Sunday, August 29, 2021

CATCH UP WITH CURMUDGUCATION + ICYMI: Pre Pre School Edition (8/29)

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: Pre Pre School Edition (8/29)



Pre Pre School Edition

The board of directors is off to pre-school tomorrow, but mostly they're excited about using their new lunch boxes. Meanwhile, local schools open up to students on Tuesday. So we'll just see what hits the fan around here. In the meantime, a lot of things are happening in a lot of places. Here's some reading.

Covid mask issues in school sparking violence

Anne Lutz Fernandez looks at some troubling trends in the pushback against masking rules in school.

New Mexico's discriminatory charter schools

Jessica Pollard in the Santa Fe New Mexican reports on a study discovering that some charters aren't even being subtle about keeping out students with special needs.

Bill would require school board representation at charters

Well, this proposed Pennsylvania bill will go nowhere, but it's a cool idea. 

Is school voucher system in Los Angeles a done deal?

While we've been worrying about covid, the LAUSD board has been going full voucher. Carl J. Petersen has the story.

Bill Gates funding happy news at NYT

Public ed advocate Leonie Haimson lays out how Gates funds his own news pipeline.

What we know about masks, students, and covid spread.

Matt Barnum at Chalkbeat is one of the journalists I trust to do a good job of covering the facts with fairness and accuracy. Here's his piece looking at what we really know about masking.

Battles on the school board front

NPR/All Things Considered uses a board member in Indiana as a focus for a piece about how school boards are under siege right now.

What if...thoughts on education

Akil Bello, testing expert, offers a post about some dreams for education.

Pennridge schools pause diversity initiatives

In Pennsylvania, a state that doesn't even have a "CRT" gag law yet, a school board demonstrates its lack of guts.

Teaching is a woman

This has been all over the place, but icymi, here's Ari Christine's entry that elevates the genre of "why I quit" teacher essays.

The Real Reason Kids Don't Like School

Arthur C Brooks in The Atlantic, arguing that hard work is not nearly as daunting as loneliness.

A school board will pay $1.3 million over trans student bathroom ban

Via the Associated Press, a Virginia district pays big for its trans student policy.

The War in Afghanistan is what happens when McKinsey types run everything

On his substack, Matt Stoller writes about something other than education, except, of course, McKinsey types also want to run education.

To protect democracy, defend public education

A Jacobin interview with Derek Black, author of Schoolhouse Burning

The effect of HBCU-trained teachers on students

A great episode of Have You Heard looks at the secret sauce of HBCU teacher training

Local control of schools--good or bad?

Nancy Flanagan contemplates a question that has new relevance right now.

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: Pre Pre School Edition (8/29)




Here’s What Teachers Need This Fall (Hint: It’s Not More Happy Talk) - https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2021/08/27/heres-what-teachers-need-this-fall-hint-its-not-more-happy-talk/?sh=22f5ce4c47d7 by @palan57 on @forbes



NC: Public School Teacher Witch Hunt Report Released
by Peter Greene / 1d
Searching for something to add momentum for their proposed teacher gag law, North Carolina Republicans rallied behind Lt. Governor Mark Robinson last March when he announced the Fairness and Accountability in the Classroom for Teachers and Students (FACTS--get it?) task force , with the stated purposes of * assist holding local and county-level education officials accountable for what occurs in t
Teaching Machines: Read This Book
by Peter Greene / 4d
Over at Forbes.com today I've posted a responsible grown-up look at the new Audrey Watters book Teaching Machines . But here at the blog, I can just go ahead and go full fanboy on this work, a book I was so looking forward too that I pre-ordered it twice. Watters opens with Sal Khan selling the same old chestnut-- factory-model school was invented a hundred years ago and it hasn't changed a hair
Jeb Bush Gets It Wrong
by Peter Greene / 5d
Earlier this month, Jeb Bush released an op-ed t o argue against "cuts" (more on that in a moment) to federal spending on charter schools. It's loaded with specious arguments. Let's tick off the items First, Bush argues that our current education is designed as a one-size-fits-all factory model of education, created in the 1890s to build a workforce for a factory-model economy. The "factory model
ICYMI: Stone Skipping Edition (8/22)
by Peter Greene / 7d
This is the weekend on which, every year, I judge a stone skipping competition in my small town. It's a fun time. Ethics Complaint Filed in North Carolina Lately it's been one damn thing after another in NC. Now it turns out one of the heads of the legislature's education committee forgot to mention that his wife is connected to a chartter school. Has school ventilation improved as schools open?
PA: Charter Operators Find Another Way To Take Over A District
by Peter Greene / 8d
Chester Upland School District is located in the southeastern corner of Pennsylvania. It has been through the wringer. More specifically, it has been through just about every wringe r a school district can go through, from segregation through financial crises through an attack by charter interests. The full background can be found here, with following chapters here, here , and here . Short versio
NH: Prenda Just Hit The Jackpot. Who Are They?
by Peter Greene / 8d
New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu just gave Prenda a whopping $6 million cut of the granite state's pandemic school relief. It's a relatively small slice (the full pile of money is $156 million), but it's notably a larger per-pupil
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