On thoughtful disagreements and righteous anger
I have been writing this post in my head since at least Occupy the DOE, so it is not simply a direct reply to president of the American Educational Research Association Bill Tierney’s recent email in which he, I expect in anticipation of the protests planned for Arne Duncan’s invited talk at the AERA conference, wrote:
“I am weary of the abuse of social media by writers hurling anonymous, venomous insults—a practice that encourages the general retreat to intellectual neighborhoods. Our work and our interactions with one another should model productive conversation about the nature of education, schooling, and reform. The conference gives us an opportunity to demonstrate very publicly how thoughtful disagreements can take place. I hope that in the invited addresses, the presidential sessions, the myriad papers, roundtables, and posters, and in my own presidential address, we will challenge our own assumptions rather than simply reconfirm what we think we know.”
I will get back to this email in a moment, but first I want to tell what I was writing when this email arrived.
“I am weary of the abuse of social media by writers hurling anonymous, venomous insults—a practice that encourages the general retreat to intellectual neighborhoods. Our work and our interactions with one another should model productive conversation about the nature of education, schooling, and reform. The conference gives us an opportunity to demonstrate very publicly how thoughtful disagreements can take place. I hope that in the invited addresses, the presidential sessions, the myriad papers, roundtables, and posters, and in my own presidential address, we will challenge our own assumptions rather than simply reconfirm what we think we know.”
I will get back to this email in a moment, but first I want to tell what I was writing when this email arrived.
Postings on the BLK SHP Voices for Education event at the 92Y
On April 4th, I participated in a great event at the 92YTribeca as a panelist. I’m waiting for video on this, a DVD is being sent to me, so we’ll look at the record.
But here’s a write-up of the event I was sent the other day. Interesting. Let me just quote my part:
But here’s a write-up of the event I was sent the other day. Interesting. Let me just quote my part:
When Shawn Johnson (AKA The Chalk Face & self-proclaimed “Teacher Educator”) hit the stage, the gloves were off. Conveying a different sort of passion (the angry kind), he quickly took stabs at moderator Matthew Bishops book Philanthrocapitalism, as well as private philanthropists like Bill & Melinda Gates or organizations like ALEC, both of whom are bringing private funding, and interests, into to the public school system.
After some brief rebuttals from our Bishop and the audience, Shawn quickly switched gears to criticizing the Teach for America model of replacing veteran teachers with briefly trained ones (a known critique).
Furthermore, Shawn argued, that the need to train teachers to succeed in difficult circumstances,
The Ignored Arm of the Commons and the Invisible Hand of the Market
Education Week has posted a new report on charter school funding, the blog titled “Charter Schools’ Funding Lags, Study Finds”:
A reminder for everyone about At the Chalk Face on #blogtalkradio
Charter school students receive about $4,000 less in per-pupil funding than their regular public school peers according to an analysis of five regions across the U.S., a new report has found.
The report, conducted by the University of Arkansas and funded by the Walton Family Foundation, compared per-pupil funding rates between charter and regular public schools in Denver, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Newark, and the District of Columbia from 2007-2011.
The Walton Family Foundation has been a major backer of school-choice, including charters and private school vouchers. (The Walton Family Foundation also supports coverage of parent empowerment issues at Education Week.)
…Many of the same researchers that conducted the Ball State University study participated in the
A reminder for everyone about At the Chalk Face on #blogtalkradio
You can catch the only education obsessed
focused talk available on Blog Talk Radio, live every Sunday at 6PM EST/3PM PST. Here’s the show page. And you can always click the greenish graphic at the top of the homepage to get to the show as well.
But, as we sometimes do, we’ll have special episodes featuring specific guests and topics. We want to bring you as many voices as we can and, unfortunately, potential guests have lives and cannot sometimes make our usual show time.
Take Jesse Hagopian of MAP boycott fame. He’s going to join us on April 27th at 7PM EST/4PM PST. Here’s the link to the show. Perhaps some reminders as we get closer. But mark your calendars, Jesse is going to talk the next phases of the successful MAP test boycotts in Washington state.
A round-up of some important stories out there on testing
But, as we sometimes do, we’ll have special episodes featuring specific guests and topics. We want to bring you as many voices as we can and, unfortunately, potential guests have lives and cannot sometimes make our usual show time.
Take Jesse Hagopian of MAP boycott fame. He’s going to join us on April 27th at 7PM EST/4PM PST. Here’s the link to the show. Perhaps some reminders as we get closer. But mark your calendars, Jesse is going to talk the next phases of the successful MAP test boycotts in Washington state.
A round-up of some important stories out there on testing
From the asinine: DC custodial staff evaluated by test scores
Here’s a plane being assembled mid-air.
Here’s a plane being assembled mid-air.
And finally, a lawsuit brewing in FL over evaluations based on students they never taught. Happens everywhere people.
By Anthony Asadullah Samad
