CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: Too Much Snow Edition (1/20)

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: Too Much Snow Edition (1/20)

ICYMI: Too Much Snow Edition (1/20)

While you're waiting to dig out (or feeling clever because you live somewhere where you don't have to), here are some pieces from the week for your reading. Remember to share. Only you can amplify writer voices.

These Students Walked Onto Westminster Campus And Into History

Another chapter from the history of integration in the US.

Five Years After Common Core A Mysterious Spike In Failure Rate Among NY High Schools

Huh. What could it be? The Hechinger Report lays out the phenomenon.

League Of Women Voters Calls For Charter Changes 

The usually-quiet League has some feelings about the problems with charter schools-- and they're getting some flack for them.

Summit Learning-- Where's The Research

Summit Learning would rather not let Havard take a look any their actual results-- but they would like to claim that such research has happened.

Cory Booker and Charters

While LA teachers were striking and raising the issue of charter schools, Cory Booker was at a charter school for a rally. Steve Singer takes a look at Booker's privatizing history.

Kids in Disadvantaged Schools Don't Need Tests To Tell Them They're Being Cheated 


Boy, have I missed Jersey Jazzman, but he's back at the blogging biz, strong as ever (only now we have to call him Dr. Jazzman).

Writing As Filling In The Blanks

You may be unaware that the creator of the Mr. Fitz comic strip also blogs, and has some important things to say about the state of test-driven faux writing instruction.



CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: Too Much Snow Edition (1/20)

Why TFA Doesn't Get More Edu-respect

by Peter Greene / 20h

The title of the article is "I Switched Jobs 4 Times--Each With A $20,000 Bump. " It is part of the series "My 6-Figure Paycheck." This article is a quick interview with a Head of Talent Acquisition in San Francisco who currently makes $117,000 for a salary. She went to UC Berkeley for poli sci and then picked up a masters in project management from Northeastern, and her interview includes this pa

US Teens At Their Worst

200+by Peter Greene / 21h

This is one of the more upsetting things I've seen in a while. This MAGA loser gleefully bothering a Native American protestor at the Indigenous Peoples March. pic.twitter.com/jIb5K68vIs — Talia (@2020fight) January 19, 2019 From other angles, it only gets worse It’s even worse when you see the full mob effect. pic.twitter.com/Oe7Zn5srOB — Lulu Says (@lulu_says2) January 19, 2019 And here's a desc

JAN 18

DeVos Offers Advice From Within The Bubble

54by Peter Greene / 1d

Betsy Devos is rich. She was born rich, married rich, and barring any French Revolution style upheaval, she will die rich. This does not automatically make her evil, but it does make her susceptible to life in a bubble-- particularly since she never created nor ran any of the businesses that made her wealthy. And it's important to remember all this when she starts waxing rhapsodic about the lesson

JAN 17

If You Care About Early Childhood Education

100+by Peter Greene / 2d

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you know I have concerns about the current direction of education for the littles. These are not strictly academic concerns-- between. children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews, there are seven members of my family in the under-five age bracket. So I am happy to see this announcement in my in-box from Defending the Early Years: DEY is excited to announce

Oh, Arne.

by Peter Greene / 2d

Arne Duncan is always talking and it's never good. Let's take a look at two recent batches of word salad thrown up by the former secretary of education and current ed reform gun-for-hire. Earlier this month the Duncanator was the keynote speaker at Morgan Park High School' s career day in Chicago. The appearance would have been unexceptional had Duncan not spelled out in perhaps the starkest terms

JAN 16

FL: The Unsurprising Teacher "Shortage"

300+by Peter Greene / 3d

The Florida Department of Education has released a report on teacher shortages in the state , for the 2019-2019 school year, and the news is not great. The news is not just that there's a shortage (t hat's old new s), but that Florida deals with the shortages by filling classrooms with teachers uncertified for the subject. The news is also in where the shortages are being felt. It's not unusual to

JAN 15

Jeanne Allen on LAUSD: Fire Them All

91by Peter Greene / 5d

The Center for Education Reform is a charter advocacy group whose most visible feature is Jeanne Allen, CEO and sometimes President of a board that includes pioneering privatize Chris Whittle. Allen loves charters and hates teachers unions. As you might guess, she has some thoughts about the LA teacher strike. After I wrote about the strike at Forbes.com, the Pinkston Group , a PR fit, shared some

JAN 14

SAT: New Frontiers In Pointlessness

100+by Peter Greene / 6d

David Coleman, he who single-handedly built the architecture of Common Core ELA in the image of his own (untrained) biases about how language should be taught, is taking a step back from some of his College Board duties. That news has been accompanied by further evidence that the SAT is increasingly pointless. Like most of the CC architects, isn't stick around to make sure his baby was properly in

JAN 13

ICYMI: Jazz In Church Edition (1/13)

by Peter Greene / 6d

Today was m day to visit my brother's church to play some jazz versions of old hymns. Fun times, but it ace for a full family day. Nevertheless, I have some reading for you from the week. Remember-- if you think it's a good one, share it and amplify the voice. Charter Lobby Still Spending Money in Connecticut Wendy Lecker lays out the ways in which the usual charter lobbyists are still plying thei

JAN 12

Four Reasons Charters Are A Bad Fit For Rural Communities

70by Peter Greene / 7d

For just a moment, I'm going to set aside the larger problems of charters and privatization nationally. Charter advocates and education reformers have recently turned their attention to rural communities. Last summer, Mike Petrilli (Fordham Institute) unleashed one of his wide-release op-eds to point out the "problem" of "charter deserts" --those markets where charter schools have made few inroad

JAN 11

Why The Reading Wars Will Never End

100+by Peter Greene / 8d

I made the mistake of tossing a comment into the middle of a twitter thread on Monday. Not a nice quiet subject like vaccinations or abortion or Trump's wall, but reading. As soon as it became apparent that thread would blow up and swallow my feed, I could have asked to be cut loose or just muted the participants, but I was curious. How much longer would this go on? The answer is that after five d

JAN 10

GA: Cyber Schools Failing Here, Too

39by Peter Greene / 9d

In what could be news only to someone who has not been paying any attention to cyberschooling in the US, a report from Georgia's Department of Audits and Accounts found that the state's cyber schools "underperformed ." Mind you, I'll argue that the state's College and Career Ready Performance Index is a lousy way to measure the performance of schools. But those are the rules that reformsters want

JAN 09

Bill Gates Is Still Pushing Common Core

500+by Peter Greene / 10d

Sigh. You've undoubtedly heard the news over the past couple of days-- the Gates Foundation is going to throw $10 million at teachers to help promote "high-quality" curriculum. There are several problems with this, and none of them are new. First, despite the headlines, this money is not actually being thrown directly at teachers. “We want to identify the content-specific professional development

Id: Ibe Hp Vp Bs

23by Peter Greene / 10d

Idaho Business for Education (IBE) is "a group of nearly 200 business leaders from across the state who are committed to transforming Idaho’s education system." IBE works with the legislature and key Idaho stakeholders to help set our students up for success in school, work and life, and build the workforce that will lead to a vibrant economy for years to come. Our 2019 initiatives include the Sc

JAN 08

PA: How Charters Damage a Public School System

100+by Peter Greene / 11d

Erie has come a long way since the days that visitors would travel to the beaches just to be appalled by the dead fish on shore, the days when Western Pennsylvanians called it "The Mistake on the Lake." The waterfront is now pristine and beautiful, the city now boasting great theaters, hotels and recreation. But public education is still struggling. Just two and a half years ago, the previous sup

JAN 07

Why You Can't Fire Your Way To Excellence

100+by Peter Greene / 13d

For some reformsters and accountability hawks, the dream remains the same-- find those Bad Teachers, fire them, and replace them with Awesome Teachers. Crack the accountability whip and fire our way to excellence. We have discussed some of the obvious flaws with this approach. How do you even define a Bad Teacher, and is it a permanent condition or a day-to-day variable? How do you find your Bad T

JAN 06

ICYMI: Still Waiting for Winter Edition (1/6)

by Peter Greene / 14d

Still no snow in my neck of the woods, but still plenty of writing about education to be read. Remember, sharing is caring. Keep That Same Energy Jose Luis Vilson has my favorite kick off the new year piece. Check it out. Excuse Me While I Teach Your Child A greatest hits fun and games from McSweeney's 

CURMUDGUCATION - https://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/

Denver’s Portfolio Model School District Is a Failure! | tultican

Denver’s Portfolio Model School District Is a Failure! | tultican

Denver’s Portfolio Model School District Is a Failure!

Here is a predictable outcome from the portfolio district. On Jan. 18, 2019, a press release from the Denver Classroom Teachers Association (DCTA) says,

“After ten hours of negotiations today, the Denver Classroom Teachers Association and Denver Public Schools were unable to reach an agreement on a fair compensation system for 5,700 teachers and special service providers. DCTA members will vote Saturday and Tuesday on whether or not to strike.”

The portfolio model which promotes disruption as a virtue is anti-union. It is not conducive to stable harmonious relations with either labor or communities and it is anti-democratic. Denver is held up as an exemplar of school reform; however the outcomes look more like a warning. Increasing achievement gaps; a bloating administration; significantly increasing segregation; ending stable community schools; and stripping citizens of their democratic rights are among the many jarring results.

Former Denver School Board Director, Jeanne Kaplan, wrote extensively about an article in EducationNext championing school reforms in Denver. It was based on a podcast by the guru of school reform and privatization in the Clinton administration, David Osborne. Kaplan noted,

“2009 was … the first time outside money appeared in [School] Board Election campaigns. Stand for Children came with the goal of making the board “more reform oriented”… In spite of their $30,000 expenditure per candidate – which at the time was unheard of – our side, as Osborne notes, won the election. Each following election more and more reform money … appeared …. In addition to Stand, Democrats for Education Reform, Students First, and wealthy local businessmen, both Democrats and Republicans, … put enormous amounts of money and human capital to be sure … a unanimous board was achieved. Much of the money while identified by independent expenditure committee remains hidden as to who is making the individual contributions. In 2011 the people were able to hold on to a “mighty minority” of three: 4-3. In 2013 the minority dwindled to one: 6-1. In 2015 the Board was unanimously “reform”: 7-0.

This has become a central thesis of the portfolio model strategy. A Chalkbeat article quotes Ethan Gray of Education Cities on the strategy. Gray who recently CONTINUE READING: Denver’s Portfolio Model School District Is a Failure! | tultican

CURMUDGUCATION: Why TFA Doesn't Get More Edu-respect

CURMUDGUCATION: Why TFA Doesn't Get More Edu-respect

Why TFA Doesn't Get More Edu-respect

The title of the article is "I Switched Jobs 4 Times--Each With A $20,000 Bump." It is part of the series "My 6-Figure Paycheck."

This article is a quick interview with a Head of Talent Acquisition in San Francisco who currently makes $117,000 for a salary. She went to UC Berkeley for poli sci and then picked up a masters in project management from Northeastern, and her interview includes this paragraph:

In hindsight I am so glad I decided to take a 'detour' and do Teach For America. It changed my career trajectory for the better, and I’m a very happy and fulfilled person now because of that decision.

She did that for two whole years (8th grade English) and then worked as a "recruiter finding teachers for low-income communities" which sounds suspiciously like a TFA recruitment job. She did that for two years as well, then moved on.

I'm sure that the eighth graders she taught and the teachers who helped her get through those two years (which had to be tough, because 8th grade English is tough) are happy that they served as a useful detour in building her career and helping her reach her maximum earning potential, though as far as being "passionate" about her work, she says this:

It is a passion, but it's not my only passion. I think the pressure to be passionate about your work CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Why TFA Doesn't Get More Edu-respect

The Hill Blunders Louisiana’s Student Privacy Law | deutsch29

The Hill Blunders Louisiana’s Student Privacy Law | deutsch29

The Hill Blunders Louisiana’s Student Privacy Law

In a January 18, 2019, opinion piece entitled, “Student Privacy and the Law of Unintended Consequences,” The Hill opinion contributors, Jules Polonetsky and Amelia Vance, assert that Louisiana’s student privacy law has gone too far:

In 2014, the Louisiana legislature passed a law to protect student privacy. It required parents to approve nearly any collection and sharing of student data. In other words, no student information — no accomplishments or addresses, no batting averages or GPAs — was to be shared without a parent’s express permission.

And the law wasn’t merely a suggestion. It had teeth. Violations — even accidental ones — by teachers or principals, carried with them the weight of fines and jail time.

But protecting student privacy wasn’t the only outcome of passing this particular law. Facing the possibility of heavy fines or ending up in prison for even a well-intentioned mistake, teachers and administrators in a number of schools told us they were so afraid that they stopped collecting or sharing data for almost any reason. They stopped printing school yearbooks. They stopped announcing football players’ names at games. They stopped hanging student artwork in the hallways. Some even stopped referring students to state scholarship funds. All unintended consequences of a well-intentioned effort to protect student privacy.

Apparently, Polonetsy and Vance are themselves trying to honor Louisiana’s privacy law by not identifying the “teachers and administrators in a number of schools” who are afraid to print yearbooks and announce players’ names at football games.

Well, my name is Mercedes Schneider; I am a Louisiana high school teacher, and I have not heard of such a ridiculous practice, which, if it is indeed practiced by some (unnamed) Louisiana teachers or admin, only demonstrates lack of CONTINUE READING: The Hill Blunders Louisiana’s Student Privacy Law | deutsch29

Thoughts From A “Retired” LAUSD Parent – redqueeninla #UTLAStrong #StrikeReady #March4Ed #WeAreLA

Thoughts From A “Retired” LAUSD Parent – redqueeninla

Thoughts From A “Retired” LAUSD Parent

The fallout of emptying one’s nest is not quite as expected.  How long it takes to accumulate dishes enough to justify running the dishwasher; how different is the consumption-spectrum of groceries; how discombobulating it is to manage unsplintered stretches of time – these are some of what is surprising.

But what remains undiminished, if not firmer, is the self-evident truth that education is an unalienable right and the rich are colluding in ways that deny it from the poor.

The palpable feel about town is overwhelming support for UTLA teachers.  It’s been puzzling for a decade or more how the reputation of the apple-wielding teacher could have changed so and in such short-order. Gone was the iconic arbiter of fairness and love, even if sometimes tough, the benevolent overseer, champion of and ally in the hard work of learning. She was replaced in reputation by a feckless closet-predator with the temerity to draw public wages for their schema.

It turns out this revolution in perception is neither ‘just one of those innocent things’ nor happenstance.  It is a concerted effort to devalue, degrade and deskill teachers, to “soften the market” for corporate takeover. And it turns out everyone on the street seems to have kinda known this.  Write it out and it looks like paranoia.  Live it and you can feel the truth, palpably.

To and from today’s tremendous rally in front of LA’s City Hall, you could feel CONTINUE READING: Thoughts From A “Retired” LAUSD Parent – redqueeninla

With A Brooklyn Accent: The Unacknowledged Economic and Political Forces Which Shaped the Rise of Rock and Roll

With A Brooklyn Accent: The Unacknowledged Economic and Political Forces Which Shaped the Rise of Rock and Roll

The Unacknowledged Economic and Political Forces Which Shaped the Rise of Rock and Roll

Dr Mark Naison Fordham University

 As someone who has taught a course called “From Rock and Roll to Hip Hop” for sixteen years, I have been frustrated by the absence of an historically grounded, nuanced, explanation for the rise of Rock and Roll comparable to the one we have for the origins  of hip hop.

 Every historian of the subject agrees that Rock and Roll arose, during the early 1950’s, when a variety of figures in the music industry, mostly in small record companies and local market radio stations, noticed that white youth were buying rhythm and blues records that had originally be targeted for an all black market, and decided that giving  a non-racial label to the music could lead to a vastly expanded market and far greater profits.  They were able to do this,  historians argue, because of a post war prosperity that put disposable income in the hands of ( mostly white) adolescents, allowing them to emerge for the first time in US history as a “teenage consumer market” to which an exciting, and rebellious form of popular music could be marketed and sold. In doing this, the DJ’s, record company entrepreneurs and concert promoters who were the formative figures in the rise of Rock and Roll- the Allan Freed’s and Sam Phillips’s of the world- ended up crossing racial barriers with deep roots in American culture and history, provoking and angry reaction not only from segregationists and white supremacists, but from a cross section of political and religious leaders who felt the music undermined important moral standards. Rock and Roll, which began as a marketing innovation, ended up subverting racial norms and undermining racial CONTINUE READING: With A Brooklyn Accent: The Unacknowledged Economic and Political Forces Which Shaped the Rise of Rock and Roll