CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: My Brother's Birthday Edition (3/24)

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: My Brother's Birthday Edition (3/24)

 ICYMI: My Brother's Birthday Edition (3/24)

It's my brother's birthday today. I'll have to tell you my brother's story someday-- it's an object lesson in how predicting a child's future when they are still in school is, in fact, a fool's game. In the meantime, here is your weekly batch o'reading.

If More Teachers Were Men   

Another way of looking at the issues surrounding teacher policy as the result of teachers being mostly women and teacher policy writers being mostly sexist. One of those "you may not agree with everything  but it's something to think about" articles.

Can We Recommend Teaching As A Career

One more Floridian voice contemplating the wretched mess that is Florida education policy

Ohio Charters Need a 22% Raise? Really?

As Ohio charters shift from "We can do more with less" to "We need more money," a blogger looks at some of the numbers behind that request.

New York's Testing System Is Broken

As Black and Brown students are once again shut out of NYC's top high schools, Jose Luis Vilson takes a look at how messes up the system is.

Parents Are Part of the Problem

Looking at the issues of academic anxiety for teens, and how parents are making it all worse.

Here's What Betsy DeVos Has To Say About Indiana's Failing Virtual Schools   

Almost everyone agrees that Indiana's cyber schools are a mess crying out for serious intervention. Guess who thinks they're just swell.

Arts Should Be Core Education, Not Optional Add-ons

From Commonwealth magazine, an argument for arts education .

Trump Is Trying To Change the Meaning Of Instructor, and It's Not Good 

From Forbes (and not by me), this looks at another troubling trend on the federal level.

How Do We Know It Won't Work?   

A look at the historical record on public-private funding of schools.

Code of Conduct for Politicians and Test Makers 

If we're going to worry about accountability, Steven Singer has some thoughts for an oft-overlooked group.

Blaming Teachers Easier Than Addressing Poverty   

Somebody should point out how wrong Eric Hanushek is at least once a month. Here's this month's entry.

Campbell Brown's Union Busting Organization Is Dead   

And here with the autopsy is the indispensable Mercedes Schneider.

Atlanta Votes To End Democratic Control Of Schools

Thomas Ultican looks at how Atlanta's board decided to go portfolio.

John Engler and Me

How much of a freakin' jerk is Michigan's education-busting former governor. Nancy Flanagan has a story. Spoiler alert: it will not make you like him more.

Reasons That Children Have Reading Problems That Reformers Don't Talk About   

What! You mean it's not just that teachers don't know how to do their jobs properly?? Nancy Bailey takes a look.

A Lifelong Teacher

Public education lost a dear friend and tough advocate with the recent passing of Phyllis Bush. Here's a beautiful tribute from the Journal Gazette

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: My Brother's Birthday Edition (3/24)

Goodhart's Law And The BS Test

23by Peter Greene / 19h

When discussing the problems of test-based accountability, we've long used Campbell's Law as the go-to framer of the related problems. For the absolute top of the field, get a copy of The Testing Charade by Danielk Koretz . Campbell's law is not very pithy, but it illuminates beautifully: The more any quantitative social indicator is used for social decision-making, the more subject it will be to

Stop Talking About Student Achievement

100+by Peter Greene / 1d

If I told you that my student had achieved great things in school this year, what would you imagine I meant? Maybe she started reading longer books with heavier vocabulary and deeper themes. Maybe she not only read them, but spent time thinking about the ideas they contained. Maybe she improved her technical facility and musicality when playing her flute. Maybe she conducted an impressively compl

MAR 22

Foolish Canadian Grit

32by Peter Greene / 1d

Proving that dumb knows no national boundaries, Ontario's Education Minister Lisa Thompson this week defended the plan to increase class size by making this observation : This woman. "When students are currently preparing to go off to post-secondary education, we're hearing from professors and employers alike that they're lacking coping skills and they're lacking resiliency," Thompson told CBC Rad

MAR 21

TN: Taxation Without Representation

20by Peter Greene / 2d

Tennessee's Governor Bill Lee has set a brick on the gas pedal of the school privatization bus, and that bus is driving right through the powers of democratically elected school boards. Lee's very first budget proposal was unveiled at the beginning of the month, supported by Lee's deep, insightful observation "Choice is good." The budget has big money for vouchers; Lee is going with the education

What Education Reformers Get Wrong

71by Peter Greene / 2d

Hard to believe that it took until now for a big voice in the reformster world to write a post entitled " What education reformers believe, " but last week Mike Petrilli (Fordham Institute) did the job. It's not entirely thorough (we'll get to that). To start, Petrilli himself notes that there's been a lot of reformster angst about using the term "reformer ," but he's willing to take a shot at cla

MAR 20

Bill Gates Thinks The Textbook Is Dying. Is He Right?

by Peter Greene / 3d

The annual Bill and Melinda Gates letter features nine "surprises," including one trend sure to affect classrooms--if it really happens. "Textbooks," says Gates, "are becoming obsolete." What he's really describing is how computer-driven mass customized personalized learning can supplant some aspects of traditional classrooms: Suppose you’re taking high school algebra. Instead of just reading a c

MAR 19

Play Unlocks The World

100+by Peter Greene / 5d

I will beat this drum until my knuckles crack and collapse-- small children do not need academic acceleration, they do not need test prep, they do not need soul-sucking worksheets. They need to play. The folks at Defending the Early Years have another excellent video that drives the point home. Kisha Reid speaks for just a couple of minutes here, but there are a couple of lines that really jump ou

MAR 18

DeVos Voucher Tour Hits Iowa

52by Peter Greene / 5d

Secretary of Education Betsy "The Federal Government Shouldn't Meddle In State Education Affairs But I Have This Policy I Really Really-- Oh What The Heck I Can Make Peace With Federal Overreach When It's In The Service Of Something I Want" DeVos has decided to get out there and stump for her Education Freedom Scholarships . For those of you late to this party-- EFS are one more shade of lipstick

MAR 17

A Huge Problem With Personalized Learning In One Sentence

by Peter Greene / 6d

You know there's going to be trouble when you see the headline of the article on eSchoolNews-- "T aking personalized learning to scale. " But then, this is a business that regularly uses the oxymoron " mass customization " without irony. But two paragraphs in, Dr. Monica Burns , curriculum and educational technology consultant and founder of ClassTechTips.com,, is quoted from a webinar: When it co

An Open Letter To TFA Re: Strikes

21by Peter Greene / 6d

We appear to be between teacher strikes at the moment, so this might be a good time to draw attention to Seth Kahn's open letter to Teach for America. When the Oakland teachers walked out, there was some question about what TFAers should or should not do . A previous open letter from TFA alumni suggested that guidance from TFA leadership was that honoring a strike would cost the TFA members. TFA w

ICYMI: Ignoring St. Patrick's Day Edition

by Peter Greene / 7d

The Irish contribution to civilization is huge and their history in America is instructive, but don't get me started on the wearing of the green. At any rate, I have your weekly reading list handy. Remember to share! Southwest Key Schools, Charters and Immigrants How to make money from the misery of children, and how charters tie to the detention of immigrants. A charter operation makes millions,

CURMUDGUCATION - HTTP://CURMUDGUCATION.BLOGSPOT.COM/

NYC Educator: Can This Happen Here?

NYC Educator: Can This Happen Here?

Can This Happen Here?

Some geniuses in Indiana thought it would be a cool idea, during an "active shooter drill," to actually shoot teachers. They decided to be sports about the whole thing and used non-lethal bullets. However, just because they didn't kill the teachers, don't assume they didn't injure them:

Teachers at an elementary school in Indiana were left with bruises, welts, and in some cases bloody and broken skin during an active shooter drill in January where they were shot multiple times with plastic pellets.

You don't believe this stuff until you see it, but once you do it makes sense. After all, in the United States, when there's a mass shooing in a school, you'd think we'd move to keep lethal weapons from criminals. You'd think wrong, of course. You can still get an AR-15 if you feel like shooting up a school. No, in America the conversation becomes about arming teachers.

This is in stark contrast to New Zealand and Australia, which reacted to atrocities by banning the weapons that caused them. So it's not a huge jump to imagine some troglodyte deciding to physically assault teachers to impose his idiotic philosophy upon them. There are a lot of crazy people around. A fair portion of them are educational administrators. Did the administrators in Indiana know this was going to happen? It appears so, because they seemed to be fine with it:

"They shot all of us across our backs," the teacher, who did not wish to be identified, told the newspaper. "It hurt so bad."
The school's Facebook page posted a photo on Jan. 4, thanking the White County Sheriff's Department for training its staff members. "Safety is priority at ML!" the post  CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: Can This Happen Here?

2019 Medley #6: WTF Edition | Live Long and Prosper

2019 Medley #6: WTF Edition | Live Long and Prosper

2019 Medley #6: WTF Edition

Dear Life: WTF, Shooting Teachers as PD, Children are Trying to Save the Planet, Intelligence: Not a Plus for Presidential Candidates

WTF! Some days are like that.

DEAR LIFE: WTF

A lifelong teacher

Everyone who knows me or reads this blog knows by now that our BFD of NEIFPE, Phyllis Bush, passed away last week. Last year Phyllis gave me a tee shirt that said, “DEAR LIFE: WTF.”

I agree. The children of Indiana have lost a champion in the fight to save public education.

You can read some of the many tributes to Phyllis HERE.

“Whether it is taking a kid to the zoo or to Zesto for ice cream, whether it is writing a letter to your legislators, whether it is running for office, whether it is supporting your favorite charity, DO IT! Monday morning quarterbacks are of little use to anyone. Whatever you do, live your life to the fullest. Do what matters to you.”

Godspeed, Phyllis. You were a teacher. You did what matters.

SHOOTING TEACHERS AS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: WTF

Teachers were ‘shot’ with fake bullets ‘execution style’ during active shooter training, ISTA says

There aren’t enough WTF’s for this news. The idea that teachers need to “learn” how terrifying it is to be in an active shooter situation is just WTF insane.

The problem is not that teachers (and students) don’t know how to react in an “active shooter” situation…the problem is that there are too many f#%@ing weapons in the hands of lunatics.

During active shooter training, some Indiana teachers were “shot execution style” with “projectiles” that caused welts and blood, according to the  CONTINUE READING: 2019 Medley #6: WTF Edition | Live Long and Prosper

My Favorite Posts That Appeared In March | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

My Favorite Posts That Appeared In March | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

MY FAVORITE POSTS THAT APPEARED IN MARCH

I regularly highlight my picks for the most useful posts for each month — not including “The Best…” lists. I also use some of them in a more extensive monthly newsletter I send-out. You can see older Best Posts of the Month at Websites Of The Month (more recent lists can be found here).

You can also see my all-time favorites here. I’ve also been doing “A Look Back” series reviewing old favorites, too.  Check out A Look Back: 2018’s Best Posts From This Blog – Part Two.

Here are some of the posts I personally think are the best, and most helpful, ones I’ve written during this past month (not in any order of preference) There are a lot of them this month:

NEW STUDY SAYS STUDENT SELF-ASSESSMENT EFFECTIVE & IT MAKES ONE PARTICULAR USEFUL POINT

GOOGLE DOODLE LETS YOU CREATE YOUR OWN MELODY IN THE STYLE OF JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH

AMAZING POEM BY ONE OF OUR AFGHAN STUDENTS

MY LATEST BAM! RADIO SHOW IS ON INTEGRATING WRITING INTO SOCIAL STUDIES CLASSES

YOU’LL WANT TO READ THIS WASH. POST ARTICLE FEATURING HMONG STUDENTS FROM OUR SCHOOL

SHOCKER (NOT!) – RESEARCH FROM ED TECH COMPANIES INFLATES EFFECTIVENESS OF THEIR PRODUCTS

IS ANY TEACHER SURPRISED THAT NEW STUDY FINDS TEXTBOOKS NOT KEY TO STUDENT LEARNING?

“MR. FERLAZZO, CAN I LEAD THE VISUALIZATION TODAY?”

NEW RESEARCH RE-CONFIRMS THAT POSITIVE TEACHER-STUDENT RELATIONSHIPS MATTER

THIS ARTICLE SHARES SOME OF THE BEST ADVICE YOU’LL FIND ON GIVING FEEDBACK

INTRIGUING RESEARCH ON ABSENTEEISM

“SLAVEVOYAGES.ORG” UNVEILS NEW SITE & IT’S AMAZING – & TRAGIC

“KNOWLEDGE QUESTIONS” FROM MY CLASSES FOR THEIR TOK ORAL PRESENTATIONS

“TEXTLY” LOOKS LIKE IT COULD BE A HELPFUL TOOL FOR STUDENT WRITERS

THIS ARTICLE IS ONE OF THE BEST PIECES I’VE READ ON CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT

WAYS TO TURN A BAD TEACHER-STUDENT RELATIONSHIP INTO A GOOD ONE

HOW COULD I HAVE NOT KNOWN ABOUT GOOGLE’S “DATA GIF MAKER”?

GUEST POST: RESTORATIVE PRACTICES & THE STRUGGLE AGAINST “DUNGEON THEORY”

NEW – TO ME, AT LEAST – RESEARCH ON INTRINSIC MOTIVATION

HOME CULTURE PROJECT – WITH NEW EXAMPLES & STUDENT HANDOUTS!

THIS QUOTE IS A GREAT ONE FOR SHOWING THE IMPORTANCE OF A GROWTH MINDSET

STATISTIC OF THE DAY: REPORT SAYS THAT NONWHITE SCHOOL DISTRICTS GET $23 BILLION LESS THAN WHITE ONES

STUDY FINDS THAT TOUTED “PERSONALIZED LEARNING” TECH PLATFORM WASN’T EFFECTIVE

MY LATEST BAM! RADIO SHOW IS ON DISCIPLINE DISPARITIES AFFECTING BLACK GIRLS

My Favorite Posts That Appeared In March | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

Stand Up For LAUSD Parent Voices

Stand Up For LAUSD Parent Voices

Stand Up For LAUSD Parent Voices

We are looking at our Board rules soon to make sure that we can hear all voices. Time of meetings and all things I think are valid concerns.”– LAUSD Board Member Nick Melvoin

While other local school districts hold School Board meetings in the evening when working parents can attend, the LAUSD holds their meetings during the school day. This would change under the “Board Meeting Accessibility to the Public” resolution that I have proposed to the Board. (The text of this resolution can be found at http://www.changethelausd.com/resolution_board_meeting_accessibility_to_the_public)

The LAUSD Board has placed this resolution on the agenda for their March 26, 2019, Committee of the Whole Meeting. In order to ensure that they fully discuss this item and schedule it for a vote, the community must demand action. Please attend this meeting and sign up for public comment so that you can express the importance of CONTINUE READING: Stand Up For LAUSD Parent Voices