ICYMI + Catch up with CURMUDGUCATION

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ICYMI + 
Catch up with CURMUDGUCATION

Here's some reading for your holiday weekend. May it be a good one.

Arizona Replaces Teachers with Persons

One more state institutes a warm body law as a way of filling more teaching positions

Washington State is Wealthy, But Doesn't Pay for Schools

Can you guess how much rich Washington residents pay in taxes? Can anybody guess why the legislature refuses to meet its own funding requirements for education?

The Charter School Free Riding Problem

Jersey Jazzman takes a look at a little-noted phenomenon: how public schools are doing the work of recruiting teachers for charter schools.

Ohio's Third Grade Guarantee

A very effective discussion of one more state's dumb idea about "guaranteeing" third grade readers

Florida Business Leaders Can’t Enjoy Luncheon Due to Dismal Reading Scores

Floridians are also sad about reading levels. Nancy Bailey has some suggestions about what they could do if they wanted to get serious.

How Black Girls Aren't Presumed To Be Innocent

One more study lays out our oddly groundless and ultimately destructive prejudices about black children.

2017: Business of Ed Tech So Far

Audrey Watters looks at how the ed-flavored tech sector is looking at the halfway point.

Idaho Charter Schools Underserve Minority and Poor Population

We don't talk a lot about Idaho, but they've got some of the same charter school issues we see everywhere else. 

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Catch up with CURMUDGUCATION

Alternative Certification Paths

3by Peter Greene / 20h

We need alternative paths to the classroom. Mind you, we don't need paths that are shortcuts. We don't need an alternative path that is just a five week long truncated training that wouldn't prepare a camp counselor for a summer with jumpy ten year olds. We don't need alternative paths used by charter operators to train people to fill their own charter openings with not-too-qualified bodies. And w

JUN 30

Why Your ESSA Plan Is Nonsense

17by Peter Greene / 1d

At EdWeek, Andrew Ujifusa offers an explanation. In " Here's Why You Can't Understand Your State's New Plan for Education " he points the finger at jargon and offers some rather fun analytics for education argle-bargle. The top four bits of balonial verbage are, in descending order, stakeholder, engagement, professional development, and needs assessment. Yes, this can only end well Ujifusa breaks

Ed Reform v 6.3 Accountability Lite

6by Peter Greene / 2d

Full disclosure-- I made the number 6.3 out of the air, because frankly I've lost track of the various versions of ed reform that we've seen. But we're definitely on to something new. The new ed reform has staked out a position against bureaucracy and paperwork. This conversation starts with a Rick Hess piece , which becomes a thing because Betsy DeVos decided to quote it in her address to charter

JUN 29

Does Zuck Want To Be The Next Gates with Personalized Learning

62by Peter Greene / 2d

Here's lead from the EdWeek article : Pediatrician Priscilla Chan and Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg are gearing up to invest hundreds of millions of dollars a year in a new vision of “whole-child personalized learning,” with the aim of dramatically expanding the scope and scale of efforts to provide every student with a customized education. The power couple's Big Initiative has announc

JUN 27

PA: Charter Transparency Fail

17by Peter Greene / 5d

Last night, my district's school board voted to raise taxes. They did it at a public meeting. I could have attended it easily (they meet just across the street from my home) as could any member of the public. I could also have commented on the budget situation, and I could have based my comments on having looked at the proposed budget, a document that has been available for at least a month. And i

JUN 26

Supremes Breaking Down Church State Wall

100+by Peter Greene / 5d

The basic question was minor. The implications are huge. The bottom line is that supporters of using public tax dollars to support private religious schools got some major support from the Supreme Court today. A church in Missouri wanted a shot at some public monies to resurface a playground. The state said no. The trip up through the levels of US courts began. Five years later, here we are. What

HYH: The "i" in School

17by Peter Greene / 6d

Personalized Learning continues to gather steam as a way to privatize and standardize education. And for educating yourself about the movement and what it really means, I'm here to recommend the latest edition of Jennifer Berkshire and Jack Schneider's podcast, Have You Heard. Berkshire and Schneider talk to guest Bill Fitzgerald about some of the more important aspects of this magical "algorithmi

JUN 25

Problems with Performance-Based Compensation

75by Peter Greene / 6d

Bellwether Education Partners want to overcome the obstacles standing in the way of performance-based compensation (aka "merit pay" aka "fun ways to reduce total personnel costs for a school district"). But if you want writer Jen Bolson Meer's fancy definition, that's "Performance-based compensation is an approach where some or all monetary compensation is related to how employee performance is a

ICYMI: What Day Is It Now Edition (6/25)

5by Peter Greene / 7d

I'm pretty sure that before this summer is over, I will miss one of these Sunday reading lists, because the three week old twins in my house exert some sort of time warping field. But today I'm on it. Here are some things to read from the 

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