CATCH UP WITH CURMUDGUCATION + ICYMI: So This Is 2022 Edition (1/2)

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: So This Is 2022 Edition (1/2)

So This Is 2022 Edition

 Well, here we are. It's almost as if the physical universe is not particularly impressed by our arbitrarily created markings of the passage of time. I remain optimistic, however. Here's the reading list for the week. 

The Coming Troubles of Public Ed In Virginia

Nancy Bailey joins those looking at the incoming administration in Virginia and concludes that it means bad news for those who love public education and student data privacy.

Education Exodus

A news report covering an Oregon study that looks at teacher stress over the past year.

New laws and old

Gregory Sampson takes a look at how the old law of unintended consequences is about to follow a new law covering teacher personal days in North Carolina

Is McKinsey China's weapon against America?

Gordon Change contributes a Newsweek op ed about our old friends at McKinsey and one other consern about their compass-free approach to business.

How Maine is trying to take food insecurity off kids' plates

PBS takes a look at one state's attempt to deal with child hunger

The quiet effort to change Massachusetts' education policy

By now you're familiar with the attempts to gag the teaching of anything related to race--the efforts that involve screaming and noisily ramming laws through. But you may have missed some quieter, but equally scary attempts, like what's going on in Massachusetts.

Lost in the critical race theory debate: the enduring value of the free press

From the Philadelphia Inquirer (beware the limited number of free articles), a new take on CRT panic, and how it threatens the free flow of information that journalism is all about.

A truly patriotic education requires critical analysis of US history

At The Hill, Wallace Stern talks about how to teach true history and face the controversies.

End of the year compilation posts are kind of a pain, but Steve Snyder always does two, God bless him-- the posts that were most popular at his blog, and those that he thinks were most overlooked.

God keeps me and us around

Jose Luis Vilson has had quite the year, and his summation is well worth the read.

And, this week at Forbes, I pointed out that courts in North Carolina have now ruled that charter schools are not public schools--twice. Then we went to Oklahoma and Florida to look at how those states are putting more threat in their teacher gag laws. And finally, asking if we'll ever get school covid policy out of the kluge stage.

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: So This Is 2022 Edition (1/2)

CATCH UP WITH CURMUDGUCATION

AND DON'T FORGET PETER GREENE ON FORBES CLICK HERE 

North Carolina Courts: Charter Schools Are Not Public Schools - https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2021/12/27/north-carolina-courts-charter-schools-are-not-public-schools/?sh=7ab7f4268e7e by @palan57 on @forbes

Oklahoma And Florida Consider A More Aggressive Approach To Teacher Gag Laws - https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2021/12/29/oklahoma-and-florida-consider-a-new-approach-to-teacher-gag-laws/?sh=4cdb70bf513f by @palan57 on @forbes

Beyond The Kluge: Building Schools For The Covid Era - https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2021/12/31/beyond-the-kluge-building-schools-for-the-covid-era/?sh=5d8b5fbe5b0a by @palan57 on @forbes

 PETER GREENE IS ON THE PROGRESSIVE CLICK HERE 

Look Back. Look Forward. Breathe.

by Peter Greene / 1d

I'm not always moved to do a "look at the year" post or a "predictions for the upcoming year" post. A lot of these compilations are meant to be a way to lessen workload at a busy time, but as anyone who has done the work can tell you, it doesn't actually lessen anything. Plus, the new year is one of those things that we humans made up and then tried to imbue with great weight and importance, as i

PA: Bucks County Classroom Chill

by Peter Greene / 2d

I've predicted this kind of thing for states that are leaning hard into book bans and teacher gag laws, but here's a perfectly good example of how this sort of thing works right here in Pennsylvania. The process is simple. Step One: You put some threats in place, from fines against the school district to possible lawsuits to just the fact that you have increased the likelihood that some agitated

Who Do The Leaders Follow (Twitter Edition)

by Peter Greene / 3d

Warning: If you are completely unimpressed and disinterested when it comes to Twitter, this post is probably not for you. It was an offhand Tweet that I read, but it got me thinking and checking, and sure enough-- the current Secretary of Education does not follow a single working teacher. Or even, really, a person in education. Now yes--before we dig into this, I totally get that social media ac

PA: State Argues Great Education Only For A Few

27by Peter Greene / 4d

There's a big court case currently unfolding in Pennsylvania court; several school districts and some parents are suing over the state's funding formula, arguably one of the worst in the nation. And one lawyer for the defense is saying the quiet parts out loud. The central issue is the question of just how much responsibility the state has to provide a quality education for every child. Many stat

ICYMI: Feast Of Stephen Edition (12/26)

by Peter Greene / 7d

Yes, that's today. Sing "Good King Wenceslas," the only good Feast of Stephen carol I know of. The list is a little short this week because so many of us have been busy. Death Threats And Doxxing How all this anti-mask, anti-crt stuff is playing out at actual school districts--in this case, in Texas. The Decline of Standardized Testing Quick Axios explainer in the wake of Harvard's dumping of the

Merry Christmas

by Peter Greene / 8d

Every year I update my youtube playlist of things that are (mostly) off the beaten Yuletide musical path, not to be contrarian, but because 1) I like them and 2) it's as good a time as any to reflect on what a wide a varied species

CURMUDGUCATION - http://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Seattle Schools - The State of K-5 Math

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Seattle Schools - The State of K-5 Math

Seattle Schools - The State of K-5 Math

As I mentioned in another post, the minutes from the Board’s committee meetings are being written in a manner that makes it difficult to ferret out information. But what IS useful is when staff comes with a presentation so the entire thing gets uploaded and attached as documentation.

I was looking at the documentation for last week’s Student Services, Curriculum & Instruction meeting, agenda here.  

Under “Special Attention Items,” we see K-5 Mathematics. The adopted curriculum is Math in Focus. I’ll cut to the chase but flesh out details below  - Math in Focus is NOT being used in any real way in elementaries. 

Here are the basics on Math in Focus in SPS (except for the cost but we’ll get to that).

• Math in Focus was adopted in 2014 for a 7-year period.

• The adoption expires in 2020-21 school year.

• In 2014, instructional materials were used nearly exclusively in print CONTINUE READING: Seattle Schools Community Forum: Seattle Schools - The State of K-5 Math

Marion Brady: Free Courses of Study to Think Differently | Diane Ravitch's blog

Marion Brady: Free Courses of Study to Think Differently | Diane Ravitch's blog

Marion Brady: Free Courses of Study to Think Differently

Marion Brady is a progressive educator who has never given up the fight to make education a lively and engaging experience.

He wrote the following to me:

Diane,The courses of study I give away were developed for Prentice-Hall over a period of seven years, working with dozens of middle school teachers nationwide. They taught every lesson, providing feedback and suggestions, and those that P-H thought were most insightful were brought together for a week at the end of every semester to go over final versions. 
P-H shelved it and gave me copyrights when the marketing department concluded that Phyllis Schafley’s claim that departures from tradition were a slippery slope to communism.
Since my brother and I put them online and free, downloads of files range from 600 to 1600 per week without a dime to advertise. 
Standardized testing is the major obstacle to acceptance.I’ve double-checked the links. They’re important.
Thanks much for all you do.

Marion

Salvaging public schooling

By Marion Brady

Public schooling should be the bedrock of democracy, but the institution’s failure to produce a citizenry more resistant to authoritarianism and fantastical conspiracy theories is surely evidence of a serious institutional problem. 

Unfortunately, it’s also a problem that most schools are CONTINUE READING: Marion Brady: Free Courses of Study to Think Differently | Diane Ravitch's blog

California Approves Nation's First Ethnic Statewide Studies Curriculum

California Approves Nation's First Ethnic Statewide Studies Curriculum

California Becomes First State in America to Approve Statewide High School Ethnic Studies Curriculum

While Republican-run states like Florida are proposing statewide educational curricula that will “expressly exclude” critical race theory—because a lot of white people in power are fragile AF and that fragility will undoubtedly extend to the classrooms in their states—California has adopted the nation’s first statewide ethnic studies high school curriculum, and one that doesn’t shy away from discussing things like police brutality and systemic racism in America.

The Associated Press reports that on Thursday, members of the California State Board of Education unanimously approved the curriculum with hopes that it would clear a path for states across the country to follow. But the effort to give high school students access to an education that doesn’t center whiteness above all didn’t come without plenty of hurdles.

From AP:

Crafting the curriculum took three years, drawing more than 100,000 public comments as different groups objected to being left out or misrepresented. Public comment that preceded the board’s vote drew about 150 callers, many of whom asked the board to reject the curriculum and echoed the heated debate that took place throughout its drafting. The loudest criticism came from Jewish and pro-Arab groups who accused each other of trying to silence each other’s histories.

Some callers who identified themselves as Jewish and the descendants of Holocaust survivors said the plan “erased the unique stories of Jews in the Middle East.” Others criticized the curriculum as anti-Arab, saying it white-washed content about Arab Americans and erased earlier content about Palestinians.

The nearly 900-page Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum, which has been CONTINUE READING: California Approves Nation's First Ethnic Statewide Studies Curriculum

Should the Black Lives Matter Agenda Be Taught at School? - The Atlantic

Should the Black Lives Matter Agenda Be Taught at School? - The Atlantic

What Happens When a Slogan Becomes the Curriculum

Last month, a public-school district that serves mostly elementary and middle-school students in Evanston, Illinois, held its third annual Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action—using a curriculum, created in collaboration with Black Lives Matter activists and the local teachers’ union, that introduces children as young as 4 and 5 to some of America’s most complex and controversial subjects. For example, parents of kindergartners in District 65 were asked to spend time at home discussing a book on race that teachers had read aloud to their children.

Not My Idea: A Book About Whiteness, by Anastasia Higginbotham, begins with a white mother turning off a television set to prevent her little daughter from seeing footage of a white policeman shooting a Black man. “You don’t need to worry about this,” the mother says. “You’re safe. Understand? Our family is kind to everyone. We don’t see color.” The book corrects the mother: “Deep down, we all know color matters,” it states. “Skin color makes a difference in how the world sees you and in how you see the world … It makes a difference in how much trouble seems to find you or let you be.” The book teaches that the truth about “your own people, your own family” can be painful. Next to an illustration of the mother locking her car door and grasping her wallet while driving in a neighborhood where Black children are standing on the street, the narrator notes, “Even people you love might behave in ways that show they think they are the good ones.” Later, the little girl castigates her mother for trying to hide the police shooting and other racism. “Why didn’t anyone teach me real history?” she yells. “I do see color … You can’t hide what’s right in front of me. I know that what that police officer did was wrong!”

The book instructs a young white reader that she doesn’t need to “defend” racism, and it presents her with a stark decision. An illustration depicts a devil holding a “contract binding you to whiteness.” It reads:

You get:

✓stolen land

✓stolen riches

✓special favors†

WHITENESS gets:

✓to mess endlessly with the lives of your friends, neighbors, loved ones, and all fellow humans of COLOR

✓your soul

Sign below:

_____________

†Land, riches, and favors may be revoked at any time, for any reason.

In Evanston, parents are asked to quiz their kids on whiteness and give them approachable examples of “how whiteness shows up in school or in the community.” In its focus on “whiteness” and its invitation to readers to challenge racism by interrogating and rejecting it, the worldview of Not My Idea is similar to that of Robin DiAngelo’s White Fragility, now a staple of diversity-and-inclusion programs and anti-racism training. Not My Idea is also a jarringly CONTINUE READING: Should the Black Lives Matter Agenda Be Taught at School? - The Atlantic