We've got newbies around here, so let me review the idea behind this weekly digest. I have a platform--not a huge one, but a platform--only because people once upon a time boosted my signal. Folks like Anthony Cody and Nancy Flanagan and Jennifer Berkshire and especially Diane Ravitch, plus lots of other folks, too. I started out not really knowing what I was doing other than venting a great deal of frustration. I was at the time a long-standing classroom teacher in a small town with bot a single direction to the wider world of education policy and practices, but people found what I wrote useful at times and shared it and amplified it and here I am, still at it.
I'm here with more than three readers because folks helped boost my signal, and so I feel a powerful obligation to boost other signals. Yes, I also always have an urge in life to point at interesting things and say, "Look at that!" Hence the teaching career. But the one thing we can all do is boost the signals of people who are saying things that are important, useful, helpful, recognizable as True. So I have a blogroll on the side column of my regular blog, and I have this weekly digest that lets me say, "Look at all these smart people saying smart things. Maybe you missed it, but I don't think you should."
So when you see something here that speaks to you, go to the original source and share it on your social mediums. Boost that signal. We have an extraordinary infrastructure in place for spreading ideas and words, even if it is a pipeline that delivers toxic waste as easily as lifegiving water. But when I think of the kind of trouble it took for someone like Thomas Paine to get his word out in a country just a smidgeon the size of ours today, I think how lucky we are to be alive right now, and how we have such a powerful chance to spread whatever good words we see.
So do that. Some of the people who appear here don't really need my boost--they have strong audiences of their own. That's okay-- an expanding audience is always a good thing, and this is one of the ways we move forward in 2025--by amplifying what is good and right. So join me every Sunday, and share what you find that speaks to you.
So here we go.
Colbert King in the Washington Post commenting on the loss of one more library to culture panic actors.
Speaking of libraries, Nancy Flanagan looks at how the very wealthy used to spend their money.
Yeah, you already know why, but Cara Elizabeth Furman in The Conversation really makes it clear. Like this:
The term “fidelity” comes from the sciences and refers to the precise execution of a protocol in an experiment to ensure results are reliable. However, a classroom is not a lab, and students are not experiments.Sixth period horseback riding lessons
Meg White looks at the state of education in Arkansas, and it's not pretty. But it does come with riding lessons.
Jan Resseger looks at the possible treats we might get under McMahan's leadership.
If you read me, you probably already read Diane Ravitch regularly, but I don't want you to miss this one. A reminder of how much Joe Biden disappointed us in education, and the tale of how NPE dug up evidence of costly charter shenanigans, and the ed department just waved it on by.
Measure Once, Cut Twice...or Something
Andrew Ordover writes a thoughtful post about the nature of assessment and the ways we have been led into the weeds on the subject.
At Hechinger Report, Jill Barshay looks at debate over calculus and the question of whether or not there's reason to cram it into high school senior's heads and/or transcripts.
John Merrow is a long-time top education reporter, now sort of retired. He addresses one of my favorite issues--the importance of blue-collar vocational training in a world that keeps telling students they must go to college.
Writer, scholar and teacher Jose Luis Vilson writes about the power of listening. While you're going to look at this, you should be subscribing to his blog.
Audrey Watters watched 60 Minutes fawn over Sal Khan, and she hasn't forgotten when they previously fawned over his predictions about changing the face of education-- twelve years ago. Not to mention all the crap in between.
Nancy Bailey on some standardized assessments that collect data, label students, and generate income--but not much else of use.
Nobody does better at capturing the grit and detail of Tennessee education shenanigans than TC Weber, and the beauty of it is that even if you aren't in Tennessee, you can see and recognize the patterns of how these things work. Like, say, a school board that fails to hold its superintendent's feet to the heating grate, let alone the fire...
Nate Bowling continues a post-election series with a look at school vouchers, and what they mean to those who already have privilege.
Will The Real Wackadoodle Please Stand Up.
Dubuque private school raises tuition by 58% after voucher expansion
How messed up are you when even a Moms for Liberty chapter says you are in the wrong. In Florida, a Conservative School Board Association member got caught at the M4L summit talking smack about everyone in the district where she sits on the board. Sue Kingery Woltanski has the run down on Jessie Thompson.
Dubuque private school raises tuition by 58% after voucher expansion
Once again, the advent of vouchers is treated like a windfall by private schools who just jack up prices. Reported by Zachary Oren Smith for the Iowa Starting Line.
Maurice Cunningham does the work the Globe won't. Who's actually bankrolling that Science of Reading lawsuit.
Pedagogy of the Depressed
The Pennsylvania Society is Decadent and Depraved
How Christian extremists are co-opting the book of Esther
Don't Bite the Hand That Feeds You
And of course, subscribe to my newsletter to get everything I crank out in an easy-to-put-off-till-later email form. Free now and free forever.
I did talk about this post from Benjamin Riley already this week, but it is too hilarious/sad to miss. A quick scan of some of the AI for education "training" out there.
What do rich folks like Jeff Yass do in Pennsylvania to figure out how they're going to handle their lessers? Turns out there's a whole organization for that. Lance Haver reports for the Philadelphia Hall Monitor.
Not strictly about education, but an interesting explication of one thread of far-right christinism that's on the march these days.
Jess Piper looks at some of the myths on the left about rural Americans, and boy do I feel her.
At Bucks County Beacon this week I added to the copious literature on the subject of What Trump Might Mean for Education.
At Forbes.com I wrote about Ohio's place in the march on cell phones.
I also wrote about the federal voucher bill and, frankly, am a bit concerned to see low readership numbers on the piece, not on my own account, but because this bill could turn out to be a major issue, and I'm afraid people aren't paying attention to just how bad it could be.
If you are moving over to Bluesky, you can find me there at @palan57.bsky.social
Just a rhetorical question…Did President Biden’s education policies disappoint us more than President Obama’s?
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