Sunday, May 28, 2023

ICYMI: Memorial Day Weekend 2023 Edition (5/28)

Facebook showed me the pictures I took on Memorial Day 2020. I had missed the usual observances, the marching down our main street for the morning parade, and so I went up and took pictures of the empty park, the empty street. Man, that was a crappy year. Tomorrow we'll be back to normalish. Glad to be there. In the meantime, here's some reading from the week.

Teacher Stress Is Not Inevitable

Ar EdWeek. The subheading is "But first we need to stop making teachers the Band-Aids for systemic inequalities." So you know they're at least partly on the right track.

The Building Boom Continues Despite A Loss Of Students

Carl Petersen in LA reminds us that charters are as much about real estate as education. Lots of capacity being built, even as demand shrinks.

The Big Shill: Jon Keller and Keri Rodrigues Conjure Some Sunday Morning Hocus Pocus

Maurice Cunningham blogs about more antics of the National Parents Union, aka the Walton-Koch Reformster Astroturf Office.

Objection to sexual, LGBTQ content propels spike in book challenges

The Washington Post did some research and number crunching around the issues of book banning, and the results show some stunning facts about the anti-book movement.

The Proposed Ohio House Bill 103 Would Politicize K-12 Public School Social Studies Standards and Fail to Prepare Our Children for Democratic Citizenship

Jan Resseger looks at a bill that promises to make a mess out of social studies in Ohio. 

Many transgender health bills came from a handful of far-right interest groups, AP finds

Surprise, surprise. Most of these bills are coming from the same place (like voucher bills, etc)

Mindful AI: Crafting prompts to mitigate the bias in generative AI

AI has a bias problem (always has). Here Kieran Snyder at Textio talks about how that problem could be addressed (and offers some charts showing how bad and subtle it is). 

How to Fight the Right’s Moral Panic Over Parental Rights

Jennifer Berkshire at The Nation writes about how some folks are successfully defeating the moral panic that is choking on its own too-much.

‘Culture wars’ candidates for Oregon school boards mostly lost

The Oregonian reports on the less-than-super showing of the anti-LGBTQ, anti-book crowd.

Male teachers are dying out in the education system. Here's why — and how to bring them back

From KSL in Utah, a look at the problem with, and need for, male teachers. How could Utah (or any other state) do better?

One state just became a national leader on child care. Here’s how they did it.

It's Vermont. Rachel Cohen has the story at Vox. 

Wes Moore calls out politicians who ‘ban books and muzzle educators’

Politico looks at the Maryland governor who decided to take a culture war stand.


Thomas Ultican's review of the Alexandra Robbins book I already told you to go buy, but if you want further convincing...

Juggling Glass Cups, Plastic Balls, and Ghosts

Yolanda Wheelington talks about one model for helping break down work-life balance for teachers, and why some teachers stay. 

Why Do Science of Reading Advocates Accept Unscientific Third-Grade Retention?

Nancy Bailey has some actual science regarding the retention of third graders, and she wants to know why certain science fans don't pay attention.

U.S. mothers labor force participation rate

It's up. Way up. This Axios piece offers a little context, some interpretation, and a graph.

The Last Daze of School

Gregory Sampson's piece took me right back to those final days of the year. 


McSweeney's, with a great piece by Ashley Ingle. Fun times. 

Over at Forbes, I took a look at Annie Abrams excellent book about AP courses. Plus, a new working paper that shows one more problem with cyber charters. 

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1 comment:

  1. The efforts in VT to expand prek-K through the public school system is what TN put in place several years ago- until the Republicans gained super majorities in the General Assembly & the Gov seat. They've been whittling away at it for 2 decades now. I wish Democrats would make Head Start & Early Head Start universal by expanding it to all income levels. Head Start is directly funded through the federal govt so states can't deliberately under-fund it. They serve infants, toddlers & PreK, have an excellent curriculum; HS provides health screenings, family supports, meals & transportation. Expanding Head Start would help millions of families across the country. https://www.acf.hhs.gov/ohs

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