CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: Board of Directors Birthday Week Edition (6/6)
Board of Directors Birthday Week Edition
The Board of Directors turn four this week, if you can believe such a thing. Time flies. In the meantime, here's some reading from this week.
Against Metrics: How Measuring Performance By Numbers Backfires
Not really about education, except that it totally is. One more argument against data-driven lunacy.
Unpacking Nonsense: Knowledge as Commodity
I always feel smarter when I read something from Paul Thomas. As usual, he makes connections between many important ideas, including race, crt, and media literacy.
What HIPAA Isn't
Lots of not-about-education-but-really-it-is material this week, including this handy explainer of what HIPAA really does and doesn't protect.
Our Collective Lesson Plan [On Teachers of Color in This Moment]
Jose Luis Vilson digs deeper into the wave of anti-crt legislation sweeping the country, and what it means for teachers of color.
Stinking Thinking Monetizes Dyslexia
Thomas Ultican takes a look at a bill in California mandating testing for dyslexia. Is any of it supported by research? He has the details.
Know Your State Astroturf Parent/Education Groups
Jeanne Melvin makes a guest appearance at Nancy Bailey's blog to sort out al the new parent activist "grass-roots" groups.
Efficiency is very inefficient
Not really about education but, well, you see the pattern. Cory Doctorow breaking down why we live in a world that praises efficiency, but actual destroys it.
Pittsburgh Media Runs Right Wing Propaganda
Steven Singer looks at how much success the right wing Commonwealth Foundation has had getting Pittsburgh media to treat their baloney like it's real.
Where Communities Go To College
On the Have You Heard podcast, a strong case for learning and teaching close to home.
Inside a bruising battle over a new charter school in Nashville's west side
From Nate Rau at Tennessee Lookout, a look at the trouble that comes when charters want to expand into "markets" where they aren't wanted.
Georgia Board of Education votes to censor American history
George Chidi at The Intercept looks at one more state's efforts to shut down discussion of racism.
More funding shenanigans in Ohio
Jan Resseger has the story of how Ohio's legislature is trying to increase vouchers and privatization while shrinking public ed.
CATCH UP WITH CURMUDGUCATION
ME: Another Assault On The Church State WallHaving failed to win popular votes, voucher supporters this year are turning to legislatures and courts to push and expand vouchers, and a lawsuit in Maine is the perfect vehicle for them. Maine actually has a voucher-ish law on the books-- if you don't have a high school in your town, then you get tuition paid to a high school elsewhere. Unless, the law says, you want to choose a religious schoo
Religious Persecution and/or FreedomIn the least surprising news development yesterday, a Loudon County Public School teacher's suspension has now become a lawsuit . Phys Ed teacher Tanner Cross went to a school board meeting and voiced his opposition to any proposed policy that called for addressing students with their preferred pronouns. "I will not affirm that a biological boy can be a girl and vice versa because it's against my
The Gig Economy Has IssuesBetsy DeVos was probably the most high-profile person to claim, repeatedly, that education just needed its own version of Uber. But the last months or two demonstrate just a few of the problems with the gig economy. Gig economy is great if you're an employer. It lets you have "employees" without any of the actual responsibilities of being an employer. The gig workers are left to deal with their o
Being Mortal (And Measuring )I've been reading the book Being Mortal by Atul Gawande. It's not at all a book about education, except that, like everything that deals with being human, it does. The book is actually about facing the end of life, mortality, and the ways we handle end-of-life decisions in this country. It's about gerontology, assisted living, and making decisions about hospice care. Gawande is a surgeon, a staff
Why My Children Are Not Scholars"Why does calling children scholars make me cringe?" Rosemary Jensen That's a Facebook post that crossed my feed today, and reminded me that I also find that labeling, a popular feature among the charter crowd, a bit gag-inducing. Why exactly? It's hard to pin down. After all, it's a relatively harmless term. One who attends school or studies , or an especially learned or erudite person, particul
Tulsa and Teaching HistoryThe Tulsa Race Massacre happened 100 years ago today. It's a horrifying chapter in US history, its anniversary arriving ion the midst of a new national argument about how history should be taught. Nowadays you can find plenty of resources about the destruction of Greenwood and the murder of--well, the number 300 is used, but the fact is we don't really know exactly how many Black folks were murde
ICYMI: Memorial Day Weekend Edition (5/30)It has been a time, with a double funeral yesterday and some other little series of life adventures this week. Makes you want to shake some folks and ask, "Is this really what you want to do with your limited time on earth?" Be better. Anyway, I have a few things for you to read this week. Here's the list. What Education Researchers Can Learn From Teachers Larry Ferlazzo at EdWeek lets us hear fr
