Ed Deform Groups Congratulate Biden on Decision to TestReview the list of organizations that signed a letter thanking the Biden administration for insisting on tests this spring. Some outspoken enemies of public education are there. Some rightwing groups are there. Supporters of school choice are there. What do you make of this?
Leonie Haimson: Biden Should Focus on Vaccinating Teachers Instead of Forcing States to Give Pointless TestsLeonie Haimson, executive director of Class Size Matters, board member of the Network for Public Education, and expert on student privacy, pulls together some interesting threads in this post. If Biden wants schools to reopen soon, she says, he should make sure that every teacher gets vaccinated so schools can safely reopen. Instead, he has broken his promise to get rid of the federal testing man
Nancy Bailey: Is EdTrust Behind the Renewal of Standardized Testing?Nancy Bailey explains why we should worry about who is making the decisions at the U.S. Department of Education before any of its top officials have been confirmed. She suspects it is Education Trust, which favors charter schools and high-stakes testing. EdTrust is Gates-funded, and its leader is John King, who served briefly as Secretary of Education in the last year of the Obama administration.
Victoria E.M. Cain: A Brief and Sobering History of Technology in the ClassroomDuring the pandemic, most schools turned to remote learning as a matter of necessity. Some in the education biz think that the pandemic has created a new market for their products. Actually, most parents and students are eager for real schools with real teachers to open again. Contrary to popular myth, teachers too want schools to reopen, as soon as they are safe for staff and students. Historian
Jan Resseger: Eve Ewing Ignored the “Economic Catastrophe” That Charter Schools Create for Public SchoolsJan Resseger is one of our wisest commentators of issues of education, equity, and social justice. She devoted her professional life to these issues. In her latest blog post, she is critical of Eve Ewing for ignoring the “economic catastrophe” that charter schools impose on public schools. She has seen it up close and personal in Cleveland and other cities in Ohio, where public schools suffer as
Bob Shepherd on Standardized TestsBob Shepherd is a polymath who worked in the education industry for decades and was recently a teacher in Florida. He spent many years developing standardized tests. He has written often about their poor quality, their lack of reliability and validity. In this post, he explains why he has reached these conclusions: The dirty secret of the standardized testing industry is the breathtakingly low qu
My Review of Jack Schneider and Jennifer Berkshire, “A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door”I reviewed A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door in The New Republic. It is an important book that pulls together all the threads of the privatization movement and shows that their agenda is not to improve education or to advance equity but to destroy public education. The review is here. Tonight, I will join the authors at a town hall Zoom meeting in Seattle at 9 p.m. EST, 6 p.m. PST. Please join us! I
Let Ian Rosenblum Know What You Think about His Decision to Impose Standardized TestingMany of you have asked how to express your indignation and outage about the decision by Acting Assistant Secretary Ian Rosenblum to require all states to administer standardized testing this spring at a time of great stress on students, families, teachers, schools, and communities. I have repeatedly explained why the federally mandated tests are worthless. The teachers are not allowed to see the
Is the edTPA a Valid Measure of Teacher Quality?Three researchers published an article in the Kappan that is highly critical of the edTPA, a test used to assess whether teacher candidates are prepared to teach. Over the years, there have been many complaints about the edTPA, because it replaces the human judgment of teacher educators with a standardized instrument. It’s proponents claim that the instrument is more reliable and valid than human
Nora De La Cour: Abolish High-Stakes TestingTeacher Nora De La Cour writes on her blog that it is time to restore the joy of teaching and learning by abolishing high-stakes testing. She writes that candidate Joe Biden forcefully promised to get rid of standardized testing and restore teacher autonomy, but Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona seems unwilling to commit to granting states a waiver from the mandated federal testing. He did no
David Berliner: Why Religious Schools Should Never Receive a Dollar of Public FundingSince the 2020 election, when Republicans won many seats in state legislatures, there has been an explosion of proposed voucher laws, to allow people to get public money to pay for religious schools. David Berliner, one of our nation’s most distinguished researchers of education, explains why funding religious schools with public money is a terrible idea. Why Religious Schools Should Never Receiv
California: Nearly 50,000 Teachers and Parents Say NO to Biden Testing DemandUPDATE TO NEWS RELEASE: 50,000 signatures submitted to SBE-parents, educators urge waiving standardized testing NEWS RELEASE California Teachers Association February 22, 2021 1705 Murchison Drive Burlingame, CA 94010 www.cta.org Contact: Claudia Briggs cbriggs@cta.org FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Educators Call on State Board of Education to Seek Waiver from U.S. Department of Education Suspending Stand
New York: A Sample Opt Out LetterNew York State Allies for Public Education created sample opt out letters for parents to present to the school. For both English and Spanish, visit the NYSAPE homepage . Home
Steve Hinnefeld: Black Legislators in Indiana Were Right to Talk about RaceVeteran blogger Steve Hinnefeld writes about education in Indiana. In this post, he describes a controversy in the Legislature about whether a portion of a district should be allowed to secede in order to join a “whiter” district. Some Indiana House Republicans lost their cool last week when Democratic colleagues dared to raise the issue of race. According to the Indianapolis Star , the Republica
Nicholas Tampio: Let the Children Play This Summer, Not Catch Up on “Learning Loss”Nicholas Tampio, a professor of political science at Fordham University, wrote recently in the Washington Post that children need a break, not academic pressure, this summer. But the federal government seems to have swallowed whole the claims that children are suffering from “learning loss.” He disagrees. Pasi Sahlberg and William Doyle have repeatedly urged policymakers to acknowledge the import
New Congressman Jamaal Bowman Blasts Biden Testing PlanCongressman Jamaal Bowman, experienced teacher and principal and teacher, was elected last November and now is a member of the House Education Committee. He was outraged by the announcement that the Biden administration demands a resumption of annual testing. He denounced it as “a big mistake.” He knows what kids need, and it’s not testing. Rep. Jamaal Bowman on Tuesday joined progressive educati
NYSAPE Urges Parents to Opt Out of Biden TestingNew York State Allies for Public Education has led the successful opt out movement in their state for years. As much as 20% of all eligible students have refused the annual tests in most years, in some schools and districts, a majority of students don’t take the test. They reacted angrily to the news that the Biden administration plans to require annual testing after Joe Biden publicly promised n
Learn About Litigating Against VouchersREGISTER NOW FOR 2/24 WEBINAR: Litigating Against Private School Vouchers Join Education Law Center and Public Funds Public Schools on Wednesday, February 24, from 3:00-4:30 p.m. EST for a webinar, “Litigating Against Private School Vouchers.” During the webinar, experienced attorneys will discuss lawsuits challenging private school voucher programs and other diversions of public funds to private
Pastors for Texas Children to the Texas Legislature: “Make Suitable Provision!”One of our greatest allies for public schools in the nation is the remarkable Pastors for Texas Children. They are active every day in Texas, urging the public to support and fund their public schools. Their leadership has helped to spur similar organizations in other states where public schools need help and where privatizers are making a play for public funds. Here is their latest appeal for fu
Al Franken on Rush Limbaugh’s Squalid LegacyAl Franken is the former Senator from Minnesota. He wrote this retrospective on Rush Limbaugh in the New York Daily News. Rush Limbaugh died this week. His impact on our nation’s discourse and polity will long outlive him. Many Americans had been puzzled when President Trump bestowed upon Limbaugh our nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. After all, previous honorees
