Sunday, January 15, 2017

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: Last Sunday Before Trumpistan Edition + Catch up with CURMUDGUCATION

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

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

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 out of a beloved US institution.

How Democrats Killed Their Populist Soul

Again, not actually about education, but a long, thoughtful look at the history of the modern Democratic party and how they lost their way.

Betsy DeVos Accountability Problem

Devos supporters have been swearing up and down that she actually supported a law calling for more accountability in Michigan charters. Allie Gross went and looked at the actual law and reports what's really in it (spoiler alert: not a bunch of charter accountability).

Difference Between Equity and Equality

A brief piece from Lara David with a great activity for showing students what the difference is.

Why the Racist History of School Vouchers Matters Today

Casey Quinlan provides another important history lesson.

The Red Queen

Jennifer Berkshire (Edushyster) spent nine days in Michigan interviewing over forty different people. She came back not only with the definitive DeVos nickname, but how the Education Secretary nominee looks to the people who have lived under her shadow. This week's must-read.

Time To Eliminate Third Grade Retention 

One of the stupidest, most destructive, just plain meanest policies to come out of reformsterdom is the automatic third grade retention rule-- no passing score on the Big Standardized Test and no fourth grade for you, you little eight year old slacker! Here's another great explanation of just how wrong the policy (which, yes, does exist in several states) is.

Jeb Bush May Have Won Something in the Election After All

Valerie Strauss connects the dots between Jeb Bush and the new Department of Education. If you voted against Jeb because of his education policy positions, the joke is one you.



First 100 Reformy Days
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

AZ: Fake-Dumping the Core
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 



Big Education Ape: Catch up with CURMUDGUCATION: Investors Warned Off Pearson + Unmoored (tl;dr) - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2017/01/catch-up-with-curmudgucation-investors.html