CURMUDGUCATION - http://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/
Not Out Of The Woods Yet Edition (8/15)
Take a deep breath and push on. In the meantime, here's some reading from the week.
Deep Divisions in Americans’ Views of Nation’s Racial History
Yeah, you'd already figured this out on your own, but the Pew Research people have some survey results to show just how different we are on how to view, deal with, and teach about our racial history.
‘How Can I Follow a Law I Believe Endangers My Students?’
In states where the governor (one of those anti-big government overreach and local control guys) have imposed anti-anti-mask mandates, some school leaders are standing up anyway. In Ed Week, a defiant superintendent in Texas explains why.
From the Washington Post, info about a survey showing that mask mandates are preferred by the silent majority.
However, the really loud minority continues to be really loud.
And more than just loud...
Is the crt panic another Koch-funded enterprise? Jasmine Banks at The Nation.
Regular readers have heard about Ohio's school takeover law and the havoc it has wrought on Lorain, among others. Now there's a light at the end of that tunnel. Jan Resseger has done the reading.
Nancy Bailey peels back the layers of chaos and distrust in the pandemic crisis.
At the Progressive, Jeff Bryant argues that modern ed reform is dead, and some other bad things are moving to takes its place.
It has been a big year for pushing vouchers. Also in The Progressive's back-to-school issue, Jessica Levin runs through the various incursions of voucher policy in 2021.
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Further Evidence That Common Core Did Real Harm To U.S. Education - https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2021/08/09/further-evidence-that-common-core-did-real-harm-to-us-education/?sh=64065ec888d8 by @palan57 on @forbes
Can Universal Curriculum Help Our Schools? - https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2021/08/06/can-universal-curriculum-help-our-schools/?sh=37266d2d2b4c by @palan57 on @forbes
Did We Get Anything Out Of NCLB Accountability?We're in the midst of the 20th anniversary of No Child Left Behind , a legislative offspring of bipartisan consensus that has itself been left behind by virtually everybody. The bill was proposed in March of 2001, spent the rest of the year wending its way through the process, to be signed into law at the very beginning of 2002. So pretty much any time this year is fair game for a 20 year retrosp
Speaking of Indoctrinatin' Literature: Ayn Rand in the ClassroomSo here comes the umpteenth set of protests/complaints/caterwauling over literature in schools "promoting critical race theory," aka "any books with Black people in them." The Northampton Area School District of Northampton, PA was offered a a stack of books by The Conscious Kid , an organization that plans to donate 120,000 books "that foster anti-racist conversations and action" to 3,000 school
Where Is A Teacher's Staff?I read about Penn State sports--not because I particularly care, and not even because my non-sporty daughter graduated from there, but because my nephew is a sports writer whose beat is mostly PSU. He's a good guy and the only person in my family who actually supports himself by writing. He recently dropped this piece about the coaching staff for Penn State football , and the stories of how they
Charter Schools Are Not Public Schools (Ex. #152,377)In North Carolina, Charter Day School back in 2016 was sued by parents who objected to a dress code requiring girls to wear skirts, jumpers, or skorts. They just won that suit, sort of, but revealed somethiung about themselves in the winning. This is a school whose mission involves communicating through the arts and sciences. Charter Day School is part of the network of charters operated by Roger
Do 3rd Grade Tests Predict Anything?The National Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research (CALDER) is a program of the American Institute for Research (AIR) along with an assortment of universities. They've just released a working paper version of some research that some people think is pretty significant. I've read it so you don't have to. Let me explain what they found, and why nobody needs to get excited ab
ICYMI: Counting Down To School Edition (8/8)Yes, the clock has started at our house. I'll be heading off to be a trombone consultant for an old friend/student's band camp starting tomorrow, and my wife's summer days are numbered. Here it comes, lurching towards us like a misaligned tractor with a flat tire and three bales of hay stuck in the wheel well. In the meantime, here are some reads from the week. Dyslexia Industry Scores California
FL: Bullying By MaskFlorida (state motto: Death to public education!) has been leaping to capitalize on the current COVID disaster, as witnessed by this extremely on-point headline: Florida Will Pay for Parents to Move Kids Into New Schools if They Experience ‘COVID-19 Harassment’ That's a very apt way to characterize a voucher program--the state will pay you to pull your kid out of public schools. You may have been
