Five Great Questions For "Evidence-Based" Programs
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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...
Cognitive Resonance: Why is Claude for Teachers?
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Cognitive Resonance: Why is Claude for Teachers?
*Anthropic bumbles its way into education*
[image: Why?]
Everything about AI right now is weird.
I took...
SCHOOL FUNDING IS NO FUN — BUT IS IT FAIR?
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*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...
The REPULSICANS
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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-...
Celebrating our power this Labor Day
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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 ...
That Feeling of Understanding
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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...
He Is Truly "Unhinged"
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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 ...
Labor Day. Happy Birthday to Me.
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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...
To the Holiday Workers on Standby
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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 ...
Around The Web In ESL/EFL/ELL
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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 ...
Educators Resist
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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
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Day 1 for the New Congress
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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...
Why Does Teacher Pay Matter?
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A recent story on America’s growing teacher shortage indicates a real
problem – nearly half a million teaching positions unfilled or filled with
temporary ...
SPI Celebrates 1 Million CalKIDS Accounts
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California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond
celebrates 1 million CalKIDS accounts, highlights financial literacy in
Monterey County.
DOE presentation on their AI guidance
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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...
The Light She Left Behind
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“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...
The Great and Irreplaceable Dolly Parton
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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...
Who Wants a Raise?
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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...
SQ 844: How is this better?
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In plain terms, the new language gives the Legislature the authority to
establish both the amount and methodology for distributing ad valorem
reimbursement...
Time to change our Nation’s Diaper
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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...
May’s Parent Engagement Resources
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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...
Reflections on America, the world, and life
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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...
Il Papa è Morto
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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...
Whose Opinions Matter in Education World?
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It's hard to identify education heroes and sheroes. And perhaps even harder
to pinpoint just whose work is slanted, paid-for and dishonest.
I am Retiring
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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...
Jesse Hagopian Joins CBS News to Counter GOP Bills Outlawing The Teaching of Structural Racism: “I will not lie to kids”
Ijoined CBS News anchor Tanya Rivero on her program to discuss the request from Republican lawmakers to rescind any support of the 1619 Project and to talk about the proliferation of bills in state legislatures around the country that would ban teaching about structural racism. In the interview I called on educators to sign the new petition from the Zinn Education Project that calls on teachers to pledge that they will teach about the long legacy of structural racism, sexism, heterosexism, and other forms of oppression–regardless of the law.
It’s time to begin preparing for civil disobedience and for teachers to openly defy these neo-McCarthyist laws that would have educators lie to students about the fact that our country was founded on the genocide of Native Americans and African peoples and that structural racism and other forms of oppression persists in many ways today.
Visit the links to the Zinn Education Project below to sign the pledge! #TeachTheTruth
Last year, the United States learned a great lesson from its public schools: The onslaught of federally mandated standardized tests could be canceled, and it would not trigger the collapse of society.
In fact, during the early months of the global COVID-19 pandemic, the absence of the spring testing season provided a welcome relief to students and families coping with extreme stress.
But that was then.
Now, we are gearing up for another spring testing season, and on Monday, February 22, the Biden Administration decreed that standardized tests outlined in the federal Every Student Succeeds Act shall be required. No ifs, ands, or looking at your neighbor’s answers.
Keep in mind: Betsy DeVos, one of the worst people to serve as Secretary of Education ever, managed to cancel the punitive and educationally destructive spring testing requirements. Meanwhile, the Biden Administration is marching forward with a standardized testing regime that happens to be the centerpiece of corporate education reform.
How can educators help destroy entrenched inequalities and enact the values of Black Lives Matter in their classrooms, schools, and communities?
Jesse Hagopian and Denisha Jones, both educators and members of the Black Lives Matter at School movement, join us via livestream to discuss this question. They believe that the United States is in the midst of an urgent moral and legal crisis over the safety, liberty, and well-being of Black young people. In an edited collection, Black Lives Matter at School: An Uprising for Educational Justice, they have gathered essential essays, interviews, poems, resolutions, and more from educators, students, and activists who have been building the Black Lives Matter Movement across the country. Hagopian and Jones lay bare the institutional racism inherent in our educational system, and present a critical call to radically reshape learning environments to make them safe, supportive, and transformative for all students.
Jesse Hagopian is a member of the Black Lives Matter at School steering committee and teaches Ethnic Studies at Seattle’s Garfield High School. Hagopian is an editor for Rethinking Schools magazine, the co-editor of the book Teaching for Black Lives, and the editor of the book More Than a Score: The New Uprising Against High Stakes Testing. Hagopian serves as the Director of the Black Education Matters Student Activist Award.
Denisha Jones is a member of the national Black Lives Matter at School steering committee and Director of the Art of Teaching, graduate teacher education program, at Sarah Lawrence College. Denisha is an education justice advocate and activist. She serves as Co-Director for Defending the Early Years, Inc, and is the Assistant Executive Director for the Badass Teachers Association. Currently, her research focuses on utilizing the BLM at School curriculum as cultural citizenship and documenting the value of play as a tool for liberation with an emphasis on global approaches to play.
Frontline Dispatches: The struggle for Racial Justice in the Schools during the time of COVID–A conversation with Gerald Lenoir and Jesse Hagopian
I am beyond excited to join my dad, Gerald Lenoir, in an online conversation about the struggle for racial justice in the schools during the COVID era on Wednesday, February 10th, at 7pm EST/4pm PST. From racial justice in schools during COVID, to the fight led by teachers’ unions to ensure safe school re-openings, and the role unions can play in broader social justice struggles, will will have a lot to talk about.
We will be joining the Frontline Dispatches program, an Organizing Upgrade show intended to amplify the voices of organizers and activists who are engaged in important, lesson filled, on-the-ground organizing, protest, or activism. Whatever the work, these talks engage with those on the frontlines of the most current and urgent work facing our movements.
My dad is a life long organizer for racial and social justice and recently came out with fire book of protest poetry. As a young college student, Gerald was part of the student strike at University of Wisconsin–Madison that shut the campus down to demand Black Studies. I’m excited to see what questions he has in store for me about how we build the Black Lives Matter at School movement and organize for racial justice in these times.
Join us for this conversation at this link–then join the BLM at School movement!
Gerald Lenoir is the Strategy Analyst at the Othering & Belonging Institute. He works with community, advocacy, labor and faith partners to organize the research, development and promotion of a strategic narrative that fosters structural inclusion and addresses marginalization and structural racialization. Gerald was the founding Executive Director of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration, the Executive Director of the San Francisco Black Coalition on AIDS and a co-founder of the HIV Education and Prevention Project of Alameda County. He serves on the board of the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights and Priority Africa Network.
Jesse Hagopain is a high school teacher in Seattle and a co-founder of Black Lives Matter at School, a national initiative. He is the co-editor of four books: Black Lives Matter at School: An Uprising for Educational Justice, Teaching for Black Lives, Teacher Unions and Social Justice: Organizing for the Schools and Communities Our Students Deserve, and More Than a Score: The New Uprising Against High Stakes Testing.
Centering the creative and intellectual brilliance of African-American students throughout Seattle Public Schools and nearby districts, these youth–dancers, poets, filmmakers, singers, speakers, and more–follow in the footsteps of Nina Simone. Many considered her 1969 song “To Be Young, Gifted, and Black”, dedicated to the late Lorraine Hansberry, to be an anthem of the Civil Rights Movement. These students today carry on the tradition of her and other civil rights activists by making the case for how to uproot institutional racism in education!The four national demands of the Black Lives Matter at School movement are:
1.) End “zero tolerance” discipline, and implement restorative justice 2.) Hire more Black teachers 3.) Mandate Black History and Ethnic Studies in K-12 curriculum 4.) Fund counselors not cops
In her foreword to Black Lives Matter at School: An Uprising for Educational Justice Opal Tometi writes: “Both within classrooms and outside the school grounds, Black lives are under threat. The events that led to the creation of Black Lives Matter—the murder in 2012 of Trayvon Martin and the acquittal of his killer—weren’t isolated events. The culture of endangering Black lives is something students know well from inside their very own classrooms. . . Young people deserve safe, affirming environments where they know without a shadow of a doubt that their lives matter. The work that supporters of Black Lives Matter at School are doing is making this happen.”
Join us for conversation about making Black lives matter in our school and beyond.
***Register through Eventbrite to receive a link to the video conference on the day of the event. This event will also be recorded and have live captioning.***
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Speakers:
Opal Tometi is an award-winning human rights defender and one of three women co-founders of #BlackLivesMatter. Born to Nigerian Immigrant parents in the USA, her human rights activism crosses borders and extends almost 20 years. Tometi recently graced the #TIME100 Most Influential people of the year 2020 and March 2020 cover for #TIMES100 Most Influential Women of The Last Century. She is the founder of the new media and advocacy hub, Diaspora Rising and is a trusted advisor to various transnational organizations.
Denisha Jones is a member of the national Black Lives Matter at School steering committee and Director of the Art of Teaching, graduate teacher education program, at Sarah Lawrence College. She is the co-editor of Black Lives Matter at School.
Jesse Hagopian is a member of the national Black Lives Matter at School steering committee and teaches Ethnic Studies at Seattle’s Garfield High School. He is the co-editor of Black Lives Matter at School, an editor for Rethinking Schools magazine and is a co-editor of Teaching for Black Lives.
Brian Jones (moderator) is the Associate Director of Education at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. He writes about Black education history and politics.
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This event is sponsored by Haymarket Books. While all of our events are freely available, we ask that those who are able make a solidarity donation in support of our important publishing and programing work.
Black Lives Matter at School has a new anthem for the movement!
The middle school duo from Seattle, Triple S (South Seattle Swagger)–Mc’s
Freeze 32 and Gucci Grape–is officially releasing their new track titled,
“False Knowledge,” fuel the struggle for Ethnic Studies and Black Studies.
As Triple S wrote about the song, “This track is a runaway enslaved
African from the master(narrative).”
To drive this point home, Freeze 32 says in one of his lyrics:
This verse is dedicated to the black youth, ayy
Let me show you what the facts will do
Ethnic Studies now!
Give our youth the money now!
Gucci Grape celebrates learning from people’s history in the first line
of the song,
Do you believe everything in your textbook?
Do you believe fake stories about Columbus, Captain Cook,
Look, don’t believe everything that you see,
False Knowledge could catch us yes, you or me
If you dig this track, please support the artists by buying the track on Bandcamp and sharing it with everyone in struggle and everyone who is still
stuck in the false knowledge trap.
Seattle, Philadelphia, New York City, New Jersey, Portland, Los Angeles, Chicago, Milwaukee, Boston, Iowa, Baltimore, Washington, D.C.… These are just a few of the scores of cities and communities across the country where educators, students and community organizations have participated in Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action events. Throughout the week, many thousands of educators will be wearing shirts to school that say, “Black Lives Matter at School” and will teach lessons about structural racism, intersectional Black identities, and Black history in cities all across the country.
Are you teaching a lesson related to the Black Lives Matter Global Network principals? Are your students engaging in the BLM at School creative challenge? Are you organizing a rally, speak out, student talent showcase? Whatever you are doing to be part of the Week of Action, we want to know about it and we hope that you put your community on the BLM at Schools movement map! Click on the link and register your community as participating.
Join the 2021 #BlackLivesMatterAtSchool Week of Action from Feb. 1-5 with these online events all week!
February 1st marks the beginning of the 4th annual Black Lives Matter at School national Week of Action!
There are so many events happening all around the country. Below is a calendar of online events for each day of the week to counter anti-Blackness in education. In this era of mass incarceration, there is a school-to-prison-pipeline system that is more invested in locking up youth than unlocking their minds. That system uses harsh discipline policies that push Black students out of schools at disproportionate rates; denies students the right to learn about their own cultures and whitewashes the curriculum to exclude many of the struggles and contributions of Black people and other people of color; and is pushing out Black teachers from the schools in cities around the country. That is why Black Lives Matter at School movement:
End zero tolerance discipline, implement restorative justice
Hire more Black teachers
Mandate Black history/Ethnic Studies, K-12
Fund Counselors, Not Cops
Throughout the week, many thousands of educators will be wearing shirts to school that say, “Black Lives Matter at School” and will teach lessons about structural racism, intersectional Black identities, and Black history in cities all across the country.
Join us every day of the week in the struggle for Black joy and education!
Elementary Read Aloud at 11:30am-12:30pm sponsored by the Northshore School District Racial & Educational Justice team. LaTisha Joseph, librarian at Northshore’s Woodmoor Elementary, and Ebony Harvey, principal at Northshore’s Woodmoor Elementary, will facilitate a read aloud and Q&A for elementary students with the two children’s books: “I’m Every Good Thing” by Derrick Barnes and “The Undefeated” by Kwame Alexander.
Wednesday February 3:
For the Culture: An Ethnic Studies Documentary at 6-7pm. Educator and Student Activist Cece Chan presents her documentary in conversation with NAACP-Youth Council student activists. Come learn about Black Lives Matter At School’s demand for Black History and Ethnic Studies.
Thursday February 4:
Black Students United with Michael Bennett at 11-11:50am. Michael Bennett, former defensive player for the Seattle Seahawks, activist, author, and founder of the Bennett Foundation, will speak about his journey and work, what it means to build community, intersectionality, and what it means for Black lives to matter at school.
Donate here to raise funds for this year’s events.
NEA Ed Justice has created a map for people to show that their community has joined the BLM at School Week of Action. Please register your district as having teachers that have joined the movement!
