CATCH UP WITH CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: House Painting Edition (7/14)

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: House Painting Edition (7/14)

ICYMI: House Painting Edition (7/14)

Yes, we're getting the house painted. If that's not fun, I don't know what is. But in the meantime, here's some reading for you.

How Did We Miss This?  

The story of the Indiana cyberschool collecting money for ghost students.

Palm Beach Real Estate  

What can you do when you're a charter school entrepreneur? Sell one mansion you never actually lived in and then buy another one.

Common Core Tests Are Junk  

Okay, I'm shortening headlines today. An actual psychologist explains why some Core-related testing is neither valid nor reliable.

Charter School-Enabled Profiteering Is The Problem 

Mercedes Schneider unpeels the layers on another example of charter shenanigans.

How US Tech Giants Are Helping China Build The Surveillance State  

Not technically an education story, except of course that it's totally an education story.

The Giant Florida Data Base 

Speaking of the surveillance state, Florida would like to prevent shootings by collecting all the data about students. Big Brother is just looking out for you.

Waving the White Flag on High Stakes Testing   

More observations about how the tide seems to be turning, and how HST is an experiment that already failed a century ago.

The Messy Reality of Personalized Learning

Yes, this miracle cure isn't a miracle cure after all. A pretty thorough piece from the New Yorker.

The History of the Future of the 'Learning Engineer'

Audrey Watters tells us where they came from and why they're a problem.


CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: House Painting Edition (7/14)

CATCH UP WITH CURMUDGUCATION

The New Koch Ed Reform Rebranding Astroturducken

100+by Peter Greene / 21h

The billionaire Charles Koch has launched another adventure in astroturf, this time aimed at rebranding ed reform while still pushing reformy ideas, playing the reform greatest hits and-- well, it's a little unclear what else is going on. But every layer is more special than the last. This has been coming for a while. Back in January Koch announced that they were going to increase their level of m

JUL 12

Are These Lessons To Learn From Cyberschools?

63by Peter Greene / 1d

At this stage of the game, there's no reason to keep imagining that cyberschools are a viable option for education on any sort of scale. There's a small group of students with specialized needs that they can serve well, but mostly they've failed big time. But they are also excellent money-makers, and so we periodically find folks trying to rehabilitate the cyberschool image. Here comes another suc

JUL 11

Eight Weeks of Summer: Big Hairy Say What Now?

73by Peter Greene / 3d

This post is week 5 of 8 in the 8 Weeks of Summer Blog Challenge for educators . I've been doing the Hot Lunch Tray eight week challenge. Unlike other challenges, it does not require me to eat responsibly or beat myself up with ice water or plastic gerbils. I'm answering the questions as my old pre-retirement self. You can see what other folks are writing by checking out the #8WeeksofSummer hasht

JUL 10

Does The Most Interesting Teacher Pay Proposal Belong To A Billionaire Friend Of Trump?

by Peter Greene / 4d

Stephen Schwarzman might have an idea. Schwarzman, cofounder of the Blackstone Group , has been named a Bloomberg Most Influential person of the year more than once, and in 2007 he was one of Time's 100 Most Influential people of the year. He is a long-time friend and advisor of Donald Trump, including help set up Trump's Strategic and Policy Forum . He has given away a great deal of money and pu

Whom Do We Trust

100+by Peter Greene / 4d

One of the unending underlying challenges in education is that parents and taxpayers have to trust somebody. Back In The Day, the default was to trust teachers and administrators. That would be back when the default was to trust authority figures as a whole-- but that pendulum has swung far in the other direction (on behalf of all the Boomers, let me just say, "You're welcome"). Heck, even within

JUL 07

ICYMI: Really Really Summer Now Edition (7/6)

21by Peter Greene / 7d

Hot and steamy here, which still makes us better off than some corners of the world. Here's some reading for the day. Remember-- share the stuff that really speaks to you. The Teaching Machine Imaginary I do miss Audrey Watters, but here's a new Hack Education post that, in typical Watters fashion, links book editing, the Jetsons, teaching machines, and pigeons. Education Reformers Still Don't Und

JUL 06

Elizabeth Warren's Better Answer On Testing

500+by Peter Greene / 8d

Yesterday the NEA did quickie interviews with ten of the Democratic candidates, ranging from the front-runners like Sanders and Warren all the way down to (checks notes)-- some guy named Tim Ryan who is apparently also running. There were plenty of fine moment and plenty of pandering, and, it has to be noted, plenty of issues that went unaddressed by some candidates because they didn't get asked a

Eight Weeks of Summer: Learning Conditions

by Peter Greene / 8d

This post is week 4 of 8 in the 8 Weeks of Summer Blog Challenge for educators. I'm continuing this challenge, answering the questions from the viewpoint of my old non-retired self. Here's this week's prompt: What are optimal conditions in which to learn, for you, and for students? For me, it's mostly a matter of opportunity and independence. Probably the biggest single thing I learned in college

JUL 05

CAP & Fordham Shoot The Moon

67by Peter Greene / 8d

When the Moonshot For Kids competition first crossed my screen, I took a moment to consider it as a topic for commentary, then moved on. But then this tweet popped up today: What is education’s version of the self-driving car? Let @edprogress and @educationgadfly know your innovative idea to improve student outcomes through a #MoonshotForKids and you could win $10,000 https://t.co/evwibCFhrl — CAP

JUL 03

When The Wall Of Separation Comes Down

84by Peter Greene / 10d

As noted earlier this week, the Supreme Court has decided to hear a case that could blow a hole in the wall separating religion from public schools . Lots of folks are salivating at the prospect, from hard-core libertarians to the Dominionist folks who think the church should take back the school system. So let me say again what I have said many times before-- if the wall separating church and sta

JUL 02

Big Brother Is Listening (More Ed Tech From The Surveillance State)

96by Peter Greene / 11d

We have repeatedly seen examples of ed tech innovations that hinge on surveillance, and not just surveillance, but software to interpret what the surveilled data means. This results in some huge promises. Here's software that says it will read student facial expressions and eye movements to determine if anyone is learning. Companies are lining up to tell you all about the social and emotional well

JUL 01

This Case Could Break The Wall Between Church And School

500+by Peter Greene / 12d

Three weeks ago, I wrote about the Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue case for Forbes , trying to explain why it would be a big deal if the Supremes decided to hear this case. One thing has changed since then-- the 

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: House Painting Edition (7/14)