Catch up with CURMUDGUCATION: Meanwhile In Switzerland... + Confessions of a Trumpistan Teacher

CURMUDGUCATION:

Catch up with CURMUDGUCATION

Meanwhile In Switzerland...

2by Peter Greene / 51min

While we've been staring into the dark, distorted mirror that is our new American administration, the uber-rich and super-powerful have been gathering for the annual summit in Davos, Switzzerland. And they think the see a world a-comin' that looks very different from the one we're in. The event's official name is the World Economic Forum, and it's a reliable source for pieces about how the uber-ri

YESTERDAY

Confessions of a Trumpistan Teacher

100+by Peter Greene / 16h

Look, give me just a few minutes. I need to tell someone. Well, I screwed up. Understand, I was on edge. Maria didn't get our cups of espresso out on the veranda until a full minute after she had served the toast, and the toast was already cold. Do you know how hard it is to spread the butter when the toast isn't quite warm enough to melt it? Do you? I mean, seriously, do you, because I don't. I h

How Not To Improve Schools

23by Peter Greene / 20h

The report is in from the US Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences-- " School Improvement Grants: Implementation and Effectiveness. " It is our last lesson in school reform from the Obama-Duncan-King education department, and although that version of the department is being bulldozed under even as I type, there are still important lessons to be learned here. The full report is

What Do You Want?

14by Peter Greene / 23h

In teacher school, we're taught that effective classroom management involves focusing on what you want the students to do, not what you don't want them to do. In other words, "stop twiddling your thumbs" is less effective than "please read the story." I always think of Larry Shreckengost, my high school driver's ed teacher who told us to look at where we wanted to go, not at what we wanted to avoi

JAN 19

School Accountability Diet

23by Peter Greene / 2d

One of the best things the feds ever created was the nutritional information panel for food. When I go shopping, I can quickly and easily access information about the food I buy. There's how much fat in these power bars??!! Look-- twinkies have far fewer calories than I imagined! The panels are a model of transparency, because the information is there for me to do with as I will. Years ago I didn'

Trevor Noah Covers DeVos

12by Peter Greene / 2d

I'm not always a Trevor Noah fan, and he repeats the egregious characterization of Betsy DeVos as a "businesswoman"-- really? What business, exactly, has she ever run? She's an heiress and the wife of an heir. But otherwise, this is a pretty good mainstream take on DeVos's terrible hearing performance. MTV's set-up is problematic for embedding, but follow this link for the clip. And now we've got

JAN 18

The $1 Salary

55by Peter Greene / 2d

So apparently billionaire heiress and presumptive Head of the Department of Things She Knows Nothing About, Betsy DeVos intends to take a salary of a mere $1 when she ascends her education throne. I think that's a lousy idea. I know it's meant to make her seem magnanimous and willing to take on the office just out of the sweet public servicey goodness of her heart. I suppose there may also be some

DeVos Song and Dance

200+by Peter Greene / 3d

I am grateful that work kept me from experiencing the DeVos hearing in one long take, like a thousand fingernails being dragged down a twenty-mile chalkboard. So just as I experienced a disjointed hearing, I will share my disjointed thoughts. The Reviews Are In Wait! I'm now famous because why..? And who wants to shoot me...? One of the reasons I'm not doing an in-depth review of the hearing is th

JAN 17

Meanwhile...

52by Peter Greene / 3d

It has been one of those days. Not bad, but about sixteen hours long, and so I have followed the DeVos hearing via occasional peeks at Twitter, and I'll catch up over the hours ahead in short burst so that my blood pressure does not shoot the nails off the ends of my fingers. But I will confess that as strongly as I believe we should tell our senators repeatedly and loudly about Betsy's severe, ex

JAN 16

MLK & Another Christmas

31by Peter Greene / 4d

Every year around December 25, a whole bunch of people who aren't actually Christians get all misty about a watered-down version of the original faith, make some generic noise about peace and good will while ignoring all the parts of the message that might be, well, more uncomfortable ("But wouldn't the moneylenders get upset if we threw them out of the temple? That just seems so rude and uncomfor

MOOCs and the Failure of Innovators

23by Peter Greene / 4d

Today at IEEE Spectrum, Robert Ubell has a rough and telling explanation of " How the Pioneers of the MOOC Got It Wrong ." It includes some important lessons for many of the "innovators" in the education world today. Massive Open Online Courses took off five years ago, when Sebastian Thrun and Peter Norvig decided to stream the computer lectures from Stanford out across the internet to the world.

JAN 15

First 100 Reformy Days

7by Peter Greene / 5d

Did Jeanne Allen ever oppose Trump? Long ago she may have expressed some misgivings, but she has since been swept up in the Great Migration of from Anti-Trump Land to downtown We Want To Be The Winner's Friend. So now Allen and her group, the Center for Education Reform, a reformy group that is friends with all the best charter school boosters (and even has a seat on the gates Gravy Train )-- now

ICYMI: Last Sunday Before Trumpistan Edition (1/15)

11by Peter Greene / 6d

This week I'll start you off with a short video from the folks at Brave New Films about the DeVos nomination. Something to share with your friends who would rather watch than read. Sears in Death Spiral I wrote about this article earlier in the week, but if you missed that, you should still read this. Nothing to do with education, but everything to do with how terrible mis-management makes a hash

AZ: Fake-Dumping the Core

12by Peter Greene / 6d

When Diane Douglas ran for the post of Chief Education Honcho of Arizona, she ran and won on a basic platform -- kill the Common Core. As it turns out, that was kind of a lie. Douglas was a bit of a dark horse candidate; her previous 

CURMUDGUCATION:

Democrats reject her, but they helped pave the road to education nominee DeVos - The Washington Post

Democrats reject her, but they helped pave the road to education nominee DeVos - The Washington Post:

Democrats reject her, but they helped pave the road to education nominee DeVos

It wasn’t all that long ago that it would have seemed impossible for anybody who labeled the U.S. public education system a “dead end” to be nominated as U.S. Secretary of Education, much less get support to be confirmed. Not anymore.

Betsy DeVos, a Republican billionaire from Michigan who public school advocates see as hostile to America’s public education system, is likely to be confirmed despite a rocky Senate committee hearing, where, under caustic Democratic questioning, she seemed not to know basic education issues.

[Betsy DeVos apparently ‘confused’ about federal law protecting students with disabilities]

If DeVos does become education secretary, Democrats will of course blame the Republicans. DeVos is, after all, a Republican who has donated millions of dollars to Republicans, was selected to be education secretary by a Republican, and would win confirmation thanks to the Republican majority in the Senate.

[Six astonishing things Betsy DeVos said — and refused to say — at her confirmation hearing]

But the record shows that Democrats can’t just blame Republicans for her ascension. It was actually Democrats who helped pave the road for DeVos to take the helm of the Education Department.

Democrats have in recent years sounded — and acted — a lot like Republicans in advancing corporate education reform, which seeks to operate public schools as if they were businesses, not civic institutions. (This dynamic isn’t limited to education, but this post is.) By embracing many of the tenets of corporate reform — including the notion of “school choice” and the targeting of teachers and their unions as being blind to the needs of children — they helped Democrats reject her, but they helped pave the road to education nominee DeVos - The Washington Post:

DeVos Destruction of Michigan Public Schools Continues

Michigan names 38 schools that could close over academics:

Michigan names 38 schools that could close over academics

The state School Reform Office today released a highly anticipated list of 38 schools targeted for potential closure.

The list — which includes 16 schools in the Detroit Public Schools Community District — was released months after the office warned that schools showing no academic improvement and persistent poor performance from 2014 to 2016 could be shut down by the state.

Closing the schools would mark the most aggressive action taken by the state and would impact more than 18,000 students. The state has rarely closed schools.

In addition to the 38 that face closure by the end of the current school year, the reform office released a list of 35 schools that are at risk next year if they don't show improvement. Twenty-six are in Detroit.

"We want every kid in Michigan to have access to a high-quality school," said Natasha Baker, the state school reform officer.

The release came on the same day the Michigan Department of Education released school score cards, as well as a top-to-bottom ranking of nearly every school in the state. For 2016, 186 schools were identified as priority schools, so-called because they rank in the bottom 5% academically.

The good news? Seventy-nine schools that previously were identified as priority schools improved enough to be released from state intervention, the largest number of schools to be released since the state law was enacted, Baker said.

A school on the potential-closure list will get a reprieve only if closing the school would leave students without a  quality option nearby. The state will make a final determination on that by late February or early March.

But those schools would still face some other kind of intervention, such as a state-appointed takeover by a CEO or a replacement of their principal and half of the school staff.

The list of 38 includes:

• Eight schools that are part of the Education Achievement Authority, a state reform district created in 2012 to turn around poorly performing schools. The EAA has been mired in controversy from the start — partly because the system was unable to produce marked improvement in state test scores — and the schools in it are Michigan names 38 schools that could close over academics:

Read more:

Detroit parents angry, heartbroken about possible school closures

Detroit's Durfee school to shut as district, state debate closure list

Lawmaker: Overhaul Michigan's failing schools law

In 2018, 35 more Michigan schools could face closure

Betsy DeVos Won’t Shed Stake in Biofeedback Company, Filings Show - The New York Times

Betsy DeVos Won’t Shed Stake in Biofeedback Company, Filings Show - The New York Times:

Betsy DeVos Won’t Shed Stake in Biofeedback Company, Filings Show

Betsy DeVos, the billionaire school choice advocate selected by President Donald J. Trump to serve as education secretary, is a strong supporter of using biofeedback technology to help children and teenagers enhance their performance in school.

Ms. DeVos and her husband, Richard DeVos Jr., are major financial backers of Neurocore, a Michigan company that operates drug-free “brain performance centers” that claim to have worked with 10,000 children and adults to overcome problems with attention deficit disorder, autism, sleeplessness and stress.

In an agreement with the Office of Government Ethics made public Friday, Ms. DeVos said that she had stepped down from the Neurocore board but that she would retain her financial interest in the company. She valued that stake at $5 million to $25 million in her financial disclosure statement.

On Friday evening, Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, the Republican chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said he would delay the initial vote on Ms. DeVos’s nomination by a week, until Jan. 31, as Democrats argued that the process had been rushed through, without enough time to answer remaining questions about her financial disclosures.

Ms. DeVos and her husband promote Neurocore heavily on the website for Windquest Group, a family office the couple use to manage some of their many investments. The website, for instance, includes a link to a Washington Post article about Kirk Cousins, a Washington Redskins quarterback who describes how he “retrained” his brain to better perform on the field by going to a Neurocore center.

But the claims that Neurocore’s methods can help children improve their performance in school could present a conflict for Ms. DeVos if she is confirmed as education secretary — especially given that the company is moving to expand its national reach.

Neurocore, founded about a decade ago, operates seven of the brain performance centers in Michigan and recently opened two in Florida. It has said it has plans to open as many as seven other centers across the country this year. Ms. DeVos’s financial disclosure shows that she and her husband have an indirect interest in the company through a family partnership.

Richard W. Painter, a White House ethics adviser under President George W. Bush, said he was familiar with Neurocore and applauded the business Betsy DeVos Won’t Shed Stake in Biofeedback Company, Filings Show - The New York Times:

PUSSYHAT PROJECT

PUSSYHAT PROJECT:

PUSSYHAT PROJECT

The Women's March on Washington D.C. is happening January 21, 2017! The Pussyhat Project launched Thanksgiving weekend! As of now, we have 4 days to knit, crochet, and sew 1.17 million pink pussyhats. Join the movement!

Please check out The PDF to get the whole picture of what we're about.  We'll be updating this website with more content SOON.

Artwork by Aurora Lady.

PUSSYHAT PROJECT:

“This American carnage”: Trumplandia and the Ultimate Rise of “Careless People” | radical eyes for equity

“This American carnage”: Trumplandia and the Ultimate Rise of “Careless People” | radical eyes for equity:

“This American carnage”: Trumplandia and the Ultimate Rise of “Careless People”

Do an Internet search for “carnage” now and the first matches are from Trump’s inauguration speech, in which he invoked “[t]his American carnage” to launch into his standard use of false claims to speak to his misinformed and misguided base.

Setting aside whatever anyone may assume is Trump’s intent—if “intent” even is applicable anymore—this use of “carnage” sends a message I am certain is lost on Trump and his “America first”/”Make America Great Again” crowd.

A century ago, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby dramatized a scathing message that the American Dream was a wonderful ideal that Americans mostly allowed to slip through their fingers, as novelist John Gardner examined:

That idea—humankind’s inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness—coupled with a system for protecting human rights—was and is the quintessential American Dream. The rest is greed and pompous foolishness—at worst, a cruel and sentimental myth, at best, cheap streamers in the rain. (p. 96)

Gatsby is new money in the novel, and portrayed by the mesmerized narrator Nick as the embodiment of the American Dream, as “cheap streamers in the rain”; Gatsby’s money is ill-got and he is a very delusional man.

Having taught the novel for nearly two decades, I think far too often studying the novel (what we do in formal schooling, as opposed to reading the work) becomes lost in idealizing the novel’s technical achievements against the rules of New Criticism (much as Nick idealizes Gatsby)—and as a result, we are apt not to pay adequate attention to the carnage.

The Great Gatsby is a novel about carnage as much as a work deconstructing “This American carnage”: Trumplandia and the Ultimate Rise of “Careless People” | radical eyes for equity:

Sacramento City Unified schools chief Jose Banda will leave office at the end of the school year | The Sacramento Bee

Sacramento City Unified schools chief Jose Banda will leave office at the end of the school year | The Sacramento Bee:

Sacramento city schools chief to depart this summer after three years on the job

Sacramento City Unified School District Superintendent José Banda said Friday he is open to other education jobs, including another superintendency, after he leaves his post this summer.

Banda, 60, plans to leave at the end of June when his $290,000-a-year contract expires. He arrived 30 months ago after having served as superintendent of Seattle Public Schools and as an administrator elsewhere in California.

“I look at where I’m at in my career, and I think it’s just the right time,” Banda said Friday.

Jay Hansen, president of the Sacramento City Unified School District board, said the search for Banda’s replacement began immediately. A superintendent evaluation committee composed of three trustees – committee head Ellen Cochrane, Mai Vang and Christina Pritchett – held its first meeting Friday to discuss attributes desired in the next district chief.

“We’re very focused on making our district a destination district,” Hansen said. “What can we do to expand the academic programs to market effectively to the community and to make sure the families here know the breadth of offerings? What other programs do we need?”

Banda said he has no immediate plans but expects at some point to continue to work on behalf of K-12 education.

“I may still do a superintendency” or move into an area of leadership development, he said.

Banda arrived in mid-2014 when relations between the district and teachers union were inflamed. His take-charge predecessor, Jonathan Raymond, tried to override teacher-tenure rules at “Priority Schools.” Raymond led the district during deep recessionary budget cuts that included seven school closures and layoffs.

Banda, by contrast, came with a low-key reputation and appeared to have generated little buzz during his stints leading the Seattle and Anaheim districts. He said at the time, “I don’t go out and make headlines. I build relationships.”

In his resignation letter, he cited successes that were aided by the improving economy, including “moving the district toward fiscal solvency,” reducing class sizes, establishing a five-year strategic plan and emphasizing programs aimed at closing the achievement gap, and expanding social and emotional learning.

He gained a reputation as an even-keeled, engaging leader. But trustees and other city leaders came to view him as more caretaker than mover and shaker.

His initial good relations with the teachers association hit rough shoals months after his arrival when the district unilaterally forced a change in the teachers’ health insurance provider. That decision occurred before Banda was brought on board, but he presided over the outcome. The two sides settled in early 2015 and the district began the complicated task of restoring insurance coverage for a large segment of Sacramento City Teachers Association members.

Hansen expressed appreciation Friday for the timing of Banda’s announcement, which he said should allow a smooth transition to a new schools chief.

“Nothing” precipitated Banda’s resignation announcement, Hansen said. “The superintendent’s contract was up for renewal later this year. But we had several months toSacramento City Unified schools chief Jose Banda will leave office at the end of the school year | The Sacramento Bee:

Bill Maher floored by ‘nincompoop’ Betsy DeVos: ‘She had a month to bone up and she couldn’t even do that’

Bill Maher floored by ‘nincompoop’ Betsy DeVos: ‘She had a month to bone up and she couldn’t even do that’:

Bill Maher floored by ‘nincompoop’ Betsy DeVos: ‘She had a month to bone up and she couldn’t even do that’

Bill Maher admitted that he didn’t know the Department of Education was a recent department in the president’s cabinet and he isn’t sure if it needs to be there.

“It’s only been around since 1980, so I’m not 100 percent sure we need a Department of Education,” Maher said. “I know we need good education. But how did we get along with it all the way up until 1980 because I feel like education has only gotten worse since.”

Maher confessed he would have more respect for Donald Trump’s education nominee Betsy DeVos if she said in her hearing that she wanted to abolish the Department of Education.

She’s “obviously just a billionaire nincompoop, who had a month!” Maher exclaimed. “She obviously didn’t even know anything about the Department of Education. She had a month to bone up on it before the hearings and she couldn’t even do that.”

Watch the full discussion below:

 Bill Maher floored by ‘nincompoop’ Betsy DeVos: ‘She had a month to bone up and she couldn’t even do that’: