $2.2 Billion
Man, I would hate to have this news lost in the shuffle this week. Remember how USED was supposed grabbing money from folks during the pandemic pause-- yeah, they didn't stop. To the tune of billions of dollars. Billion, with a B.

The Broken Promise That Broke Jacksonville 
Florida, that is. The Florida Times-Union has the historical perspective on how the city cemented racist structures and kept its poor poor.

Gay HS Senior Barred from Walking At Graduation Because Pants 
From the "News That Sucks" file, this reminder that some public school administrators need to remove their heads from their rectums.

Betsy DeVos Is Looting Public Schools 
There's no news here, except that this opinion piece is not from some cranky blogger, but from Newsweek. Specifically, we're talking about her attempt to grab CARES money for private schools.

Changing What We Teach
Nancy Flanagan takes a look at what schools need to do better.

Amy Coopers Are Everywhere   
Rann Miller at The Progressive reminds us that schools have an Amy Cooper problem, too.

PA Charter Leader Blasts George Floyd Protestors, Then Backpedals Like Crazy.
Ana Meyers got a little heated about the protests and became one more person who was not well-served by how quick and easy it is to fire off a stupid and inadvertently revealing Tweet.

It's Time To Fix Standardized Testing 
Akil Bello takes a look at the wonky nuts and bolts of standardized testing and how it needs to be rebuilt, and he's just the guy for the job.

Public Funds Public Schools Website Provides Compendium of Research on School Vouchers
Jan Resseger looks at a trove of useful info, particularly if you are looking at the charter onslaught in Ohio, where the recent shift in law has really gutted public school finance.

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: Just One Thing After Another Edition (6/7)

CATCH UP WITH CURMUDGUCATION

CATCH UP WITH CURMUDGUCATION

AND DON'T FORGET PETER GREENE ON FORBES CLICK HERE 

Big Education Ape: Peter Greene: A Call For The College Board To Oust David Coleman - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2020/06/peter-greene-call-for-college-board-to.html

Do Exit Exams Reduce Crime

20by Peter Greene / 1d

Of all the claims made about high school exit exams, this has to be one of the most unlikely, but here comes Matthew Larsen in the ever reformy Education Next to argue that exit exams--tests that are required to get a diploma--reduce crime . Larsen is an assistant professo r at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania. He's in the economics department, because of course he is. He set out to look at wheth

Graduation in the Age of Covid-19

28by Peter Greene / 3d

There are three bridges that run in and out of my small town. Currently, each bridge is flying a batch of banners that collectively list the entire 2020 graduating class at our high school. When the banners went up, a photo of some seniors looking for their names on the banners ran on the front page of the local paper. High school graduation is a big deal in small town USA. My old high school (the

Successful School Reopening Plans Will Have One Thing In Common

31by Peter Greene / 4d

Plenty of folks have thoughts about the conditions under which schools should be opened. The CDC thinks desks should be six feet apart. The American Enterprise Institute suggests that districts might want to get all staff members over fifty-five to take early retirement. Senator Bill Cassidy has called for aggressive testing and contact tracing. Over the next few months, we’ll see many plans floa

Toxic Ideas

by Peter Greene / 5d

Here are two views of the word that are loose in this country: The way the world works is (or is supposed to be) that you get what you deserve. Make bad choices? You get bad consequences. Your success or failure is completely up to you-- it's the result of the choices that you make. And this: It's not about high ideals or honor or empathy or care for your fellow human. It's about power, and the pe

FL: Philanthropy Backs Testing

42by Peter Greene / 6d

Has there ever been a time when it was more obvious that the Big Standardized Test is waste of time and money? Do you hear anybody out on the street over the last week declaring, "What we need is some standardized testing to show systemic racism, because otherwise, how will we know?" But education amateurs still believe in testing's magic power, and nowhere is the Cult of Testing more firmly entre

ICYMI: Hellacious Week Edition (5/31)

by Peter Greene / 7d

Well, this has been a bunch of big ugly crap, on top of the One Damn Thing After Another sundae that is 2020. Let's read. All About the Mask Nancy Flanagan looks at the politics and symbolism of the ongoing mask wars. Chalkbeat Discovers Teachers on Front Lines Chalkbeat lets a brand new charter leader lay out some obvious obviousness about teachers and pandemic response. NYC Educator breaks it do

Teaching And The Social Contract (TL;DR)

200+by Peter Greene / 7d

I didn't write anything yesterday, which is an unusual day for me, but I've just been trying to take it all in. I have family in Seattle, friends in Pittsburgh. There's a lot of mess out there tonight. It's nothing new for our country, but it's never been laid out so starkly. The woman in Central Park deliberately 

CURMUDGUCATION - http://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/

NANCY BAILEY: Technology Fails Students. Will It Matter? What’s Next? Private, Parochial, Charters, and Online Programs?

Technology Fails Students. Will It Matter? What’s Next? Private, Parochial, Charters, and Online Programs?

Technology Fails Students. Will It Matter? What’s Next? Private, Parochial, Charters, and Online Programs?

How are schools going to look in the fall? Local school district educators and parents are meeting to draft plans. Weighing heavily on the minds of many is this question, will public schools survive? Will teachers still have a role to play in the education of students?

Technology has failed and schools are reopening on shaky ground. Will America throw up its hands and end public schooling for good? Will we be left with private and parochial schools, most which run on their own rules with little accountability to the public? Will substandard online programs and charters we know don’t work become the name of the game?

Parents are frantic there will be no childcare. Teachers worry they will lose their jobs.

There’s reason to fear. The nation’s leaders  have permitted the firing of hundreds of thousands of teachers and staff who work in brick-and-mortar schools, yet they find money to bail out the cruise industry, a business that pays virtually no federal taxes. There’s concern for the post office (which I share), but public schools seem an afterthought.

There’s Governor Andrew Cuomo, who abruptly announced that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will design a blueprint for New York’s schools.

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos seeks to end public schooling. The Covid-19 crisis has CONTINUE READING: Technology Fails Students. Will It Matter? What’s Next? Private, Parochial, Charters, and Online Programs?

Peter Greene: A Call For The College Board To Oust David Coleman

A Call For The College Board To Oust David Coleman

A Call For The College Board To Oust David Coleman

When David Coleman joined the College Board as CEO and president in 2012, it must have seemed like a natural step forward; he had overseen the redesign of K-12 education via the Common Core standards, and now he could use the leverage of College Board’s flagship programs—AP courses and the SAT—to extend his vision to college.

It has not worked out well.

Coleman’s tenure has been marked by a number of unforced errors, from a clunky too-fast-to-market SAT redesign right up through the recent fiasco of take-it-from-home AP tests, which has led to a lawsuit. In 2018, Coleman issued a response in the wake of the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High shootings that seemed to treat the tragedy as a marketing opportunity; more recently, the College Board issued some information on SAT sign-ups that included a perfunctory response to the current headlines about racial unrest. In 2018, the tone-deaf statement was followed by calls for Coleman’s ouster, and early in 2019 Coleman handed the President position off to Jeremy Singer, staying on as CEO. Now, calls for his removal are once again surfacing.

Some calls have been in the quiet back country of social media, but in a May 29 open letter to College Board trustees, Jon Boeckenstedt, Vice Provost of Enrollment Management at Oregon State University, called for “a change at the top” for the company. Boeckenstedt includes a “partial list of the embarrassing or educationally unsound things that have happened on his watch.”CONTINUE READING: A Call For The College Board To Oust David Coleman

Defund the Police to Fund Public Schools | gadflyonthewallblog

Defund the Police to Fund Public Schools | gadflyonthewallblog

Defund the Police to Fund Public Schools

Back in the pre-Coronavirus days when we still had in-person classes I used to come to school in a suit.

Every day, suit and tie.

I didn’t have to – the dress code allowed me to wear pretty much whatever I wanted and most teachers dressed much more casually.

Now let me be clear – I’m not saying my way was the only way. Each teacher has his or her own way of doing things that work in their particular cases. But as for me, I’ve always agreed with the old adage that you should come dressed for the job you want, not necessarily the job you have.

I think educators are professionals. They should be respected and taken seriously.

And on the first day of school that’s what I want to tell my students without even opening my mouth: Hey! We’re doing important work here today.

However, as time goes on I often wear whimsical ties. A saxophone, multicolored fish, Space Invaders on test days.

In fact, this year some of the kids nicknamed me “tie man” and even if they didn’t have me as their teacher they’d pop their heads into the room to see what was CONTINUE READING: Defund the Police to Fund Public Schools | gadflyonthewallblog

John Thompson: Save My Former Student | Diane Ravitch's blog

John Thompson: Save My Former Student | Diane Ravitch's blog

John Thompson: Save My Former Student

John Thompson writes about his former student, who is scheduled to die:

As the nation wrestles with the latest police killings and Black Lives Matter protests, the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board must decide whether to allow the execution of my former student, Julius Jones. Julius’ request for commutation has gained the support of the Congressional Black Caucus; criminal justice expert, Bryan Stevenson; numerous elected officials, pastors, bishops and archbishops; the Executive Director of Oklahomans for Criminal Justice Reform; the President of the NAACP State Conference; and public figures ranging from Kim Kardashian to a former Attorney General of Canada; and the Executive Director of the George Kaiser Foundation.

https://www.justiceforjuliusjones.com/

Now, three NBA basketball players, Blake Griffin, Russell Westbrook, and Trae Young, have joined in support of Julius.

Griffin, Westbrook, Young: Commute the sentence of Julius Jones https://nondoc.com/2020/06/03/westbrook-griffin-young-commute-sentence-julius-jones/ via @nondocmedia

I was struck by the personal part of letter written by Griffin, who often was in our gym when I played basketball with Julius, his brother and his sister, as well as the person who we believe committed the murder. He wrote:

My father, Tommy Griffin, coached Julius when he played basketball at John Marshall High School, and often I CONTINUE READING: John Thompson: Save My Former Student | Diane Ravitch's blog