ICYMI: All of July Edition

It's been a few weeks since I had a reading list for you, and this is certainly not the complete list of what I could recommend, but there are still only so many hours in a Sunday.

Tea Party Charter Leader Admits Becoming a Cyber School Was Simply a Way To Get a Charter

From Eclectablog, which should be on your must-read list, one more example of how the charter sector (particularly in Ohio) is a playground for charlatans and bunko artists. This at least qualifies as a slightly new manner of fraud...

Read Like Detective

Another excellent article from the "Why Common Core Sucks" genre. You know most of these pieces, but Johnathan Chase finds a good way to put them together and connect the dots.

Trump: Tribune of Poor White People

This interview with J.D.Vance, author of Hillbilly Elegy, is not just an excellent explanation of why Trump keeps winning, but is also a sharp look at the culture of poor, white poverty in this country.

Inequality Is for Winners

Jennifer Berkshire's interview with Tom Frank, author of Listen, Liberal, is a good companion piece to the previous article on the list.


Is Plagiarism Really a Big Deal?

This is a double-win, because it's Nancy Flanagan, and she references a piece by Paul Thomas. While the hook is recent issues with the P word, she connects this to the kind of ethical issues we deal with in any classroom where students can steal ideas or writing (aka "most of them")

Understanding KIPP Model Charter

Jim Horn here shares the entire second chapter from his book Work Hard, Be Hard, a look at the world of No Excuses teaching. It's sobering and scary and helps answer the question, "How bad can it be, really?"

Students Broken Moral Compasses

Teacher Paul Barnwell looks at what the test-driven education revolution has cost us in student moral education.

School Funding and Presidential Hypocrisy

So once again, politicians and their children are saying, "Poor kids should have the same choices rich kids do," which sounds pretty, but as Jersey Jazzman shows, it's empty noise unless we talk about what that would actually cost. Over at EdWeek, Andrew Ujifusa takes a look at the same issue-- so you can get a good hard, two-headed look at what it would really cost to actually do this.

Have Obama's Education Policies Weakened the Democratic Party


A pretty blunt look at Obama ed policies and how they damaged the traditional Democratic Party relationship with education.

The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same

Bianca Tanis gives the most complete look at the new NY test result numbers-- and how big a mess the whole thing is.

Pence and ALEC

Yes, if you read here, you undoubtedly read Diane Ravitch. But don't let this quick piece get lost in the shuffle, reminding us that ALEC has some big dogs in play in this election.

Love Letter to My Dead Student

A guest writer at Edushyster delivers this heart-thumping piece.