CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: Labor Day 2021 Edition (9/5)
Labor Day 2021 Edition
Labor Day again already. Time sure flies when you're under stress and constant existential dread! But we have things to read, because these are busy times.
Jennifer Cohn: The GOP wants to take over all public school boards
I don't usually do this, but this Twitter thread is packed with informative links and info, so here you go--an unrolled thread.
No Excuses Schools: Bad Theory Created By Amateurs
Thomas Ultican looks at Scripting the Moves, a book about No Excuses schools and the story about how a bunch of education amateurs founded a successful business built on bad school practices.
The Right-Wing Political Machine Is Out To Take Over School Boards
Peter Montgomery at Right Wing Watch with the story on yet another one of these obnoxious groups.
Community Schools see revival in time of heightened need
Lauren Camera at US News on the renewed interest in and support for the community school model
In Minnesota’s ‘most diverse city,’ schools are addressing the community’s deep trauma
One more sign of just how stupid things are getting out there.\
Jose Luis Vilson has some words of warning and encouragement.
The state of Tennessee is going to court to defend itself against charges of underfunding education. Stay tuned. Andy Spears has the basics.
What does research say about Charter – District School Spending Differences?
Bruce Baker again, this time with a quick primer on what research actually says about whether or not charters are sadly underfunded (remember when they used to brag that they would do more with less--those were the days).
How States Are Privatizing Public Schools to Tech Companies During the Delta Variant Uptick
Nancy Bailey has a state by state breakdown of how tech companies are making their moves to acquire public schools.
Grumpy Old Teacher takes a look at the school district that decided not to spoil its students, and what we've come to expect from schools.
Mercedes Schneider was in the path of Ida, and she's been providing reports of how things are going down in her hunk of Louisiana. Here's the first installment, and waiting.
Akil Bello, testing expert and college prep guru, takes a look, with help from his sons, at that very special genre of college admission essay.
From Jeremiah Budin at McSweeney's, an antidote to that old baloney about how kids teach us more than we teach them.
CATCH UP WITH CURMUDGUCATION
We've Been Having This Fight For Decades. It Won't End Soon.This next is from a report of parents speaking before a school board. Don't peek at the link just yet. Ultimately, she said she didn’t want to see schools teaching students any values, arguing that it should be the parents’ sole responsibility. “It’s our job as partners to [teach our kids] values — it’s not your job,” she said. “Respect us, respect [us as] parents. In the end, this comes down to
The Troubles With The Learning Loss DebateLike many education debates, the Learning Loss conversation has developed so many, many ways for people to be wrong, most of which can be avoided if one starts with the assumption that the problems facing us are complicated, defy a simple solution, and look different depending on where you're standing. Some of what's coming out of union leadership offices makes me cringe. "There is no such thing
OH: Phantom Football School Bishop Sycamore UnravelingESPN featured the school's football team in a nationally televised blowout. But it turns out that the school doesn't seem to actually exist. If you don't pay attention to sports, you may have missed the crazy tale of Bishop Sycamore, a private school in Ohio that appears to follow the business model of the infamous basketball academies - "schools" that barely educates and runs on the empty promise
PA: Candidate Threatens School Boards. Who Is Steve Lynch?So this delightful little clip has been shooting around the interwebz this morning PA GOP Gov candidate Steve Lynch today: “Forget going into these school boards with freaking data. You go in to these school boards to remove them. I’m going in with 20 strong men and I’m gonna give them an option - they can leave or they can be removed.” pic.twitter.com/A0M6SsOldI — Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowsk
PA: The CRT Flap Continues To MetastasizeIt's worth remembering that they told us what they intended to do. From back in March... Just up the road from me, you can see this in action. Clarion County, despite containing a state university, is a mighty conservative place. Back in March, the County Commissioners, for no particular reason, declared themselves a "Second Amendment County ." Now, one of the county's school districts has let it
ICYMI: Pre Pre School Edition (8/29)The board of directors is off to pre-school tomorrow, but mostly they're excited about using their new lunch boxes. Meanwhile, local schools open up to students on Tuesday. So we'll just see what hits the fan around here. In the meantime, a lot of things are happening in a lot of places. Here's some reading. Covid mask issues in school sparking violence Anne Lutz Fernandez looks at some troubling
NC: Public School Teacher Witch Hunt Report ReleasedSearching for something to add momentum for their proposed teacher gag law, North Carolina Republicans rallied behind Lt. Governor Mark Robinson last March when he announced the Fairness and Accountability in the Classroom for Teachers and Students (FACTS--get it?) task force , with the stated purposes of * assist holding local and county-level education officials accountable for what occurs in t
Teaching Machines: Read This BookOver at Forbes.com today I've posted a responsible grown-up look at the new Audrey Watters book Teaching Machines . But here at the blog, I can just go ahead and go full fanboy on this work, a book I was so looking forward too
