Latest News and Comment from Education
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Steady Education Privatization Advancing in California - By Thomas Ultican 9/9/2026 This post looks at the state of public education in California. It is important to be clear that charter schools are not public ...1 day ago
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Trump’s Latest: The State of New Mexico or New America? - First came the Gulf of America. Then Lake America. Trump can alter the map today and AI can teach it tomorrow. Trump is now floating the idea of changing N...2 days ago
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Five Great Questions For "Evidence-Based" Programs - At EdWeek, Larry Ferlazzo ran a guest post by Rene Grimes that focused on the “science of math” and the programs that are supposed to be based on it.2 days ago
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Five Great Questions For "Evidence-Based" Programs - At EdWeek, Larry Ferlazzo ran a guest post by Rene Grimes that focused on the "science of math" and the programs that are supposed to be based on it. Bet...2 days ago
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Federal Vouchers Mean Federal Control - Peter Greene explores the impact of federal vouchers on public and private schools2 days ago
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U.S. Students Above OECD Average in Science, Reading, and Computational Problem Solving - The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) today released the U.S. results from the 2025 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), ...2 days ago
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Cognitive Resonance: Why is Claude for Teachers? - Cognitive Resonance: Why is Claude for Teachers? *Anthropic bumbles its way into education* [image: Why?] Everything about AI right now is weird. I took...2 days ago
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SCHOOL FUNDING IS NO FUN — BUT IS IT FAIR? - *SCHOOL FUNDING IS NO FUN — BUT IS IT FAIR?**How "Reform" Became a Polite Word for Pulling the Rug Out From Under Public Education* Welcome to the gre...2 days ago
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The REPULSICANS - Admit it: The DUMBOCRATS is a fitting and appropriate moniker for one of the two mainstream capitalist political parties in the US—one of the greatest war-...2 days ago
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Celebrating our power this Labor Day - Every Labor Day, I stop to reflect on the history of our union and what lessons we can apply to continue to build a movement that meets the aspirations of ...2 days ago
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Gary Rubinstein: Eva Moskowitz Sues NYSED for Inadvertently Exposing that They Have Been Gaming the U.S. News Rankings for Years - Eva Moskowitz, founder of Success Academy charter chain, has been everywhere recently, promoting her brand. She has written op-Ed’s for major newspapers, s...2 days ago
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That Feeling of Understanding - Years ago, a friend involved in the business of "up cycling" wound up with a collection of junk with which even he couldn't figure out what to do, so he...2 days ago
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He Is Truly "Unhinged" - Since yesterday, Donald J. Trump has been posting on social media at a frantic pace, showing AI images of himself with President George Washington on ...2 days ago
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Buy Low, Rent High: The Charter School Real Estate Playbook - Charter school facilities financing produces two distinct, well-documented, and fixable problems: districts selling public buildings to charter operators f...2 days ago
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Charters As Well As Vouchers Continue to Threaten Public Education in Ohio - School privatization poses enormous problems for Ohio’s system of traditional public schools. In June of 2025, Ohio’s legislature failed fully to fund a we...3 days ago
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‘Literally a lifesaver’: SWODA driving health outcomes through rural mobility program - [image: rural mobility program]COMANCHE COUNTY — With critical access hospitals at risk of closure and recent funding cuts to the federal Centers for Med...3 days ago
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Success Academy Sues NYSED For Inadvertently Exposing That They Have Been Gaming The US News & World Report Rankings For Years - No matter where you go in New York City, you are forced to ponder the Success Academy charter network. On bus stops, in your mailbox, even as a commercial ...3 days ago
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Budgeting Propositions; t’ain’t no more – Prop 2, Prop 38 & Prop 44 - This last set of Propositions (follow these hyperlinks for the first four posts on billionaires, kid-critical, housing and election reform… The post Budg...3 days ago
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Following Up on "The Decade of Decline in Seattle Public Schools" - I posted a link to this article written by Sandeep Kaushik earlier but here it is again. It is a lengthy piece but a worthy one for anyone wondering how...3 days ago
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Labor Day. Happy Birthday to Me. - So—I just had a birthday. A big, round-number birthday. All my life, my birthday has taken place in and around Labor Day weekend, and—fairly often—happened...3 days ago
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To the Holiday Workers on Standby - I was fortunate enough to have Labor Day off. It was for me a relaxing day. I spent most of it quietly at home, doing nothing particularly taxing, which I ...3 days ago
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Mulgrew's Para Pay Gambit in Conflict with Mamdani Who Gets Praise from the Right: Is This War? - *EONYC, The WIRE:* *don’t confuse a temporary check with a raise.* *don’t confuse a political campaign with collective bargaining.* *Arthur Goldstein, ...3 days ago
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Around The Web In ESL/EFL/ELL - Ten years ago I began this regular feature where I share a few posts and resources from around the Web related to ESL/EFL or to language in general that ...4 days ago
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To Stop Cheating in School, Address the Root Cause (Adam Grant) - Adam Grant is an organizational psychologist at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. This article appeared in The New York Times, August 3...4 days ago
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Educators Resist - View this email in your browser [image: Logo] *TL;DR* *What We’ve Done* Understanding that voting in November in numbers that cannot be ignored is ...4 days ago
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Day 1 for the New Congress - If Dems don't do this, they will have failed us entirely. [image or embed] — unpersoned.bsky.social (@unpersoned.bsky.social) September 5, 2026 at 5:5...5 days ago
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Recommended: Lesson Planning and Literacy Narratives - “Today’s preservice teachers (PTs) enter a field in which content and curriculum are increasingly standardized and controlled by voices outside of their sc...5 days ago
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The Disappearing Activist - Unity wants us to be utterly dependent on them. That’s not how a union stays strong.6 days ago
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BREAKING: More than 1 in 10 Ohio Charter Schools suspected of “testing anomalies” - Add this to the fact that 1 in 5 Ohio Charter Schools have been on the state’s lowedt-performing-schools-in-the-state list since 2018 and you can see that ...6 days ago
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Why Does Teacher Pay Matter? - A recent story on America’s growing teacher shortage indicates a real problem – nearly half a million teaching positions unfilled or filled with temporary ...6 days ago
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No One Was Blaming Parents - Today I had a column published in The Orlando Sentinel. It was a response to Nathan Hoffman’s August...1 week ago
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Common Core and Science of Reading’s Troubling Disregard for Student Writing and Voice - Critics slam teachers and public schools for low reading scores. Much of that criticism is wrong and misses the real problem. The Common Core State Stand...1 week ago
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SPI Celebrates 1 Million CalKIDS Accounts - California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond celebrates 1 million CalKIDS accounts, highlights financial literacy in Monterey County.1 week ago
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New Book: Manufactured Outrage: The Conservative Industrial Complex’s War on Education and How to Fight Back - A new book by four education professors uncovers a coordinated effort by conservative groups to reshape Public Education. The post New Book: Manufacture...1 week ago
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A Child’s Citizenship Does Not Depend on a Parent’s Paperwork - After losing its effort to restrict birthright citizenship at the Supreme Court, the Trump Administration is seeking to restrict passports to children and ...1 week ago
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DOE presentation on their AI guidance - The following slides were presented to the AI Moratorium Coalition steering commitee on Sept. 1, 2026. The last slide has bullet points made up of response...1 week ago
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Guest column: Republican education policies have left Indiana’s children behind - Guest column: Republican education policies have left Indiana’s children behind The post Guest column: Republican education policies have left Indiana’s ...1 week ago
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At Substack: On Aging, Writing, and the Past: Baumgartner by Paul Auster - On Aging, Writing, and the Past: Baumgartner by Paul Auster1 week ago
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The Light She Left Behind - “Those we love don’t go away, they sit beside us every day.” — Liane Moriarty, Big Little Lies Forgive us if we are a little sad here in Tennessee. We lost...1 week ago
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Bookstore Romance Day, Fat Liberation & an Unofficial Guide to the Oregon Coast - Nothing clears your head better than salty sea air... and like, four bowls of clam chowder.1 week ago
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The Great and Irreplaceable Dolly Parton - If the state of the world has you down, here’s a reprieve, two interviews with the great Dolly Parton. The first is my extended interview with her, 13 yea...2 weeks ago
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Who Wants a Raise? - And why do the people who need raises the most actually get the least?2 weeks ago
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Who Wants a Raise? - Everyone. And if you are a UFTer (and not a retiree), you are getting one. But get this. A new paraprofessional is getting a raise of $803/year. Man, do th...2 weeks ago
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I Heart Mom Populism - Support for public education turns out to be a surprisingly potent issue in 20262 weeks ago
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This year’s drop in NYC state test scores: sound and fury, signifying nothing - When the state test scores were released a couple of weeks ago, they showed sharp drops in proficiency for NYC students, particularly in reading.2 weeks ago
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This year's drop in NYC state test scores: sound and fury, signifying nothing - When the state test scores were released a couple of weeks ago, they showed sharp drops in proficiency for NYC students, particularly in reading. This...2 weeks ago
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SQ 844: How is this better? - In plain terms, the new language gives the Legislature the authority to establish both the amount and methodology for distributing ad valorem reimbursement...3 weeks ago
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A Wake-up Call for the Country - As a nation we can do so much better for young children and families.3 weeks ago
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The end of a run. - I have decided to end my substack column after more than 25 years of blogging about schools, teaching, art and politics.3 weeks ago
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Time to change our Nation’s Diaper - It’s time to change our nation’s diaper. Our national identity now reeks due to our inability to clean out the mess caused by the Orange Turd. Corruption i...4 weeks ago
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And Suddenly, There’s a Math Book (You Already Know) - Note: This is a reminder that, if you became a paid subscriber to this blog, you’ll get a signed copy of You Already Know from ... Read More The post An...4 weeks ago
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And Suddenly, There’s a Math Book (You Already Know) - Note: This is a reminder that, if you became a paid subscriber to this blog, you’ll get a signed copy of You Already Know from ... Read More The post An...4 weeks ago
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Regarding Trump’s Utter Defeat and Surrender in the Middle East: Iran gets to charge fees, too! - Many analysts have explained how the recent MOU between Trump and Iran is a humiliating and deep failure for the current regimes of both the USA and Israel...2 months ago
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May’s Parent Engagement Resources - San Diego Unified Created a System to ‘Empower’ Parents. It Unraveled is from The Voice of San Diego. Why Those Disengaged Parents in Your School Deserve a...3 months ago
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Donald Patton Resigns From Christina Board of Education - The word on the street is Donald Patton resigned from the Christina School District Board of Education less than two months before his term was set to expi...3 months ago
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500-Year-Old Slave Revolt of 1526 Redefines Freedom as US Turns 250 - In 1526 — long before the more renowned dates that anchor the nation’s story of 1619 and 1776 — enslaved Africans rose up and freed themselves on the land ...3 months ago
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Statement on the NYS Comptroller’s audit of NYC’s Privacy and Security of Student Data - Statement on the NYS Comptroller’s audit of NYC’s Privacy and Security of Student Data May 4, 2025 The audit from the State Comptroller’s office released t...4 months ago
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Reflections on America, the world, and life - I acknowledge that I rarely post here anymore. Folks should remember that I am approaching my 80th birthday in less than 9 weeks, I am still teaching ful...5 months ago
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Peace Treaty: Why Schools Don’t Change (Even When Everyone Knows They Should) - People love to say “schools resist change.” It sounds like a personality flaw—lazy, stubborn, old-fashioned. But schools aren’t hard to change because educ...5 months ago
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The Problem with "the Science of Reading" - The problem with “the science of reading” is that it’s not new.7 months ago
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Dear NJ Teachers and Their Families: You MUST Not Vote For Jack Ciattarelli - To all NJ public school staff and their families: *You must not vote for Jack Ciattarelli. He will do serious, lasting damage to you personally, and the ...10 months ago
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"Didn't do *that*," part 1: new Schofield case developments reveal crucial 10th Circuit/Ledger lie - The record is clear. Jeremy Scott confessed at least 40 times in a 2017 hearing. He never recanted. The Ledger must retract its lie to force Judge Kevin Ab...1 year ago
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Il Papa è Morto - Francis brought a distinct pastoral outlook to his papacy. A simple man, he lived in a small apartment in the guesthouse. He sought to make the church acce...1 year ago
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Whose Opinions Matter in Education World? - It's hard to identify education heroes and sheroes. And perhaps even harder to pinpoint just whose work is slanted, paid-for and dishonest.7 years ago
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March is nearly over and I didn't do anything for WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH - I was inspired when I saw this meme I guess it can be called of WOMEN IN STEM and "IT'S OKAY TO BE SMART" And I began thinking about how the only subjec...9 years ago
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Prison Gerrymandering: Incarceration Weakens Vulnerable Voting Communities - One person equals one vote: seems simple enough. Unfortunately, that hasn’t worked out for many Americans throughout history, specifically women and peop...10 years ago
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I am Retiring - I have some news: I am retiring from the PBS NewsHour and Learning Matters. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other conte...11 years ago
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Saturday, February 11, 2012
Today's Big Education Ape - PostRank Top Late Nite Posts 2-11 #edreform #ows
School Tech Connect: The Other Learning Problem
The Other Learning Problem
I agree. Incidentally, technology is not going to change the fact that we have a nation full of kids who are strangely not looped into the fact that k-12 education is now the frontline of national security and economic prosperity. It's not even going to make a dent in the problem, as long as we have standardization and ever-mounting pressure on test scores, even if all the pressure is on the teachers alone.
By the way, back when I interviewed at one of the city's charter schools, it became clear to me that the entire educational theory of the place was based on regimentation-- silence in the halls, straight lines, correct learning postures, and that this was all very popular with the working-in-poverty families that sent their kids there. As for the teaching, there was not much new or inspiring going on there. It was all very Madeline Hunter, circa whenever. If you just give people order, or the semblance of it, and you keep out the vilde chaya children from
A Father. « Student Activism
A Father.
Imagine a father gives his teenaged daughter a lovely carved wooden box. Imagine she puts her diary in it, and letters she’s written to her friends, and letters they’ve written to her. Imagine she puts photos in it, and keepsakes, and mementoes. Imagine it’s where she keeps her camera, and her iPod.
Imagine he overhears her once with her friends, looking at stuff from the box, giggling. Reading diary entries aloud, sharing photos. Private things. Silly things. Imagine he sneaks into her room one day when she’s at school and breaks open the lock. Imagine he reads everything. Imagine he finds something that’s crudely,
School Tech Connect: "Shills and Cruel Jokes"
"Shills and Cruel Jokes"
NYC Public School Parents: The Joke’s on Us
The Joke’s on Us

February 11, 2012 (GBN News): In a stunning development, GBN News has learned that Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s signature “Race to the Top” program was originally conceived as a practical joke on President Obama. According to a source in the Education Department, the Secretary was merely looking to embarrass the President after a particularly humiliating loss on the basketball court.
Apparently, Mr. Duncan never really expected to carry the hoax quite as far as it went. But, the source told GBN News, “Practically every state in the Union bought into it hook, line and sinker. All sorts of bizarre stuff started happening: Every
Today's Big Education Ape - PostRank Top Early Evening Posts 2-11 #ows #edreform
Facebook Emails « DFER Watch
Jersey Jazzman: What Is "Teachers Village"?
“Giving Parents the Runaround on School Turnarounds” | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…
When A Cult Takes Over Your Profession | United Opt Out National
Kelly Flynn Tackles the Learning Problem that Dare Not Speak its Name - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher
Saturday coffee + Mea Culpa + Old school. « Fred Klonsky
Nearly 700 teachers in the Elk Grove Unified School District called in sick Friday - KTXL
Dump Duncan cuz he is flunkin’ : The Petition | Seattle Education
Arne Duncan is Wrong. The Pressing Issue in Civil Rights is not Education, it's the Right to Protect Your Information from Arne Duncan.
Daily Kos: What if this is my last year in the classroom?
This Week's The Answer Sheet - A School Survival Guide for parents (and everyone else). - The Washington Post
First Lady Michelle Obama Celebrates 2nd Anniversary of Let's Move - Hispanically Speaking News
Jersey Jazzman: Cerf Nomination Hearing: 2/16/12
This Week's Education Research Report
Top Content this Week - The Educator's PLN
Schools give kids a pass on grading homework - chicagotribune.com
"Pissing is a Human Right." Nowhere to go - ContraCostaTimes.com
Today's Big Education Ape - PostRank Top Late Nite Posts 2-10 #edreform #ows
