Yesterday’s Gems, Today’s InsightsA Roundup of the Web’s Finest Blog Posts!
8-1-25
8-1-25
Accell Schools--For-Profit and Online--Hires Bill Bennett as Provost of Its New Classical Academies https://dianeravitch.net/2025/07/31/accell-schools-for-profit-and-online-hires-bill-bennett-as-provost-of-its-new-classical-academies/ via @dianeravitch
- Accell Schools, a for-profit online charter network, hires Bill Bennett as Founding Provost of its new online Classical Academies and two brick-and-mortar schools in Ohio and West Virginia.
- Ron Packard, founder of Accell Schools, has a background in finance and management consulting, previously leading K12 Inc., a major virtual charter school company with a controversial reputation.
- Bill Bennett, former U.S. Secretary of Education under Reagan, shifted from skepticism of computers in education to supporting virtual schooling when joining K12. He has a history of moral advocacy but faced criticism for gambling habits and controversial remarks.
- Accell Schools is owned by Pansophic Learning, which has ties to private equity firms, raising concerns about profiteering in taxpayer-funded education enterprises.
Paul L. Thomas: There Is No Reading "Crisis! https://dianeravitch.net/2025/07/31/paul-l-thomas-there-is-no-reading-crisis/ via @dianeravitch
### Key Points
- NAEP "proficient" is often misinterpreted as "grade level," but it represents a higher standard, leading to misleading claims about a reading crisis.
- Federal and state definitions of reading proficiency differ, with most states equating "grade level" to NAEP's "basic" level.
- Unrealistic NAEP goals perpetuate alarmist rhetoric, diverting attention from systemic inequities impacting marginalized student groups.
- Recommendations include aligning achievement benchmarks, focusing on opportunity gaps, and adopting age-based testing for better accuracy.
- Grade retention policies may temporarily boost scores but harm vulnerable students without long-term improvement.
- Smaller class sizes, teacher autonomy, and community school models are suggested to improve education outcomes.
Wait, WTF? Did Epstein and Maxwell Run the Whole Damn Show Themselves? https://ru4people.substack.com/p/wait-wtf-did-epstein-and-maxwell
Wait, WTF? Did Epstein and Maxwell Run the Whole Damn Show Themselves?
### Key Points
- The article questions the narrative that Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell operated their global sex trafficking ring alone, highlighting the lack of accountability for other enablers or staff involved.
- Epstein and Maxwell’s operation allegedly abused hundreds of underage girls over decades, yet Maxwell is the only person serving time, while Epstein died in jail under suspicious circumstances.
- The article suggests a larger network of enablers, including pilots, housekeepers, security staff, and associates like Jean-Luc Brunel and Sarah Kellen, who have faced minimal scrutiny or prosecution.
- The FBI and DOJ have withheld extensive evidence from the public, claiming no client list or blackmail evidence exists, fueling suspicions of a cover-up to protect powerful figures.
- High-profile individuals linked to Epstein, such as Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, and Prince Andrew, deny wrongdoing, while the system seems to shield the elite from accountability.
- The article criticizes selective prosecution, with Maxwell as the scapegoat, while the broader network behind the operation remains untouched.
Big Education Ape: WHEN THE OPPRESSED BECOMES THE OPPRESSOR: NETANYAHU, GAZA AND THE TRAGIC IRONY OF POWER https://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2025/07/when-oppressed-becomes-oppressor.html
This article delves into the tragic irony of power in Gaza, criticizing Israel's policies under Netanyahu, which rights groups argue amount to genocide. The U.S. is highlighted as an enabler through financial and military support. Calls for international accountability and empathy are emphasized to break the cycle of violence.
### Key Points
- Analysis of Netanyahu's leadership and Gaza's humanitarian crisis, with accusations of genocide.
- U.S. financial and military support for Israel under scrutiny.
- Rights groups in Israel accuse their government of genocide in Gaza.
- International community's limited response to Gaza's crisis.
- The story of Richard Lakin highlights the potential for peace through empathy and education.
- Urgent call for global accountability and dialogue to address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Big Education Ape: The Oligarchy Eats!: Welcome to Geoffrey and Elaine’s: Where the Elite Meet to Eat… People! https://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2025/07/the-oligarchy-eats-welcome-to-geoffrey.html
DOJ’s Political Attack on George Mason’s Educators is a Threat to Us All – Cloaking Inequity https://cloakinginequity.com/2025/07/31/dojs-political-attack-on-george-masons-educators-is-a-threat-to-us-all/
### Key Points
- The DOJ is investigating George Mason University educators for supporting their Black president, Gregory Washington, through a nonbinding resolution referencing a board-approved strategic goal of inclusive representation.
- The investigation is seen as unconstitutional political retaliation and a misuse of federal power under the Trump administration, targeting educator free speech and equity-focused initiatives.
- The case exemplifies a racialized pattern of undermining leaders of color, as seen with other prominent Black leaders nationwide.
- George Mason University has faced five federal inquiries recently, signaling a coordinated effort to discredit leadership, divide faculty, and suppress shared governance.
- The AAUP has called this a “gross misuse of federal power,” emphasizing the need for resistance and solidarity from faculty and university leaders nationwide.
- The article urges university presidents, faculty, and governance bodies to actively oppose political suppression and defend academic freedom and equity-focused leadership.
Teacher Tom: This is the Way Humans are Meant to Live https://teachertomsblog.blogspot.com/2025/07/this-is-way-humans-are-meant-to-live.html
### Key Points
- Play-based learning enables children to self-actualize and connect thought with action, as seen in the example of a girl deeply engaged in creative play.
- Educators should prioritize observation and reflection over intervention, fostering environments where children can freely explore and think.
- Creativity and learning are interconnected processes, and the role of educators is to inspire thinking rather than enforce memorization or agreement.
- Authentic play during childhood creates a foundation for lifelong meaning and purpose.
- Teacher Tom's Play-Based Learning Summer Camp offers tools and insights for educators and caregivers to support child-driven learning.
Missing the Boat - by Jennifer Berkshire https://educationwars.substack.com/p/missing-the-boat
### Key Points
- The Trump administration reversed its decision to freeze school funding due to bipartisan support for public education, highlighting the enduring cross-class alliance behind public schools.
- Public education serves both rich and poor, making it a target for anti-tax advocates and privatization efforts, such as voucher programs that disproportionately benefit affluent families.
- Rising Democratic figures like Andy Beshear and James Talarico are effectively opposing school privatization and advocating for the value of public schools, contrasting with the national party’s lackluster approach.
- Democrats often fail to capitalize on public education as a potent bipartisan issue, instead relying on uninspiring rhetoric focused on data and workforce preparation.
- Studies suggest that populist candidates, like middle school teachers, resonate more with working-class voters compared to corporate executives or education reformers.
Seattle Schools Community Forum: What a Weird Board Meeting https://saveseattleschools.blogspot.com/2025/07/what-weird-board-meeting.html?spref=tw
### Key Points
- A July 31, 2025 Seattle School Board meeting had only two public testimonies, with issues surrounding the sign-up link and limited attendance by Board members.
- Updates included a superintendent search timeline, community engagement meeting, and a request for additional Board oversight in negotiations with HYA.
- Criticism was directed at Director Rankin's leadership style, lack of action on critical issues by Director Clark, and the Board's apparent unawareness of strategic plan task force composition.
- Broader concerns about nepotism in Seattle Schools were highlighted, pointing to personal connections influencing staff promotions and assignments.
Education Research Report: Hardly any social skills in educational programs for young children https://educationresearchreport.blogspot.com/2025/07/hardly-any-social-skills-in-educational.html
### Key Points
- Early childhood education programs worldwide neglect social skills crucial for societal cohesion and professional success, focusing primarily on cognitive skills.
- Socio-economic factors, such as parents' educational background and income, are rarely considered in early childhood education programs, despite their significant impact on educational success.
- International research documents show that socio-emotional skills are occasionally included, but structural factors influencing success are largely ignored.
- The prevalent belief in education policy emphasizes talent, effort, and personal responsibility while overlooking external influences like socio-economic conditions or life events.
- The absence of social skills in educational plans may hinder children's personal and professional development and undermine societal cohesion and democratic understanding.
- Researchers caution against competitive trends in early childhood institutions focusing solely on cognitive performance at the expense of broader educational goals.
NEXT UP ON HITTING LEFT... - by Michael Klonsky https://klonsky.substack.com/p/next-up-on-hitting-left
- The article promotes an upcoming episode of "Hitting Left Radio," featuring sociologist and activist Dick Flacks discussing radical scholarship, cultural resistance, and democracy.
- The show will air live on Lumpen Radio 105.5 FM Chicago and stream online at lumpenradio.com.
- The author encourages reader/listener support through paid subscriptions to sustain the platform.
- A comment from Carl Davidson praises the choice of Dick Flacks as a guest.
- The article briefly mentions previous discussions on topics like prison justice advocacy, incarcerated firefighters, Cory Booker's political decisions, and censorship controversies involving The New York Times.
- Substack is referenced as a platform for cultural content.
glen brown: Gaza is on the brink of a catastrophic man-made famine. https://teacherpoetmusicianglenbrown.blogspot.com/2025/07/gaza-is-on-brink-of-catastrophic-man.html
- The article discusses the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where Israel's new measures, including daily humanitarian pauses and aid corridors, are insufficient to address widespread famine and blocked aid access. Aid workers have criticized Israel's blockade as the primary cause of the crisis.
- More than 200 aid trucks entered Gaza recently, but this is far below the UN-recommended 500-600 trucks needed daily for the 2 million residents. The crisis has led to significant casualties, including 151 deaths from hunger and 48 killed during military attacks.
- Canada plans to formally recognize Palestine during the upcoming UN General Assembly, joining France and other countries in a declaration supporting Palestine.
- The blog covers diverse topics, including social justice, political commentary, healthcare, education reform, environmental issues, and cultural reflections, with recurring themes of resisting oppression and advocating for fairness.
A summary of Parent data privacy rights under NY state law | Class Size | A clearinghouse for information on class size & the proven benefits of smaller classes https://classsizematters.org/a-summary-of-parent-data-privacy-rights-under-ny-state-law/
## Overview
The New York State Parents’ Bill of Rights outlines the rights of parents and legal guardians regarding the disclosure of their children's personal data and education records. It is designed to protect student privacy and ensure transparency in how personal data is handled by educational institutions and third-party vendors.
## Key Rights and Responsibilities
### 1. **Data Protection and Usage**
- **Prohibition on Sale and Commercial Use**: Personal data from students' education records cannot be sold or used for commercial purposes, including advertising or product development ([1]).
- **Limited Access**: Access to personal data is restricted to vendors and third parties that provide services beneficial to students and the school, ensuring a focus on academic improvement and efficient operations ([1]).
### 2. **Contracts and Agreements**
- **Privacy Protections**: All vendors must have contracts that include specific privacy and security protections. Access to personal data is limited to what is necessary for their services ([1]).
- **Data Deletion**: Contracts must stipulate that personal data will be deleted when no longer needed, with clear timelines for data retention ([1]).
### 3. **Parental Rights**
- **Inspection and Review**: Parents have the right to inspect and review their children's education records within 45 days of a request and can challenge any inaccuracies ([1][2]).
- **Breach Notification**: Schools must notify parents within 60 days of discovering a data breach, unless it interferes with law enforcement investigations ([2]).
- **Filing Complaints**: Parents can file complaints regarding unauthorized disclosures and must be informed of the investigation outcomes within 30 days ([2]).
## Additional Provisions
- **Annual Training**: School employees with access to personal data must undergo annual training on privacy laws and best practices ([2]).
- **Transparency in Contracts**: Each contract with third parties must include a Parent Bill of Rights, detailing data access, storage, security measures, and notification plans for breaches ([3]).
## Conclusion
The New York State Parents’ Bill of Rights serves as a comprehensive framework to protect student privacy, ensure parental involvement, and maintain transparency in data handling by educational institutions and vendors. It emphasizes the importance of safeguarding personal data and provides parents with clear rights and mechanisms for oversight and accountability.
VIJAY PRASHAD on Under the Tree | Bill Ayers https://billayers.org/2025/07/31/vijay-prashad-on-under-the-tree/
- Episode #134 of the "Under the Tree Podcast" features Vijay Prashad, a Marxist theorist and activist intellectual, discussing humanity's challenges and the need for clarity through art, politics, theory, and action.
- Vijay Prashad is the executive director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research and an advisory board member of the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel. His work aligns with the revolutionary movements initiated by the Tricontinental Conference in Cuba.
- Vijay's approach to thinking and writing is dialectical, engaging deeply with revolutionary ideas and practices.
Who Counts as American? The Constitutional Crisis at the Maternity Ward Trump’s Executive Order 14160 rewrites the 14th Amendment – targeting babies and redefining birthright citizenship https://brucelesley.substack.com/p/who-counts-as-american-the-constitutional
### Key Points
- The 14th Amendment has guaranteed birthright citizenship for over 150 years, ensuring equal treatment regardless of race, ancestry, or parental status.
- Executive Order 14160 seeks to overturn legal precedent, targeting newborns and imposing harm through parental status checks at birth.
- The order makes citizenship contingent on parental immigration status, denying citizenship to babies born to undocumented or temporary-status parents.
- Implementation raises complex questions about paternity, adoption, surrogacy, same-sex parents, and bureaucratic processes.
- Hospitals and midwives face new federal demands to verify parental immigration status, disrupting the simplicity of birth registration.
- Home births, common among immigrants and low-income families, will face additional hurdles, potentially discouraging safe birth practices.
- Babies will require parental proof of immigration status for passports, Social Security numbers, and access to benefits, creating a tiered citizenship system.
- Without citizenship, newborns lose access to Medicaid, CHIP, tax credits, and other essential programs, worsening health outcomes.
- The policy imposes a five-year waiting period for lawful immigrants to access benefits, punishing vulnerable children.
- Hospitals and state agencies face administrative challenges, and families may avoid seeking care due to fear of deportation.
- The executive order undermines the principle of recognizing all babies born in the U.S. as part of the national community.
- Efforts in Congress, such as the Born in the U.S.A. Act, aim to block funding for policies that harm birthright citizenship.
Critical Studies of Education & Technology: Acknowledging the ‘Mid-Ness’ of Educational AI (Notes on Tressie McMillan Cottom 2025) | National Education Policy Center https://nepc.colorado.edu/blog/acknowledging
- The article critiques the overhyped promises of Generative AI (GenAI), labeling it as "mid tech" due to its mediocre and limited capabilities, often failing to deliver transformative results.
- Tressie McMillan Cottom highlights that GenAI's applications in education primarily result in modest improvements, such as automating mundane tasks, rather than revolutionizing teaching and learning processes.
- While AI has proven impactful in specialized fields like climate modeling and medical research, its educational applications remain underwhelming and fail to address meaningful efficiency or innovation.
- The rise of educational AI raises concerns about its potential misuse, including job cuts for teachers and increasing workloads for remaining staff, reflecting broader anti-labor implications.
- Cottom warns that even "mid tech" AI can significantly alter work dynamics, especially when used as a tool to justify cost-cutting and labor reduction in education systems.
State Superintendent Thurmond Announces: California to Receive Nearly $1 Billion in Previously Impounded Federal Education Funds (CA Dept of Education) https://www.cde.ca.gov/nr/ne/yr25/yr25rel37.asp
- California will receive nearly $1 billion in previously impounded federal education funds for the 2025–26 school year, following delays caused by the Trump administration.
- Superintendent Tony Thurmond stated the delays created uncertainty and harmed vulnerable students, but efforts are underway to distribute funds swiftly to schools and communities.
- The funds cover several federal programs, including Title I-C (Migrant Student Education), Title II-A (Effective Instruction), Title II (Adult Education), Title III-A (English Language Acquisition), and Title IV-A (Student Support and Academic Enrichment).
- The California Department of Education (CDE) is working to ensure funds are distributed to local educational agencies (LEAs) to support English learners, migrant students, adult learners, and community learning centers.
- The CDE plans to collaborate with California’s congressional delegation to secure future federal funding for the fiscal year 2026 budget.
Yesterday’s Gems, Today’s InsightsA Roundup of the Web’s Finest Blog Posts!
7-31-25
7-31-25
The article comprises a collection of discussions on education policies, societal issues, political controversies, and cultural topics. It highlights challenges in education reform, privatization, systemic inequities, AI integration, and broader societal concerns such as civil rights, leadership transparency, and global crises.
### Key Points
- Trump administration penalizes Columbia University with a $200 million settlement and external monitoring, allegedly for failing to address anti-Semitism, raising concerns about governmental interference in private institutions.
- The Department of Justice under Trump canceled a longstanding desegregation order in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, originally established to enforce school integration.
- Indiana's college enrollment rate has dropped from 65% in 2015 to 51.7% in 2023, attributed to reduced financial aid and state policies prioritizing career readiness over college preparation.
- The article questions the narrative that Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell operated their global sex trafficking ring alone, highlighting the lack of accountability for other enablers or staff involved.
- Rights groups accuse Israeli policies under Netanyahu of genocide in Gaza, with U.S. financial and military support under scrutiny.
- Ghislaine Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years for conspiring with Jeffrey Epstein to sexually exploit minors, actively grooming victims and facilitating abuse.
- The Trump administration reversed its illegal withholding of education funds due to collective activism, with educators advocating for affordability, opportunity, and dignity.
- Donald Trump criticizes wind turbines, claiming they harm aesthetics and wildlife, while promoting fossil fuels as geopolitical tools.
- Seattle Public Schools debates AI's role in education, focusing on administrative efficiency and teaching support while addressing privacy and ethical concerns.
- The free market approach to education fosters inequality and discrimination, marginalizing disadvantaged groups and undermining public education's role in promoting equity.
- Finland's play-based learning model is praised for its emphasis on equity and happiness, contrasting the U.S. reliance on standardized testing and rigid instruction.
- Ada Valley Meat Company recalled 1,065 pounds of frozen ground beef due to possible metal contamination, advising consumers to return or dispose of affected products.
- The FFVP grant provides schools with funding for free fruit and vegetable snacks, contingent on compliance with federal guidelines.
- Tennessee school district leaders face criticism over a $6.5 million legal settlement tied to wrongful demotions, highlighting transparency and accountability issues.
- Artificial Intelligence is seen as a transformative tool for education, with educators encouraged to embrace its potential for innovation and teaching.
- The article provides strategies for engaging parents in schools, emphasizing communication, tech nights, and family involvement in special education.
- Trump dismantled the Department of Education, blaming it for imposing DEI ideology, deepening class divides and benefiting wealthy families.
- Arizona's universal school voucher program primarily benefits wealthy families, creating a $206 million funding shortfall.
- NYC DOE’s failure to present a viable plan to meet class size reduction mandates risks larger class sizes for students.
