I'm going to remind you that this weekly post is all about amplification. They way people get heard on the interwebz is to be shared, far and wide, again and again. Every single person who can click can help out with that. So if you read something here that speaks to you, share it. Post it (from the original source) on your Facebook or Tweetster or whatever platform you hang out upon (which is important, because as folks spread out across various platforms, it takes a little more work to get the word to them all).
Sharing really is caring, and the bigger your personal audience, the more amplification you can provide. Okay, here we go.
The story of Erie is encouraging. A school district that at one point seriously considered closing all its high schools has put together a remarkable coalition to lift it up out of the ditch. Yeah, I don't think much of test scores as a measure, but several measures, something is going right up there.
Nancy Flanagan with a heck of a post asking some of the important questions that most NAEP panic coverage is missing.
Politico offers some reportage on how things are working out for some families in Texas and Florida.
A post about the political machinations of the anti-LGBTQ crowd in South Carolina.
The Science of Reading and the Media: Is Reporting Biased?
Former area teachers say they left profession feeling exhausted, unsupported
From Maren Aukerman at the Literacy Research Association, an excellent rundown of what's going on in the current iteration of the Reading Wars.
After a bruising Michigan election, what’s next for Betsy DeVos and her education agenda?
After a bruising Michigan election, what’s next for Betsy DeVos and her education agenda?
Chalkbeat Detroit considers the DeVos fortunes after their shellacking-by-proxy in Michigan's elections.
Teacher activist Nicole Wolff in Arizona reflects on an election that was exhausting and not entirely encouraging in its results.
TC Weber with some things to think about considering relationships and canned SEL programs
From Fargo, a look at teachers who have been worn down by problems with student behavior and a lack of support in dealing with them.
Cynical MAGA censors are damaging public education
Always interesting to see how these things look to people outside the education bubble. Here's nominally-conservative Jennifer Rubin at the Washington Post offering her take on the reading restrictions movement.
NC Baptist: On book bans, Moms for Liberty sure has a narrow view of liberty
And here's a take on book banning from a card-carrying Baptist in the South.
Jeff Waid continues his series with a look at the arguments being made to reduce pensions for teachers.
Yes, this is a decade or two late, and yes, Rick Hess has been pretty close to the problem he's critiquing. But he's not wrong. At Ed Week.
Elsewhere, a piece I wrote is in the official magazine of the official superintendents' association. It's about the connections between small towns and their schools.
Over at Forbes, I looked at some standards movement fans spinning their wheels and still not understanding where they went wrong, and then I picked up on Oklahoma's stated intent to require taxpayers to fund religious charters.
And here's your weekly reminder that you can get all of this stuff via substack--free and delivered straight to your inbox.
Re: Forbes article
ReplyDeleteThose standards-based cheerleaders who think the problem was a more structured curriculum really don't get it. Engage NY provided just that and beyond (scripted) - and still it was a spectacular failure in practice. When testing pressure (threats, punishment, teacher evaluations, etc.) becomes high stakes for teachers and administrators and school districts, finding the right curriculum is a no-brainier: It's the test, stupid. And that means the very narrow set of standards that repeatedly appear on the tests. Teachers were free to ignore the many CC standards that were not tested.
We need to shed a little light on a lesser-known attempt at imposing national standards on the full k to 12 range. The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) are the spawn of Common Core and will prove to be even more detrimental to science instruction than its bigger siblings. There was less pressure on states to adopt them, but the NGSS and their imitations are widespread. They are built on so many false assumptions and debunked methodologies that it will be like watching a slow-motion train wreck as they unfold. Take a look at CA as it is ahead of the curve on this.