Nancy MacLean: How the Koch Network Fosters Disinformation | Diane Ravitch's blog

Nancy MacLean: How the Koch Network Fosters Disinformation | Diane Ravitch's blog

Nancy MacLean: How the Koch Network Fosters Disinformation

If you have not read Duke Professor Nancy MacLean’s Democracy in Chains, you should. I reviewed it for the New York Review of Books here. It describes in great detail how the Koch brothers created an academic foundation for their extremist libertarian views. In this paper, MacLean goes into new detail about the workings of the Koch network and its efforts to undermine democracy. The Koch network knows that it does not have popular support so it has developed ways to “work around” the will of the majority. Currently, its major project is to block any effort to confront climate change.

The paper is titled “Since We Are Greatly Outnumbered: Why and How the Koch Network Uses Disinformation to Thwart Democracy.” The essay appears in a publication called The Disinformation Age, published by Cambridge University Press.

Thanks to “Unkoch My Campus” for bringing this paper to a large audience.

Nancy MacLean: How the Koch Network Fosters Disinformation | Diane Ravitch's blog

As COVID-19 Continues, Classroom Learning Gaps Between Haves And Haves-Nots Are Getting Wider | HuffPost

As COVID-19 Continues, Classroom Learning Gaps Between Haves And Haves-Nots Are Getting Wider | HuffPost

As COVID-19 Continues, Classroom Learning Gaps Between Haves And Haves-Nots Are Getting Wider

They attend the same schools and have the same teachers, but some kids have started to fall behind their wealthier classmates.

As soon as schools reopened in September, it was apparent that the gaps in her son’s classroom between the haves and the have-nots had grown, says parent Amina Scott. Scott suspects that some kids had access to enrichment programs and hands-on help during the many months that schools and summer camps were shut down, and some, like her third-grade son, had not.

Scott’s son, Yasin, attends a public school in the affluent suburb of Newton, just outside Boston. He is bused from their home in the Roxbury neighborhood to the suburbs through a voluntary desegregation program called METCO. Yasin has always been at grade level or even ahead of his classmates, especially excelling in reading, says Scott. But this year, while attending in-person classes two times a week on a hybrid schedule, the dynamic shifted.

After months away from school, some of his classmates seemed to have mysteriously advanced, easily reciting concepts he says they were never taught. In the early weeks of class, Yasin came home upset, questioning where his classmates could have learned such material. He used to indulge his mom’s questions about what he was learning and how his day was, but he soon stopped wanting to talk about school, telling Scott that he had finished his homework even when he had skipped questions.

“He feels behind and it’s affecting his confidence. I could tell he was avoiding talking about it,” said Scott, a 29-year-old single mother who works full time at a nonprofit in addition to holding down two consulting gigs. “To me it’s scary, it worries me but also I CONTINUE READING: As COVID-19 Continues, Classroom Learning Gaps Between Haves And Haves-Nots Are Getting Wider | HuffPost

Teacher Tom: The Complete Education

Teacher Tom: The Complete Education

The Complete Education

We must remember that intelligence is not enough. Intelligence plus character -- that is the goal of true education.  The complete education gives one not only power of concentration, but worthy objectives upon which to concentrate. The broad education will, therefore, transmit to one not only the accumulated knowledge of the race but also the accumulated experience of social living.

If we are not careful, our colleagues will produce a group of closed-minded, unscientific, illogical propagandists, consumed with immoral acts. Be careful, brethren! Be careful, teachers!  ~MLK

It's a small wonder, a miracle indeed, when they discover an aspect of "we," often at first stumbling across it like over a super cool toy left in the middle of the living room floor.

Even if it's as simple as saying, "We are going up here now." Even that gives me confidence about our future.

The ones with siblings just a little bit older tend to learn it first, the joy of connecting with another child, and find their classmates a little slow sometimes. These are the ones who CONTINUE READING: Teacher Tom: The Complete Education

Houston: Why HISD Should Have the Best Teachers in the Nation By Now | Diane Ravitch's blog

Houston: Why HISD Should Have the Best Teachers in the Nation By Now | Diane Ravitch's blog

Houston: Why HISD Should Have the Best Teachers in the Nation By Now

Audrey Amrein Beardsley writes here about Houston’s experience with value-added evaluation of its teachers.

The Houston Independent School District (HISD) contracted with William Sanders’ SAS to provide a model to calculate the “value-added” of its teachers from 2007-2017.

Teachers objected that the method of calculating their scores was opaque. They couldn’t learn how to improve their practice because Sanders’ methodology was proprietary and secret.

Teachers were fired based on their VAM scores.

The Houston Federation of Teachers sued to stop the use of the “black box” method.

In 2017, a judge agreed and enjoined the use of VAM.

Thus by now, after a decade of VAMMING teachers, Houston should have identified and removed all the “bad” teachers and employ only “effective” or “highly effective” CONTINUE READING: Houston: Why HISD Should Have the Best Teachers in the Nation By Now | Diane Ravitch's blog

How a soccer club won a $1.2 million grant to open a charter school from DeVos’s Education Department - The Washington Post

How a soccer club won a $1.2 million grant to open a charter school from DeVos’s Education Department - The Washington Post

How a soccer club won a $1.2 million grant from DeVos’s Education Department to open a charter school

Here’s a new, rather remarkable story about charter school grants recently awarded by the Education Department — including one for more than $1 million that went to a soccer club in Pennsylvania that had no experience running a school.

This is one of a number of pieces I have run in recent years about the Federal Charter School Program, which has invested close to $4 billion in these schools since it began giving grants in 1995.

Charter schools, a key feature of the “school choice” movement, are financed by the public but privately operated. About 6 percent of U.S. schoolchildren attend charter schools, with California having the most charter schools and the most charter students.

Charters had bipartisan support for years, but a growing number of Democrats have pulled back from the movement, citing the fiscal impact on school districts and repeated scandals in the sector.

Charter supporters say the 30-year-old movement offers important alternatives to traditional public schools, which educate the vast majority of U.S. students, and that the movement is still learning. Opponents say there is little public accountability over many charters and that they drain resources from traditional districts.

Research shows student outcomes are, overall, largely the same in charter and traditional public schools, although there are failures and exemplars in both.

This piece, like a number of earlier ones on charters, was written by Carol Burris, a former New York high school principal who serves as executive director of the Network for Public Education, a nonprofit group that advocates for public education.

Burris, who opposes charter schools, was named the 2010 Educator of the Year by the School Administrators Association of New York State, and in 2013, the National Association of Secondary CONTINUE READING: How a soccer club won a $1.2 million grant to open a charter school from DeVos’s Education Department - The Washington Post

CURMUDGUCATION: Election Polling and the Big Standardized Test

CURMUDGUCATION: Election Polling and the Big Standardized Test

Election Polling and the Big Standardized Test

From the Washington Post to the Wall Street Journal to the Atlantic and beyond, writers weeks after the election castigating the pollsters for yet another less-than-stellar year. But education writer Larry Ferlazzo moved on to another question—”Could Polling Errors in the 2020 Election Teach Us Something About The Use Of ‘Data’ In Education.”

He’s onto something there. Thinking about the Big Standardized Test from a polling perspective helps illuminate why the tests themselves, and the data-driven philosophy in education, have worked out so poorly.

After all, those big “measure everyone” standardized math and reading tests that states are mandated to give every year are similar to opinion polls—they are trying to measure and quantify what is going on in peoples’ heads. And to work, there are several things the data-gatherers have to get right.

Ask the right questions.

For an election poll, this seems simple enough. “Which candidate are you going to vote for?” But trying to fold in other information like political leanings, positions on other issues, the strength of the voter’s opinions—that gets harder.

For math and reading tests, this part is trickier. Imagine, for instance, you want to know if a student can find the main idea of any piece of writing. Could you measure that by asking just a couple of multiple choice questions? How many questions do you think it takes to figure out whether or not CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Election Polling and the Big Standardized Test

Politics in the Zoom Room – Have You Heard

Politics in the Zoom Room – Have You Heard

Politics in the Zoom Room

The pandemic pivot to online learning has amped up accusations that teachers are indoctrinating students, as parents “see” what their kids are being taught. We talk to teacher Christina Torres about why politics belongs in the classroom now more than ever. And historian Jon Zimmerman walks us through the long tradition of parents pushing back against classroom content – for good and ill. Complete transcript is here. Have You Heard is entirely listener supported. Help keep the podcast going by supporting us on Patreon or PayPal. 

Have You Heard · #102: Politics in the Zoom Room

Politics in the Zoom Room – Have You Heard

Big Education Ape: 100th Episode: A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door – Have You Heard - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2020/10/100th-episode-wolf-at-schoolhouse-door.html

LESS TEAM FIDELITY AND MORE TEAM WORK WOULD BE WELCOME – Dad Gone Wild

LESS TEAM FIDELITY AND MORE TEAM WORK WOULD BE WELCOME – Dad Gone Wild

LESS TEAM FIDELITY AND MORE TEAM WORK WOULD BE WELCOME

“I’m stuck on this planet with you. And honestly, I’m glad. I’ve been exposed to a lot of awful people in the last few months, but I’ve met so many more that are amazing, thoughtful, generous, and kind. I honestly believe that is the human condition. And if the Carls are testing us, this final test is the hardest to accomplish. If you pay attention, there is only one story that makes sense, and that is one in which humanity works together more and more since we took over this planet. Yeah, we fuck it up all the time, yeah, there have been some massive steps backward, but look at us! We are one species now more than we have ever been. People fight against that, and they probably always will, but could there be any time in history when what Carl is asking would be more possible?”
― Hank Green, An Absolutely Remarkable Thing

I was talking to a friend earlier this week about the current pandemic. “The CDC is predicting that by the end of June, everybody who wants a vaccination will be able to get one’, he said, “but I’m afraid what that means for Tennessee is that we’ll become one of the first states to pass legislation allowing people to opt-out of vaccine’s.”

As outlandish as that statement may seem, I can’t disagree. It would be consistent with how we approach every issue and development these days. Research, analysis, followed by the formation of opinion, have been replaced by the creation and selection of teams. Teams that repeatedly consists of the same players.

Think about every issue we’ve faced recently. Be it the wearing of masks, the severity of the virus, the opening of school buildings, it’s all almost instantly devolved into 2 camps. Once the teams are formed, the arguments shift to discrediting the opposition, instead of finding solutions for the issues at hand.

Look at the opening of the school buildings. Once again, 2 camps. The prevailing arguments assert that all of those who are pushing for school buildings to be open are just looking for baby sitters for their children and a return to their privileged lives. On the other hand, those advocating for schools CONTINUE READING: LESS TEAM FIDELITY AND MORE TEAM WORK WOULD BE WELCOME – Dad Gone Wild

Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007

Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007

A VERY BUSY DAY

Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

The latest news and resources in education since 2007

Big Education Ape: THIS WEEK IN EDUCATION Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... The latest news and resources in education since 2007 -

http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2020/11/this-week-in-education-larry-ferlazzos_28.html

Here’s A Message From Santa To You, & Your ELL Students Can Easily Create Their Own!

by Larry Ferlazzo / 2h

OpenClipart-Vectors / Pixabay SynthesiaSanta invites you to write a script for what you want Santa to say and then uses artificial intelligence to create a video showing Santa actually saying it! English Language Learner students would have a ball with it! I’m adding it to The Best Places To Learn About Christmas, Hanukkah, & Kwanzaa . Here’s a message from Santa to readers of this blog: https://

This Week’s “Round-Up” Of Useful Posts & Articles On Ed Policy Issues

by Larry Ferlazzo / 2h

Here are some recent useful posts and articles on educational policy issues (You might also be interested in THE BEST ARTICLES, VIDEOS & POSTS ON EDUCATION POLICY IN 2019 – PART TWO ): How DeVos May Have Started a Counterrevolution in Education appeared in The NY Times. States Push to Ditch or Downplay Standardized Tests During Virus Surge is from Ed Week. Could Biden Find a Middle Path on Studen

Thursday’s Must-Read Articles On School Reopenings

by Larry Ferlazzo / 11h

stevepb / Pixabay Here are new additions to THE BEST POSTS PREDICTING WHAT SCHOOLS WILL LOOK LIKE IN THE FALL : Europe’s schools still open, still relatively safe, through covid-19 second wave is from The Washington Post. California is failing to provide free and equal education to all during pandemic, suit alleges is from The L.A. Times. This entire second-grade D.C. class fell behind in reading

Ed Tech Digest

by Larry Ferlazzo / 11h

Nine years ago, in another somewhat futile attempt to reduce the backlog of resources I want to share, I began this occasional “” post where I share three or four links I think are particularly useful and related to…ed tech, including some Web 2.0 apps. You might also be interested in THE BEST ED TECH RESOURCES OF 2020 – PART TWO , as well as checking out all my edtech resources . Here are this w

This Free History Resource Is GREAT For ELL Newcomers!

by Larry Ferlazzo / 11h

Yesterday, I published Here’s An Example Of What I Want To See In A U.S. History Book For Newcomers (& Here’s What Is Out There Now) , where I shared responses to my tweet seeking a U.S. History text accessible to newcomers. Today, I received another tweet: Core Knowledge student readers are free PDFs. They are great! — Rachel (@msschnguyen) December 2, 2020 DUH! I had completely forgotten about

Latest Federal Stimulus Proposal Has Billions For Education

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1d

jaydeep_ / Pixabay Senate Majority Leader McConnell began circulating a draft plan yesterday for a new stimulus package and, depending on who you listen to, it either has $82 billion or $105 billion for education. Both of those amounts are less than the $150 billion the White House offered in the last negotiations they did with Speaker Pelosi but, nevertheless, it’s still not chump change. At thi

A Look Back: Learning From Our Students

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1d

I thought that new – and veteran – readers might find it interesting if I began sharing my best posts from over the years. You can see the entire collection here . Some people make fun of teachers who say they learn a lot from their students (see The Onion’s Teacher Who Learns More From Her Students 

Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007