CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: It's That Time Again Edition (1/16)
It's That Time Again Edition
By "that time" I mean time to once again see who will win the annual contest to twist some MLK quote into the pretzel form needed to support their particular cause. Turns out, every year, that MLK would have supported virtually everything. Yay. Here's your reading list for the week.
In our alarmingly unequal society, public schools by themselves cannot be the great equalizer
Jan Resseger has a look at another chapter from an upcoming anthology about public education. This one's by Kevin Welner and it's a good one.
Sheriff uses grades and abuse history to label schoolchildren as potential criminals
In Florida, they're using a Minority Report style system to violate privacy in the name of catching future criminals
Florida officials tried to steer education contract to former lawmaker's company
Corruption in Florida? I am shocked. Shocked! The Tampa Bay Times has the story
This vested interest in the children's incompetence
Teacher Tom has a particularly insightful post here about how some grown-ups are not great with kids.
Florida bill would allow cameras and microphones in classroom
CBS news reports. Come for the terrible new ideas, and stay to find out what terrible old ideas are already being used in Florida classrooms.
Stitt's education bro tries desperately to repair image
Oklahoma's ed chief is doing poorly. This week he really put his foot in it, and tried some light damage control.
Kids on the "McDonalds track" are living in a rigged system
Laura Bryce writes an op-ed for the Inquirer about the mess that is PA school funding
Down goes Frayser
Gary Rubinstein has long kept an eye on Tennessee's Achievement School District, the special state takeover turnaround system that has never done anything but fail hard. Here's the latest update on this sad history.
The pastor, the speaker of the house--and a Christian Academy educator
Nancy Flanagan looks at the sad, greasy tale of Lee Chatfield
Indiana SB 167
The latest version of one of those bills that wants to make sure that teachers don't teach anything a certain parent might find uncomfortable. Blue Cereal Education takes three posts to break it down-- I'll let you start with the third and work your way backwards.
Meanwhile, over at Forbes, I looked at the special features of South Carolina's voucher bill.
CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: It's That Time Again Edition (1/16)
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When You Open Schools To Religion...There has been a push for a while now to open public schools to religion, and it has been pushed a variety of ways, such as the case Good News Club v. Milford Central School. That suit made it all the way to the Supreme Court in 2001. The Good News Club is a program of the Child Evangelism Fellowship , a group founded in 1937 by Jesse Levin Overholtzer with the express purpose of evangelizing chi
Should Schools Teach The Success SequenceYou know the "sucess sequence." It's the idea that if Young People just do the right things--finish school, get a job, get married, have a kid--in that order, they are less likely to end up not poor. It has occasionally been oversold (" Follow these three rules and you will join the middle class! ") and the "data" used to bolster it is a little suspicious (like claiming that only 2% of people who
VA: Book Burning Fan Now Board ChairmanYou may recall the story about Spotsylvania school district in Virginia, where books were being protested and pulled and two board members thought maybe the books should be burned. Well, one of those guys is now the board chairman, and things are blowing up in a hurry. The board is a 4-3 board (though those who didn't want to burn the books were supportive of banning them), and the 4-person conse
Ready for Hologram Teachers?One more innovation that nobody asked for, the hologram professor is another idea from the ed tech folks. Much of the noise seems to be in the post-secondary world where-- well, here's one pitch: The hologram professor is an innovative educational experience based on “telepresence” and, crucially at this juncture for higher education, it can recreate the natural dynamics of face-to-face environme
FL: When Compliance Culture Replaces CompassionI don't usually cover these sorts of stories, but I've seen the body cam footage. The mother of the child is plans to take legal action. I don't blame her. I'm always cautious about stories centered on student complaints about being mistreated by schools. A school's hands are tied when it comes to responding; a student's records are confidential, and so a fuller picture can't be shared. But I've
A PA Billionaire And An Initiative To STOP Public EducationThe C enter for Education Reform is an advocacy group that has never been shy about where it stands on the issue of public education (and the teachers who work there)-- they are not fans. The chairman and treasurer are both investment guys and their advisors are all investment and privatization folks. But the beating heart and voice of CER is Jeanne Allen. Latekly Allen has been touting a new pro
How To Stay OpenMy Uncle Frank, about whom I've written about before , recently suffered a stroke. He spent a couple of days at the hospital on a gurney, rather than on a bed in a room, because those beds were filled with unvaxed freedom fighters, presumably none of whom were saying, "Don't give me any of your life-saving medicines or treatments, because I don't know exactly what's in them." While I'm generally
ICYMI: The Week It Hits The Fan Edition (1/9)Well, that was almost as much fun as when schools started up last fall. Fun times all around, for sure. And a hefty reading list for the week, and I'll warn you up front--it's not a cheery collection. A reminder that sharing is caring, and that if you find something here that speaks to you, it's a great idea to signal boost it out into the world. Teacher shortages will linger after the pandemic w
PA: Number of New Teachers PlummetsThis was rocketing around the Book of Face this morning. It's not encouraging, but I have verified it. The actual source of the data is what's known as the Act 82 report, which requires the state Department of Education to report on how many Instructional Certificates it issues every year, which is a good measure of new teachers. I'm looking at the spreadsheet for Act 82, and I can report a few d
