Of course, it probably won't be. This is probably going to drag out
for weeks. But we can hope that we're, as they say, turning a corner this
week. Hope you en joyed that extra hour. Happy All Saints Day. In the
meantime, here's some stuff to read.
What has to happen for voters to support both Trump and increased taxes
for public ed? Arizona is forging a whole new path. Jennifer Berkshire
reports on this odd political shift.
Surprising absolutely nobody except some pro-charter Democrats who were
sure that the charter movement was all about social justice, Betsy DeVos
took the next step in shifting taxpaer dollars from public to private
religious schools. Here's Matt Barnum with his take at Chalkbeat.
Here at the Institute we've taken many shots at the74, which started out
aspiring to be an anti-union player for ed in 2016. But nowadays they do
some actual legit journalism, like this pioece breaking down the
record-setting lawsuit total racked up by Betsy DeVos.
Upon first reading " Teachers Unions and the Myth of 'Public' Schools " at National Review, my immediate impulse was to just mutter "fatuous bullshit" and move on. But this piece is a fine distillation of a current genre of writing--the piece that blames current school closures on the self-serving teachers' unions, who see distance learning as a great way to pursue their dream of being paid for d
Artificial Intelligence is used to sell a lot of baloney. It would be bad enough it were used only to teach badly and provide poor assessments of student work, but AI is also being hawked as a means of rooting out plagiarism. For an example of this phenomenon at its worst, let's check in on a little webcast from Mark Boothe at Canvas Learning Management System . He's talking to Shouvik Paul at Co
Betsy DeVos would like you to know--again, some more--that public schools are failing. Her exhibit this time is the newly-released NAEP results for 12th graders in 2019. And as usual at NAEP time, her brief exhortation is riddled with baloney. America is the greatest country on the face of the earth, and we should deliver our rising generation the greatest educational opportunities possible. Sadl
Matt Barnum of Chalkbeat has made a small hobby out of tracking one of the pervasive made-up statistics of education-- "65% (or 80% or what-have-you) of the jobs that this years kindergartners will fill don't exist yet." Well, the folks at the World Economic Forum have another variation on this kind of crystal ball data theme-- "50% of all employees will need reskilling by 2025." Fortunately, I g
School has opened across the country, but in many districts that means class via internet—if those students are among those fortunate enough to have access to fast, large-capacity internet connections. How many aren’t connected? The answer is that nobody’s exactly sure. One study say s that 33 million citizens live without the net. The FCC says that 19 million Americans lack access to broadband a
The New York Times ran a piece yesterday about a school board voting mess in Sumter County, Georgia (that's the county of Plains, home of Jimmy Carter's peanut farm). The story itself is an instructional look at how yet another white minority is trying to keep their hands on the levers of power, resulting in a district that is 70% Black run by a board that is 70% white. But Nicholas Casey has dow
Even as Betsy DeVos has been demanding that public schools get their doors opened and their teachers back in the bricks and mortar classrooms, the department has announced its release of a slick "guide" to computer-based edu-flavored products. It's a nice package of marketing materials for the folks working the digitized street corner of the education privatization neighborhood. From the Office o
It was beautiful here most of the week, which served in part as a reminder that pandemic winter is going to suck so very much. Here are a few pieces to check out from the week. The Perfect Trap Paul Thomas with some good insights about teaching writing and the power of redrafting. Neoliberal Education Reformers Have Found A New Way To Scapegoat Teachers At Jacobin, Josh Mound talks about that awf
Betsy DeVos repeatedly insists that the current pandemic A) shouldn't in any way interfere with the normal operation of public schools and B) makes it "more clear than ever" that school choice must be a thing, toot de suite. The two prongs of her argument belong to two entirely different pitchforks, but many folks with more coherent debate tools have picked up that second point. One of those is R
Henrico County Public School District is a Virginia school district that sits right beside Richmond. For the first part of the school year, they have been using distance learning, and finding it just as unsatisfactory as pretty much
