CATCH UP WITH CURMUDGUCATION + ICYMI:: SAHD Back To Work Edition (8/25)

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: SAHD Back To Work Edition (8/25)

ICYMI:: SAHD Back To Work Edition (8/25)

Here we go. Time for me to watch my household partner get back to her gig. But while I'm adjusting to a new routine, there's still reading to do. Remember-- sharing makes the word go round.

Why Teachers Are Walking Out 

I'm not so sure about some of the gender discussion in this post on the Known cast, but the basic idea is on point and the discussion is interesting.

Vandalism at Ed Department

If you missed this crazy tale-- this week a Black person's office was vandalized-- in the US Department of Education.

Judge Nixes Charter School Tax Theft 

Every once in a while somebody in Florida gets it right. A judge has said no to a charter demand to get a cut of tax dollars raised explicitly for public schools. Coverage in the Palm Beach Post-- expect a sequel to this one.

Fighting Back Against The War On Childhood

Rae Pica writing one of those pieces that really shouldn't have to be written, but here we are.

11 Problems Facing Students As They Return To School 

Nancy Bailey takes a look at the special new modern obstacles set up for students.

Flawed Algorithms Grading Essays

This time it's Vice reporting the story that must, apparently, be reported over and over again-- computer programs are still not capable of grading essays. But a frightening number of states are using them anyway. This is a thorough piece of reporting (they even used BABEL), and thre's something new-- the algorithms are not only bad, but they're racially biased, too.

Former KIPP CEO Soliciting for Fake Organization? 

It takes the indispensable Mercedes Schneider to unravel this tangle of money and connections.

Money Matters

Matt Barnum at Chalkbeat reminds us, once again, that spending money on education makes a difference, citing four (count 'em, four) studies.

Guards Get Shoddy Training

The South Florida Sun-Sentinal reports that-- surprise!-- the armed guards in some Florida schools are not receiving great, mediocre, or even adequate training!

The Merit Pay Fairy Dies In Newark

Jersey Jazzman looks at the long, sad history of NJ's love of merit pay, and where it has all ended up. After you're read this one, move on to the sequel, Clapping Harder for the Merit Pay Fairy

Not Funding Schools or Paying Teachers? That’s a ‘You Problem’, Right?

Nancy Flanagan and the question of school funding.

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: SAHD Back To Work Edition (8/25)

CATCH UP WITH CURMUDGUCATION

AND DON'T FORGET PETER GREENE ON FORBES CLICK HERE 

Artificial Intelligence and Magical Thinking (HAL Knows How You Feel)

21by Peter Greene / 1d

From the moment you read the title, you know this article from Inside Higher Ed by Ray Schroeder is going to be a corker-- Affective Artificial Intelligence: Better Understanding and Responding to Students . Schroeder opens with "As a longtime professor of communication, I am fascinated with the cognitive characteristics of artificial intelligence as they relate to human communication," and that's

AUG 22

EnrichED, the National Charter Substitute (Sort Of) Service

100+by Peter Greene / 3d

You've had to miss a day of school, so you cross your fingers and put in for a sub. You prepare a whole lesson, run off materials, tag everything, put them in neat piles and arrange them on your desk. The day after your absence, you walk through your door and get a sinking feeling--the stacks of planned materials have been pushed to one side on your desk, but are otherwise untouched. "Oh, yeah," s

AUG 21

The Thirteen Presenters Who Will Ruin Your First Day Back

3Kby Peter Greene / 4d

It's been a great summer. You've had a chance to recharge and reflect. You've developed some new ideas, units, and materials, and most importantly, away from the dailiness of the job, you have gotten back in touch with all the reasons you love the work. You cannot wait to get back to it., take a couple of in service days to get fully up to speed, and then-- bring on the students! Unfortunately, yo

AUG 19

KY: Starting the New Year With Threats Against Teachers

37by Peter Greene / 5d

Sadly, it's not unusual for teachers to start their new school year by being threatened, but even the worst administrators understand that it's useful to at least pretend that they think of teachers are respectable grown-up professionals. But in some districts, bosses go straight to thinly veiled warnings. And then there's those special rare occasions when teachers start the school year by being t

Raising Your Public School Profile

70by Peter Greene / 5d

Modern corporate education reform has, in its own way, helped reveal many things that public education does badly. Teach for America, for instance, probably wouldn't have been quite so widely embraced if it weren't that some college teacher prep programs are inexcusably awful. And then there's the unleashing of free market forces. The free market does not foster superior quality; the free market f

AUG 18

ICYMI: Spousal Back To School Edition (8/18)

26by Peter Greene / 7d

This week my wife heads back to it, with a new grade assignment. I am excited for her and putting on my supportive pants. In the meantime, here's some reading from the week. Remember to share the good stuff-- that's how the word gets around! S.C. teacher files class action lawsuit demanding pay for after school work, classroom supplies A long overdue step in fighting back in South Carolina. Why is

AUG 16

Feed A Teacher For A Year

200+by Peter Greene / 9d

I get plenty of pitches--news releases from folks who want to help me come up with some content (and who frequently have never actually read what I write) and mostly I ignore them, but this one caught my attention because it involves free food for a teacher for a year. The company involved is Sun Basket , which touts itself as "the leading healthy eating service"-- another one of those outfits whe

AUG 15

The Problem With Comparisons In Education

24by Peter Greene / 10d

Which is the best movie: Ghostbusters , Singin' In The Rain , Casablanca , or Avengers: Endgame ? It depends, of course, on how we choose to compare them. Based on level of romance? On the happiest ending? Best dancing? Most money made? Best use of Sigourney Weaver? Criteria make all the difference. But it's not just the criteria; it's the problems with criteria that naturally emerge from the man

AUG 14

FL: Educational Hypocrisy On Display

21by Peter Greene / 11d

Oh, Florida. Maybe it was the principal who wasn't sure the Holocaust was a thing . Maybe it was the latest round of teaching mandates passed down, like the last minute mental health mandate. Or maybe he's just still cranky from his ongoing fight with Duval County Schools . But Florida's education czar Richard Corcoran has had enough . This guy. Florida school districts had better fall in line. Th

AUG 13

PA: Governor Puts Charters On Notice

200+by Peter Greene / 11d

It was not so long ago that Pennsylvania's Governor Tom Wolf made charter supporters sad by rejecting the claim that charters are public schools . Today, he took another step and put charters in PA on notice. At a news conference at a school in Allentown, Wolf said he would take executive action to change state regulations for charters, including tightening ethics standards. He also said he would

AUG 12

MI: Rural Charters, Warm Bodies, and the Effects of the Teacher "Shortage"

65by Peter Greene / 12d

St. Helen, Michigan , has its share of problems. Founded as a logging community, it's Up North in Michigan. It's at least near the interstate, but the population is under 3,000, with a median family income of $30,268. They do have an annual bluegill festival , and Charlton Heston spent part of his 

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

A School Board Member Proceeds With His Plan to Give Away School Facilities

A School Board Member Proceeds With His Plan to Give Away School Facilities

A School Board Member Proceeds With His Plan to Give Away School Facilities

Nick asked us explicitly for a list of things we want to get done, which is reflected in the resolve section.”– CCSA Staffer Cassy Horton

A small group of Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) stakeholders gathered last month in the District’s West Valley offices. The meeting was billed as a focus group to gather input on the rating system for schools within the district but had not been publicly advertised. Instead, invitations had gone out through Board Member Nick Melvoin’s mailing list. A mole on this list had forwarded the invitation to various public school activists which allowed them to see firsthand how the system had been constructed.

After viewing a beta version of the “School Performance Framework”, it became clear why the organizers had tried to carefully control access to the focus group. While this system had been sold as a way to provide parents with data so that they could make informed choices about where to send their children to school, the proposed website did not emphasize raw information. Instead, it editorialized data by weighing factors the district had decided were important and then turned the final result into a Yelp-like score. Even worse, this score penalized schools whose results cannot be measured by test scores or data points. Schools will, therefore, be dissuaded from devoting resources to quality special education or other types of programs that will not boost the school’s rating and, therefore, attract students.

Just as these series of focus groups were wrapping up, Michael Kohlhaas dot org released confidential emails between the California CONTINUE READING: A School Board Member Proceeds With His Plan to Give Away School Facilities

My Gift to You, an Hour of Sheer Pleasure | Diane Ravitch's blog

My Gift to You, an Hour of Sheer Pleasure | Diane Ravitch's blog

My Gift to You, an Hour of Sheer Pleasure

I recently watched the PBS special about the Jewish legacy on Broadway, and I enjoyed every minute.

It is online, and I share it now with you. 

I hope it is still online.

I have always loved Broadway musicals, and many are reprised in this special.

But in addition to the entertainment and the rich cultural history, we see a very contemporary story of immigrants coming to America and becoming

quintessentially American. We see Irving Berlin arriving as a five-year-old from Russia, having survived a pogrom, then becoming the composer of “God Bless America,” “Easter Parade,” and “White Christmas,” among the thousands of songs he wrote. We see stories in which composers used their music to teach lessons about racism, intolerance, and bigotry, like “South Pacific,” and the song “You Got to Be Taught to Hate.” Often they told the stories through the experiences of other groups, like “Porgy and Bess” and “West Side Story.”

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

I am sending a gift to PBS for remaining a beacon of light in these dark times.

My Gift to You, an Hour of Sheer Pleasure | Diane Ravitch's blog

It's the Most Dangerous Time of the Year - Teacher Habits

It's the Most Dangerous Time of the Year - Teacher Habits

It’s the Most Dangerous Time of the Year

Ben Franklin once said that “guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days.” I am certain that my wife and I once smelled like three-day-old fish to some of our best friends. We had driven many hours to visit them and had decided to stay for four days. They insisted we sleep at their house instead of a hotel. We accepted. Since we’d always had a good time together, we anticipated a tremendously fun visit. It was, for two days. But by the third morning, we had begun to prove Franklin right. Their kids seemed tired of our presence and resentful of the disruption to their routines. We felt like mooches. Conversations were brief and strained. A few of us were attempting to get work done on laptops instead of enjoying each other’s company. What had happened?

According to Harvard psychologist Dan Gilbert, our imaginations had fooled us. In his book, Stumbling on Happiness, Gilbert explains how our brains fill in details. He uses the example of a party:

“Our spouse asks us to attend a party next Friday night, [and] our brains instantly manufacture an image of a cocktail party in the penthouse of a downtown hotel with waiters in black tie carrying silver trays of hors d’oeuvres past a slightly bored harpist, and we predict our reaction to the imagined event with a yawn that sets new records for duration and jaw extension. CONTINUE READING: It's the Most Dangerous Time of the Year - Teacher Habits

APS cheating scandal documentary to premiere at BronzeLens Film Fest

APS cheating scandal documentary to premiere at BronzeLens Film Fest

APS cheating scandal documentary to make Atlanta debut at BronzeLens film fest

A documentary about the Atlanta Public Schools test cheating scandal is heading to the BronzeLens Film Festival this weekend. 


RELATED: A timeline of how the Atlanta school cheating scandal unfolded



“One Child Left Behind: The Untold Atlanta Cheating Scandal” will make its Atlanta debut at the Southwest Arts Center on Sunday, Aug. 25 at 3:30 p.m. 


Following the screening, there will be a panel discussion, featuring director Jodi Gomes, Frank Ski, former Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, and Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers.


The event is a part of the 10th annual BronzeLens Film Festival, a five-day affair “dedicated to bringing national and worldwide attention to Atlanta as a center for film and film production for people of color,” according to its website. CONTINUE READING: APS cheating scandal documentary to premiere at BronzeLens Film Fest

Big Education Ape: Indictments may come today in APS cheating scandal. Grand jury looking at suppressed report on “culture of wrongdoing” at one school | Get Schooled - https://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2013/03/indictments-may-come-today-in-aps.html

Big Education Ape: Alfie Kohn on APS cheating scandal: ‘What if we gave a test and nobody came?’ | Get Schooled - https://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2013/04/alfie-kohn-on-aps-cheating-scandal-what.html

Big Education Ape: UPDATE: list of people indicted today + Former Atlanta school chief Beverly Hall and 34 others indicted in APS cheating case | Get Schooled - https://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2013/03/former-atlanta-school-chief-beverly.html

Big Education Ape: APS cheating scandal: The prosecution of educators was a... | Get Schooled | www.ajc.com - https://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2013/11/aps-cheating-scandal-prosecution-of.html

Big Education Ape: UPDATE: list of people indicted today + Former Atlanta school chief Beverly Hall and 34 others indicted in APS cheating case | Get Schooled - https://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2013/03/former-atlanta-school-chief-beverly.html

Big Education Ape: APS cheating scandal: Did they do it for the money? Or the... | Get Schooled | www.ajc.com - https://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2013/05/aps-cheating-scandal-did-they-do-it-for.html

NYC Educator: Charter School Hires Hopelessly Out of Touch Staff

NYC Educator: Charter School Hires Hopelessly Out of Touch Staff

Charter School Hires Hopelessly Out of Touch Staff

I'm fascinated by this story in Chalkbeat. A former teacher, former school leader, and current leader of some after school program tells about his experience leading a charter that he taught in for five years. Evidently he was the only teacher of color there. Aside from all the standard charter school issues, all the other teachers were white, and none whatsoever were familiar with the community in which they worked.

You have to wonder exactly why a charter school had trouble attracting teachers of color, since this particular school only managed to find one. Actually charters have trouble attracting teachers period. Every single student teacher and observer I've ever met tells me charters are a last resort. They make more demands and pay less. In fact, the workload can preclude things like, oh, starting a family or having a life. I'd argue that doing these things can be helpful and important in a role model.

What on earth made any school leader hire virtually an entire staff that was utterly unfamiliar with the community it was ostensibly serving? It had to be either desperation or incompetence, neither of which inspires confidence in me, at least.

I've taught in many different schools, both in the Bronx and Queens. I've always walked the neighborhoods in my free time, if for no other reason, out of idle curiosity. I've always spoken with colleagues about the neighborhoods in which I've worked. On days when we had more free time than usual, we'd go out to walk or eat. I'm very surprised that teachers at whatever school this was lacked such basic curiosity.

Evidently they feared the community:

During the tour, many of these teachers realized that people in Camden, a city considered to be one of the most dangerous in the United States, are like those in rural and suburban areas. They saw people working. They saw people who loved themselves and loved their community. They saw life in a place they thought was dead.

Wow. How incredibly ignorant this staff appears. Afterward, though, they saw things they hadn't realized. I'd think they'd have gotten that sense from being with the students who CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: Charter School Hires Hopelessly Out of Touch Staff

Blaming Schools for Student Absences is Like Denouncing Doctors for Disease | gadflyonthewallblog

Blaming Schools for Student Absences is Like Denouncing Doctors for Disease | gadflyonthewallblog

Blaming Schools for Student Absences is Like Denouncing Doctors for Disease

If something is wrong with children, it must be the school’s fault.

Right?

If kids can’t read, write and do ‘rithmetic, the teachers must not have taught ’em right.

It couldn’t have anything to do with home life, generational poverty, economic inequality and systemic racism.

Except that it almost always does.

Inextricably.

The fact is children who don’t live in safe, loving homes have much greater difficulty concentrating and caring about academics. Kids with impoverished parents are much more likely to go to underfunded schools and sit in classrooms that are racially segregated.

None of that is under the control of teachers or schools, but a focus on high stakes standardized testing, school privatization and dangerously unregulated ed tech hides the problem.

It’s not that teachers don’t teach. Inequality, prejudice and privatization – these are the root causes and the reason we do nothing about them generation after CONTINUE READING: Blaming Schools for Student Absences is Like Denouncing Doctors for Disease | gadflyonthewallblog

Tomorrow I begin teaching my students

Tomorrow I begin teaching my students

Tomorrow I begin teaching my students

As I wrote in June in So here's my new teaching gig, I am now employed by DeMatha Catholic High School in Hyattsville MD.

I am, besides teaching 6 (of the 8) sections of Government required of all seniors, also one of the two coaches of the Freshman soccer team — we have 21 players, a bit more than we had planned, but something we can make work.;

Over the last five weeks I have gotten more and more involved in the life of the school.  My wife says she has not seen me this excited since I retired from Eleanor Roosevelt in 2012.

I still have several hours of preparatory work to do before tomorrow morning, and I did prep work all of yesterday, which is why I did not head north to my alma mater Haverford College for the annual Alumni soccer game (no, at 73 I no longer play) and reception.

I have not been as active here recently as people may have been used to, so I am taking some time this morning to explain what the recent weeks have been like, and why I am so excited —  and somewhat challenged — by what I expect will be my final teaching position.

IF you choose not to read further, no problem.  I hope what I offer will justify the time you spend following me beneath the squiggle — hopefully what I share will clearly connected with the mission of this site, at least as I have understood it over the more than 15 years since I first came here.

I signed my contract on June 10.  Going back over the recent weeks, since I accepted the position of coaching soccer shortly thereafter, my activity with the school began with my working at the camp run by the Dematha Soccer Academy starting the last full week in July.  That camp was for kids through rising high school freshmen, including CONTINUE READING: Tomorrow I begin teaching my students

With A Brooklyn Accent: For Me, Fighting Racism is Personal

With A Brooklyn Accent: For Me, Fighting Racism is Personal

For Me, Fighting Racism is Personal

When I talk about fighting racism, it isn't abstract

I've seen what racists can do, up close and personal

When I was a senior in college, i was kicked out of my family for falling in love with a Black woman, an amazing person, with whom I shared six years of my life. My parents, Jewish liberals, great teachers both, never found it in their hearts to reach out to her. The poison of white supremacy had hardened them and shattered their capacity for compassion when it came to this critical juncture in their lives

In the early 70's, I had the pleasure of spending a month each summer in rural Alabama with a preacher named Rev Claude Williams who had decided to renounce segregation and try to organize southern blacks and whites into unions for their common economic betterment. For doing this, he had been beaten, tarred and feathered, expelled from his Church, had fires set on his property and had his dogs shot.

I came away from these experiences convinced that racism could make ordinarily decent, caring people cruel and heartless. I not only decided to spend my life studying it, but to use every power I had my disposal to fight it, and try to minimize its influence

This has been my life. It will be my life until I take my last breath With A Brooklyn Accent: For Me, Fighting Racism is Personal