State Solidarity Still Eroding on Common-Core Tests - Education Week

What Tests Does Each State Require? - Education Week:

What Tests Does Each State Require?

An Interactive Breakdown of States’ 2016-17 Testing Plans

By Catherine Gewertz

In 2016-17, states’ testing systems have begun to settle down after several years of transition sparked by the Common Core State Standards. By now, most states have chosen not to use the PARCC and Smarter Balanced assessments, which were designed to reflect the common core. Under pressure to cut back on testing time, many opted for other, shorter tests, or chose to use the SAT or ACT in high school instead. Get more highlights from the survey in "State Solidarity Still Eroding on Common-Core Tests."

 AN OVERVIEW OF STATES' 2016-17 TESTING PLANS

Click the button next to each question and scroll down to see results.

■ What tests are states requiring in 2016-17? 

SEE ALL

What tests are states using for federal accountability? 

SEE ALL

■ Which states are using PARCC or Smarter Balanced? 

SEE ALL 20

Which states are using PARCC or Smarter Balanced only in grades 9 or lower? 

SEE ALL 7

■ Which states are using non-consortium tests? 

SEE ALL 28

Are any states mixing PARCC or Smarter Balanced with their own items? 

SEE ALL 3

■ Which states require students to take the SAT or ACT? 

SEE ALL 25

Which states use the SAT or ACT for federal accountability? 

SEE ALL 12

■ Which states require students to pass a test to graduate from high school? 

SEE ALL 12

All States: What Tests Does Each State Require? - Education Week:

A Portrait of the Artist as Activist: “in the sunlit prison of the American dream” | radical eyes for equity

A Portrait of the Artist as Activist: “in the sunlit prison of the American dream” | radical eyes for equity:

A Portrait of the Artist as Activist: “in the sunlit prison of the American dream”

Standing in Starbucks a few days ago, just a couple weeks after I discovered honey in the sweetener and creamer station, I was peeling open a packet of honey when three lines came to me:

we rape the bees
because they are sweet

because we can

My poet-self writes this way; lines come to me, and I usually type them into Notes on my iPhone and email that to myself to work on when I have time.

Driving to my university office, I rehearsed those lines over and over, priming myself for the rest of the poem to appear—to reveal itself to me.

As a poet, I am often asking myself and the lines that come: What is this about?

I have preferred honey over processed sugar as a sweetener for about three decades, but over the last year, I discovered that among vegans, eating honey is a serious debate; many vegans do not eat honey.

It is a matter of consent.

And while some find veganism an easy target of ridicule, I see such A Portrait of the Artist as Activist: “in the sunlit prison of the American dream” | radical eyes for equity:

‘School Choice Is Not Serving The Most Disenfranchised’ | PopularResistance.Org

‘School Choice Is Not Serving The Most Disenfranchised’ | PopularResistance.Org:

‘School Choice Is Not Serving The Most Disenfranchised’

Above Photo: Kevin Kumashiro: “If we’re now saying that the role of the federal government is not to advance issues of equity, diversity and social justice, but rather to fuel the privatizing and the dismantling of public education, then that absolutely is a big shift.” (photo: Center for Anti-Oppressive Education)

Janine Jackson: There were near-countless causes for concern about the appointment of deep-pocketed Republican Betsy DeVos as secretary of Education. She’s given money to 17 of the senators voting on her. She’s never taught or had her children in public school. She seemed to know little about core educational issues, like the debate over measuring students’ proficiency versus their growth, or whether or not the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act is a federal law. In the end, her line about needing guns in schools for grizzly bears might be the least worrisome thing about her. Yet here we are.

It’s been said that the Education secretary has less day-to-day power than other agency heads. But what does the DeVos appointment represent in terms of this administration’s potential impact on children and schools, and how do we fight for a different vision? Kevin Kumashiro is the former dean of the School of Education at the University of San Francisco, and founder of Education Deans for Justice and Equity. He’s the author of the book Bad Teacher!: How Blaming Teachers Distorts the Bigger Picture. He joins us now by phone from California. Welcome back to CounterSpin, Kevin Kumashiro.

Kevin Kumashiro: Janine, thanks so much for having me.

JJ: I think it’s fair to raise concern about DeVos’s lack of classroom experience, but I can imagine someone who has never taught who nevertheless understood what teachers do. As with other Trump appointments, it seems like it’s not a matter of DeVos not being the “best” person; the problem is she represents a position that’s opposed to the mission of the department. Is that fair to say, do you think?

KK: I think that’s very fair to say. I mean, I think in so many instances, having outsider perspectives can be very helpful, so I agree it’s not about whether or not she herself has taught, although that would be very helpful if she had. It’s more about what is her vision for public education, and what is her track record that shows what she’s already done and where she’s likely to take public education.

And the Department of Education was created in a time when the federal government was leveraging the little money that it has in public education—well, little in terms of the percentage, right? The federal government accounts for only about 10 percent of public school funding. But, you know, it’s a $600 billion-a-year enterprise nationally. There’s lots of money to be made in public education.

So the federal government for several decades, from the ’50s through the ’80s, was actually exerting more and more influence, to try to make public schools address diversity, equity and injustices. That was the hallmark of the string of legislation that came through the federal government that culminated, in 1979, in the creation of the Department of Education.

So if we’re now saying that the role of the federal government is not to advance issues of equity, diversity and social justice, but rather to fuel the privatizing and the dismantling of public education, then that absolutely is a big shift from historically where it’s been going, and a big shift from what should be its primary role in schooling.

JJ: Well, yes, having people in charge of agencies that they don’t think should exist is a special kind of confusing, including for people who have to report on it. But what we get are sort of arguments about ideas and then a lot of buzzwords, and “school choice,” like “accountability,” is a great buzzword. And taking off from what you’ve just been saying about the original intent of the whole department, school choice is being presented as, in particular, a way for students of color and poor kids to access the great equalizer that is education. You know, wealthy kids presumably already have school choice. I find the cynicism of Betsy DeVos professing to care about poor black and brown children almost unbearable. But, first of all, no one says some charter schools haven’t helped some kids, right? But we have data here, and if it’s kids that we care about, those data just don’t support a shift of resources away from public schools.

KK: Oh, absolutely. When we talk about the track record of Betsy DeVos, we should look at Michigan, because it’s in Michigan where she leveraged millions of dollars to rapidly expand the creation of charter schools, at the same time that she pushed for legislation that would deregulate, in other words that would lessen the oversight of charter schools. And particularly in Detroit, this is what we saw, right, a proliferation of charter schools with far less oversight.

And are we seeing the gaps in achievement and attainment being closed? Well, absolutely not. Even proponents of school choice are saying that the very expensive experiment in ‘School Choice Is Not Serving The Most Disenfranchised’ | PopularResistance.Org:

Parent Experiences with Child Care and Preschool Costs in California: An EdSource survey of California Parents | EdSource

Parent Experiences with Child Care and Preschool Costs in California: An EdSource survey of California Parents | EdSource:

Parent Experiences with Child Care and Preschool Costs in California:

An EdSource survey of California Parents

The high cost of child care and preschool is placing a financial strain on California families and has forced many parents of young children to make difficult tradeoffs regarding work and family life, including choosing lower quality programs or even leaving the workforce altogether, according to a survey commissioned by EdSource.

These are some of the findings of a statewide survey of 640 parents in California who have children aged 5 years and under. The representative survey was conducted by phone and online in the summer of 2016 by the polling firm Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz & Associates (FM3). The survey was underwritten by the Heising-Simons Foundation.

Read the full story about the poll findings, along with interviews with parents who are struggling to cope with the high costs of child care and preschool, or scroll down for more detailed data, including poll responses and slides on key questions on the survey.

Downloadable Documents

Child Care Costs Survey Announcement Feb 15

Child Care Poll Results Feb 15

EdSource Child Care Poll Slides

3 documents

Learn more about the issue

February 15, 2017

EdSource poll: Child care and preschool costs force parents to make difficult tradeoffs

e high cost of child care and preschool is placing a financial strain on California families and has forced many parents of young children to make difficult tradeoffs regarding work and family life, including choosing lower quality programs or even leaving the workforce altogether.

These are among the findings of an EdSource survey of 640 parents in California with children 5 years old and younger. The representative poll was conducted last summer by phone and online survey by the polling firm Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz & Associates (FM3).  The margin of error for the overall sample  is +/- 3.8% at the 95% confidence level.

Nearly half (47 percent) of California families with young children said a parent left the job market to address child care needs. One in 10 said they were either encouraged to leave a job or fired because of the demands child care placed on their schedule.

Go to end of story to read about parents’ struggles to cover their child care and preschool costs. 

During the presidential campaign, President Donald Trump put forward a plan he said would “help every family with the costs of child care.” But it is too early to know the extent to which he will promote his plan, what it would consist of, or if it would receive support in Congress. In California, after several years of increases, Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposed 2017-18 budget does not include any additional state-supported child care slots. In fact, Brown proposed postponing adding 3,000 more slots that had been slated for the coming fiscal year.

Findings of the EdSource survey, which was underwritten by the Heising-Simons Foundation, include the following:

Most parents spend more than 10 percent of income on child care or preschool: About 7 in 10 (72 percent) of California parents surveyed who have young children in child care or preschool said they spend more than 10 percent of their incomes to cover the costs of these programs. And 45 percent of these parents said they spend between 10 percent and 30 percent of their incomes on child care or preschool. Of parents with children in a child care or preschool program, 34 percent said they pay $1,000 a month or more for child care, and 29 percent pay that amount for preschool.

Child care costs influence decisions on having children: More than 4 in 10 parents (43 percent) indicated that they chose to delay having another child 

Learn more about the issue:Parent Experiences with Child Care and Preschool Costs in California: An EdSource survey of California Parents | EdSource:

Jeff Bryant News: Betsy DeVos Is Coming For Your Children + More

2/16/2017 – DeVos’s Stumbles Right Out Of The Gate Are Nothing To Laugh About:
Jeff Bryant News: Betsy DeVos Is Coming For Your Children + More

THIS WEEK: What DeVos Did … Choice Causes Segregation … School Integration … Voucher Disaster … Trump’s Muslim Ban

TOP STORY

DeVos’s Stumbles Right Out Of The Gate Are Nothing To Laugh About

By Jeff Bryant

“Betsy DeVos’s … stumbles right out the gate reveal disturbing characteristics of her leadership … Given her lack of experience … it’s perhaps understandable DeVos would not be very knowledgeable about policy ideas that have helped educators transform schools … But what’s most concerning is that she doesn’t seem the least bit interested in those policy ideas … DeVos … portends a near future of ideological warfare over basic education justice in the country.”
Read more …

NEWS AND VIEWS

Betsy DeVos Is Coming For Your Children

Deadspin

“Unlike, say, Ben Carson and Rick Perry, who are totally ignorant of housing and energy policy and have no relevant experience in their new fields, DeVos is highly qualified to implement her vision – children using vouchers to attend Kiddie Cato Institutes in the back of churches, more or less – for America. After all, she’s done it before … The frightening thing about DeVos, though, is less how dystopian her ideas are than how successful she’s been at imposing them. She’s had her way with Detroit … Detroit went from a public school system with an overlay of healthy alternatives to a mess of unregulated choice where the alternatives have begun to swallow the system whole. This is what DeVos wants to bring to America.”
Read more …

Schools In The Nation’s Capital Are Embarrassingly Segregated

The Huffington Post

“The city’s school segregation problem has been exacerbated by school choice policies like the ones currently championed by President Donald Trump and his secretary of education, Betsy DeVos. Charter schools in D.C. are overwhelmingly black. The city’s small voucher program ― which allows kids to attend private schools using taxpayer money ― is designed to serve low-income children, but has actually underserved black kids, the report says. … The benefits of desegregated schools are well-documented … Racially mixed schools are proven to benefit both white students and students of color.”
Read more …

The Promise Of Integrated Schools

The Atlantic

“Two recent reports offer the latest research to point to hopeful trends as more school districts pursue integration – with promising benefits shown for students of color and their white peers in racially diverse classrooms … In 1996 … just two school districts nationwide … used socioeconomic status as a factor in student assignment policies … Today, 91 school jurisdictions deliberately blend affluent and less-advantaged children, totaling over 4 million students, about 8 percent of K-12 public-school enrollment … Racially integrated schools improve education for students of all races and accomplish one immeasurable advantage: helping youth challenge stereotypes and their implicit biases toward people of different races and ethnicities.”
Read more …

Chile’s School Voucher System: Enabling Choice or Perpetuating Social Inequality?

New America

“Chile implemented a universal school voucher program 1981, as part of a series of free-market economic reforms ushered in by Dictator Augusto Pinochet, who rose to power in a 1973 coup d’état … Chile’s voucher program has been widely studied and largely found to have exacerbated inequality, reduced public school enrollment and minimal to no impact on student achievement … Voucher systems are no cure for the inequities that plague our education system.”
Read more …

How The Immigration Controversy Could Drive Up The Cost Of College

The Hechinger Report

“Scores of U.S. schools have come to rely on international students to keep their budgets in the black … That could make [Trump’s] immigration order much more disruptive to higher education than has previously been understood. More than one million international students studied at U.S. colleges and universities last year … Those students added an estimated $35 billion to the U.S. economy … Students from the seven countries in the travel ban alone bring in more than $700 million … Several colleges and universities are already reporting drop-offs in international applications.”
Read more …

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2/16/2017 – DeVos’s Stumbles Right Out Of The Gate Are Nothing To Laugh About:

CURMUDGUCATION: The Proper Use of Mockery

CURMUDGUCATION: The Proper Use of Mockery:

The Proper Use of Mockery

Jimmie Fallon has done it again, and not, I'm afraid, in a good way. 

Fallon has now twice included a Betsy DeVos sketch. His show's version of DeVos is bumbling and clueless, the kind of hapless twit who says, in response to questions about her fitness for the job, replies "I am totally got this."

As regular readers of this blog are well aware, I am not above or beyond mockery of certain subjects (I still kind of miss Arne Duncan). I believe that some well-aimed mockery, some pointed satire, can be just the thing for dealing with difficult individuals, offices, or policies.

But mockery, improperly done, can be dangerous.The dangers are twofold.

First, mockery of little piddly things can take our eyes off the ball. the big, ugly, spikey, dangerous ball that we're not paying attention because we're making fun of someone for tying her shoes badly.

The Trump regime has provided more than ample examples. Quick-- name all the bad policies that came closer to fruition while we were making fun of the Trumpinator's insistence that his crowd was the biggest of them all.

Mind you, little things can matter. I've burned up a lot of internet on little things, because little things are often the key details that tell you what someone really thinks, what they really see, what they're really up to. I have parsed the living daylights out of single sentences because words matter and the ones that people choose matter. But attention to detail is only useful when it helps us see the big picture-- not when it takes our mind off the big picture. For instance, did the fumbling of historic/historical tell us anything important about DeVos (or one of her aides)? I don't think so, nor do I think it was mistake that revealed some unusual confusion; it's a mistake that lots of folks make.

The repeated mistakes with spelling and usage constitute a pattern, showing a carelessness about CURMUDGUCATION: The Proper Use of Mockery:

Our Segregated Capital: An Increasingly Diverse City with Racially Polarized Schools — The Civil Rights Project at UCLA

K-12 Education — The Civil Rights Project at UCLA:

K-12 Education

We are committed to generating and synthesizing research on key civil rights and equal opportunity policies that have been neglected or overlooked.

Well before the passing of the "Leave No Child Behind" Act of 2002, which renewed the nation's interest in K-12 education, The Civil Rights Project had been focused on critical issues affecting this country's elementary and secondary students. CRP believes that equal educational opportunity is a necessary prerequisite to equal educational outcomes. Further, CRP believes that all students benefit from ethnically diverse educational experiences. For the past several years, a main focus of our research has been to demonstrate concrete educational benefits derived from attending diverse elementary and secondary schools. Research in the area of K-12 Education has been extensive with the hopes of having a broad impact nation-wide.

Our current research interests related to K-12 education include:

• The effectiveness of Title I reforms
• High stakes testing
• Dropout trends and remedies
• The impacts and benefits of racial and ethnic diversity in education
• The racial disparities in policies and practices related to special education and school discipline
• Resegregation trends and remedies in our nation's public schools
• Effective educational policies for language minority students (English Language Learners)

Recent K-12 Research

 Our Segregated Capital: An Increasingly Diverse City with Racially Polarized Schools

This report, the last of a series on 13 states and districts, analyzes the magnitude and trend of racial segregation and its educational consequence among schools in the District of Columbia.

 Texas Top Ten Percent Plan: How It Works, What Are Its Limits, and Recommendations to Consider

 

 The Promise and Peril for Universities Using Correlates of Race in Admissions in Response to the Grutter and Fisher Decisions

 

 Can Socioeconomic Status Substitute for Race in Affirmative Action College Admissions Policies? Evidence From a Simulation Model

 

 Two Decades After the Affirmative Action Ban: Evaluating the University of California’s Race-Neutral Efforts

 

 The High Cost Of Harsh Discipline And Its Disparate Impact

This report carefully and conservatively quantifies the costs of suspension in two highly populated states, Florida and California, and for the nation.

 Realizing the Economic Advantages of a Multilingual Workforce

As markets have transitioned from agricultural to industrial to what is now the information age, there are tremendous opportunities for those who can analyze, collaborate, and communicate with people all over the world while providing services in the local language of the client. These workers can compete for work in their home markets and in markets where their language fluency puts them at an advantage over those with only monolingual skills—like many in the American workforce.

The Civil Rights Project / Proyecto Derechos Civiles
8370 Math Sciences, Box 951521
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1521
crp@ucla.edu

“Public Schools Flush with Cash” — Trump’s Assessment Is Tragically Inaccurate | janresseger

“Public Schools Flush with Cash” — Trump’s Assessment Is Tragically Inaccurate | janresseger:

“Public Schools Flush with Cash” — Trump’s Assessment Is Tragically Inaccurate

It is state budget season, a time fraught with accusations and distortions and even alternative facts, but one thing is very clear. When President Donald Trump declared in his Inaugural Address that public schools are “flush with cash,” he was either ignorant about some very basic realities or he was hinting about some sort of scorched earth federal policy—or both.

The President’s own federal budget proposal is due within weeks, and Robert Greenstein of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities worries about what he thinks are likely to be large cuts to domestic discretionary spending: “Many of the cuts in the Trump team’s blueprint come from plans that the Heritage Foundation and the Republican Study Committee (RSC) issued last year, according to The Hill. The Heritage report called for more than $8.5 trillion in non-defense cuts… while the RSC report called for almost $7.5 trillion in such cuts. Moreover, the ‘Penny Plan’ that President Trump proposed during his campaign would slash non-defense discretionary funding by 2026 to an amount 37 percent below the 2010 level, adjusted for inflation, and nearly 40 percent below its lowest level under Ronald Reagan, when measured as a share of the economy. Rep. Mick Mulvaney, Trump’s nominee for OMB director, supports the Penny Plan.”

What are the realities across the state governments, where about 40 percent of school funding comes from? Despite the distortions induced by state budget politics, it is pretty clear that public schools are in trouble in many places.

Take Chicago, where, the Chicago Tribune reports: “Through legislation in Springfield, (Mayor Rahm) Emanuel’s administration had struck a tentative deal for the state to send CPS (Chicago Public Schools) an additional $215 million for teacher pensions, but that fell through when (Governor Bruce) Rauner vetoed the plan… Because of Rauner’s veto, according to the district, “Public Schools Flush with Cash” — Trump’s Assessment Is Tragically Inaccurate | janresseger:

CURMUDGUCATION: I Am Not Hostile To Change

CURMUDGUCATION: I Am Not Hostile To Change:

I Am Not Hostile To Change

Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos spoke today to a gathering of Magnet School folks, and opened up by suggesting that "some people" are "hostile" to change.

I just want to be clear. I am not hostile to change. In fact, there are some changes that I would love to see.

I would love to see a change in the rhetoric about failing schools. Instead of declaring that we will "rescue" students from failing schools and offering lifeboats for a handful of students, I'd like to change to a declaration that where we find struggling and failing schools, we will get them the support and resources that they need to become great.

I would love to see a change in how we approach the communities where those schools are located. Instead of pushing local leaders aside so that outsiders who "know what's best" for them can swoop in and impose decisions for them instead of letting them have control of their own community.

I would love to see a change in how teachers are treated. Instead of trying to bust their unions, smother their pay, ignore their voices , and treat them as easily-replaced widgets, I would like to see teacher voices elevated, listened to, respected, and given the support and resources that would CURMUDGUCATION: I Am Not Hostile To Change:

DeVos: DC Protesters “Hostile to Change”; “Keeping Kids In and New Thinking Out” | deutsch29

DeVos: DC Protesters “Hostile to Change”; “Keeping Kids In and New Thinking Out” | deutsch29:

DeVos: DC Protesters “Hostile to Change”; “Keeping Kids In and New Thinking Out”

On February 15, 2017, US Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos spoke at the 2017 National Policy Training Conference of the Magnet Schools of America.

It was her first public speech as secretary of education. She chose to use the occasion to portray protests against her as closed-mindedness and nothing more than “hostility to change.”

Below are her remarks in full, as posted among the US Department of Education press releases:

Good Afternoon:

Thank you for that kind introduction Todd, and thank you for inviting me to be here with you.

I want to begin by expressing my appreciation for all you do. I would like to share some thoughts on how I hope to support your important work, but first, let me just comment on something you may have seen on TV.

Last Friday, a handful of protestors tried to block my entrance into Jefferson Middle School Academy here in D.C. While I eventually made it in, and had very constructive conversations with Chancellor Wilson, many DC administrative leaders, some terrific teachers and Principal Dohmann, the protestors’ behavior is a reflection of the way some seek to treat our education system – by keeping kids in and new thinking out.

Friday’s incident demonstrates just how hostile some people are to change and to new ideas. Without realizing it, we, too, can fall victim to this trap of seeing our work in education as an “us vs. them” approach.

I know this to be true throughout the reform community, where there are those who claim to be champions of education, but they really only support their respective “sectors.” These silos are unnecessary and unproductive in our common goal to serve all students. So I applaud your work to expand and improve options for all children through magnet schools.

The education of a child is not a zero-sum game. When a student excels academically, we do not place an asterisk next to his or her name based on the type of school he or she attends.

I want to encourage you today to look beyond the walls of your schools, beyond the invisible lines of your community, and let’s renew our commitment 

DeVos: DC Protesters “Hostile to Change”; “Keeping Kids In and New Thinking Out” | deutsch29:

Kasich Proposes Requirement That ALL Educators Complete On-Site Work Experience

Kasich Proposes Requirement That ALL Educators Complete On-Site Work Experience:

Kasich Proposes Requirement That ALL Educators Complete On-Site Work Experience

Governor John Kasich’s latest budget bill, House Bill 49, contains a variety of non-budget related legislation (as has always been the case), but one short section tucked far into the budget has captured the attention of teachers and administrators more than any other — a requirement to complete an “internship”, of sorts, in order to renew a license.

Here is the exact language from page 1,056 of the bill:

Sec. 3319.236. Beginning September 1, 2018, the state board of education’s rules for the renewal of educator licenses shall require each applicant for renewal of a license to complete an on-site work experience with a local business or chamber of commerce as a condition of renewal. Work experience obtained pursuant to this section shall count toward any required continuing education. Each local professional development committee established under section 3319.22 of the Revised Code shall work with its teachers to identify local work experience opportunities that meet the requirements of this section.

While some educators have reached out to us asking if this only applies to some teachers (career-tech teachers, for example), the proposal as Kasich has submitted it makes no such differentiation between any particular job, but links it directly to the holder of any educator license.

This means that such a requirement would apply equally to licensed PreK and Kasich Proposes Requirement That ALL Educators Complete On-Site Work Experience:

Hybrid Learning, Cicada Killers & the Next Big Fight | Seattle Education

Hybrid Learning, Cicada Killers & the Next Big Fight | Seattle Education:

Hybrid Learning, Cicada Killers & the Next Big Fight

Those seeking to privatize our schools know framing the conversation is key. That’s why institutions like the MacArthur Foundation have put serious time and money into social science research. Focus group results have been refined into sophisticated campaigns designed to convince us that digital education for children is superior to face-to-face instruction with a certified teacher. The goal? Put technology front and center in 21stcentury school redesign, and push human beings to the sidelines. Please disregard the fact that many giants in the tech world choose to send their children to Waldorf schools where natural materials and learning in relationship are the norm. I’m hoping this cicada killer post will be a bit of a shock to the system, one that can help reframe the current conversation about digital education and spur us to action. I know you’re curious, but bear with me, the insect portion of the story comes near the end.

We’re actually making it easy for the digital education lobby. Most of us ARE enamored of technology. It’s tempting to be lulled by arguments that adaptive online learning will somehow optimize our children’s brains for the new economy. If it’s innovative, it must be good. Personalization? Bring it on! And for students in underfunded schools with leaky roofs and tainted water, the arrival of technology brings a glimmer of hope that someone actually cares. But are we bridging a digital divide? Or are we setting our schools up for digital dehumanization down the road?

Over the past decade education activists have been conditioned to see the struggle between neighborhood schools and charter schools as our primary fight. Pitched battles have been waged for years, up to and including the successful opposition to Ballot Question 2 which would have lifted Massachusetts’ cap on charter schools. While we’ve exhausted ourselves fighting bricks and mortar charter expansion a new threat has slipped in with little fanfare, and that threat is hybrid or blended learning. It could actually end up being MORE devastating than its charter predecessor.

Barely a month after Question 2 was voted down, the Massachusetts Personalized Hybrid Learning, Cicada Killers & the Next Big Fight | Seattle Education: