tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65346650867495532872024-03-18T13:27:47.817-04:00CURMUDGUCATIONA grumpy old retired teacher trying to keep up with the world of education.
Peter Greenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16511193640285760299noreply@blogger.comBlogger4971125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post-49248489138531358252024-03-17T14:45:00.002-04:002024-03-17T14:45:31.477-04:00OK: Walters Wants To Take Local Mess National<p>Oklahoma's Education Dudebro In Chief Ryan Walters has produced a steady stream of ugliness. That hasn't stopped; in fact, it's apparently seeking a national audience.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA6mDvnveZxB6QXXoruz0HVZ7o0jZVjTOdmOc3W-7UqKSHzNK_87wF8el4wOX1C_H0yDw4OCn72muv1UApXFPZlK2hXfT36qN5uDI713M9fgt3NtljYxxvomqc5TqQNyzoAdelixVpEL2GDp6HNEVg5EwiGtFF6zxN6-OQOZHvRVSkrFOdfCmGpk9DGh29/s580/walters%20car.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="332" data-original-width="580" height="183" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA6mDvnveZxB6QXXoruz0HVZ7o0jZVjTOdmOc3W-7UqKSHzNK_87wF8el4wOX1C_H0yDw4OCn72muv1UApXFPZlK2hXfT36qN5uDI713M9fgt3NtljYxxvomqc5TqQNyzoAdelixVpEL2GDp6HNEVg5EwiGtFF6zxN6-OQOZHvRVSkrFOdfCmGpk9DGh29/s320/walters%20car.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><p>Walters drew headlines for moves like <a href="https://atlantablackstar.com/2023/07/07/oklahoma-superintendent-of-schools-falsely-claims-tulsa-race-massacre-wasnt-about-skin-color-in-racist-rant/">explaining that Tulsa Race Massacre was not about race</a>. He called the teachers union a<a href="https://www.kosu.org/politics/2023-05-04/in-heated-meeting-oklahoma-state-superintendent-calls-teacher-unions-terrorist-organizations"> "terrorist organization."</a> He also proposed a host of rules for restricting reading, mandatory outing of students, searching out the dread CRT, and backing it all up with threats to take away a district's accreditation if they dared to defy him. And he followed the Chris Rufo playbook and <a href="https://twitter.com/kayleeolivastv/status/1737914199034991006">announced his intent to ban DEI from all schools</a>. Walters wants to see the state "<a href="https://twitter.com/RyanWaltersSupt/status/1744758392931914195">champion religious freedom</a>," like the Catholic "public" charter school that the state is trying to launch (and their <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2023/10/21/oklahoma-attorney-general-sues-to-stop-nations-first-religious-charter-school/">Republican attorney general is trying to stop</a>). Somehow, "religious freedom" means to Walters that the Ten Commandments s<a href="https://twitter.com/RyanWaltersSupt/status/1742272463713554928">hould be posted in every single classroom</a> in the state.</p><div> <div>In keeping with<a href="https://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2022/09/ok-ryan-walters-is-bad-news-for-public.html"> the screw-ups he orchestrated</a> before taking office, Walters managed to fumble away a bunch of grant money and piss off staff--staff who were sympathetic to his agenda--to the point<a href="https://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2023/12/ok-ed-secretary-ryan-walters-terrible.html"> that they walked out. </a> And he's still<a href="https://news.yahoo.com/campaign-reports-cost-state-schools-105521802.html"> cleaning up after fines </a>from his campaign for office. </div><div><br /></div><div>He went out of his way to <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/oklahoma-ryan-walters-transgender-teen-school-records-rule-rcna130816">stop a sixteen year old trans student</a> from changing some paperwork. His reaction to the death of Nex Benedict was such a mean-spirited reactionary mess (one part "we want students to feel supported" and two parts "LGBTQ students must be hold the hard truth that their existence is an ugly terrible lie") that 350 groups signed a letter<a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/oklahoma-education-superintendent-ryan-walters-fire-anti-lgbtq/story?id=107626475"> demanding he get the hell out of office</a>, as he has fostered "a culture of violence and hate." Walters is a prime example of the kind of faux christianist MAGA strain running through too much of our country these days, drawing targets on marginalized people, calling them all manner of ugly names, signaling that the power of the state will be used to silence and erase those people, and then denying that any of this creates a culture of hate and violence. It's spectacularly unChristian behavior offered in the name of Christ. </div><div><br /></div><div>And yet, Walters apparently senses that he's destined for bigger things on a broader stage. </div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/2024/03/14/ryan-walters-oklahoma-spending-state-money-boost-national-media/72962977007/">Jennifer Palmer of Oklahoma Watch reports </a>that Oklahoma taxpayers have helped Walters hire a PR firm that, among other things, is sending out pitches like this:</div><blockquote>An open letter called for Ryan’ (sic) immediate removal from office for, the letter claims, “fostering a culture of violence and hate against the 2SLGBTQI+ community in Oklahoma schools.<br /><br />Ryan responded to the letter saying: ‘[this is a] standard tactic of the radical left, and they will stop at nothing to destroy the country and our state.’<br /><br />Want Ryan on to discuss?</blockquote><p>Palmer was ahead of this story, <a href="https://oklahomawatch.org/2023/11/02/walters-administration-wants-to-hire-someone-to-get-more-national-media-exposure/">reporting back in November</a> that the Oklahoma Education Department was looking <a href="https://oklahomawatch.org/2023/11/02/walters-administration-wants-to-hire-someone-to-get-more-national-media-exposure/">to hire a PR firm</a> to provide print and digital op-eds to national outlets, provide national bookings, coordinate national events and appearances for executive staff, write speeches and handle some communications. That included a minimum of three op-eds, two speeches and 10 media bookings per month. This in addition to the in-house comms department.<a href="https://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2023/11/ok-walters-itching-for-national-stage.html"> It sure looked like Walters wanted to be bigger.</a></p><p>So <a href="https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/2024/03/14/ryan-walters-oklahoma-spending-state-money-boost-national-media/72962977007/">Oklahoma has hired a PR firm from Virginia </a>to craft pitches like the one above and presumably to deliver all that national exposure Walters is looking for. </p><p>The firm is <a href="https://voughtstrategies.com/">Vought Strategies,</a> They seem like a great fit. Their website includes a testimonial from Jim DeMint calling the firm's founder, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/mary-vought-03bb726/">Mary Vought</a>, "one of the best conservative communicators and public relations specialists in the nation." Mary Vought has been at it for a decade; previously she did coms work in the US Senate and House of Representatives, <a href="https://www.iwf.org/people/mary-vought/">working for folks like Ron Johnson and Mike Pence</a>; she's also a senior fellow for the far right Independent Women's Forum, and the executive director of the <a href="https://www.senateconservatives.com/#about">Senate Conservatives Fund</a>, an outfit that endorses the likes of Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, and Rick Scott. And she cranks out pieces like<a href="https://dailycaller.com/2023/05/28/vought-democrats-are-now-referring-to-protecting-children-as-parental-crap/"> this one for the Daily Caller </a>in which she writes "as a parent" (not a conservative PR operative) that she doesn't want her daughter reading naughty books. Or <a href="https://voughtstrategies.com/fox-news-i-have-a-child-with-a-disability-and-nih-has-made-a-scary-proposal-that-could-impact-millions-like-her/">slamming NIH</a> for Fox News. Or<a href="https://voughtstrategies.com/wsj-he-taught-ap-history-now-he-targets-teachers-for-being-too-woke/"> noting a Wall Street Journal profile of Walters</a>, saying "we proudly stand beside our clients as they fight to protect our children and parental rights."<a href="https://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2023/11/ok-walters-itching-for-national-stage.html"><br /></a> </p><p>In short, she seems like just the person to be running PR for whatever it is that Walters is trying to do with his profile.</p><p>Meanwhile, in Oklahoma, where he was elected to serve an actual function, Walters <a href="https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/politics/government/2023/12/19/ok-legislators-issue-subpoena-of-documents-from-ryan-walters/71977373007/">draws cranky comment</a>s from legislators about his lack of transparency, and reports<a href="https://ktul.com/news/local/hand-picked-education-staffer-resigns-citing-lack-of-leadership-in-oklahoma-state-department-of-education"> that he's mostly out of the office</a>. Asked about the expense of $30,000 of taxpayer money to hire Walters some PR services, his regular patron, Governor Kevin Stitt <a href="https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/politics/state/2024/03/15/oklahoma-governor-kevin-stitt-no-comment-ryan-walters-taxpayer-money-pr-firm/72990185007/">said a whole lot of nothing</a>. </p><p>It continues to look as if the taxpayers of Oklahoma are not getting anything like their money's worth out of Walters. Hard to say what job he is auditioning for at this point, but it seems easier to say how much Oklahoma taxpayers should have to pay to fund his clip reel-- $0.00. </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p></div>Peter Greenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16511193640285760299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post-25379448051003154632024-03-17T06:30:00.015-04:002024-03-17T06:30:00.131-04:00ICYMI: My Least Favorite Holiday Edition (3/17)I have nothing against the Irish, who arguably helped save western civilization as we know it, and who suffered a lot abuse and mistreatment. But this holiday? I will spare you the rant.<div><br /></div><div>Oh, and this nonsense about a leprechaun sneaking into the house and making a mess? Whoever came up with this idea is getting their own special corner of hell, and while I love elementary teachers a lot, I am pleading with them to please stop spreading this big fat PITA faux tradition to their students. <br /><div><br /></div><div>Plenty to read, though, so let's start into the list. I put this list together kind of on the fly every week, and if I have missed something worthwhile, that's on me. There is so much to read and so many writers who deserve attention, and if I missed something or someone this week, that's a measure of my inefficiency, not their worthiness. </div><div><br /></div><a href="https://2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.com/i-told-you-so/"><b>I Told You So</b></a><div><br /></div><div>Audrey Watters comes back to the world of ed tech for a quick recap of why she was just proven right when she dismissed Udacity as junk.</div><div><br /></div><a href="https://www.the74million.org/article/americans-have-yet-to-accept-covids-tragedy-and-are-taking-it-out-on-schools/"><b>Americans Have Yet to Accept COVID’s Tragedy — And Are Taking It Out On Schools</b></a><div><br /></div><div>Conor P. Williams and The 74 have been on the wrong side of plenty of education issues, but this piece about how schools have taken endless blame for a nation's flubbed pandemic response is absolutely worth the read.</div><blockquote>Yet here on the other side of that disaster, we’re determined to assign blame for dips in U.S. students’ academic achievement, as if learning loss could have — should have — been avoided in a moment of <a href="https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/more-70-us-household-covid-spread-started-child-study-suggests">widespread viral transmission and mass death</a>. Say it plain: There was no educational and public health playbook that could have wholly averted the pandemic’s impacts on kids.</blockquote><a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/kentucky/articles/2024-03-14/kentucky-governor-ready-to-campaign-against-school-choice-measure-if-it-reaches-fall-ballot?src=usn_tw"><b>Kentucky Governor Ready to Campaign Against School Choice Measure if It Reaches Fall Ballot</b></a><div><br /></div><div>Kentucky continues to stand up for public education. Report from the AP.</div><br /><a href="https://www.boisestatepublicradio.org/politics-government/2024-03-12/idaho-house-committee-kills-private-school-tax-credit"><b>Idaho House committee kills private school tax credit</b></a><div><br /></div><div>From Boise State Public Radio, some good news from Idaho, of all places.</div><div><br /></div><a href="https://teacherinastrangeland.blog/2024/03/15/dissecting-republican-messaging-101/"><b>Dissecting Republican Messaging, 101</b></a><div><br /></div><div>Nancy Flanagan looks into some of the GOP machinery driving some messaging in Michigan (where Betsy DeVos still lives and does her thing).</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://radicalscholarship.com/2024/03/15/science-of-movement-repeating-mistakes-of-education-reform-cycles/"><b>"Science of" Movement Repeating Mistakes of Education Reform Cycles</b></a></div><div><br /></div><div>Paul Thomas explains who we need to be doubtful when someone starts waving around the science banner in education.</div><a href="https://www.phillyburbs.com/story/news/local/2024/03/12/central-bucks-andrew-burgess-duane-morris-suspension-lawsuit-aclu-pa-lgbtq-discrimination/72935663007/"><b><br />Central Bucks to pay suspended teacher, attorneys $425k, remove references to report</b></a><div><br /></div><div>In Central Bucks, PA, the new school board continues to deal with the messes made by the former MAGA majority, including finally getting some justice for a teacher who was punished for standing up for an LGBTQ student. Jo Ciavaglia reports.</div><div><br /></div><a href="https://deutsch29.wordpress.com/2024/03/14/misleading-no-kid-hungry-ad-school-meals-already-free/"><b>Misleading “No Kid Hungry” Ad: School Meals Already Free</b></a><div><br /></div><div>Seem those "No Kid Hungry" ads? The indispensable Mercedes Schneider has, and she did some digging. Why are they soliciting by talking about schools that already have free and reduced lunch programs? Who is behind this organization, and where does your contribution actually go? The answers are far less heartwarming than the commercials.</div><div><br /></div><a href="https://time.com/6917632/history-wars-teacher-survey/"><b>Culture Warriors—on Both Sides—Are Wrong About America’s History Classrooms</b></a><div><br /></div><div>At Time, some researchers from the American Historical Association offer a new perspective on what's actually happening in history classrooms.</div><div><br /></div><a href="https://www.al.com/news/2024/03/library-organizations-react-to-prattville-library-firings-a-travesty.html"><b>Library organizations react to Prattville library firings: ‘A travesty’</b></a></div><div><br /></div><div>A library board in Alabama decided to hide a bunch of naughty books, and when the librarian filled a legitimate journalist open records request about the matter, they fired the librarian. <br /><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://thejosevilson.com/professional-development-done-with-us-not-to-us/"><b>Professional Development Done With Us, Not To Us</b></a></div><div><br /></div><div>Jose Luis Vilson has looked at many many hours of teacher PD, and he has some ideas about how to make the whole operation a little more useful.</div><div><br /></div><a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/03/12/1237497833/students-schools-cybersecurity-hackers-credit"><b>Hackers are targeting a surprising group of people: young public school students</b></a><div><br /></div><div>Reporting from Kavitha Cardoza at NPR about the hot new frontier in data hack-and-grab. How good is the cybersecurity at your school?</div><div><br /></div><a href="https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2024/03/07/when_classical_schooling_meets_public_education_the_dialog_isnt_always_socratic_1015923.html"><b>When Classical Learning Meets Public Education, the Dialogue Isn't Always Socratic</b></a><div><br /><div>A bit over-sympathetic, but still an interesting look into the various threads in the Classical Learning world, courtesy of Vince Bielski at RealClear.</div><div><br /></div><a href="https://otherduties.substack.com/p/rep-april-cromer-and-her-allies-dox"><b>Rep. April Cromer and her allies dox librarians</b></a></div><div><br /></div><div>And that's not all. Steve Nuzum reports from South Carolina on this Moms for Liberty MAGA menace.</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://janresseger.wordpress.com/2024/03/14/president-biden-proposes-urgently-needed-federal-education-budget-increases-for-fy-2025/"><b>President Biden Proposes Urgently Needed Federal Education Budget Increases for FY 2025</b></a></div><div><br /></div><div>There's some good news for public education in the newly proposed budget. Jan Resseger has some details.</div><div><b><br /></b></div><a href="https://nancyebailey.com/2024/03/15/can-early-academic-pressure-cause-learning-disabilities/"><b>Can Early Academic Pressure Cause Learning Disabilities?</b></a><div><br /></div><div>Nancy Bailey looks at what the experts have to say about the effects of making kindergarten the new first grade.</div><div><br /></div><a href="https://accountabaloney.com/it-could-have-been-worse-an-update-on-floridas-2024-session/"><b>It Could Have Been Worse: An Update On Florida’s 2024 Session</b></a><div><br /></div><div>Sue Kingery Woltanski sums up the latest legislative session in DeSantisland. </div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/03/11/1237730819/florida-dont-say-gay-law-settlement-lgbtq"><b>Florida teachers can discuss LGBTQ topics under 'Don't Say Gay' law, settlement says</b></a></div><div><br /></div><div>But of course the big news in Florida is the settlement around one of the state's attacks on the First Amendment. NPR has a fine summary, but you might also<a href="https://popular.info/p/update-say-gay-florida"><b> like the one from Judd Legum</b></a>. <br /><div><br /><div><a href="https://apnews.com/article/catholic-charities-wisconsin-tax-0e6f66953879a15841aff1502ee5821e"><b>A Wisconsin ruling on Catholic Charities raises the bar for religious tax exemptions</b></a></div><div><br /></div><div>AP reports on a decision that makes it harder for Catholic Charities to claim exemptions. Basically, if they're doing secular stuff, they can't claim religious exemption. Does this have anything to do with education? I'm wondering, so I'm putting a pin in it here.</div><div><br /></div><a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/179776/heritage-foundation-viktor-orban-trump"><b>How Viktor Orbán Conquered the Heritage Foundation</b></a></div><div><br /></div><div>These are the same folks who are pushing so hard to dismantle public education and establish voucherfied privatized education in its place. This piece by Casey Michel in The New Republic will not sooth your heart.</div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/179397/evangelical-app-targeting-immigrants-surveillance"><b>How Evangelicals Use Digital Surveillance to Target the Unconverted</b></a></div><div><br /></div><div>Also from the New Republic, and not related to education, but holy cow! Several layers of creepy scary going on here.</div><div><br /></div><div>Join me on substack. The more subscribers I have, the more this stuff gets pushed out into the world. It's easy, and it's free.</div><div><br /></div></div>
<iframe frameborder="0" height="250" scrolling="no" src="https://curmudgucation.substack.com/embed" style="background: white; border: 1px solid #EEE;" width="480"></iframe></div>Peter Greenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16511193640285760299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post-55569929737616224662024-03-15T10:17:00.002-04:002024-03-15T10:18:48.188-04:00Conflict, Silos, and ChoiceOne of the less common arguments in favor of school choice is that public schools are just a mess of conflict because people of different beliefs are forced to educate side by side. Wouldn't it be better if everyone could just go off into their own little silo and educate just with like-minded people?<div><br /></div><div>Well, no. It wouldn't.</div><div><br /></div><div>A couple of decades back, I went to Divorce School. The tuition is very high, and other people have to help pay the cost of your education, so I don't recommend it. But you can learn a lot there.</div><div><br /></div><div>One thing I learned is that if conflict exists, you cannot disappear it somehow. What may feel like putting it off or tamping it down is really just putting it into an escrow account where it compounds interest and eventually emerges even huger than when you stuffed it in there. If the conflict exists, you are going to deal with it, one way or another, sooner or later. </div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv23VmZLSPP0Mi27iuskNJlnHb43ZORltfrwXw7F_2ha99ubpssTe3e8J_sc1W6czGwIQUyivNprvUm7xXpe7xQTAqiXnGshh5cPNRfJ6z8flYmtxonek04hhpru8YgvPP-1HzBD__cABlqgtnEmE5NHGAfYzIKfV96DEbqMU2UXRfQufMhjr21IDU33b0/s960/pineapple%20pizza.webp" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="657" data-original-width="960" height="219" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv23VmZLSPP0Mi27iuskNJlnHb43ZORltfrwXw7F_2ha99ubpssTe3e8J_sc1W6czGwIQUyivNprvUm7xXpe7xQTAqiXnGshh5cPNRfJ6z8flYmtxonek04hhpru8YgvPP-1HzBD__cABlqgtnEmE5NHGAfYzIKfV96DEbqMU2UXRfQufMhjr21IDU33b0/s320/pineapple%20pizza.webp" width="320" /></a></div><div>A common method for trying to disappear conflict is to try to make the people on the other side of the conflict just go away. Sometimes that takes the form of trying obliterate them in some sort of total victory, sometimes just erasing them somehow, and sometimes simply making them go away. </div><div><br /></div><div>The thing is, none of these work. All have been attempted on various scales, and none of them work.</div><div><br /></div><div>A history of modern warfare, the first time in human history when leaders imagined that the technology existed to truly erase the enemy, shows that from the Third Reich to the middle east, policy based on the notion that the other side can be completely obliterated is failed policy that simply increases suffering and waste of human lives.</div><div><br /></div><div>In the world of culture panic, we are seeing an attempt to erase certain folks. "Maybe," the theory goes, "if we just made everyone pretend that LGBTQ persons don't exist, we could end all the noise and conflict over that stuff." It's not working. It isn't going to work. </div><div><br /></div><div>The current rising love of authoritarianism is cut from the same cloth. If we just had a Really Strong Leader (<a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/179776/heritage-foundation-viktor-orban-trump">like Viktor Orban</a> or Putin) he would just make all those dissenting voices shut up forever. This comes with an attempt to Other the opposition, casting them as stupid and/or evil instead of other actual human beings that we need to talk to.</div><div><br /></div><div>As Americans, we ought to know better. "Wouldn't everyone just be happier in their own place," is the language of segregationists. Segregated silos are bad news, particularly in a diverse pluralistic society.</div><div><br /></div><div>The more obvious bad part of segregation is not just that diverse people are kept apart. Segregation of people facilitates segregation of resources. If your position is that you don't really want to pay to educate Black kids, then putting all the Black kids, and only Black kids, in the same schools makes it much easier to create policy that directs fewer resources to Black kids. Segregation also works for resource hoarding-- if we put all the rich kids in the same schools, then we can insure that only they benefit from certain privileges. </div><div><br /></div><div>But there are other problems with choicing our way to segregated silos. </div><div><br /></div><div>One is that every silo is a bubble, and within that bubble, stupid prejudices are free to grow. They're reinforced; say "All mugwumps like pineapple on their pizza" and a hundred heads will nod in agreement, and you'll be that more certain that those pineapple-eating mugwumps really are awful. </div><div><br /></div><div>Well, the argument goes, mugwumps will have a school of their own to eat all the pineapple pizza they like, so it's fair. I understand the reasoning. It just doesn't reflect what actually happens. What actually happens is that when marginalized students and families create a siloed option of their own, they turn themselves into easily-identified targets. Anti-LGBTQ folks don't have to say, "Well, those awful people are out there somewhere" and wave their hands vaguely about. They can--and repeatedly do--point at an LGBTQ-friendly charter or private school<a href="https://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2024/02/parents-defending-education-comes-out.html"> and declare "How can we allow that!!</a>" Those echo chamber bubbles allow the worst ideas to fester and grow and, ultimately, explode.</div><div><br /></div><div>Certain conflicts exist in our country right now. LGBTQ persons exist, and some folks wish they would not. Some folks want to keep working on our issues surrounding race and other folks would like to be done with all that. How do we manage religion? Where do we go with democratic norms in a pluralistic society? And why do some people put pineapple on their damn pizza?</div><div><br /></div><div>The conflicts exist. Nobody wants them. Nobody likes them (though some folks find them useful). But they are here, and one way or another we will be forced to deal with them.</div><div><br /></div><div>To pretend that we can create samethink silos for schools--or any other part of society--and thereby make our country a better place is a silly idea. We are a diverse, pluralistic country. If you just wish we weren't, well, I wish all my hair grew back, but we can't live the lives we wish we had, only the ones we actually have. </div><div><br /></div><div>A diverse pluralistic society based on democratic norms is going to have conflict, and we can either deal with it or let it curdle and mess with us. We're currently operating at a disadvantage, with a shortage of leaders willing to engage in difficult conversations, and we are certainly not going to create such leaders by raising generations in samethink silos. Yes, conflict is hard. Sometimes it's unavoidable. Suck it up and do the work, because there is no way out but through.</div>Peter Greenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16511193640285760299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post-36105828299252109472024-03-13T12:50:00.003-04:002024-03-13T12:50:41.526-04:00Practicing On Cyber Students (Sort Of)The <a href="https://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2015/11/lets-play-teacher.html">Relay Graduate School of Education</a>, a pretend graduate school <a href="https://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2016/01/relay-graduate-school-of-charter.html">started by pretend teachers</a>, has come up with a great new training idea--practice with pretend students. But not just any pretend students-- AI pretend students. Because if it has AI in it, it must be extra cool and shiny. Except that once again, the actual product promises so much more than it actually delivers.<div><div><br /></div><div>It appears that Madeline Will, a reporter for Education Week,<a href="https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/ai-is-coming-to-teacher-prep-heres-what-that-looks-like/2024/03"> caught the RGSE pitch at SWSX</a>, and grabbed this unironic quote:</div><blockquote>“In order for a teacher to become great, they need high-quality practice,” said Lequite Manning, the department chair of clinical practice and residency for Relay</blockquote><p>The high-quality practice is to involve skills teachers need such as "getting to know their students." This happens through some text-based interactions. The teacher candidate plugs in some personal info, then watches a video of a talk between the head of Relay, Mayme Hostetter, and Layce Robinson, CEO of <a href="https://www.unbounded.org/">UnboundEducation</a>, a teacher PD outfit. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ7O0akBSG22eQwqBniXzGiTZi98MhnhiJhzPUWZcRMMfMbpNEgKRzQJD7PonAnT0HodvrR3N21PebjYHPvhk8QXdTUTJwJ0h6rVMVf6JkUJ6eDDix1EQRW3hFmkVM9gnyew2AffsOURPZVy6oHQhBzhbZFOfpV7Nx4ezTJHMMiIeuFUbiM7VKvGshimR8/s474/robot%20child.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="474" data-original-width="474" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ7O0akBSG22eQwqBniXzGiTZi98MhnhiJhzPUWZcRMMfMbpNEgKRzQJD7PonAnT0HodvrR3N21PebjYHPvhk8QXdTUTJwJ0h6rVMVf6JkUJ6eDDix1EQRW3hFmkVM9gnyew2AffsOURPZVy6oHQhBzhbZFOfpV7Nx4ezTJHMMiIeuFUbiM7VKvGshimR8/w200-h200/robot%20child.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><p>Then the AI finally shows up in the form of a letter from a "teacher mentor" who gives the candidate student demographic info. The candidate can ask the AI for advice on dealing with students. Let me say that again--the human prospective teacher can ask the computer for advice about how to deal with the imaginary human children.</p><p>Then the teacher begins "interacting" with the imaginary students. Note--the students are NOT AI, but are personas based on "real kids" that Hostetter and Robinson taught. Robinson have had some actual classroom experience (though only a couple of years are listed <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/lacey-robinsonjitd/">in her LinkedIn profile</a>); <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/mayme-hostetter-2571a3153/">Hostertter spent</a> two years in a private boarding school, and three years in a KIPP charter. The candidate imagines sitting down at the student lunch table (an interesting choice, that) and "strikes up a conversation." Will says that the candidate has several choices about how to start the conversation, suggesting maybe that what we're actually talking about is a multiple choice Talking To Students quiz. Then the candidate shares with the AI mentor, and then is finally rewarded with one of two videos by Hostetter and Robinson--either an attaboy or a try-it-again video.</p><p>So, not very impressive, but one more entry in the drive for classroom simulators for teacher prep. I get the appeal-- an actual classroom is often unforgiving, and when you screw up, you may have to live with the fallout of your bad choice for weeks. But the dream of a classroom simulator that's like a, a Hostetter suggests, a flight simulator, is a silly dream. Simulating a physical object interacting with the laws of physics is a hell of a lot easier than simulating human interactions.</p><p>Not that folks don't keep trying. Back in 2016 there was <a href="https://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2016/06/teachlive-robot-school-in-uncanny-valley.html">a bunch of noise about TeachLivE,</a> a <a href="https://sites.google.com/view/teachlive/home">classroom simulation</a> with CGI students direct from Uncanny Valley School District. This looked creepy, but like this newest wrinkle, it turned out to be far less than it pretended. The teacher trainee is interacting with a CGI rendering of students, but <a href="https://www.ucf.edu/pegasus/kickin-new-school/">those students were actually animated </a>by "an interactor" who "controls the student avatars in the classroom, speaking through a microphone and using head-mounted and handheld controllers programmed to respond to certain movements." It's a blend of "program control and puppetry." </p><p>What classroom simulators seem to have in common is the attempt to look as if they are harnessing cool new technology, when they really aren't.</p><p>In the late seventies, I had an education course taught by Robert Schall, who had years and years of actual public school teaching experience. We would develop and teach practice lessons, with our classmates as students. Also in the classroom was "Bobby," a compendium of every annoying student behavior ever. Dr. Schall didn't filter himself through a special algorithm or computer program or even put on some kind of costume. He just sat in the back of the room and gave us the experience of dealing with challenging students. After years in real classrooms, I can confirm that Bobby was an excellent simulation of the real thing. </p><p>The best way for new teachers to learn about the classroom is direct experience, and the second best way is from experiences teachers who have spent years in the classroom. Trying to interpose shiny tech is both hugely difficult and also never likely to yield the quality of results from the first two sources. </p><p><br /><br /></p><br /></div>Peter Greenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16511193640285760299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post-65759092053766352024-03-12T11:19:00.001-04:002024-03-12T11:19:25.359-04:00PA: Vouchers Feed DiscriminationIn Pennsylvania, where we ought to be focused on responding to a court finding that our whole method of funding public education is both inequitable and inadequate, our Democratic governor Josh Shapiro and the GOP legislators just cannot get over their desire for more school vouchers.<div><br /></div><div>This despite the fact that our current voucher system is both<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2022/12/19/before-considering-new-school-vouchers-josh-shapiro-should-find-answers-to-questions-about-the-old-ones/?sh=211eace6be0f"> hugely unaccountable</a> and also used to fund some <a href="https://buckscountybeacon.com/2023/12/pennsylvania-taxpayers-are-subsidizing-discrimination-at-private-and-religious-voucher-schools/">jaw-dropping religious discrimination</a>. </div><div><br /></div><div>So there are hearings going on (and have been for some time). Recently one of the people offering testimony was Susan Spicka, of<a href="https://edvoterspa.org/"> Education Voters of Pennsylvania</a>. Spicka is a rock star in the world of supporting public education. At a hearing of the House Democratic Policy Committee, Spicka opened her testimony with these lines:</div><blockquote>In his budget address, Governor Shapiro said, “It’s ridiculous that here in Pennsylvania two women can get married on a Sunday and fired from their job on a Monday, just because they’re in love.”<br /><br />What Governor Shapiro left out is that the children of this couple could get kicked out of their private school on Tuesday. And that tax dollars are used to support this discrimination.<br /><br />Discrimination is a feature, not a bug, of school voucher programs. Pennsylvania’s Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) and Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit (OSTC) school voucher programs direct $470 million tax dollars into private and religious schools that can, and do, explicitly discriminate against students for just about any reason they choose.</blockquote><div>During this particular hearing, Representative Ismael Smith-Wade-El asked the question that has been on lots of minds <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/a-month-after-nex-benedict-s-death-crisis-calls-anti-lgbtq-both-on-the-rise-in-oklahoma/ar-BB1jBguR">since the death of Nex Benedict</a> (video below):</div><blockquote>Do you feel that the outcomes of these sort of funding pass through and voucher programs pose a risk to the lives of transgender young people?</blockquote><p>Spicka's answer was to the point. Yes. </p><blockquote>If you're not living in an area like this I don't think that you can understand the impact that this hate that is coming out of these churches has on communities and on children, and without the tens of millions of dollars in voucher funding that has been poured into Lancaster County since eitc ostc was founded, these churches would not have the revenue that they have they would not have the expanse that they have. These churches are being funded by voucher dollars and they are spreading the hate.</blockquote><p><a href="https://edvoterspa.org/2024/03/our-testimony-school-vouchers-fund-and-fuel-hate/">Spicka's full testimony is worth reading</a>, but I want to underline this point because it is often overlooked. It's not just that these discriminatory schools reject and expel students who don't align with their particular values. It's not just that they take taxpayer dollars and then decide which students they consider worthy of receiving an education, once again demonstrating that the promise of school choice is empty--it's school's choice instead.</p><p>It's also that by strengthening and funding these schools, taxpayers are energizing a source of toxic attitudes in the community. People who want to treat LGBTQ persons as Other, treat them as (as NC gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson puts it) "that filth," get to gather together in a bubble, convince each other that their way is the only right way, and then go out into the community and act on that belief. </p><p>We continue to see signs that <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/in-states-with-laws-targeting-lgbtq-issues-school-hate-crimes-quadrupled/ar-BB1jKJpU">increased anti-LGBTQ rhetoric fuels more abuse</a> and mistreatment of LGBTQ persons, and funding these christianist organizations makes it easier for them to amplify their anti-LGBTQ voices. </p><p>I use the term "christianist" because none of this discriminatory nonsense looks like the Christianity that I know. Look, if you feel you can't fully and freely exercise your religion without being able to marginalize, attack, and discriminate against certain classes of people, I'm pretty sure you're doing your religion wrong. You are making your community worse, and why taxpayers should finance your bad behavior is beyond me. </p><p><br /></p>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JaIZYjcR07s?si=GCgzbRB0p3Cv_TAQ" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe>Peter Greenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16511193640285760299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post-33981970606386010512024-03-10T06:30:00.007-04:002024-03-10T06:30:00.138-04:00ICYMI: Lost Hour Edition (3/10)Don't forget to move the two or three items in your house that did not automatically change the time. Remember-- today won't be so bad, but tomorrow it's going to be a real treat to pull the bodies of yourself and your loved ones out of bed. But at least we have the comfort of knowing that daylight savings helps... something. I'm sure there's some good reason.<div><br /></div><div>Well, here's your reading list, anyway.</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/election/article286325695.html"><b>Homeschooling, ‘indoctrination,’ Jan. 6: A look at NC’s new GOP superintendent candidate</b></a><div><br /></div><div>Lots of election results this week, including news from North Carolina, where Republicans decided they wanted to go full wingnut, including this candidate for state superintendent.</div></div><div><br /></div><a href="https://tultican.com/2024/03/07/public-education-attack-measured/"><b>Public Education Attack Measure</b></a><div><br /></div><div>Thomas Ultican takes a look at the Network for Public Education report on how well states support public education.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg26134810-900-the-surprising-promise-and-profound-perils-of-ais-that-fake-empathy/"><b>The surprising promise and profound perils of AIs that fake empathy</b></a><div><br /></div><div>From Amanda Ruggeri in New Scientist, a piece that isn't about education exactly, except that this has rather huge implications for the whole idea of teacherbots and what they can't provide students.</div><div><br /></div><a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/03/07/1234491074/prageru-schools-videos-growth"><b>PragerU is a conservative video giant. Here's why it's trying to get into schools</b></a><div><br /></div><div>Lisa Hagen on All Things Considered takes a look at the conservative propaganda outfit trying to pretend it's an education outfit.</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://nepc.colorado.edu/publication/ai"><b>Without Effective Public Oversight, AI in Schools Will Do More Harm Than Good</b></a></div><div><br /></div><div>New report from the National Education Policy Center. Thorough and detailed and well worth the time.</div><div><br /></div><a href="https://buckscountybeacon.com/2024/03/shocking-online-manifesto-reveals-project-2025s-link-to-a-coordinated-christian-nationalism-project/"><b>Shocking Online Manifesto Reveals Project 2025’S Link To A Coordinated ‘Christian Nationalism Project’</b></a><div><br /></div><div>Jennifer Cohn at the Bucks County Beacon has uncovered yet another planning document from Christian Nationalists who would like to be in charge of, well, everything. </div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://okpolicy.org/nex-benedicts-death-show-policy-failures-harms-from-inaction-commentary/"><b>Nex Benedict’s death shows policy failures, harms from inaction</b></a><div><br /></div><div>Oklahoma Policy Institute calls out the atmosphere of hate that led to Benedict's death.</div></div><div><b><br /></b></div><a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/nex-benedicts-death-lgbtq-youth-group-saw-200-rise-crisis-contacts-okl-rcna142279"><b>After Nex Benedict’s death, LGBTQ youth group saw 200% rise in crisis contacts from Oklahoma</b></a><div><br /></div><div>How are things going in Oklahoma? Not so great, reports Jo Yurcaba for NBC News.</div><div><br /></div><a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2024/03/06/idea-schools-conservatorship-texas/"><b>Texas places state’s largest charter school network under conservatorship</b></a><div><br /></div><div>IDEA catalog of financial misbehavior has ended up with a state takeover. Ikram Mohamed has the story for the Texas Tribune</div><div><b><br /></b></div><a href="https://www.newschannel5.com/news/newschannel-5-investigates/revealed/revealed-secret-recording-shows-school-voucher-proponent-talking-of-public-hangings-of-lawmakers"><b>Secret recording shows school voucher proponent talking of 'public hangings' of lawmakers</b></a><div><br /></div><div>Phil Williams of News Channel 5 in Tennessee has some tapes revealing the kind of threats and arm twisting behind the push for vouchers in the state.</div><div><br /></div><a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/pittsburgh/news/pennsylvania-cyber-charter-schools-underperform/"><b>Pennsylvania state senator says cyber charter schools underperform at the cost of the taxpayer</b></a><div><br /></div><div>The continuing mystery in PA. Everyone knows cybers are expensive and perform poorly, and yet... Meghan Schiller reports at KDKA News. </div><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/03/04/appeals-court-blocks-florida-stop-woke-act"><b><br />Appeals court blocks Fla. ‘Stop Woke Act,’ says it’s a ‘First Amendment sin’</b></a><div><br /></div><div>In other unsurprising news, DeSantis gets a setback and the First Amendment gets a win. By Anumita Kaur for the Washington Post</div><div><br /></div><a href="https://teacherinastrangeland.blog/2024/03/05/in-defense-of-school-sports/"><b>In Defense of School Sports</b></a></div><div><br /></div><div>Have you noticed lots of young athletes spending the year in private pay to play programs for their sport? So has Nancy Flanagan.</div><div><br /></div><a href="https://notesfromthechalkboard.com/2024/03/09/north-carolinas-public-voucher-dollars-are-funding-christian-nationalist-indoctrination-in-schools/"><b>North Carolina’s public voucher dollars are funding Christian Nationalist indoctrination in schools</b></a><div><br /></div><div>Justin Parmenter continues to track some of the religious discrimination and indoctrination being paid for by North Carolina taxpayers. </div><div><b><br /></b></div><a href="https://janresseger.wordpress.com/2024/03/07/the-best-frame-for-public-education-advocacy-public-schools-are-central-to-the-well-being-of-communities/"><b>The Essential Narrative for Public Education Advocates: Public Schools Are Central to the Well-Being of Communities</b></a><div><br /></div><div>Jan Resseger looks at some unfortunate implications of recent research. Does privatizing education change a community's very nature?</div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><a href="https://theappeal.org/illinois-prison-lawsuit-teacher-fired-jim-crow-racism/"><b>Illinois Prison Fired Teacher for Saying Jim Crow Laws Were Racist</b></a></div><div><br /></div><div>Elizabeth Will-Greenberg reports for The Appeal on this story that is just as bad as it sounds. Bet you didn't know that Jim Crow laws were totally race neutral.</div><div><br /></div><div>Over at the Bucks County Beacon this week, I wrote about<a href="https://buckscountybeacon.com/2024/03/the-independence-law-center-seeks-to-impose-its-biblical-worldview-on-pennsylvania-school-districts/"> the Independence Law Center doing the work of pushing bad policy in PA school board</a>s. Also, at Forbes, I wrote about yet another attempt to <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2024/03/05/ai-judgement-and-the-shake-and-bake-school-paper/?sh=622506b734fa">push AI essay graders on the classroom</a>. </div><div><br /></div><div>Join me on substack. It's free and goes straight to your email, where you can peruse my latest output at your leisure (even if you're running an hour behind). </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>
<iframe frameborder="0" height="250" scrolling="no" src="https://curmudgucation.substack.com/embed" style="background: white; border: 1px solid #EEE;" width="480"></iframe>Peter Greenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16511193640285760299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post-84700154853887093452024-03-08T12:32:00.004-05:002024-03-08T12:32:54.464-05:00Vouchers Are For Dodging RegulationsThis week, we saw the story of a charter school in North Carolina that, having been ordered to shut down, <a href="https://ncnewsline.com/2024/03/05/a-former-charter-school-has-gone-private-after-the-state-ordered-it-closed/">reimagined itself as a private school</a>.<div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvxljAUcA7flUmNCA7v6N7PAPRieLkJ_dVvdvD_WybG9cecxIV0TPoaUHcaJHqYSXIis9p9KSzJILCkyzP1so7Uq4S6HkFQuhMRUuTilSFUQq6aMyMGTRIrhybJifrp6Ih-TkEX_emROE3tjU5jFJmMjGRIUSLkhaNGgKbNx5Ql1mAYmVk_ikkm3VD3PVF/s1910/money%20pile.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1910" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvxljAUcA7flUmNCA7v6N7PAPRieLkJ_dVvdvD_WybG9cecxIV0TPoaUHcaJHqYSXIis9p9KSzJILCkyzP1so7Uq4S6HkFQuhMRUuTilSFUQq6aMyMGTRIrhybJifrp6Ih-TkEX_emROE3tjU5jFJmMjGRIUSLkhaNGgKbNx5Ql1mAYmVk_ikkm3VD3PVF/s320/money%20pile.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Expect to see versions of this story over and over again. Charter schools mostly require some sort of authorizer to sign off on their ability to function, and those authorizers are backstopped by the state. Meaning that even in a state like North Carolina, a charter school can be a big enough mess to get itself shut down.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Charter schools in some states have barely minimal accountability and oversight. But "minimal" is still more than "none," and "none" is what most states have in place for school vouchers.</div><div><br /></div><div>For instance, in West Virginia, where <a href="https://www.the74million.org/article/failed-west-virginia-microschool-fuels-state-probe-and-some-soul-searching/">someone just noticed that at least one microschool is failing</a> miserably, the rules for getting voucher monies look like this:</div><blockquote>The state doesn’t ask potential vendors to submit a business or education plan up front. Anyone who wants to be an authorized Hope “service provider,” including a microschool, must sign a contract agreeing to get criminal background checks on staff working with students and to notify districts when they enroll. To receive funds, vendors need only submit a W-9, a tax form for an independent contractor, and document the Hope funds they receive from parents.</blockquote><p>That's typical. In most voucher states, all you have to do to be a voucher "vendor" is just say so. And it's not just that voucher laws lack any sort of oversight or accountability mechanisms--most of the recent voucher laws or law expansions <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2023/02/01/how-school-voucher-laws-protect-discrimination/?sh=2fa5b32c2d9c">very specifically forbid oversight or accountability</a>.</p><p>This has happened even as voucher fans have retired the talking point that vouchers allow students to get a better education. Fact is, most voucher laws are carefully designed in such a way that we have no idea what quality education students are getting.</p><p>Why are we here? It's simple.</p><p>Voucher programs are not about giving students access to quality education. Vouchers are about giving churches and businesses access to taxpayer dollars.</p><p>The less oversight and accountability, the more access to those taxpayer dollars. If that costs some students a few years of their education, oh well. They are not the priority.</p><p> </p>Peter Greenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16511193640285760299noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post-64792044881920179022024-03-07T10:55:00.002-05:002024-03-07T10:55:48.754-05:00A Truly Terrible Use For ChatGPT And Its Ilk"<a href="https://www.axios.com/2024/03/06/ai-tools-teachers-chatgpt-writable">Teachers are embracing ChatGPT-powered grading</a>," says the headline at Axios, and with all my heart I hope that's not true, because what a terrible idea. What a supremely terrible awful bad idea.<div><br /></div><div>The good (-ish) news is that the article's source for this reported embrace is one of the companies pushing it. The bad news is that the company is Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, the 800 pound gorilla of school instructional materials. </div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkuLMDJOrnwZUXH41nequRKX4VjmzkMlQzCgVIdM_SngmwEMWxkoDesIyvivO5_d6N3oiFeccBfleGwDwNbaWcDMH3Tcq4Uhn6Uc98EHj5EcdnTqofmvcTYWG_J2gfUz5Pcpf7JCCZid0Ist2h8W_g75joe6D7BslzWfbYkE0sQTUDwXStdDvwUB4IECiw/s2880/robot%20pen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1920" data-original-width="2880" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkuLMDJOrnwZUXH41nequRKX4VjmzkMlQzCgVIdM_SngmwEMWxkoDesIyvivO5_d6N3oiFeccBfleGwDwNbaWcDMH3Tcq4Uhn6Uc98EHj5EcdnTqofmvcTYWG_J2gfUz5Pcpf7JCCZid0Ist2h8W_g75joe6D7BslzWfbYkE0sQTUDwXStdDvwUB4IECiw/s320/robot%20pen.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div>It's not that tech has no place in the world of writing (obviously). There have some good pieces of software, for instance, <a href="https://www.macalester.edu/news/2020/08/when-grading-goes-high-tech/">that grew out of the idea</a> of providing a quicker, simpler way of attaching those comments that you find yourself using on student work over and over and over again (though in my experience, as with lots of software timesavers, there's a huge investment of time up front to get the time savings further down the line). </div><div><br /></div><div>But to use a bot to assess writing? Crappy idea.</div><div><br /></div><div>This latest version (Writable) tries to soften the blow by calling for a "hybrid" system with "a human in the loop," which seems to mean that the bot assesses the writing and the human looks over its work, just in case. But why bother? To really check the bot's work would take as much time as just assessing the writing yourself. No, a human in the loop is just a wink wink nudge nudge moment, a way to help folks pretend that things haven't gone too far yet.</div><div><br /></div><div>But what a lousy idea. Let me count the ways.</div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>The software just isn't very good at it.</b></div><div><br /></div><div>We have been <a href="https://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2016/06/md-state-super-gets-writing-lesson.html">over</a> and <a href="https://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2020/09/a-seventh-grader-kicks-edgenuitys-dumb.html">over</a> and <a href="https://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2021/01/selling-roboscoring-hows-that-going.html">over</a> and<a href="https://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2014/04/computer-writer-vs-computer-grader.html"> over </a>and <a href="https://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2014/03/essay-grading-software-peripatetic.html">over</a> and <a href="https://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2015/08/another-writing-robo-teacher.html">over</a> and <a href="https://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2016/04/grading-good-faith-gibberish.html">over</a> this. Computer software does not "know" or "understand" in any conventional sense of the words. Once you get past the very technical explanations (and here are<a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/how-ai-works-in-plain-english-three-great-reads/ar-AA1hysSI?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=0e9b48a82a124f9d8a19dfbaede9db72&ei=33"> three good ones of varying complexity</a>), what AI language generating models do is decide, based on all the examples fed into them, what a very probable sentence might be. Give it a topic and specific sort of prompt (which basically allows it to narrow its sample base of examples), and it will give you a high-probability string of words. As an essay grader, what it can do is turn that around and decide if the submitted material falls within the probability parameters established by the examples it has "learned" from.</div><div><br /></div><div>What it can't decide is whether or not the student has written something stupid. It may spot whether or not the student has included a specific example for support, but it can't judge how good an example it is. And given generative AI's propensity for just making shit up, it's not clear how good it would be at catching students doing the same. </div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>Misplaced trust in authority.</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Your computer cannot think, does not understand, is not smart in a conventional human sense of the word. It's an object whose virtues are an absolute tireless ability to follow instructions at the speed of light. </div><div><br /></div><div>But since they first poked their heads into pop culture, computers have been portrayed as possessing some sort of objective superhuman wisdom and knowledge. And human beings continue to defer to computers as having some higher level of authority.</div><div><br /></div><div>However, computers are machines. They do exactly what their human programmers tell them to do. Even when they employ machine learning to "teach" themselves, they do so according to the instructions of human programmers. In short, computers do not implement and express the computed wisdom of some higher power; they simply implement the ideas of whatever humans programmed them. </div><div><br /></div><div>When it comes to insights that might take a human a lifetime to work out, like complicated computations, computers get us knowledge that we can trust and which would have been hard to find otherwise. But an essay is not a computation, and a computer has nothing to offer that improves on human judgment. Software assessment of writing should just be viewed as humans using the programming to make a judgment about writing, not as some sort of objective wisdom over and above what humans could provide. Yet, I'm afraid that some folks will view it as exactly that, and instead of treating the software assessment as they would one more human voice in the room (whose judgment might be suspect), they'll treat it as some digital Word Of God.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Distorting the entire process</b>.</div><div><br /></div><div>Writing is the work of communicating thoughts, ideas, emotions, and other human stuff to other human beings. Stringing words together in order to satisfy the algorithm is not any sort of meaningful writing (and that is true even if the algorithm is being applied by humans). This is conditioning young humans to string words together in a manner completely unrelated to anything they want to say or express.</div><div><br /></div><div>Lord knows we don't need computers to promote this bad kind of word spitting. I've seen too many students who figured out that trying to focus on what they actually think or believe just gets in the way of satisfying the assessment algorithm that gives them their grade. And the Big Standardized Test only enshrined that sort of anti-writing as a important goal. </div><div><br /></div><div>What do you suppose it does to a student's approach to writing when they start with the understanding that they are writing not for a human audience, but a computerized one? Not to communicate, but to perform word spitting for a digital audience? </div><div><br /></div><div>Writable and its brethren are pitched as tools to save labor and time, but they save that labor and time by changing the very nature of the task and distorting the learning goals for students. </div><div><br /></div><div>It could be worse, I suppose. The software could be wired to a dispenser that fed students a piece of candy every time they spit out an especially probably string of words. Or it could aim even more directly at the current internet cyber-hell, where AI spits out articles designed to be pleasing to the AI that pushes those articles on search engines-- "Ten Weird Tricks I Used To Enjoy My Summer Vacation (You won't believe number eight)"</div><div><br /></div><div>I sure hope teachers don't embrace this attempt to train human children to become word spitting widgets. We can do better. </div>Peter Greenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16511193640285760299noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post-6645305151132901952024-03-06T13:27:00.002-05:002024-03-06T13:27:23.546-05:00PA: Central Bucks Taxpayers Fleeced By Law Firm<p>Back in its MAGA Moms for Liberty period, the Central Bucks School Board implemented so many discriminatory policies that both <a href="https://www.aclupa.org/sites/default/files/field_documents/cbsd_administrative_complaint_-_final_10-6-22_redacted3.pdf"> the ACLU</a> and the U.S. <a href="https://www.inquirer.com/news/central-bucks-lgbqt-aclu-bias-bullying-20221021.html">Department of Education</a> came after the district for creating a hostile environment for LGBTQ students. So they hired the law firm Duane Morris to do an internal investigation. Turns out that the result was not just junk, by hugely over-priced junk.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7zlZQ2zkfdF3gjIcDcMsI84mSrMEArwPwi1ipZ7TMeBHi0kqDnFN1Lr1X5LCRLBYe8p4b636m1ttOyggrkDviTJQLqo5VkCaDprLWvPAXzUSfMKIh31g-H_MB1HytUFCKDA5IOrsecUYLiVl3NJOrqCqX6_-kU6-5_cqq-mCCUvQVapUB28G8RUAHb2VL/s1530/money%20drain.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1255" data-original-width="1530" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7zlZQ2zkfdF3gjIcDcMsI84mSrMEArwPwi1ipZ7TMeBHi0kqDnFN1Lr1X5LCRLBYe8p4b636m1ttOyggrkDviTJQLqo5VkCaDprLWvPAXzUSfMKIh31g-H_MB1HytUFCKDA5IOrsecUYLiVl3NJOrqCqX6_-kU6-5_cqq-mCCUvQVapUB28G8RUAHb2VL/s320/money%20drain.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p>The Duane Morris firm was an odd choice to begin with, as the firm includes Bill McSwain, a former failed GOP gubernatorial candidate whose candidacy included such great moments as calling the West Chester Area School Districts' Gender-Sexuality Alliance Club <a href="https://www.inquirer.com/news/bill-mcswain-pa-governor-candidate-gender-sexuality-school-20220310.html">an example of "leftist political indoctrination."</a> So maybe not the guy to take a hard look at the district's LGBTQ environment unless your fear is that it's not hostile enough.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>When the report was issued, the ACLU<a href="https://www.aclupa.org/en/press-releases/new-court-filing-aclu-pa-says-central-bucks-lawyers-misled-and-lied-retaliate-against"> immediately noted</a></p><blockquote>The district got what they paid for – a one-sided investigation that was never intended to take seriously the allegations of a hostile environment for LGBTQ students at Central Bucks</blockquote><p>It <a href="https://buckscountybeacon.com/2023/08/central-bucks-school-districts-right-wing-school-board-fed-community-false-information-says-aclu-pa-in-new-court-filing/">was not great</a>. But now it turns out that it was also hugely overpriced.</p><p>Folks noted at the time that <a href="https://www.inquirer.com/news/central-bucks-duane-morris-bill-20230324.html">the $1 million bill from Duane Morris </a>was pretty steep. But it has since mushroomed to $1.75, and many folks are crying foul--especially because the previous board majority knew.</p><p><a href="https://www.phillyburbs.com/story/news/local/2024/03/04/central-bucks-district-duane-morris-legal-bills-lgbtq-investigation-lucabaugh-hunter-diasio-finances/72748107007/">Reporting for the Bucks County Courier Times</a>, Jo Ciavaglia unearthed some emails from an attorney whose firm had previously worked for the district to former Superintendent Adam Lucabaugh and former board president Dana Hunter. Those emails warned that the bills were seriously inflated and that the district should seek both detailed documentation and reduced charges. That email was sent in June of 2023.</p><p>The attorney noted that while McSwain promised that associates and legal assistants would handle most of the work, keeping costs low, that's not what happened-- a whole team was brought in, and billed hours like crazy. Maddie Hanna of the Philadelphia Inquirer (whose work is always top notch), <a href="https://www.inquirer.com/education/central-bucks-school-district-duane-morris-bills-20240305.html">dug through some of those emails</a>, for specifics like $10,000 billed for a memorandum after the interview of a middle school principal. </p><p>Turns out Duane Morris also helped the district draft some policy barring teacher "advocacy" in classrooms. The policy is a page and a half; it apparently took five lawyers to draft it.</p><p>This came under the same board that tried to give Lucabaugh<a href="https://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2023/11/pa-central-bucks-super-gets-solid-gold.html"> a massive severance reward</a> when the election showed shifting winds. </p><p>Central Bucks is a wealthy district, but that's not an excuse to throw taxpayer money around left and right (well, mostly right). That this particular fleecing was performed in the service of protecting an atmosphere hostile to LGBTQ students is doubly odious. If ever there were board members who deserved to be ousted, it was that crew. Let's hope the current board doesn't find any more messes to clean up after. </p>Peter Greenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16511193640285760299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post-41083711257718784732024-03-04T15:31:00.005-05:002024-03-04T15:39:25.633-05:0060 Minutes Asked Moms for Liberty The Right QuestionsIf you have not seen the 60 Minutes piece on book banning, here it is. Go ahead and watch; it will be thirteen and a half minutes well spent.<div><br /></div>
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<div><br /></div><div>There are several things on display here, not the least of which is a school district taking a sensible students-first, parents-involved approach to the issue of difficult books. </div><div><br /></div><div>Reporter Scott Pelley gets right to the heart of several issues. The difference between giving parents the tools to control what their own children can read (something the district also provides in spades) and trying to control what other parents can let their children read. The outrage-enhancing technique of treating isolated mistakes as proof of some widespread conspiracy.</div><div><br /></div><div>In the midst of it all, the Moms for Liberty, with Tiffany Justice and Tina Descovich finally seen in the footage from an interview they sat for way back in October of 2023. </div><div><br /></div><div>The piece is tough on them. The parents that are set up to represent the district are Republican, conservative, combat veterans. Pelley in repeated voice overs points out that the Moms are evasive and avoid answering question but instead retreating to their talking points (he does not point out that they are<a href="https://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2023/05/fl-prequel-to-moms-for-liberty-is.html"> seasoned political coms professionals</a>, but he doesn't portray them as cookie-baking domestics, either). Some of the talking points were so six months ago. "We don't co-parent with the government," said the women whose demands include forcing the government to help them with the part of parenting that involves keeping an eye on what your children read and watch. </div><div><br /></div><div>Their PR firm (<a href="https://cavalrystrategies.com/">Cavalry Strategies</a>) was on the case this morning, emailing out the M4L transcript that includes the part that CBS didn't include, and offering the duo for press interviews to tell their story. It's an odd choice, because the stuff they want you to see is just more of the non-answering that CBS showed. That and they are really, really big sad that CBS chose not to air them reading the Really Dirty Parts or Certain Books. This remains one of their weirdest arguments--since this part of this book is too objectionable to read in certain situations, it must be too objectionable to be found in any situation. Like, it's not okay for me pee on the steps of City Hall at noon, so it must not be okay for me to pee anywhere, ever.</div><div><br /></div><div>But the question that Pelley asked was a really, really good one. The Moms led into it by saying that although they love teachers so very much, there are some "rogue teachers" out there (I can hear the ty-shirts being printed already). "Parents send their children to school to be educated, not indoctrinated into ideology."</div><div><br /></div><div>And so Pelley asked the obvious question-- "What ideology are the children being indoctrinated into?"</div><div><br /></div><div>And the Moms wouldn't answer. The extended answer in their email (and <a href="https://twitter.com/TinaDescovich/status/1764473818863566896">some tweets</a>) suggests that they're talking about gender and sex stuff, and their go to example is telling five year olds that genders can be changed). </div><div><br /></div><div>The answer remains unclear. What exactly is the objection? What is the problem? What does "gender ideology" even mean? Because the harder I stare at it, the more it seems as if the problem is acknowledging that LGNTQ persons exist.</div><div><br /></div><div>But in the MAGA Mom playbook, that's not it as all, which brings us Pelley's other fruitless attempt to get the Moms to explain what they mean by all the "groomer" language that they use on their own social media. They really didn't want to talk about that, though they did insist that they like gay folks just fine. They didn't attempt to address the groomer question in their responses to the 60 Minutes piece. Perhaps that's because their premise makes no sense. </div><div><br /></div><div>But if you boil it all down, this is what you get.</div><div><br /></div><div>If you acknowledge that LGBTQ persons exist in front of children, then you are grooming those children to become LGBTQ.</div><div><br /></div><div>Part of the premise for that is an old one-- if you believe that nobody is born That Way, that nobody is LGBTQ by nature, then you must believe that all LGBTQ persons are recruited.</div><div><br /></div><div>But to jump from there to the notion that simply acknowledging that LGBTQ persons exist must only be about recruiting--that's a hell of a leap. And it leads to the worst culture panic impulse, which is to erase those persons, to treat them as if their very existence must be a dirty secret.</div><div><br /></div><div>And because acknowledging them is equated with grooming other children, this becomes the worst brand of othering. To make it okay to attack the Other, you have to establish that the Other represents a threat, that you need to defend yourself against them. And that makes violence against them okay.</div><div><br /></div><div>So when Ryan Walters says that<a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/oklahoma-education-superintendent-ryan-walters-fire-anti-lgbtq/story?id=107626475"> he's not playing "woke gender games," </a>he's saying that he won't acknowledge that LGBTQ persons exist, and that anyone who does acknowledge they exist is trying to attack children and groom them and so that "woke mob" is attacking, and so it's okay to attack back. When <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-politics-and-policy/nc-lieutenant-governor-faces-calls-resign-calling-lgbtq-people-filth-rcna2782">the Lt. Governor and gubernatorial candidate calls LGBTQ persons "filth,</a>" particularly in the context of talking about them in school at all ever, that message is pretty clear. </div><div><br /></div><div>Pelley's unanswered questions point us at the nuance missing in the Moms for Liberty outrage and panic factory, the nuance that recognizes that reasonable intelligent people can disagree about the value of certain books. In the real world, there's a huge difference between showing six year olds graphic depictions of the ways one can use a penis and a non-graphic depiction of LGBTQ persons. There's a vast gulf between grooming some small child for sexual abuse and simply acknowledging there are some LGBTQ persons in the world (and possibly in the classroom or the homes of class members). There's a planet-seized difference between saying "LGBTQ persons are not extraordinary or unnatural" and saying "You should become an LGBTQ person." And yet, in the Moms for Liberty universe, there is no difference between any of those things. </div><div><br /></div><div>It's very hard to distinguish between the opportunists and the truly panicked on this issue. The Heritage Foundations Project 2025 seems like an opportunist's political project, but it is also shot through with what seems like a sincere and extreme LGBTQ panic. The<a href="https://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2023/12/the-ziegler-story-and-trouble-with.html"> Ziegler scandal</a> deserves attention because it suggests that one founding M4L member is not all that freaked out about non-het sex. </div><div><br /></div><div>But at a certain level, it doesn't matter whether all this LGBTQ panic is sincere or not, because as the toxic sludge filters through the culture, some people feel justified, even encouraged, in violence and mistreatment of actual human beings. No amount of carefully refined talking points will change that; only the kind of nuanced, complex conversation that doesn't get you a special seat at the MAGA table. </div><div><br /></div><div>The encouraging part of the 60 Minutes piece is that it shows how ordinary folks can actually have some of those conversations. Over a hundred citizens came together to have some thoughtful consideration about the list of 97 books that were marked for removal, and they kept 92 of them. Imagine that.</div>Peter Greenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16511193640285760299noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post-19814078723678251672024-03-03T06:30:00.001-05:002024-03-03T06:30:00.136-05:00ICYMI: In Like A Weasel Edition (3/3)Yeah, here at Curmudgucation Institute headquarters, neither a lamb nor a lion showed up, continuing our trend of having a winter that's not very wintery. Maybe later. But there's still plenty to read. Here we go!<div><br /></div><div><div><a href="https://thejosevilson.com/professional-a-word-that-means-nothing-and-everything-to-teachers/"><b>Professional: A Word That Means Nothing and Everything To Teachers</b></a></div><div><br /></div><div>Jose Luis Vilson on teacher professionalism, and why it's critical to the education system.</div><div><br /></div><a href="https://kjzz.org/content/1872764/3-arizona-education-department-employees-indicted-600000-voucher-fraud"><b>3 Arizona Education Department employees indicted in $600,000 voucher fraud</b></a><div><br /></div><div>Arizona's barely-regulated voucher system continues to provide lots of benefits to grifters and fraudsters looking to gather some green. This latest scam involves a whole lot of ghost students. Wayne Schutsky has the story for KJZZ.</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://www.thestate.com/news/politics-government/article285737366.html"><b>Unchartered Territory</b></a></div><div><br /></div><div>In South Carolina, some legislators might be getting a clue and trying to crack down on charter sponsor abuses. Zak Koeske reports for The State.</div><div><b><br /></b></div><a href="https://accountabaloney.com/book-ban-hoax-to-target-floridas-school-principals/"><b>“Book Ban Hoax” To Target Florida’s School Principals</b></a><div><br /></div><div>Ron DeSantis has been trying to redeem his book ban laws by claiming that all the terrible stories that you hear about books in Florida are just hoaxes and baloney, perpetrated by people trying to make the whole book banning thing look bad. Sue Kingery Woltanski explains how his "solution" puts school principals in the cross hairs.<br /><div><b><br /></b></div><a href="https://janresseger.wordpress.com/2024/02/29/america-neglects-to-address-the-big-problems-for-public-education/"><b>America Neglects to Address the Big Problems for Public Schools</b></a><div><br /></div><div>Jan Resseger takes a look at some of the problems that ESSA failed to address.</div><div><br /></div><a href="https://teacherinastrangeland.blog/2024/02/28/do-core-democratic-values-belong-in-schools-some-say-no/"><b>Do Core Democratic Values Belong in Schools? Some Say No.</b></a><div><br /></div><div>Nancy Flanagan considers Michigan's unique adoption of Core Democratic Values as a key topic in the state standards. </div><div><br /></div><a href="https://apnews.com/article/indiana-literacy-bill-d19154166824f2fe02fc294102096694"><b>Literacy bill that would hold back thousands more third graders advances in Indiana</b></a><div><br /></div><div>Yup, it's 2024 and we're still seeing these bills. In fact, in some states folks are doubling down. Isabella Volmert has the story for the AP.</div><div><br /></div><a href="https://www.chalkbeat.org/philadelphia/2024/02/28/philadelphia-renaissance-charter-schools-didnt-better-student-performance/"><b>Philadelphia’s ‘Renaissance’ charter schools did not produce what was promised</b></a><div><br /></div><div>Philadelphia had big plans for a charter-driven turnaround, because of course charter operators know secrets of education that public schools don't. Except that it didn't actually work. I know, shocker! Dale Mezzacappa breaks it down for Chalkbeat.</div><div><br /></div><a href="https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2024/02/oklahomas-culture-wars-killed-nex-benedict-theyre-also-why-i-quit-teaching/?utm_id=sidebar3&utm_term=headline&utm_content=commentary&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2024228%20LGBTQ%20Nation%20Daily%20Brief&utm_content=2024228%20LGBTQ%20Nation%20Daily%20Brief+CID_54e2eac4d3ad3180c83c26c9d90f8573&utm_source=LGBTQ%20Nation%20Subscribers&utm_term=Oklahomas%20culture%20wars%20killed%20Nex%20Benedict%20Theyre%20also%20why%20I%20quit%20teaching"><b>Oklahoma’s culture wars killed Nex Benedict. They’re also why I quit teaching.</b></a><div><br /></div><div>Tyger Songbird with a first person story for LGBTQ Nation, from the state that has devoted itself to some serious anti-LGBTQ baloney.</div><div><br /></div><div><div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://gbpi.org/poll-k12-2024/"><b>New GBPI/UGA Poll Shows Georgians Oppose Private School Vouchers; Support Funding Public Schools</b></a><br /></div></div><div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Yet another survey shows that support for voucher programs is weak. Even in Georgia.</div><div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><a href="https://triblive.com/opinion/letter-to-the-editor-cyber-school-costs-must-be-reined-in/"><b>Cyber school costs must be reined in</b></a><div><br /></div><div>A letter to the editor in the Tribune-Review lays out the simple case for funding reform in PA</div><div><br /></div><a href="https://www.freep.com/story/opinion/contributors/2024/02/26/gretchen-whitmer-michigan-democrats-betsy-devos-detroit-schools-charter-education/72589579007/"><b>Whitmer, Michigan Democrats have to fix what Betsy DeVos did</b></a><div><br /></div><div>Michael Griffie writes for the Detroit Free Press that Michigan is still dealing with the mess that the DeVos dollars made of public education, and it's time to rebuild.</div><div><br /></div><a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2024/02/26/republicans-cut-public-schools-for-private-kentucky-north-carolina/72670677007/"><b>Welcome to the GOP's new education agenda: Loot our public schools for private vouchers</b></a><div><br /></div><div>Governor Roy Cooper and Governor Andy Bashear team up in this USA Today op-ed and they mince no words. If you'd like to see an elected official actually stand up for public education, you'll want to read this.</div><div><br /></div><a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/black-male-teachers-pay-tribute-heroes-theyre-needed/story?id=107110593"><b>Black male teachers pay tribute to their heroes: 'They're needed so much'</b></a><div><br /></div><div>ABC News did this piece, and it's a nice tribute to people who deserve a nice tribute.</div><div><br /></div><a href="https://www.chalkbeat.org/chicago/2024/02/29/illinois-voucher-program-final-report-academic-outcomes/"><b>Report: Tax-credit scholarship recipients didn’t outscore public school students</b></a><div><br /></div><div>Samantha Smylie at Chalkbeat Chicago with yet another study showing that vouchers don't aid academics. Illinois is the first state to have rolled back its voucher program, and from the looks of this study, they didn't lose anything worth keeping.</div><div><br /></div><a href="https://dangerouslyirrelevant.org/2024/03/its-the-bullying-not-the-tech.html"><b>It’s the bullying, not the tech</b></a><div><br /></div><div>Just a short piece from Scott McLeod, but you should check it out for the chart showing where bullying actually happens.</div><div><br /></div><a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/opinion/views/2024/02/05/misguided-war-test-optional-opinion"><b>The Misguided War on Test Optional</b></a><div><br /></div><div>Here's some fun. Akil Bello ran this piece in Inside Higher Ed a few weeks back, and it's well worth a read. <a href="https://akilbello.com/2024/02/29/cutting-room-the-misguided-war-on-test-optional/">But then you can also read this piece,</a> in which he looks at the material that he cut from the IHE piece, which is pretty interesting stuff in its own right.</div><div><br /></div><a href="https://larrycuban.wordpress.com/2024/02/29/whatever-happened-to-mayoral-control-of-urban-public-schools/"><b>Whatever Happened to Mayoral Control of Urban Public Schools?</b></a><div><br />Larry Cuban with a look at the history and ins and outs of mayoral control of big city school districts. A nice little history lesson.</div><a href="https://nancyebailey.com/2024/02/24/americas-need-for-immeasurable-outcomes-valuing-the-humanities/"><br /><b>America’s Need for Immeasurable Outcomes: Valuing the Humanities</b></a><div><br /></div><div>A while back, I did a review of Gayle Greene's book about teaching the humanities. Here's another look at this very worthwhile book, this time from Nancy Bailey. </div><div><br /></div><a href="https://www.friendlyatheist.com/p/christian-nationalists-are-furious?"><b>Christian Nationalists are furious at reporter Heidi Przybyla for accurately reporting on them</b></a><div><br /></div><div>The Friendly Atheist breaks down the flap over the Politico writer whose misquoting has launched a whole lot of high dudgeon on the right. Best breakdown of the story I've read.</div><div><br /></div><div>Over at Forbes.com this week, I looked at <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2024/02/26/report-north-dakota-number-one-in-nation-for-public-education-support/?sh=140977b97961">the new NPE report showing how states rank</a> for their support of public education.</div><div><br /></div><div>Please join me on substack. It's a free and easy way to stay up to date on whatever has been falling out of my fingertips lately.<br /><div><div style="border: 0px; clear: both; line-height: 33px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div></div></div></div>
<iframe frameborder="0" height="250" scrolling="no" src="https://curmudgucation.substack.com/embed" style="background: white; border: 1px solid #EEE;" width="480"></iframe></div>Peter Greenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16511193640285760299noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post-14083468522349372392024-03-01T14:07:00.001-05:002024-03-01T14:09:24.818-05:00ID: The Fake Superintendent Saga ContinuesLast summer, the West Bonner School District decided to go out on a limb and hire Branden Durst as superintendent, despite his complete lack of qualifications. That employment did not last long, but the tale is not over, because Durst has decided to sue some folks over it. I covered the story as it unfolded (<a href="https://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2023/06/id-baffling-hiring-decision-and-another.html">here</a>, <a href="https://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2023/09/id-fake-superintendent-fails-to-get.html">here</a>, <a href="https://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2023/09/id-west-bonner-tries-to-fight-back-but.html">here</a> and <a href="https://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2023/09/id-west-bonners-fake-superintendent.html">here)</a>, but I'll go ahead and recap here, because this is an awesome tale of giant brass cajones and the belief that qualifications for education leadership include ideological purity rather than actual knowledge of the work. <div><br /></div><div><b>Who is this guy?</b></div><br />The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Branden_Durst">broad outlines </a>of his career are pretty simple. Born in Boise. Attended pacific Lutheran University (BA in poli sci with communication minor), grad school at Kent State and Claremont Graduate University (public policy, international political economy), then Boise State University (Master of Public Administration). In 2022, he went back to BSU for a degree in Executive Educational Leadership.<div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFMSbN5pPOPDneqiUnQt3M_IC3rWuYRSnf-pS6PugctcmCQEmvoRRf9Y1bV7eHynZZz83LvKnu02JCWe_7Tn_aC9mO-trNylImrvG7MZRGDtHoS_ILGUByjPbMeX-ZLThonDGNMcI1xmOtHkT_C0sSXmghXs0-bSEWa3vrkZ8OuzBinbqhdRv_ucYA_bGU/s448/durst.webp" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="448" data-original-width="320" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFMSbN5pPOPDneqiUnQt3M_IC3rWuYRSnf-pS6PugctcmCQEmvoRRf9Y1bV7eHynZZz83LvKnu02JCWe_7Tn_aC9mO-trNylImrvG7MZRGDtHoS_ILGUByjPbMeX-ZLThonDGNMcI1xmOtHkT_C0sSXmghXs0-bSEWa3vrkZ8OuzBinbqhdRv_ucYA_bGU/s320/durst.webp" width="229" /></a></div><div><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandendurst/details/experience/">His LinkedIn account </a>lists 20 "experience" items since 2000, and Durst seems to have bounced quickly from job to job until 2006, when he was elected as an Idaho State Representative for four years. Then in 2012 he was elected to the state senate, a job that he held for one year. He did all that as Democrat; in 2016, he switched his party to the GOP.<br /><br />Then independent consultant, a mediator for a "child custody and Christian mediation" outfit. Then an <a href="https://idahofamily.org/about-ifpc/">Idaho Family Policy Center </a>senior policy fellow. IFPC advocates for the usual religious right causes, but they have a broader focus as well: "To advance the cultural commission." They see the Great Commission in a dominionist light-- the church is to teach "nations to obey everything Jesus has commanded." And they suggest you get your kid out of public school.<br /><br />Durst's most recent gig was with the<a href="https://idahofreedom.org/about/"> Idaho Freedom Foundation</a>, a <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Idaho_Freedom_Foundation">right tilted thinky tank</a> that wants to "make Idaho into a Laboratory of Liberty by exposing, defeating, and replacing the state's socialist public policies." They run a <a href="https://idahofreedom.org/cae/">Center for American Education</a> which, among other things, maintains a map so you can see where schools are "indoctrinating students with leftist nonsense." They recommend you get your <a href="https://idahofreedom.org/get-your-children-out-of-public-schools/">child out of public school</a>. <br /><br />Durst came with some baggage. That one year tenure in the Senate? Durst resigned because the press got ahold of the fact that he was actually <a href="https://www.ktvb.com/article/news/local/state-senator-splitting-time-living-in-idaho-and-washington/277-325849369">was living in Idaho only part time</a>; his wife was working as a teacher near Seattle and he was living there at least part of the time with his family. KTVB, the station that followed the story, "observed his home looked empty of furniture when stopping by to knock on the door last week." Durst insisted that his bed and clothes were there. And<a href="https://www.ktvb.com/article/news/local/state-senator-splitting-time-living-in-idaho-and-washington/277-325849369"> he blamed the split living</a> arrangement on Idaho schools:<br /><br /><i>There's a big difference between living out of your district for an entire year, and having a family member who is a teacher that doesn't get treated well because they live in Idaho and have to find employment someplace else. I think there's a big difference, Durst said.</i><br /><br />For a while, it looked like he would fight the charge. But in the end he resigned his seat.<br /><br />2022 was not a great year for Durst. After the Idaho Senate <a href="https://www.idahoednews.org/news/statehouse-roundup-1-18-22-deadlocked-committee-kills-parental-freedom-bill/">failed to advance the parental rights bill </a>that he was promoting, Durst confronted Senator Jim Woodward with enough aggressiveness that Woodward called the cops on him. After blowing off a meeting with GOP leadership, Durst blasted senators on social media. The Senate <a href="https://www.idahoednews.org/news/egregious-conduct-unbecoming-of-anyone-senate-gop-leaders-condemn-durst/">GOP majority wrote a letter </a>condemning Durst for "spurious attacks against members of the Senate, meant to coerce votes and influence elections." In a press release, <a href="https://www.idahoednews.org/news/egregious-conduct-unbecoming-of-anyone-senate-gop-leaders-condemn-durst/">GOP leaders condemned Durst </a>and said his actions "demonstrate egregious conduct unbecoming of anyone, especially a former legislator and current statewide political candidate."<div><br /></div>The "candidate" part refers to Durst's <a href="https://magicvalley.com/news/local/education/former-lawmaker-durst-files-paperwork-for-state-superintendent-s-run/article_6eb92566-e85d-5d9a-b763-8674bf520509.html">run for the office of state superintendent</a>. <a href="https://www.eastidahonews.com/2022/05/why-branden-durst-is-running-for-state-superintendent/">He told EastIdahoNews</a>, “Parents are tired. They don’t feel respected or trusted and they want some real change in their school superintendent. They’re all talking about the same things. They want to stop the indoctrination that’s happening in their schools, they want to (be able) to make decisions for their kids." He <a href="https://www.durstforidaho.com/priorities">ran on three priorities</a>-- end common core, stop critical race theory, and school choice ("fund students, not systems"). He came in second in the GOP primary, losing to Debbie Critchfield <a href="https://www.livevoterturnout.com/Idaho/LiveResults/1/en/Index_122.html">by about 25,000 votes</a>. Remember that name.<br /><br />Durst had <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8zwVeQ5deQ">remarried in 2016</a> (in Washington state), and in 2022, his wife and ex-wife <a href="https://www.idahopress.com/news/local/superintendent-candidate-won-t-be-charged-but-wife-faces-misdemeanor/article_cb6740b4-7ddf-5e49-924b-869f593e892b.html">got into a scuffle </a>that almost blew up into <a href="https://blog.idahoreports.idahoptv.org/2022/02/18/court-issues-protection-order-against-durst-after-child-abuse-accusations/">abuse allegations against Durst and his wife</a> over a whack with a wooden spoon on a 14-year-old child. <a href="https://www.eastidahonews.com/2022/05/why-branden-durst-is-running-for-state-superintendent/">He explained later</a>, “The child wasn’t being respectful, wasn’t obeying … It wasn’t even very hard, but things can happen in the political world where things get taken out of proportion, and that’s what happened here." Certainly his candidacy made the story bigger than it might otherwise have been.<div><br /></div><div>But West Bonner was pretty desperate. They had been through three superintendents in one year, and the voters had sleepwalked their way into a far right majority. Durst's unsuccessful campaign had pulled 60% of the vote in Bonner County. <a href="https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2023/jun/25/west-bonner-county-school-district-picks-republica/">Hence this justification for his hiring</a> from trustee Keith Rutledge:</div><blockquote>“He has a vastly superior understanding of the legal, financial, administrative, and educational philosophy aspects of the job,” Rutledge wrote, adding that Durst is popular among Bonner County voters and “has the broad support of the nearly 13,000 residents of our district.”</blockquote><div>Hailey Scott-Yount, a parent in the district, <a href="https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2023/jun/25/west-bonner-county-school-district-picks-republica/">had a different take.</a></div><blockquote>“Why on earth would you hire a mechanic to bake your wedding cake?” Scott-Yount said. “It’s terrifying.”</blockquote><p><b>There was just one problem. Okay, one <i>other </i>problem.</b></p><p><a href="https://www.idahoednews.org/news/west-bonner-trustees-to-consider-dursts-contract-tonight/">The proposed contract</a> was bonkers. </p> It made him hard to fire-- the trustees would need a super-majority to vote him out. The draft contract also required the district to provide his legal counsel, requiring the district to protect Durst and his wife from “any and all demands, claims, suits, actions, and legal proceedings brought against the Superintendent for all non-criminal incidents arising while the Superintendent is acting within the scope of his employment.” The proposed contract also included a vehicle, a housing allowance, and district-provided meal services. Plus an ability to work remotely. <div><br /></div><div>However, this was all contingent on Durst getting the state to grant him provisional superintendent certification. That's usually given to someone with relevant experience in education, but<a href="https://www.idahoednews.org/top-news/durst-plans-to-lead-west-bonner-under-a-provisional-certificate/"> Durst said</a> he'd like to see the process opened up so that districts can have "the flexibility they need to make the right hiring decision for them." One has to wonder what sort of district feels that the best fit for them is someone with no actual qualifications. </div><div><br /></div><div>That was in June. The reaction was immediate, with the <a href="https://www.ktvb.com/article/news/local/208/local-west-bonner-county-school-district-may-rescind-brandon-dursts-superintendent-appointment/277-22fc0263-eb4f-4e5a-83f9-befa1d09c80f">public showing up at the next meeting</a> to say "What the actual hell?" He asked Boise State to recommend him for the emergency certification, and the head of the college of education <a href="https://media.ktvb.com/assets/KTVB/images/b11b441b-1aa7-4188-87ab-c8bc6def0480/b11b441b-1aa7-4188-87ab-c8bc6def0480_1140x641.jpg">sent a letter</a> saying, "Um, no."</div><div><br /></div><div>By August, Durst still hadn't actually applied for the emergency cert, but he was making dark noises about business, promising that the whole business had much larger implications, something something Constitutional Crisis! <a href="https://bonnercountydailybee.com/news/2023/aug/16/durst-escalates-dispute-state-education-leaders/" style="color: #7c00e5; text-decoration-line: none;">In the Bonner County Daily Bee:</a></div><div><br /></div><i>“That’s really what this is about. The constitutional crisis is now an unelected board — it was appointed by the governor in the executive branch — can tell any (school) board in the state of Idaho whether or not they’ve done something, even if they haven’t done it,” Durst said.</i><div><i><br /></i></div><div>Then the <a href="https://www.ktvb.com/article/news/local/state-board-of-education-rejects-branden-dursts-bid-for-emergency-certificate-leaving-west-bonner-schools-without-a-superintendent/277-d4a84cfb-b35a-42a6-801f-5051aeff90c6">Idaho State Board of Education said no.</a> <br /><div><br style="background-color: #f4e7c8; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /></div></div><div>In fact, they found two ways to say no. First, they pointed out that there are five requirements to serve as a superintendent, and Durst didn't meet one of them. Not the "four years of full-time experience working with students while under contract to an accredited school" one or the two years of teacher training one. </div><div><br /></div><div>Furthermore, they said, having looked more closely at the law, they concluded that they couldn't actually issue emergency superintendent certificates anyway. </div><div><br /></div>Durst took all of this with the quiet grace and dignity for which he is known.<a href="https://twitter.com/brandendurst/status/1702399116427534630"> On his blue-checked Twitter</a> account, he complained that something smells. "...this was a discriminatory act by a board run by those with a political axe to grind. They will be held accountable for their discriminatory actions." Remember, this is Idaho, not exactly known as a hotbed of powerful lefties. <div><br /></div> <a href="https://www.idahostatesman.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/article276227091.html">Bryan Clark at The Idaho Statesman</a> wrote the political obit on Durst, who they called a "serial political entrepreneur" in June when he was trying to establish his "own little kingdom."<div><blockquote>The unifying thread is overwhelming personal ambition. The causes change, but what’s been constant is Durst’s belief that he should be given the power to implement his ideas, whatever they are that week.<br /><br />There has been a second constant as well: failure.</blockquote><p><b>But he wasn't done yet</b></p><p>Even as the voters were goggling at Durst's hiring, they were also trying to recall the most wingnuttiest of the board members. Despite any number of nasty tricks, the recall succeeded at the beginning of September. But those seats wouldn't be filled until November, and in the meantime, Durst and the board <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/idaho-school-district-chose-far-100000968.html">tried some last minute antics,</a> like moving to dissolve the school board at a board meeting scheduled at the last minute for a Friday evening of a three day weekend. It took a<a href="https://www.kxly.com/news/west-bonner-school-board-meeting-cancelled-due-to-temporary-restraining-order/article_2cc5a94c-4920-11ee-a5b5-8fee410338bc.html"> court ordered injunction to stop that</a> nonsense.</p><p>The recall created another problem. With only 3/5 of the board left, any one member could grind things to a halt by simply not showing, and for the first meeting after the state shot down Durst's aspirations, the <a href="https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2023/sep/21/branden-durst-lives-to-see-another-day/">remaining conservative member did just that</a>. No meeting held, no action taken, and Durst meekly slinking away--ha!<a href="https://www.krem.com/article/news/education/west-bonner-superintendent-bites-back-idaho-dept-education/293-45849dc2-07b7-475a-998c-5c5b58b01291"> No, just kidding. </a></p><blockquote>But, Durst told KREM 2 he still is the superintendent.<br /><br />"They don’t make the law," Durst said. "They aren’t the law. How many people could say that? That they don’t have to follow the laws of Idaho.”</blockquote><p>Finally, late in September, Durst threw in the towel. Well, not "in" exactly, More like pitched it angrily at his detractors. Declaring he wanted an "amicable and fair" parting, Durst claimed in his<a href="https://twitter.com/brandendurst/status/1706381734399578478"> Twitter-posted retirement letter:</a><br /></p><blockquote>Throughout my short tenure, I remained cognizant of the fact that not everyone in the community welcomed my hiring, and there were those who hoped to see me fail and did everything in their power to try to make that so, even if meant hurting very students they claimed to support. I was undeterred by the naysayers and their negativity only strengthened my resolve to do what needed to be done to put this district on a path toward success.</blockquote><p><b>That brings us up to date</b></p><p>What Durst has been doing since, who knows. His LinkedIn page still lists him as superintendent of West Bonner. But whatever he's been doing, it apparently leaves time for nursing a grudge. </p><p>Last Wednesday, he filed a tort claim (kind of a save the date for an impending lawsuit) claiming $1.25 million in damages. As unearthed and <a href="https://www.idahoednews.org/top-news/former-west-bonner-leader-branden-durst-files-intent-to-sue-for-1-25-million/">reported by Idaho Education News</a>, Durst is claiming that the Idaho Board of Education's refusal to grant him an emergency certification "resulted in his loss of employment." </p><p>He is after compensatory damages on top of “punitive damages due to professional, emotional and reputational harm,” which is a hell of a ballsy move. "Hey, your refusal to grant me professional certification for a profession for which I am in no way qualified has damaged my reputation as a member of that profession." I wonder if I can sue someone for hurting my professional reputation as a brain surgeon because they pointed out that I am in no way qualified to be a brain surgeon."</p><p>Important feature of this story--one of the people he'll be suing is state superintendent Debbie Critchfield, the person who beat his butt back when he ran for that office.</p><p>Is Durst going to break his long string of failures with this lawsuit? I'm betting it's not likely. Is that going to lead to him quietly sitting down and finding something more useful to do? I am betting that is also not likely.</p><p></p></div></div>Peter Greenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16511193640285760299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post-24277161272563236092024-02-28T18:40:00.002-05:002024-02-28T18:40:11.098-05:00DeVos And Other Rich Carpetbaggers Target TexasBack when she was throwing her weight around her home state of Michigan, a standard Betsy DeVos technique was to threaten uncooperative GOP officials with her willingness to throw her money behind a primary opponent. Now she's taking that technique to the national stage.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR7UcryYX6xIIL1615exFAzG9qv1WMyWM4xPilaoNj4ZFNPCR68P-QcYoVFjUgZidjpvZf1yFRkXEMj-D4C_uhHXjeUl5n_oYdJzhNwy6HKifYPdwYK67AVu9A-P5aco26tf2DgyDBi3judRHViUJ3Qn-VAHpz3pYYNgNWwVhsmPcZ3_w-WNMlgX4odqg8/s780/devos3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="438" data-original-width="780" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR7UcryYX6xIIL1615exFAzG9qv1WMyWM4xPilaoNj4ZFNPCR68P-QcYoVFjUgZidjpvZf1yFRkXEMj-D4C_uhHXjeUl5n_oYdJzhNwy6HKifYPdwYK67AVu9A-P5aco26tf2DgyDBi3judRHViUJ3Qn-VAHpz3pYYNgNWwVhsmPcZ3_w-WNMlgX4odqg8/s320/devos3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><div>Last fall, DeVos's school choice advocacy group American Federation for Children <a href="https://www.federationforchildren.org/afc-announces-launch-of-affiliated-afc-victory-fund-super-pac/">announced the AFC Victory Fund</a>, "a national Super PAC that will take AFC’s work of championing school choice and empowering parents to the next level." The PAC's mission is to support candidates who will support the dismantling of public education, replacing it with a privatized, voucher-fed market version. </div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://www.federationforchildren.org/staff/tommy-schultz/">Tommy Schultz i</a>s CEO of AFC these days; <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/tommy-schultz/">Schultz is</a> a comms professional, a regular talking head, and, his bios specify, a Catholic. He promised at least $10 million to be invested in<a href="https://www.federationforchildren.org/afc-announces-launch-of-affiliated-afc-victory-fund-super-pac/"> some aggressive campaigning. </a></div><blockquote>If you’re a candidate or lawmaker who opposes school choice and freedom in education – you’re a target. If you’re a champion for parents – we’ll be your shield.</blockquote><p>It looks like one place they'll be drawing targets is Texas. After<a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2023/12/22/texas-school-vouchers-greg-abbott/"> spending a year fruitlessly tryin</a>g to convince members of his own party to back his voucher play, Greg Abbott has been clear that he is going to<a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2023/12/06/greg-abbott-vouchers-primary-special-session/"> push hard to get more compliant GOP members elected</a>. </p><p>And boy does he have help.</p><p>AFC Victory Fund has its own <a href="https://www.transparencyusa.org/tx/committee/afc-victory-fund-00088032-mpac?gad_source=1">Texas Committee, with $5 million</a> and change cash on hand. Take a gander at their top contributors. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy5ZVTWU80LhRiqoGkRag5I10TzNjrL78RN3yE7cJRk1jIiMmFTpHYs2HXUry3uCBzcDaxjAKc5ATQsA829RSnVP7aPbXwgXkd_PrjQdSu5tAoYeZOYW1eAmxLhGlDMiea2qtCeoWRjmujtGfXYOZtmdVkFMAiKBJnLeNJPvRB2J4MxHdiMFD5WNCmAg8r/s1200/afc%20victory%20texas.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1180" data-original-width="1200" height="315" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy5ZVTWU80LhRiqoGkRag5I10TzNjrL78RN3yE7cJRk1jIiMmFTpHYs2HXUry3uCBzcDaxjAKc5ATQsA829RSnVP7aPbXwgXkd_PrjQdSu5tAoYeZOYW1eAmxLhGlDMiea2qtCeoWRjmujtGfXYOZtmdVkFMAiKBJnLeNJPvRB2J4MxHdiMFD5WNCmAg8r/s320/afc%20victory%20texas.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p>Richard Uihlein tops the list with a cool million. Uihlein is an heir to the Schlitz beer fortune, and has <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kylemullins/2022/08/03/meet-the-billionaire-couple-pumping-their-fortune-into-right-wing-politics/?sh=4c3a719c59aa">pumped something like $200 million </a>into right-wing support. He's anti-union (helped<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/meet-the-little-known-big-fish-megadonor-setting-the-tone-for-gop-primary-races/2018/04/29/2e784d76-3215-11e8-94fa-32d48460b955_story.html"> back the Janus lawsuit</a>), has backed Tea Party and Trump, and were top contributors to MAGA christianist nationalist wingnut candidate Doug Mastriano in Pennsylvania (also backed Herschel Walker, Ron Johnson, and Louis Freakin' Gohmert). Also, Uihlein is from Illinois. Not Texas.</p><p>Right behind him we get Dick DeVos, Jeff Yass, and Richard and Elisabeth DeVos Jr., all at a cool half million each. They are also not from, or in, Texas. There's the Future of Education LLC, in <a href="https://www.bizapedia.com/tx/future-of-education-llc.html">existence for less than a year</a>. It is at least sort of Texas related (Delaware, too). The one name I can find <a href="https://www.bizapedia.com/tx/future-of-education-llc.html">associated</a> with them is <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/mackenzielprice/">Mackenzie Price</a>, an<a href="https://www.kxan.com/studio-512/redefining-education-with-2-hour-learning-at-alpha-school/"> edupreneur in Austin</a>. But they managed to funnel some <a href="https://bluevirginia.us/2023/06/dark-money-epitomized-as-youngkin-gets-1m-from-an-unknown-llc-the-name-of-the-1m-donor-hidden-from-view">$1 million in dark money to Glen Youngkin</a>.</p><p>What has AFC Victory Find been doing with all this money? Well, so far, <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2024/01/31/texas-house-republican-primary-2024-vouchers/">attack mailers in the districts of the targeted representatives</a>.</p><blockquote>Its latest mail piece portrays the incumbents in a “Wanted” poster, saying they are being sought for “working against schools, teachers, parents, and kids.” The mailer says they not only denied school vouchers but also “$4,000 pay raises for teachers” and “over $97 million in funding for our local schools.”</blockquote><p>Sure. They denied those things in the sense that Abbott used them as hostages to his voucher dreams.</p><p>Funny story about those mailers. Apparently the first batch went out with AFC's Virginia address on them, <a href="https://quorumreport.com/quorum_report_daily_buzz_2024/after_voters_noticed_and_rep_darby_called_it_out_p_buzziid31978.html">so AFC has since rented some space in Dallas</a>, presumably so they can look a little less like rich people from out of state trying to meddle with Texas politics. </p><p><a href="https://texasscorecard.com/state/pro-school-choice-groups-wade-into-texas-gop-primaries/">Also looking to pack the Texas legislature </a>with voucher-friendly Republicans is the School Freedom Fund, a group operated by the<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Club_for_Growth"> Club for Growth</a>. SFF is headed by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_McIntosh_(politician)">David McIntosh</a>. a former student of Antonin Scalia and a co-founder of the Federalist Society. The Club for Growth has gotten itself <a href="https://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2021/08/club-for-growth-launches-school-choice.html">busy in voucher promotion before</a>, teaming up with Betsy DeVos in 2021 for a national Choiciness tour. Their interest in choice tells us a lot about the movement, because Club for Growth really only has one focus-- they want taxation to go away. In other words, they represent the choicer wing that is in favor of free market education specifically because they do not want to pay to educate other peoples' children.</p><p>Two of their big funders? Jeff Yass and Richard Uihlein.</p><p>SFF paid for a media blitz to clobber Abbott's foes. </p><p>Also, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Dunn_(businessman)">right wing christianist rich guy</a> <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/greg-abbott-tim-dunn-spend-millions-in-texas-gop-primary-fights-over-vouchers-impeachment/ar-BB1j012d">Tim Dunn has pumped a ton of money</a> into the battle through his own group, <a href="https://twitter.com/cjtackett/status/1762903659153908099/photo/1">Texans United for a Conservative Majority</a>. I'll give Dunn this--he is at least an actual resident of Texas.</p><p>A whole nation of rich folks have made it their mission to help their rich governor buddy sell his unpopular policy, and they are willing to throw a whole lot of money at the problem. But one of the legislators under attack, Glenn Rogers, doesn't seem intimidated. I'll let <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2024/01/31/texas-house-republican-primary-2024-vouchers/">this clip from the Texas Tribune</a> have the last word:</p><blockquote>Rogers said in a direct-to-camera video released Tuesday that he would not cow to the “out-of-state voucher lobby, which is pumping millions of dollars into Texas to kill public education.”<br /><br />“I have something important to tell you: I can’t be bought, I can’t be bullied and I can’t be intimidated,” Rogers told voters. “I will only be your representative.”</blockquote></div>Peter Greenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16511193640285760299noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post-18300585175010651892024-02-27T15:56:00.004-05:002024-02-27T16:04:03.698-05:00School Choice Movement Fissures (2024 Edition)Milton Friedman's vision was never popular.<div><br /></div><div><a href="https://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2023/12/milton-friedmans-vision.html">The idea of doing away with public school as a public good, </a>a service provided to all citizens, funded and managed by some combination of federal, state and local government, and replacing it all with an unregulated free market of education services in which families had to find their own way with their own resources-- that was never going to be a winner. </div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbsKCgfjcZpbO5yNXUn9vJaQ0yi7mR2qhgBRQs6UCzAIf6LU-JnqJXK6RGU1pVrCE-A5keocvlPke7oYnNR_L78SXRY75qf22a9zH5vJ2Omd8pctRrV-5VbxcK-7K5szH8CMBdFRqslJvmUSdl2ik4_if6rZuZEFRGIW8hIOXRNNjix-otmCeXAuKxkG2y/s474/cracked%20wall.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="215" data-original-width="474" height="145" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbsKCgfjcZpbO5yNXUn9vJaQ0yi7mR2qhgBRQs6UCzAIf6LU-JnqJXK6RGU1pVrCE-A5keocvlPke7oYnNR_L78SXRY75qf22a9zH5vJ2Omd8pctRrV-5VbxcK-7K5szH8CMBdFRqslJvmUSdl2ik4_if6rZuZEFRGIW8hIOXRNNjix-otmCeXAuKxkG2y/s320/cracked%20wall.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div>Replace a promise to provide every child with an education with a promise to just let everyone fend for themselves-- not a popular idea. Even school vouchers--Friedman's idea of a gateway to the future he really wanted to see--were never popular.</div><div><br /></div><div>So they needed allies. The first batch of allies--segregationists who wanted school choice so they could choose not to send White kids to school with Black kids-- were not terribly helpful from a policy standpoint. </div><div><br /></div><div>The big obstacle--people really like and believe in the idea of public schools.</div><div><br /></div><div>So the Reagan administration <a href="https://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2018/04/happy-frickin-birthday-nation-at-risk.html">gave us <i>A Nation At Risk</i></a>, a manifesto <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1493062">masquerading</a> as a research report that aimed to chip away at that public support for public schools. "Burn it all down" was<a href="https://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2023/03/the-call-to-abolish-public-education.html"> still a fringe notion</a>, but the Overton window was shifting, and the repeated assertion that public schools were failing was the crowbar used to shift it.</div><div><br /></div><div>By the turn of the millennium, a partnership had emerged, between choicers (we need more options because competition will help), reformsters (we need standards and tests and incentives to force teachers to suck less), neo-liberals (the private sector can do this better), technocrats (let's be data driven), accountability hawks (make schools prove they're doing a good job), social justice fabulists (better education will magically erase poverty), and folks who had real concerns about real issues in education. </div><div><br /></div><div>Overall, this patchwork alliance had the outward appearance of a bipartisan team-up, and that was just perfect for the Bush-Obama years and the sham that was No Child Left Behind</div><div><br /></div><div>But what the alliance didn't produce was results. Choice did not provide a sudden lifting of all boats, despite some data-torturing attempts to show otherwise. Data-driven instruction didn't improve the data generated by either students or teachers. Underserved communities that were supposed to be rescued from failing schools by charters and choice too often had education policies done to them rather than with them. And then there was the gross miscalculation that was Common Core, which drew attack from all across the political spectrum.</div><div><br /></div><div>By the mid 2010s, the deal was splintering. <a href="https://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2016/05/ed-debate-political-fault-lines.html">Robert Pondiscio was one of the first to publicly talk abou</a>t it-- the social justice wing of the choice movement was demanding more focus on actual education results, and the free market wing that was more committed to the idea of choice as an end in itself, whether it improved educational outcomes or not.</div><div><br /></div><div>The alliance probably would have fallen apart under the simple force of gravity, but Trump arrived like a sledgehammer to bust it up. The social justice wing of reform bailed immediately, and the free market wing-- well, <a href="https://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2016/11/revising-reform-for-trumplandia.html">Jeanne Allen typified the speedy shift from</a> "I don't want my issues coming out of his mouth" to much love for MAGAland. </div><div><br /></div><div>The installation of Betsy DeVos signaled the rise of what I guess we can call Christianist Friedmanism. Friedman was always stuck arguing that a free market approach to education was just better, because reasons. But the DeVos wing of choicers have a better explanation-- the unregulated free market approach to education is better because it is what God wants. </div><div><br /></div><div>DeVos could never quite go full DeVos during her tenure--she even made it a point to make nice with charter fans even though, for her, charters are just a way to get to the full voucherism she favors. Still watching that Overton window. </div><div><br /></div><div>Then COVID-19 came and set fire to the side of the house the Overton window is set in.</div><div><br /></div><div>Culture warrior stuff was in. Pandemic response crazy-pants reactions made anti-government, anti-institution, anti-qualifications, anti-smarty-pants-with-all-their-book-learning sentiment Great Again. Frustrated activists like<a href="https://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2022/07/christopher-rufo-and-end-of-public.html"> Chris Rufo</a> and the <a href="https://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2023/05/fl-prequel-to-moms-for-liberty-is.html">Moms For Liberty founders</a>, who had already been trying to break through with an anti-public school message for years suddenly found themselves with all sorts of traction. Jay Greene, who had worked as a school choice academic at the University of Arkansas, took a job with the christianist right wing Heritage Foundation, and from that new perch he announced the new alliance-- <a href="https://www.heritage.org/education/report/time-the-school-choice-movement-embrace-the-culture-war"> "Time for the school choice movement to embrace the culture wars."</a></div><div><br /></div><div>So here we are, with the new alliance driving the school choice revolution bus. And like all the other alliances over the past seventy-some years, this one has some fault lines.</div><div><br /></div><div>There's certainly a difference of style. Educational dudebros like Rufo, Corey DeAngelis and Ryan Walters are pretty abrasive and aggressive, sometimes in ways that might strike some of the old guard as unseemly. In the days of the earlier alliance, reformsters caught on to the idea that belittling teachers and treating them as the enemy was not a useful way to get policies fruitfully implemented. Of course, one does not need to build lines of communication across a bridge if one's goal is to just burn the bridge down. </div><div><br /></div><div>That's part and parcel of the biggest fracture line in the current choice movement, which is that the different factions have different goals. </div><div><br /></div><div>The free market wing still argues for some sort of free market of education, with some combination of private and public (if they're a little more reality based) choices for families with, perhaps, some sort of taxpayer subsidy to even the playing field a hair. You might even find one or two who believe there should be some guardrails, some accountability and oversight for such a system.</div><div><br /></div><div>But their current allies from the culture war world are quite clear that they don't actually like choice at all. Parents Defending Education, a piece of kochtopus astro turfing, has been clear, as with their recent piece warning that in<a href="https://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2024/02/parents-defending-education-comes-out.html"> some states taxpayers are being required to help fund LGBTQ charter</a> schools! Moms For Liberty has been clear that some books should not be an available choice for students in schools, regardless of what those students' parents might want. </div><div><br /></div><div>In Georgia, the <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/conservatives-push-back-at-gop-effort-to-regulate-gender-content-in-georgia-private-schools/ar-BB1iFht1">legislature is considering a Don't Say Gay law</a> to restrict teaching about gender identity in private as well as public schools. Neal McClusky has popped up reliably to argue that, no, real school choice means you can't outlaw the choices you don't like, but the culture panic MAGA christianist nationalists aren't listening. Their goal is not a robust system of public and private choices for a wide variety of viewpoints, but a system, public or private or whatever, that reflects only their values. In short, the opposite of school choice. </div><div><br /></div><div>I'm not sure how long the alliance will hold up, particularly since the traditional reformsters are, at best, minority partners here. This year's CPAC, the annual conservative rant-o-pallooza, seemed to have plenty to say about making schools adhere to proper values, but <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/02/being-denied-a-press-pass-at-cpac-was-the-best-way-to-cover-the-conference/">hardly anything about actual school choice</a>. Trump <a href="https://religionnews.com/2024/02/23/trump-promises-a-revival-of-christian-power-in-speech-to-national-religious-broadcasters/">promised school vouchers</a>, but only in the context of a promise to "restore God to His rightful place in American culture."</div><div><br /></div><div>Meanwhile, Chester Finn is trying hard, repeatedly, to stand up for the notion that maybe the culture wars and even free market affection are obscuring the goal of providing American children with a good education, and<a href="https://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2023/04/chester-finns-heretical-insights.html"> that some accountability and oversight might be useful</a>, even as he waxes nostalgic for <a href="https://fordhaminstitute.org/national/commentary/education-reform-bipartisan-endeavor">the days of bipartisan accomplishments </a>that made the education system better. </div><div><br /></div><div>Like many long-time reformsters, Finn fails to see how their brand of reform set the stage for today's scorched earth attacks on public education (and, to be fair, public education's failure to address some of its own issues also opened some doors as well). When Chris Rufo asserts that the path to universal school choice requires universal distrust of public education, he's simply taking the arguments laid out in <i>A Nation At Risk</i> to their natural scorched earth conclusion. </div><div><br /></div><div>There is perhaps another way of viewing the fissures in the current movement. On one side, reformsters who still have a bit of conservative-style love for institutions; on the other, those who would simply trash it all, right down to the concept of inclusive public schools. The former had a line, a point past which they felt one shouldn't go because that would just be destructive. The latter are not concerned with any such line. </div><div><br /></div><div>I don't think it's any mystery that we're at this moment right now. The new shape of school choice both rising out of and pushing aside the old education reform movement sure seems to parallel the way MAGAthauritainism pushed aside the traditional conservative project and yet is also somehow rooted in it. </div><div><br /></div><div>Or we can parse the fissures one other way: The movement today has three main threads:</div><div><br /></div><div>* People who want to see better schools and think that school choice gets us there.</div><div>* People who see free-market based choice as a worthy end in itself</div><div>* People who want to see education delivered in different tiers according to class, but in all tiers delivered in alignment with a single set of christianist values, and see choice policies as a tool to get there</div><div><br /></div><div>Time will tell, I guess, which group will do the best job of using the other two as a tool for achieving their own goals. </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Peter Greenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16511193640285760299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post-67173132908419265302024-02-25T06:30:00.018-05:002024-03-02T09:43:04.926-05:00ICYMI: Audition Edition (2/25)Tonight we have our first round of auditions for a local theater production of Jesus Christ, Superstar. I'm music directing this time around, and I'm excited. Like most 70s church kids, I have a special place in my heart for the show. It was the first vinyl album I actually wore out (the second was Queen's Night at the Opera). The audition phase of a theater production is always the scariest part; you're just hoping like crazy that the pieces you need to put a production together will show up. It's easy for a Broadway director--they can decide exactly what they're looking for and then get to choose between twelve of them. Community theater is much more a matter of doing the best you can with what shows up. Probably why the whole exercise seems vaguely familiar to teachers.<div><br /></div><div>At any rate, here's your list for the week. Remember, sharing is caring.</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://radicalscholarship.com/2024/02/23/big-lies-of-education-reading-proficiency-and-naep/"><b>Big Lies of Education: Reading Proficiency and NAEP</b></a></div><div><br /></div><div>Paul Thomas explains, again, with charts, how the NAEP scores are used to manufacture a crisis. </div><a href="https://doctorsam7.blog/2019/09/06/a-look-at-the-science-of-reading-movement-through-the-eyes-of-the-radical-middle-a-term-coined-by-pd-pearson-by-dr-sam-bommarito/"><br /><b>A look at the science of reading movement through the eyes of the radical middle</b></a><div><br /></div><div>Another view of the Science of Reading movement from Sam Bommarito.<br /><div><br /></div><a href="https://janresseger.wordpress.com/2024/02/22/supreme-court-allows-pro-diversity-but-race-neutral-admissions-policy-at-selective-virginia-high-school/"><b>Supreme Court Allows Pro-Diversity but Race-Neutral Admissions Policy at Selective Virginia High School</b></a><div><br /></div><div>A good explanation of the Supreme Court decision not to decide about admissions to a selective high school and what it all means, from Jan Resseger.</div><div><br /></div><a href="https://notesfromthechalkboard.com/2024/02/24/nc-church-whose-pastor-says-women-that-wear-shorts-invite-rape-has-received-millions-in-public-tax-dollars-for-school-vouchers/"><b>NC church whose pastor says women that wear shorts invite rape has received millions in public tax dollars for school vouchers</b></a><div><br /></div><div>If you follow Justin Parmenter on social media (and you should) you know he's been talking about the many discriminatory schools collecting taxpayer dollars under North Carolina's unregulated voucher system. Here's one of the most egregious examples. </div><a href="https://tcweber.substack.com/p/time-to-bring-on-the-dancing-bears"><br /><b>Time To Bring On The Dancing Bears</b></a></div><div><br /></div><div>TC Weber with some on the ground view of the Tennessee voucher fight</div><div><br /><a href="https://www.wavy.com/news/local-news/york-county/york-county-militia-supporters-request-for-info-on-district-employees-spurs-policy-change/"><b>York County militia supporter’s request for info on district employees spurs policy change</b></a><div><br /></div><div>Well, that's not alarming at all. Local militia guy wants the personal info of district employees who have been critical of new conservative members of this Virgi9nia district. Yikes. Brian Reese reports for 10WAVY.</div><div><br /></div><a href="https://www.koco.com/article/oklahoma-edmond-book-ban/46891239"><b>Who gets to decide which books are appropriate for a school library in Oklahoma?</b></a></div><div><br /></div><div>Kolby Terrell provides reporting for KOCO about the newest flap in Oklahoma, where Education Dudebro Ryan Walters says the he's the decider, local control be damned.</div><div><br /></div><a href="https://www.news-press.com/story/news/local/2024/02/14/florida-fort-myers-high-school-teacher-resigns-after-in-class-library-removed/72511515007/"><b>'It's absurd': North Fort Myers teacher resigns after school removes in-class library</b></a><div><br /></div><div>Dan Glaun reports for Fort Myers News-Press. It's a story providing the six gazillionth example of how administrators can either blunt bad policy or make it way worse. <br /><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://www.chronicle.com/article/does-the-sat-really-help-colleges-find-diamonds-in-the-rough?sra=true"><b>Does the SAT really help colleges find Diamonds in the Rough?</b></a></div><div><br /></div><div>Francie Diep takes on the current resurgence of this controversy, and manages to include quotes from Akil Bello, testing guru. </div><blockquote> “If you like the test, just admit you like the test,” said Akil Bello, a director at FairTest, which advocates for more limited uses of standardized exams. “Stop blaming Black and brown students for your love of the test.”</blockquote><a href="https://www.masspoliticsprofs.org/2024/02/19/what-the-globe-left-out-of-mta-exerts-more-power/"><b>What the Globe Left Out of “MTA Exerts More Power”</b></a></div><div><br /></div><div>The Boston Globe is remarkably consistent in its opposition to public schools and the teachers who work there. Fortunately, Maurice Cunningham is here to fill in the parts of the story the Globe likes to skip.</div><div><br /></div><a href="https://teacherinastrangeland.blog/2024/02/20/woke-not-woke/"><b>Woke/Not Woke</b></a><div><br /></div><div>Nancy Flanagan does that thing she's so good at-- connecting a whole lot of education dots.</div><div><br /></div><a href="https://northpennnow.com/pennridge-school-board-scraps-hillsdaleinfluenced-elementary-social-studie-p8205-117.htm"><b>Pennridge School Board Scraps Hillsdale-Influenced Elementary Social Studies Curriculum</b></a><div><br /></div><div>For those following the Pennridge saga, some good news. <br /><div><br /></div><a href="https://brutalsouth.substack.com/p/the-far-side-of-the-creek"><b>The far side of the creek</b></a><div><br /></div><div>Paul Bowers on leaving church, leaving journalism, and never leaving home. There's a lot here, including the battle against censorship, and it's so well crafted. </div><a href="https://accountabaloney.com/authorizing-chaplains-in-floridas-charter-schools/"><br /><b>Authorizing Chaplains In Florida’s Charter Schools</b></a><br /><div><br /></div><div>Sue Kingery Woltanski talks about one more way to religify supposedly public schools.</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://mrfitz.com/blog/different-year-same-problem/"><b>Different Year, Same Problem</b></a></div><div><br /></div><div>David Lee Finkle. blogger and cartoonist, discovers that education news is so repetitive that he has accidentally repeated himself.</div><div><br /></div><div>At Forbes.com <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2024/02/22/survey-finds-bipartisan-support-for-public-schools-wide-gap-on-lgbtq-issues-in-education/?sh=232f6c9f6c7a">I took a look at a new report that shows</a> Democrats and Republicans are way apart on LGBTQA and race issues in school, but actually strongly united in support for public schools over vouchers. Also, a report shows how much<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2024/02/24/how-much-are-universal-vouchers-costing-arizona/?sh=5f84bcda6dcc"> extra vouchers are costing Arizona taxpayers</a>. </div><div><br /></div><div>Feel free to join me on substack (in fact, it is free). </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>
<iframe frameborder="0" height="250" scrolling="no" src="https://curmudgucation.substack.com/embed" style="background: white; border: 1px solid #EEE;" width="480"></iframe></div>Peter Greenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16511193640285760299noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post-55316147150064190442024-02-23T19:47:00.004-05:002024-02-23T19:47:36.950-05:00TN: More Unregulated, Unaccountable Vouchers On Tap<p><a href="https://trackbill.com/bill/tennessee-senate-bill-2787-education-as-introduced-requires-the-department-of-education-to-study-the-school-choice-programs-available-in-other-states-and-to-submit-a-report-of-the-departments-findings-at-the-conclusion-of-the-study-to-the-governor-the-speaker-of-the-house-of-representatives-and-the-speaker-of-the-senate-no-later-than-january-1-2025-amends-tca-title-49/2505112/">Tennessee SB 2787</a> (also, HB 2468) is one of those odd little legislative tricks beloved by both parties and mysterious to ordinary mortals. It started out as a bill requiring the department of education to study school choice in other states and then make a report. Except by the time it's done it won't be about that at all.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI98ZguDqOih6hM3ZA6nSP-AHFpaIYwfHEqyVN3d9f0ahXiHMsG4KipQc5RqkgR9HOnXgWKxDg9VHP9f23jjf6h3vOzCmOHebb2ixL6_m9X6rC_tSlJ_ZS2TOBRE_ckygr6REzIgGgbq6vDwDX2jPSvI5GRqTKyBYXIB8M1j9nrZbEWV7dIT_AjxGbIV31/s474/tennessee.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="315" data-original-width="474" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI98ZguDqOih6hM3ZA6nSP-AHFpaIYwfHEqyVN3d9f0ahXiHMsG4KipQc5RqkgR9HOnXgWKxDg9VHP9f23jjf6h3vOzCmOHebb2ixL6_m9X6rC_tSlJ_ZS2TOBRE_ckygr6REzIgGgbq6vDwDX2jPSvI5GRqTKyBYXIB8M1j9nrZbEWV7dIT_AjxGbIV31/s320/tennessee.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p>The bill will be amended into <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/careers/tennessee-senate-house-at-odds-as-changes-roll-in-on-statewide-voucher-proposal/ar-BB1iFf1Y">some form of state-wide voucher bill</a>. Right now folks are trying hard to figure out what form that bill might take exactly, as the vote is days away and "a deluge of proposed amendments to the proposal are rolling in."</p><p>So what will happen?<a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/careers/tennessee-senate-house-at-odds-as-changes-roll-in-on-statewide-voucher-proposal/ar-BB1iFf1Y"> One lawmaker promises</a> an omnibus bill covering all manner of schools that "will improve education in ways that we haven't seen in decades." Sure. </p><p>There are points of contention. Governor Lee's preferred version includes no requirement for any sort of testing in the private schools. <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/careers/tennessee-senate-house-at-odds-as-changes-roll-in-on-statewide-voucher-proposal/ar-BB1iFf1Y">Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson explains</a>:</p><blockquote>This is a parental rights bill. This is giving choice to parents to pick an educational alternative that is best for their child. It may be that their child has unique learning needs – so I'm very cautious about imposing everything that we impose on our public education system on these other alternatives.</blockquote><p>This is one of the golden oldies of choice arguments. Parents must have choice, and those choices must come without rules and regulations because the public system is so choked with rules and regulations, argue the legislators who choked the public system with rules and regulations in the first place. </p><p>So why use testing etc for public schools at all? Because those are taxpayer dollars being spent and the taxpayers deserve some accountability. Why don't the taxpayers deserve accountability when their dollars are spent on vouchers?</p><blockquote>“Ultimately, parents will make the decision about final accountability, in my view,” Johnson added.</blockquote><p>This is the time-honored "people will vote with their feet and that will keep these schools accountable" argument, which is baloney. First, parents can't walk with their feet until money and time have already been wasted.</p><p>Second, <a href="https://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2019/11/why-market-forces-will-not-provide.html">market forces do not, and will never work on charter or choice schools</a>. Shelby County schools enroll something just over 100,000 students. A charter/voucher school may need a few hundred to stay viable. </p>Let's say I'm operating a charter/choice school with 200 seats. I only need to capture a tiny sliver of the 100,000 market to stay solvent. If a parent says, "You know, I'm not happy with this school, so I am going to vote with my feet," which of the following strikes us as a more likely response?<br /><br />A) Charter CEO calls emergency meeting of board and administration. "All hands on deck!" He announces. "Parent #192 is unhappy and withdrawing their child. I need a task force to immediately find out why that parent was unhappy and the form another task force to redesign out instructional programs so that we can keep Parent #192 happy!"<br /><br />B) Charter CEO says, "Whoop-dee-shit. Somebody go round up one of the other 99,800 students in the county to fill that seat."<div><br /></div><div>One might think that the market would at least weed out the very worst schools, but in Pennsylvania we are loaded with ineffective cyber-charters, and they have adjusted by putting huge focus on marketing and recruitment; never mind how many people are leaving the school, but how many are signing up?</div><div><br /></div><div>It would be nice, in a choice marketplace, to have some basic guardrails in place. We mostly don't depend on market forces to protect us from markets that sell poisonous food. One would think that the government could provide that basic level of oversight for a school choice system, but voucher fans are far more likely to explicitly forbid government oversight, and true to form,<a href="https://www.newschannel5.com/news/governors-office-shows-its-wish-list-for-tennessee-voucher-program"> none of the discussion</a> surrounding this bill seems to center on what requirements vendors would have to meet in order to get some of those taxpayer-funded voucher dollars. </div><div><br /></div><div>Choice fans talk about the needs of students and families, but Tennessee with its rich history of grift-centered education reformsterism seems poised to once again put the interests of profiteers ahead of protecting the rights of families. Heaven only knows what this bill is going to look like when it finally assumes its final form, but I'm not optimistic. We'll see. </div>Peter Greenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16511193640285760299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post-64251085034598131732024-02-22T10:04:00.001-05:002024-02-22T10:04:31.561-05:00PA: Hillsdale Headed For State College<p>Nestled in the middle of Pennsylvania, State College is the home town for Penn State University, but if some local parents have their way, it might also get to welcome one of the country's most conservative christianist colleges as well.</p><p>Nittany Mountain Classical Academy <a href="https://www.dailyitem.com/wire/state/new-charter-school-with-controversial-curriculum-could-be-coming-to-state-college/article_f744a63f-1c3a-5dbb-8938-40cc742ac7a9.html">would be the new charter school</a> in the area, bringing an attachment to Hillsdale with it. <a href="https://nittanymountain.org/nittany-mountain-classical-academy/">NMCA currently has a single page website</a>, saying the school is "poised to bring new educational opportunities for families in Centre County." Furthermore, the as yet non-existent school "will stand for unparalleled academic rigor, fostering critical thinking, and a comprehensive curriculum that nurtures a lifelong love for learning."<br /></p><p>All of the standard classical academy language is there. </p><blockquote>We are proud advocates of the time-tested and proven approach of Classical Education. Rooted in the rich traditions of Western civilization, Classical Education stands as a beacon of intellectual exploration, fostering a deep understanding of the world. Nittany Mountain Classical Academy will help to form the bedrock of a transformative educational experience, nurturing bright minds and developing future leaders grounded in timeless wisdom.</blockquote><p>This is the standard classical academy fare-- the Truth was worked out centuries ago by a bunch of dead white guys and nurtured in the Western World and that "timeless wisdom" is all we need. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisshsMbbmfmhzMutlFhjfHlKVikHW3CIrwWkSE5SFgXMjLW0BtwhBJp1pExWmof-h6qp4S4uxlP1WonSWVBPLFhyphenhyphenNHL6gs-R04Dnxf8SwSalnSzkTEyzgTr70Il-kwiePs7NFCW7iRNbS0YwrKlCABR5Ft3r8SOMcNGqB8yHI1HYoOc1ounB2z32rW7fpi/s396/hillsdale%20logo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="106" data-original-width="396" height="86" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisshsMbbmfmhzMutlFhjfHlKVikHW3CIrwWkSE5SFgXMjLW0BtwhBJp1pExWmof-h6qp4S4uxlP1WonSWVBPLFhyphenhyphenNHL6gs-R04Dnxf8SwSalnSzkTEyzgTr70Il-kwiePs7NFCW7iRNbS0YwrKlCABR5Ft3r8SOMcNGqB8yHI1HYoOc1ounB2z32rW7fpi/s320/hillsdale%20logo.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p>Also, they promise "robust athletics," because, trust me on this, Texas high school sports fans have got nothing on the parents of Happy Valley.</p><p>The site also promises that the academy will be the "safest learning environment in Centre County. Period." which tells us something about the beef that NMCA backers have with the public school system.</p><p>Four of the parents at the exploratory pitch meeting for the academy are coming off <a href="https://www.statecollege.com/articles/local-news/state-college-school-board-candidates-align-with-competing-slates/">unsuccessful runs for seats on the State College school board.</a> Laurel Zydney lost a bid to hold onto her seat. Michelle Young, Megan Layng, and Barry Fenchek ran on the conservative slate for board seats (Pennsylvania runs non-partisan school board elections). Their thing was cutting spending. Layng was actually dropped by the slate--funny story. <a href="https://www.statecollege.com/articles/local-news/state-college-school-board-candidate-was-escorted-out-of-state-high-after-entering-without-permission/">Layng and her husband snuck into a district school</a> through the door open for after school practice, then snuck into the library to take pictures of Naughty Books. They were caught and escorted out by security.</p><p>The school's organizers "plan to apply for consideration in Hillsdale College's charter school program," which could mean one of several things. Hillsdale has a <a href="https://k12.hillsdale.edu/Programs/BCSI/">charter chain of their own</a>, whose mission statement <a href="http://educationopportunitynetwork.org/what-the-hillsdale-college-connection-reveals-about-donald-trumps-extremist-education-agenda/">used to include the goal </a>"to recover our public schools from the tide of a hundred years of progressivism that has corrupted our nation’s original faithfulness to the previous 24 centuries of teaching the young the liberal arts in the West,”<span style="background-color: #f4e7c8; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> </span>but they also provide curriculum materials for other charter schools (they've <a href="https://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2023/04/pa-hillsdale-comes-to-pennridge.html">attempted to get a foothold in public districts</a>, but so far, no soap). The organizers appear to want to be a <a href="https://k12.hillsdale.edu/Curriculum/Hillsdale-Member-Schools/">Hillsdale "Member School"</a> which involves providing assistance, advice, materials, training, and support, but not actual ownership.</p><p>Hillsdale is often called a private Christian college or even right wing, but it's important to understand that the current version of Hillsdale is full Trumpian MAGA Christion nationalist. After a truly horrific, heartbreaking scandal under the last long-time president, the college hired as a replacement, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_P._Arnn">Larry Arnn</a>, who still has the job.<br /><br />Arnn's conservative credentials are impeccable. He's one of the founders of the <a href="https://www.claremont.org/">Claremont Institute</a>, a conservative thinky tank (mission-- "to restore the principles of the American Founding to their rightful, preeminent authority in our national life") founded by students of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_V._Jaffa">Harry Jaffa</a> (Jaffa was the Goldwater speechwriter who penned the "Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice..." line); Hillsdale has a library in<a href="https://www.hillsdale.edu/educational-outreach/harry-v-jaffa/"> named after him</a>. The Institute was quiet for years, but has emerged as<a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/devos-bradley-claremont-trump-election-fraud-insurrection-1274253/"> a big time Trump booster</a> funded by folks like the DeVos tribe and the Bradleys, and pumping out ideas for <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/qjb4y3/john-eastman-claremont-institute-supporting-jan-6-trumpism">selling the Big Lie and the Insurrection</a>. Arnn is also a trustee at the Heritage Foundation, which at one point <a href="http://washingtonexaminer.com/article/2535471">offered him its presidency</a>. And <a href="https://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2022/07/hillsdale-college-president-teachers.html">he once said that</a> "teachers are trained in the dumbest parts of the dumbest colleges in the country" and also "you don't have to be an expert to educate a child because basically anybody can do it." And also "Teaching is our trade; also, I confess, it's our weapon."<br /><br />Arnn has been a Trump supporter, and the college has fallen right into MAGAland as well. <a href="https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/05/12/hillsdale-college-trump-pence-218362/">Or as Politico Magazine put it in 2018</a>:</p><p></p><blockquote>Trump University never died. It’s located in the middle of bucolic southern Michigan, halfway between Lansing and Fort Wayne, 100 miles and a world away from Detroit.</blockquote><p></p>The college uses Trump mailing lists to raise money. They used to <a href="http://samuel-warde.com/2014/12/10-limbaugh-sponsors-to-boycott/">sponsor Rush Limbaugh's show</a>. They get grads placed on the staff of legislators such as Jim Jordan and Kevin McCarthy. In 2017, for some reason, Senator Pat Toomey created a little piece of tax reform that would have carved out a<a href="https://www.phillyvoice.com/watch-sen-toomey-defends-hillsboro-college-amendment-speedy-tax-legislation-process/"> tax treat for Hillsdale and Grove City College.</a> Arnn was on the shortlist for Secretary of Education for Trump, when Trump whipped his super-duper <a href="https://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2020/11/trumps-executive-order-for-1776.html">1776 Commission</a> to <a href="https://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2020/12/1776-commission-members-appointed-and.html">create some nationalistic education stuff </a>for the country. They <a href="http://www.quebecoislibre.org/10/101015-12.html">don't have a great history</a> with LGBTQ students. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_Prince">Erik Prince</a> (Betsy DeVos's brother) is a Hillsdale graduate. They regularly host speakers like <a href="https://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2020/10/betsy-devos-goes-full-trump-kuyper.html">Betsy DeVos</a> and <a href="https://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2022/07/christopher-rufo-and-end-of-public.html">far-right agitator Chris Rufo</a>. <br /><p>Hillsdale pushes classical education, and while it has learned to more carefully soften its religious goals, it remains part of their brand. <a href="https://k12.hillsdale.edu/">Per its website:</a><br /></p><blockquote>In the words of its modern mission statement, the College “considers itself a trustee of our Western philosophical and theological inheritance tracing to Athens and Jerusalem, a heritage finding its clearest expression in the American experiment of self-government under law.”</blockquote><p>If you really dig into this, I recommend<a href="https://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2022/03/read-this-series-about-hillsdale.html"> a three part series by Kathryn Joyce at Salon</a>. </p><p><a href="https://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2023/08/whats-in-hillsdales-1776-curriculum.html">Dig into materials like Hillsdale's 176 Curriculum</a>, and you find a decidedly right-tilted view. American exceptionalism. The Constitution as holy writ. History as the story of individuals; social forces, systems, none of that stuff matters. The constant challenge of people who want to overthrow the Constitution with "modern" ideas. And every historical event has just one correct explanation and interpretation.</p><p>Hillsdale favors textbooks published by a wing of the <a href="https://buckscountybeacon.com/2023/05/the-arch-conservative-bradley-foundation-is-waging-a-war-on-democracy/">Bradley Foundation, a conservative think tank</a> whose mission supports grassroots and faith-based groups that serve individuals, strengthen families, and revitalize neighborhoods by sharing a common belief in the self-worth of individuals, the inherent dignity of work, and the need to reduce government dependence. As one writer put it,<a href="https://archive.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/from-local-roots-bradley-foundation-builds-conservative-empire-k7337pb-134187368.html/"> they supply </a>“the intellectual justification for conservative causes.”</p><p>In short, if the taxpayers of State College would like to fund a school devoted to religious right-wing indoctrination, then Nittany Mountain Classical Academy is their perfect opportunity.</p><p>Does the charter have a chance? Mark Parfitt was one of the organizers of that meeting, and he had posted something about it <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/markparfitt/">on his LinkedIn page,</a> but now it's not there. At the meeting, <a href="https://www.dailyitem.com/wire/state/new-charter-school-with-controversial-curriculum-could-be-coming-to-state-college/article_f744a63f-1c3a-5dbb-8938-40cc742ac7a9.html">Parfitt argued that </a> Hillsdale's curriculum focus on civics and Western-focused classical education is something that cannot be found in other area schools, which is probably true.</p><p>To establish the charter, supporters would have to get the okay from the local State College School Board (the one that some of these folks were not elected to). If rejected, they would next turn to the state charter appeal board, a group that has <a href="https://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2024/01/pennsylvania-needs-another-cyber.html">become more charter friendly</a> <a href="https://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2023/08/pa-shapiro-still-looking-for-ways-to.html">under the Shapiro administration. </a>Stay tuned!</p><p></p><p><br /><br /><br /></p>Peter Greenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16511193640285760299noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post-53184597527428409732024-02-20T15:37:00.001-05:002024-02-20T15:40:02.288-05:00TX: Using Computers To Make STAAR Test Worse<p>There are several fundamental problems with trying to use standardized testing on a large scale (say, assessing every student in the state). One is the tension between turnaround time and quality. The quickest tests to score are those based on multipole choice questions; however, multiple choice questions are not a particularly good measure of student learning. Essay questions are an excellent tool for letting students show what they know, but they are super time consuming to score.</p><p>So we have the undying dream of test manufacturers, the dream of a computer program that can assess student writing accurately. It's a fantasy, a technology that, like self-driving cars, is always right around the corner. And like self-driving cars, the imperfected not-really-functional tech keeps getting purchased by folks who succumb to the sales pitch. Add Texas to the list of suckers and Texas students to the list of victims.</p><p><b>The trouble with software</b></p><p>I've been writing about the shortcomings of these programs for a decade (<a href="https://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2014/04/computer-writer-vs-computer-grader.html">here</a>, <a href="https://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2014/03/essay-grading-software-peripatetic.html">here</a>, <a href="https://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2016/06/md-state-super-gets-writing-lesson.html">here</a>,<a href="https://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2016/04/grading-good-faith-gibberish.html"> here</a>, and <a href="https://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2020/06/no-software-still-cant-grade-student.html">here</a>, for starters). </p><p>There are a variety of technical problems, including the software's ability to recognize whether the content of the answer is bunk or not. Did Hitler fight in the Civil War? Your computer does not "know."</p><p>The "solution" is "training" the software on the particular question for which it's assessing answers, but that is essentially teaching the software that a good answer looks like these sample good answers it has viewed, which in turn sets some narrow parameters for what students can write. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWhbv31RclkKP1EMJ7rXNbEaIdHHNaWlpmdjRNX-m5THqGhMTQ6Qtu1PvOZdRk00sN8w3M-RJAy99bj7Qu3gv9PbbXLhQohKBBuknHZp-3FcBLBUh4EOlNjOGjDHEM6T1JM_d1vgqk_uCFmKsQJVBUbsj-_PbedqwmLZkaaO9uCBT4WB-ZK7lp2pLaOGT1/s474/machine%20paper.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="377" data-original-width="474" height="255" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWhbv31RclkKP1EMJ7rXNbEaIdHHNaWlpmdjRNX-m5THqGhMTQ6Qtu1PvOZdRk00sN8w3M-RJAy99bj7Qu3gv9PbbXLhQohKBBuknHZp-3FcBLBUh4EOlNjOGjDHEM6T1JM_d1vgqk_uCFmKsQJVBUbsj-_PbedqwmLZkaaO9uCBT4WB-ZK7lp2pLaOGT1/s320/machine%20paper.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p>Computers are good at recognizing patterns, but that recognition is based on what their trainers show them, like the facial recognition programs that can't see Black faces because they were trained on white ones. When Ohio did quick pivot to computer-scored essays, it trained its software on essays that did not use the classic "recycle the prompt as your topic sentence" technique used by many teachers (in response to the old algorithm), and a whole lot of students failed. Who is doing the software training and how are they doing it--these are critical questions.</p><p>The shift is subtle but important--the software can't tell you if the written answer is good, but it can tell you if it closely resembles the examples that the software has been told are good ones.</p><p>Which hints at the philosophical issue here. Using computer scoring fundamentally changes the task. Instead of making a good faith effort to communicate information to another human being, the student is now tasked with trying to meet the requirements of the software.</p><p>I took a look at<a href="https://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2021/01/selling-roboscoring-hows-that-going.html"> how things were going in various states in 2021</a>. Not well, is the short answer. A favorite dodge is to say that roboscoring works as well as human scoring, but the trick here is to train human scorers to follow a narrow algorithm cemented with examples of how to apply it--in other words, to teach humans to score the essays as a computer would. </p><p><b>The trouble with STAAR</b></p><p>Texas's Big Standardized Test is the STAAR (which does not stand for Some Tests Are Always Ridiculous or maybe Should Throw Away Any Results or even Stupid Tests' Asses Are Raggedy). And the STAAR <a href="https://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2016/06/tx-yet-another-testing-screw-up.html">has a troubled history</a> including technical glitches and questions without correct answers and just losing crates of answer sheets and <a href="https://www.dallasnews.com/news/staar/2018/06/01/texas-throws-even-staar-tests-crashing-computers">just not working.</a> Or is <a href="https://texasschoolalliance.org/2020/03/16/who-is-really-failing-students-or-staar-2/">not aligned with state standards</a>. And after many years, <a href="https://www.dallasnews.com/news/education/2021/04/06/students-across-texas-kicked-out-of-staar-tests-as-problems-persist-with-online-exams/">still glitch like crazy</a>.</p><p>A big STAAR highlight is covered in<a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/standardized-tests-are-so-bad-i-cant-answer-these_b_586d5517e4b0c3539e80c341"> this piece by poet Sara Holbrook</a>, a poet who discovered that A) her own work was being used on the STAAR test and B) she couldn't answer some of the questions about her own work. </p><p>After several years of struggling, STAAR went fully on line last year, which could only make the idea of roboscoring written portions more attractive.</p><p><b>So now what</b></p><p>"Constructed responses" <a href="https://tea.texas.gov/student-assessment/testing/staar/scoring-process-staar-constructed-response.pdf">will now be scored mostly by computer</a>, an "automated scoring engine." 25% will then be routed past human beings. Spanish language tests will be human scored.</p><p>Human scorers will be trained to use the rubrics with practice sets, then required to display their machine-like precision "by successfully completing a qualification set." Short answer responses (SCR) are scored on 0-1 or 0-2 rubric. The long answer questions (ECR) are scored "using an item-specific 5-point rubric that identifies scores based on two traits—development and organization of ideas (up to 3 points) and language conventions (up to 2 points)." <br /><br />Which raises two questions--who decided that conventions should count for 40%, and how will an algorithm assess development and organization of ideas?</p><blockquote>The ASE is trained on student responses and human scores from the field-test data. It is trained to emulate how humans would score student responses for each constructed-response question...</blockquote><blockquote>As part of the training process, the ASE calculates confidence values that indicate the degree to which the ASE is confident the score it has assigned matches the score a human would assign. The ASE also identifies student responses that should receive condition codes. Condition codes indicate that a response is blank, uses too few words, uses mostly duplicated text, is written in another language, consists primarily of stimulus material, uses <b>vocabulary that does not overlap with the vocabulary in the subset of responses used to train the ASE, or uses language patterns that are reflective of off-topic or off-task responses.</b></blockquote><p>Emphasis mine. So, "doesn't sufficiently mimic the essay the program was trained on" is a problem on the same order as "left the page blank." </p><p>Education professor Duncan Klussman commented, “What we don’t wanna do is have a system that moves to completely formulaic writing. Like ‘If I write exactly this way, I get the highest score,'” but that's exactly what you get. </p><p>Well, that's what you get once you adapt teaching to fit the algorithm. Last year when the STAAR test went on line,<a href="https://www.tpr.org/education/2024-02-18/most-written-responses-on-staar-exams-will-be-graded-by-a-computer-with-new-scoring-process"> 54% of Houston fourth graders</a> scored a zero on the written portion. Previously, pre-online STAAR, the number was 5%. So did fourth graders turn stupid, or did the test requirements change in ways that teaching hasn't adapted to yet (believe it or not, the director of the state's assessment <a href="https://www.dallasnews.com/news/education/2024/02/14/computers-are-grading-texas-students-staar-essay-answers/">development division says it's not that second one,</a> but "it really is the population of testers much more than anything else.") </p><p>All of this matters a great deal in a state where schools are still graded largely on student results from the BS Test.</p><p>The Dallas News asked a few experts, including my hero and friend of the institute Les Perelman, an absolute authority in the many failings of roboscoring. Perelman notes that having humans backstop only 25% of the writing responses was "inherently unequal," which is an understatement. Imagine telling a class, "Okay, I'm going to actually look at the essays from 25% of you; the rest will just get whatever the computer says." </p><p>Perelman also notes that machine scoring</p><blockquote> “teaches students to be bad writers,” with teachers incentivized to instruct children on how to write to a computer rather than to a human. The problem, he said, is machines are “really stupid” when it comes to ideas.</blockquote><p>Exactly. Computer-assessed grading remains a faster, cheaper way to enshrine the same hallmarks of bad writing that standardized tests were already promoting.</p><p>But TEA officials are sure they've got everything under control. They've "worked with their assessment vendors" who are Pearson, the well-known 800 pound gorilla of ed tech moneymaking, and Cambium, a sprawling octopus of education-flavored businesses (<a href="https://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2021/02/another-biz-friendly-edu-octopus.html?m=1">you can get a taste of their sprawl here</a>). It might have been nice to have worked with actual educators, even to the tony extent of letting them know what was coming rather than just rolling this out quietly. </p><p>Peter Foltz, professor at University of Colorado at Boulder, reassured the Dallas News that it's not easy to coach students how to game a scoring engine. I doubt it. We learned how to game the algorithm in PA when it was applied by humans, and that transferred just fine to roboscorers. All we had to do was replace some actual writing instruction with writing for the test instruction.</p><p>Foltz also said that automated scorers must be built with strong guardrails, and that just takes me back to when self-driving car <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/teslas-autopilot-woes-continue-laguna-beach-police-car/story?id=55544827">manufacturers remind drivers of self-driving cars</a>, "When using Autopilot, drivers are continuously reminded of their responsibility to keep their hands on the wheel and maintain control of the vehicle at all times."</p><p>You know what's better than guardrails and safeguards to protect us from the many ways in which software fails to do the job that it is supposed to do but actually can't? Not using software to do a job that it actually can't. </p><p>I'm sure that Cambium and Pearson smell big bucks. Folks at TEA may even smell a way to erase some of STAAR's sad history by being all shiny and new (a thing they presumably new because the sales force from Pearson and Cambium have told them so). But this is a bad idea. Bad for schools, bad for education, bad for writing, bad for students. Bad. </p><p></p>Peter Greenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16511193640285760299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post-1329442772744860112024-02-20T10:14:00.006-05:002024-02-20T10:15:59.612-05:00Parents Defending Education Comes Out As Anti-Choice<p><a href="https://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2021/04/parents-defending-education-astroturf.html">Parents Defending Education is an astro-turf group</a> aimed at sowing district of public education and chicken littling the specter of CRT/DEWI/BLM/LGBTQ/ETC. These are the kinds of culture war folks <a href="https://www.heritage.org/education/report/time-the-school-choice-movement-embrace-the-culture-war">that choicers have embraced as an asset to their cause</a>.</p><p>Except that Parents Defending Education are anti-school choice.</p><p>Well, anti certain choices. </p><p>In a piece at the hard right Daily Caller, Casey Ryan, an <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/casey4/">"investigative reporter</a>" for PDE, sounds the alarm-- "<a href="https://dailycaller.com/2024/02/16/ryan-queer-affirming-charter-schools-investigation/">LGBTQ Charter Schools Indoctrinate Kids At Taxpayer Expense — And Not Just In Blue States</a>" (I've included the link because I think it's fair to let you check my work, but I would encourage you not to click on it). </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYRSuibhqrCOj0MpFu7WQWtNSfNEEO8WfFUlg0KZ5Gf8sfGvu3T6yN4JKJ4LW0awU0RLWur39mBEWLlPiRwpoe1xjVT-p6ljYEttSvywOLIwDJO_qCfypR5meT3FEuavfvlc3JoFpOA9G2Td4vXegJK6KGuCK8KyRIQ86fDQ6JWW_-8gcHVk9mhnD7cfPP/s1354/no%20choice%20(1).jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="943" data-original-width="1354" height="139" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYRSuibhqrCOj0MpFu7WQWtNSfNEEO8WfFUlg0KZ5Gf8sfGvu3T6yN4JKJ4LW0awU0RLWur39mBEWLlPiRwpoe1xjVT-p6ljYEttSvywOLIwDJO_qCfypR5meT3FEuavfvlc3JoFpOA9G2Td4vXegJK6KGuCK8KyRIQ86fDQ6JWW_-8gcHVk9mhnD7cfPP/w200-h139/no%20choice%20(1).jpg" width="200" /></a></div><p>Ryan's resume is just perfect for the work. After interning with folks like Fox News Orlando, the Heritage Foundation, and (Newt) Gingrich Productions, he went to work for the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), Breakfast with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Epshteyn">Boris (Ephstyne)</a>, and doing strategic communications for the 2020 Trump campaign. He's been with PDE since December of 2021.</p><p>Ryan's point is simple. There are charter schools out there aimed at supporting and educating LGBTQ students, and your tax dollars are paying for them, and that is Very Bad. Even in states "where we would not typically expect to see such madness" we will find the government "subsidizing public schools created for the express purpose of indoctrinating children into a dangerous cult-like ideology."</p><p>It's some vile anti-LGBTQ person baloney, but at least it's honest. And it's a reminder that many of the folks lined up on the side of school choice actually have no interest in real school choice at all. Their interest is in creating a system--public, private, blended, whatever-- that reflects their values and their values only. </p>Peter Greenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16511193640285760299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post-24506410058391411032024-02-19T18:32:00.001-05:002024-02-19T18:32:05.065-05:00American Board: Bush II's Teacher Cert WorkaroundBack in 2001, Bush II launched an alternative teacher certification program. Called the<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Board_for_Certification_of_Teacher_Excellence"> American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence,</a> the organization was launched with a tiny $5 million grant from the Department of Education. It's still up and running and offers one of the simplest shortcuts to teaching certification out there.<div><br /></div><div>By 2003, ABCTE was rolling out, and it claimed to address the same problem that fans of alt certification schemes still love today. <a href="https://www1.udel.edu/educ/whitson/897s05/files/Paige%20backs%20reform%20in%20certification%20of%20teachers.htm">The Washinton Times applauded</a> the "rebellion against sole reliance on traditional teacher certification" and quoted Ed Secretary "Fake Texas Miracle" Paige:</div><blockquote> "Some people will argue that this change is too radical, that it's too risky, that we should maintain the status quo," Mr. Paige said at a National Press Club event with board leaders. "Well, I agree that it's radical. It's radically better than the system we have now, a system that drives thousands of talented people away from our classrooms."</blockquote><p><a href="https://www1.udel.edu/educ/whitson/897s05/files/Paige%20backs%20reform%20in%20certification%20of%20teachers.htm">Also, this</a>:</p><blockquote> To achieve our goal of a quality teacher in every classroom, we need to ... raise academic standards for new teachers so they are prepared to teach our children to high levels and remove the barriers that are keeping thousands of talented people out of the classroom.</blockquote><p>Yes, even then, conservatives were sure that all sorts of talented folks were being kept out of the classroom by those silly teacher college programs (you know--the ones that are simultaneously too restrictive for many people and also too easy so they graduate the worst students). </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjDQ6uL5-VaFXSwT2h5Y7iIyoeMQHni_EFFRnptpNNWndEPSBqm4ris22zCxQCtDY2-DjiX51RRoNClk_69atM0oYhJG_u_dKSRjjTBEu05709eU0-1IZYF2BLPVYlsswTDglaB2_Dwl8_bJH1zWCrfbmSE7gDzHWdulK14hSR5S91c0xodtzbbzBC-ZHM/s474/computer%20keyboard.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="237" data-original-width="474" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjDQ6uL5-VaFXSwT2h5Y7iIyoeMQHni_EFFRnptpNNWndEPSBqm4ris22zCxQCtDY2-DjiX51RRoNClk_69atM0oYhJG_u_dKSRjjTBEu05709eU0-1IZYF2BLPVYlsswTDglaB2_Dwl8_bJH1zWCrfbmSE7gDzHWdulK14hSR5S91c0xodtzbbzBC-ZHM/s320/computer%20keyboard.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p>Lisa Graham Keegan was at the time CEO of the "reform-minded" Education Leaders Council (which would <a href="https://www.edweek.org/education/education-leaders-council-undergoing-major-changes/2004/09">soon merge with AccountabilityWorks</a>); <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_Graham_Keegan">Keegan has since gone on</a> to disrupt education from Arizona to New Jersey with a variety of reformster activities. But in 2003, <a href="https://www1.udel.edu/educ/whitson/897s05/files/Paige%20backs%20reform%20in%20certification%20of%20teachers.htm">she was saying to anyone </a>who called ABCTE a quicky approach that devalued professional knowledge that "the board's teacher-certification program will be "comprehensive" and is being developed by "expert thinkers" in the teaching profession." Also, fully No Child Left Behind compliant, so, sure to be awesome.</p><p>There wasn't much explanation of what these expert thinkers would came up with, exactly, though Paige had the broad <a href="https://www1.udel.edu/educ/whitson/897s05/files/Paige%20backs%20reform%20in%20certification%20of%20teachers.htm">outlines in hand:</a></p><blockquote>It focuses on what teachers need to know and be able to do in order to be effective, instead of the number of credits or courses they've taken. It demands excellence rather than exercises in filling bureaucratic requirements.</blockquote><p>Also, making it easier for people who studied something else in college to themselves into teaching. </p><p>I am not going to try to track down all the ins and outs of what is now called American Board over the past twenty years, but we sure know what it looks like now. </p><p>American Board remains aimed squarely at career changers. It has been approved in just fourteen states (my home state of Pennsylvania was the first to get on board) and the exact contours of the program vary slightly from state to state. There are other states where the program isn't recognized, but reciprocal cert programs may let you carry over the cert you got from the program in one of the fourteen states. You can choose from ten certifications. </p><p>What do you need to get into the program? Any bachelor's degree. Pass a background check. That's it.</p><p>What do you actually do in the program? You use a bunch of self-paced, self-study on-line test prep materials to get ready to take two online tests-- the subject area exam, and the Professional Teacher Knowledge exam. When you're ready, just log on to Pearson VUE. You've got 12 months to get all of that done. </p><p>After that, some state by state variations. In Pennsylvania you get a one-year temporary teaching license, sign up for<a href="https://triblive.com/local/valley-news-dispatch/point-park-program-allows-those-with-other-degrees-to-pursue-teaching-career/"> a program with Point State Park College</a> that involves a couple of online courses and a 12-week mentorship. (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Y7dCCR5vg0&t=59s">You can watch a brief video here about the program.</a>) <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5TAW8vTQFA&t=1s">In Florida</a>, you meet some state department of education requirements and then get observed and mentored by your district in your first year.</p><p>Student teaching? They figure if you're a grownup with a college degree and a real job, you probably don't need that. They do suggest you try some substitute teaching to get a feel for what and whom you'd like to teach. </p><p>So, overall, not very rigorous preparation for the classroom, but for a couple grand, some on-your-own test prep for professional tests that some states will consider good enough to give you a toe in the door. Fast and cheap.</p><p>American Board is based in Atlanta. The current executive director is <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/melanie-olmstead-pharis-8544b044/">Melanie Olmstead Pharis</a>, who also writes <a href="https://www.americanboard.org/blog/">the blog </a>(including the post celebrating National School Choice Week). </p><p>I didn't find any indication of how many folks are taking advantage of the board's Passport To Teaching. It could be a useful program for a certain sort of aspiring teacher, but mostly it appears to cut so many corners that it could easily set someone up for failure in the classroom, which is always an excellent way to drive someone out of the teaching profession. It certainly doesn't seem to have dented the ongoing teacher staffing challenges in many states. One more great reformster idea that didn't pan out. </p>Peter Greenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16511193640285760299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post-24711167072005313912024-02-18T15:45:00.005-05:002024-02-18T15:54:26.066-05:00Did DeSantis Back Off Book Bans? Well.... Education circles have been buzzing with the news that Florida's latest failed Presidential candidate has slunk back to the sunshine state and rolled back some of his signature policy. <div><br /></div><div><a href="https://www.meidastouch.com/news/desantis-walks-back-florida-book-ban-statute-he-once-championed">"He's backing down</a>" says one headline, which goes on to roll this oft-quoted bit from a recent DeSantis speech:</div><blockquote>With objecting - if you go to a school board meeting objecting. If you have a kid in school, okay. But if you're somebody who doesn't have a kid in school and you're gonna object to 100 books? No, I don't think that's appropriate. So I think the legislature is interested in limiting what the number of challenges you can do, and maybe making it be contingent on whether you actually have kids in school or not. We just want to make sure we're not trying to incentivize frivolous objections or any type of games being played.</blockquote><p>The Florida anti-reading statutes are vague and punitive and crafted to exert maximum chilling effect, which <a href="https://billytownsend.substack.com/p/desantis-abjectly-surrenders-on-book">as Billy Townsend points</a> out was always going to be a problem.</p><p>But if you think DeSantis has seen any kind of light, I recommend you look more closely at his comments. Because he has some thoughts about the "types of games being played." </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKIvtu82Yt1Z9_voIpDstqHKpaQrWgTTgbgSsikDcEbZM_dX2Eisf81eb5JuAyvoHSlW14uvKu-XbSu9StDO4BoBFrpuV88PJStORgeA_Zg4EhIBi20usJL0SPfkEK6Jl1bLvxtFKqHVUwJGl6LIJrbj8EvIgW8WndK6tJKX0NOKv6EnT8nEbFpvSU-BSq/s427/DeSantis3.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="347" data-original-width="427" height="260" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKIvtu82Yt1Z9_voIpDstqHKpaQrWgTTgbgSsikDcEbZM_dX2Eisf81eb5JuAyvoHSlW14uvKu-XbSu9StDO4BoBFrpuV88PJStORgeA_Zg4EhIBi20usJL0SPfkEK6Jl1bLvxtFKqHVUwJGl6LIJrbj8EvIgW8WndK6tJKX0NOKv6EnT8nEbFpvSU-BSq/s320/DeSantis3.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><p><a href="https://thefloridachannel.org/videos/2-15-24-governors-press-conference/">His press conference opened</a> with a video pastiche of Naughty Books, specifically the most extreme and egregious examples, because whatever else follows, he wants you to understand that the basic idea of banning some books from schools was and is a sound one. </p><p>Then he goes on to address some of the issues that have come up. For instance, people who "banned" perfectly good classics and other things that "are not in any way a violation of any type of Florida law." Like<a href="https://triblive.com/sports/pirates/florida-school-district-pulls-childrens-book-about-roberto-clemente-off-shelve/"> that Roberto Clemente book</a> that got pulled? Totally not a violation, says DeSantis. The Bible. Dictionaries! The teacher who covered up all her books.! Crazy stuff, says Ron.</p><p>So what does he conclude about all this? Does he declare that the law was too vague and punitive, so schools went way out of their way to stay out of trouble? Does he acknowledge that requiring every single book to be<a href="https://www.wtsp.com/article/news/verify/florida-book-law-classroom-library/67-c0d23e1c-57e4-41c9-a32a-5203ed0feb56"> pre-screened by a media specialis</a>t might have created issues? </p><p>No. Not at all.</p><p>All of these whacky examples of districts and teachers trying to avoid trouble with poorly crafted, deliberately vague laws? Those were just deliberate attempts to make him look bad. Or as he puts it"</p><p></p><blockquote><p>This is fraudulent. But what it is, is it's trying to obscure the reason why parents have been concerned with the things that people saw which are clearly not appropriate. And they're basically just trying to confuse the issues to act like somehow that classic works are somehow not welcome. Nothing could be further from the truth. We want to insure that students have a very rigorous and robust education. So no, what we've seen is you have seen activists that will just go and challenge almost anything. That's not appropriate to be happening. </p><p>Hijacking this process is not something that we want to encourage in any way. And it's been from different motivations-- you have some people that just thinks these--some people honestly think that a lot of these books are bad, even though they're classics. There's others that are doing it just to try to create a narrative, to try to act like "Oh my gosh these books are under review" and then the media will take that and run with it and try to act like there's some debate on whether Florida law requires this or not, which there's not. So this is all theater. This is all performative. And it has no place in our school system.</p></blockquote><p>That's all one rambly quote. I just broke it into two paragraphs to help you out.</p><p>So if you've been seeing the headlines and thinking that Ron DeSantis has learned a lesson of some sort, the answer is that no, no he has not. The laws are fine and necessary, but those damn lefties and the media have teamed up to make it look as if the laws are a repressive, chilling, silly mess. "Fraud" and "hoax" still turn up a lot in his speech. He describes the "random people" who don't have kids in the school system as coming in "just to try to gum up the works" and "throw sand in the gears," aka people "who are just trying to hijack this process to advance a political or ideological agenda." </p><p>Also, they're not banning anything, because you can still get the books on Amazon. You know who's banning books! Those people on the left, who are trying to get Amazon not to sell certain books, including the Biden administration. </p><p>And there's more complaining. And then he brings on Tina Descovich, Moms For Liberty honcho, who says "enough," praises the state's two leaders, and then works to shift the emphasis to educational quality. She leads with the statistic that the literacy rate in Florida is 40%, which is about 40% off (<a href="https://www.floridapoliticalreview.com/florida-literacy-initiative/">it's 80%</a>). I think she means to say that the proficiency rate on the NAEP is 40%, and at this point anyone who says NAEP proficiency is "at grade level" is just not trying to get it right (NAEP proficiency is A or B level). But her point is that there is a public education crisis in America. </p><p>Then she wags her fingers at the "media in the back of the room" and says "All you can do is be obsessed with book bans that are not happening." She tells the tale of being interviewed about the book bans and how they then show the books and that shuts folks up. They did a whole 60 Minutes thing, and it hasn't been shown yet. Where is it?</p><p>But mostly her point is that "we the parents" have had enough, and when is the media going to start covering the literacy crisis. So if you’re looking for the new talking point angle on the naughty books issue, there it is.</p><p>Another woman speaks about a book that her child was exposed to.</p><p>The DeSantis wades into the Q&A which really highlights how unclear he is on how this could work. Objections ought to be limited to parents of children in the district, except, no, he thinks that taxpayers have a stake in this to, but maybe limit how many objections they can bring.</p><p>He also wades into one of the underlying huge problems, noting that if somebody objects to "like a <i>To Kill a Mockingbird </i>or a Hank Aaron, that obviously it is frivolous." It's reading restriction dilemma-- what I object to is obviously bad and what I don't object to is obviously okay, so let's just have a law based on my personal obvious perspective. DeSantis spitballs "maybe after one or two frivolous objections you have to pay a fine" and I certainly look forward to seeing which court gets to decide which books count as frivolous objections. </p><p>Also, maybe laws that punish teachers for making political waves, like that teacher who papered over all her books saying she couldn't show them. DeSantis says that was a lie; I'd say that was a way to comply with the actual law saying that a book can't go in front of a student until a media specialist looks at it. But DeSantis wants punishment for "performative nonsense," and again, looking forward to seeing which court gets to rule on how performative nonsense is judged so that "professional responsibility that's imposed" can become a thing. </p><p>To his credit, he does acknowledge that there are books about which reasonable people could disagree. So there's that. And Manny Diaz stepped up to say that there is no permission slip required for required instruction, and Black History Month is required instruction, <a href="https://www.wtvr.com/news/national-news/miami-dade-parents-receive-black-history-month-activity-permission-slips">so that flap is solved</a> and maybe that law doesn't mean what people think it means?</p><p>But mostly, it sure sounds like DeSantis is going to try to remedy the problems created by broad, vague rules by adding some more vague and unenforceable rules on top. Who knows what form this will all take, but I'm not convinced that things are looking up now that the governor is done with his electoral vacation. </p><p><br /></p><p></p>Peter Greenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16511193640285760299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post-54565923643402415702024-02-18T14:10:00.003-05:002024-02-18T14:10:47.160-05:00The Panic Is No Accident<p>There was a curious piece in Education Week Friday, in which Deborah Loewenberg Ball ponders the question, "<a href="https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/opinion-why-is-the-nation-invested-in-tearing-down-public-education/2024/02">Why Is the Nation Invested in Tearing Down Public Educati</a>on?" </p><p>She focuses in particular on the most recent iteration:</p><blockquote>For the past four years, we have been retelling a shared narrative of education crisis and the severe learning losses our nation’s children have suffered as a result of the pandemic.</blockquote><p>Well, no. "We" have not been retelling that shared narrative. </p><p>I get the use of the collective "we" (do it myself from time to time), but there are times when it just isn't appropriate, and this is one of those times.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBa5PsfBPLf3q0OUyUO5nadtVhmscIi-TU1g_EAR8kOaJf4_N7c2f6ufrG8fEG8UkViBdQ6UPKBaqaZz0_nYGujk-kDDJP4GCCpf4GHILE0qU_MlSf9fnCwefRMSRehJ4ZtNeKcV3wLOGSy2y-_xEuGCbc899Jl7wvUpv74vkr2Rdiorp7a_F_icekDTHd/s736/tied%20shoes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="552" data-original-width="736" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBa5PsfBPLf3q0OUyUO5nadtVhmscIi-TU1g_EAR8kOaJf4_N7c2f6ufrG8fEG8UkViBdQ6UPKBaqaZz0_nYGujk-kDDJP4GCCpf4GHILE0qU_MlSf9fnCwefRMSRehJ4ZtNeKcV3wLOGSy2y-_xEuGCbc899Jl7wvUpv74vkr2Rdiorp7a_F_icekDTHd/s320/tied%20shoes.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p>Learning Loss panic has been carefully crafted and aggressively marketed by two groups of people-- the folks who are intent on dismantling public education, and the people who have a vested interest in responding to the "crisis."</p><p>As I pointed out back here, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2021/03/09/learning-loss-is-just-educational-halitosis/?sh=7dd6a6c95e8c">it was clear almost immediately</a>. NWEA and CREDO hit the ground running with scary pronouncements about the severity of Learning Loss based entirely on numbers that were completely made up! McKinsey, the consulting behemoth whose entire business model is "Find a crisis and get paid to help fix it," quickly joined the fray. By the time we had actual test result numbers to look at, those same folks had already done business selling pearls to clutch, and the usual public education slammers <a href="https://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2022/09/annual-naep-panic-covid-edition.html">had their doomsday baloney headline generators warned up</a> (looking at you, New York Times). </p><p>As Ball notes, the fact that US students actually did better than most of the world at navigating the pandemic was largely ignored.</p><p>But Ball, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deborah_Loewenberg_Ball">who is an actual college professor</a>, education researcher, and head of a<a href="https://www.teachingworks.org/"> teacher training organization</a>, chalks all of this up as "a habit."</p><p>Taking a big view, she sees this "habit" tracking all the way back to <i>A Nation At Risk, </i>which is a great place to start, as the "report" is not a careful piece of research, but a paper<a href="https://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2018/04/happy-frickin-birthday-nation-at-risk.html"> deliberately crafted and edited to advance one clear narrative</a>--America's public schools are failing. </p><p>ANAR was not borne of some self-critical habit, and the last forty years of chipping away at public education didn't just happen. And in seemingly missing that, Ball seems to be the kind of well-intentioned booster who is just aiming at the wring target:</p><blockquote>It should worry us that, as a nation, the United States seems to be invested in tearing down the enormous possibility and promise of public education. In retelling that our children’s opportunities have been irredeemably destroyed, we impair the possibility of collective inspiration for how to move forward.</blockquote><p>It should worry us, but it's not that the United States seems to be invested in tearing down public schools--very specific groups and individuals are invested, sometimes literally invested, in dismantling public education. They are, in fact, very interested in deliberately destroying collective inspiration about moving forward, because their own ideas about moving forward take us in a completely different direction, into a country in which it's every family for themselves, your kid's education is your own problem, education is a commodity sold on an open and unregulated market, or education belongs only to conservative christianists. </p><blockquote>What is important now is whether we are prepared to shift how we support public education and the learning of all our nation’s children. Are we ready to begin rejecting the repetition of the crisis narrative and begin building a new story? A narrative that is honest about what has happened—over decades—and where we are now? One that is aimed toward building up, not tearing down? If so, this narrative must center the children themselves and the teachers who labor to support their thriving. It must be one that leads to solutions.</blockquote><p>I get it. I appreciate the hope and positivity of this call. But. But but but but but. The crisis narrative is being deliberately and aggressively repeated by folks with big deep pockets, and from their point of view, that narrative does lead to solutions-- it's just that their solutions don't involve public education as we've previously understood it in this country.</p><p>There is a huge amount of room for debate about the how and where and why and by whom of public education, and, as with much of our nation, a need to keep finding ways forward because there is no past so perfect that we should be happy to go back to it. </p><p>But not everyone involved in the debate is operating in good faith, and to imagine otherwise is like approaching the 2024 presidential election by saying, "Well, let's just all plan to keep things honorable and decent and not at all ugly." </p><p>The negativity and panic about public education in this country are not a habit, and they didn't just happen, and we'll have to acknowledge that if we are going to deal with the toxicity that has been unleashed. If we keep tripping because someone keeps tying our shoelaces together, the solution will not be an impassioned plea to all pull together and support shoe manufacturers. </p><p><br /></p>Peter Greenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16511193640285760299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post-48543764835518892382024-02-18T06:30:00.012-05:002024-02-18T06:30:00.243-05:00ICYMI: Presidential Birthdays Edition (2/18)I am sure that Washington and Lincoln would have wanted their birthdays to be celebrated on the Monday most convenient for creating a three day weekend, so well done, us. <div><br /></div><div>If you're new around here, welcome to the weekly compendium of Stuff To Read. I read a lot, and these are the articles that I think are worth noting, but which I may not have addressed in postings this week. It is by no means exhaustive--there's a lot of stuff out there--but I am only human. This list goes up every Sunday. There is no quiz. And you are encouraged to share anything that speaks to you. It's tough to break through out there on the interwebs and every bit of amplification helps.</div><div><b><br /></b></div><a href="https://teacherinastrangeland.blog/2024/02/16/do-public-schools-suck/"><b>Do Public Schools Suck?</b></a><div><br /></div><div>Nancy Flanagan offers some useful thoughts about how to process this eternal criticism.</div><div><b><br /></b></div><a href="https://www.masspoliticsprofs.org/2024/02/17/christian-nationalists-attack-newton-teachers-association/"><b>Christian Nationalists Attack Newton Teachers Association</b></a><div><br /></div><div>You may have heard that the Newton teachers' union is being sued for its naughty strike, but before reaching a conclusion, you may want to look at who exactly is behind the lawsuit. Maurice Cunningham has the real story.<br /><div><br /></div><a href="https://www.dallasnews.com/news/education/2024/02/16/lewisville-educator-on-leave-after-libs-of-tiktok-post-shows-him-in-dress-for-spirit-day/"><b>Lewisville educator on leave after Libs of TikTok post shows him in dress for spirit day</b></a><div><br /></div><div>I don't know if we live in the stupidest timeline, but it sure isn't the wisest or kindest. Libs of Tik Tok strikes again, but she couldn't do it without the help of a lot of troubled and troubling people.</div><div><br /></div><a href="https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/oklahoma-principal-resigns-drag-queen-rcna138735"><b>I’m proud of my work as a principal and drag queen. Nothing will change that.</b></a><div><br /></div><div>Oklahoma's Education Dudebro In Chief cheered when this career educator was driven from his job. Now Shane Murnan tells his own story.<br /><div><br /></div><a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/02/16/states-banning-lgbtq-sex-ed/72595403007/"><b>8 states restricted sex ed last year. More could join amid growing parents' rights activism</b></a><div><br /></div><div>Alia Wong reports for USA Today on this growing trend. Yeah, if we just don't mention sex and LGBTQ persons around students, they probably won't ever realize those things exist.</div><div><br /></div><a href="https://theconversation.com/students-lose-out-as-cities-and-states-give-billions-in-property-tax-breaks-to-businesses-draining-school-budgets-and-especially-hurting-the-poorest-students-222940"><b>Students lose out as cities and states give billions in property tax breaks to businesses</b></a><div><br /></div><div>The Conversation teams up some researchers and journalists to create this tremendous story about one more way that some cities and states cut public education off at the knees.</div><div><br /></div><a href="https://hechingerreport.org/parent-voice-they-call-it-school-choice-but-you-may-not-end-up-with-much-of-a-choice-at-all/"><b>They call it ‘school choice,’ but you may not end up with much of a choice at all</b></a><div><br /></div><div>Pamela Lang is the mother of a student with special needs. For Hechinger Report, she writes about what school choice looks like on the ground, and how little choice she actually has.</div><div><b><br /></b></div><a href="https://tcweber.substack.com/p/its-you-hi-youre-the-problem-its"><b>It's You. Hi, You're the problem, It's You</b></a></div><div><br /></div><div>TC Weber is a master of tracking the many players in Tennessee education policy, and this is an excellent example of his work, including some info about two of everyone's favorite choice evangelists.</div><a href="https://deutsch29.wordpress.com/2024/02/14/tim-alberta-challenges-the-single-issue-voter/"><br /><b>Tim Alberta Challenges the “Single-Issue” Voter</b></a><div><br /></div><div>The indispensable Mercedes Schneider is working her way through Tim Alberta's new book about evangelicals and politics (and so am I, and so should you be), and provides us with a look into one chapter here.</div><div><br /></div><a href="https://northamptondaily-ma.newsmemory.com/?publink=0984296b0_134d179"><b>Scripted early reading approach no substitute for real teaching</b></a><div><br /></div><div>Some teachers in Massachusetts take a look at one of those super-duper reading learning systems (Appleseeds) and explain why they find it less than great.</div><div><br /></div><a href="https://jacobin.com/2024/02/north-carolina-school-vouchers-privatization-democracy"><b>North Carolina School Privatizers Are Subverting Democracy</b></a><div><br /></div><div>Nora de la Cour writes in Jacobin about some of the shenanigans of North Carolina privatizers, for whom democratic processes are an obstacle.</div><a href="https://abcnews4.com/news/local/woman-challenges-over-150-books-in-dd2-schools-despite-not-having-a-child-in-the-district-wciv-abc-news-4-dorchester-school-district-two"><br /><b>Woman challenges over 150 books in DD2 schools despite not having a child in the district</b></a><div><br /></div><div>From South Carolina, just one more story of where all these challenges to books are really coming from.</div><br /><a href="https://tultican.com/2024/02/11/school-moms-battle-for-public-education/"><b>School Moms Battle for Public Education</b></a><div><br /></div><div>Thomas Ultican takes a look at the new book <i>School Moms</i> by Laura Pappano.</div><div><b><br /></b></div><a href="https://www.livingindialogue.com/book-review-the-bill-gates-problem-reckoning-with-the-myth-of-the-good-billionaire/"><b>Book Review: “The Bill Gates Problem: Reckoning with the Myth of the Good Billionaire”</b></a><div><br /></div><div>While we're talking about books, there's also a new book about Gates out, and who better to review it than Anthony Cody, who previously wrote his own book about Gates.</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://thejosevilson.com/educators-get-to-imagine-bigger-too-on-ted/"><b>Educators Get To Imagine Bigger, Better Too (On TED)</b></a></div><div><br /></div><div>Jose Luis Vilson talks about the TED experience, how it can be useful for educators, and even offers a list of TED recommendations for us to sample.</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://radicalscholarship.com/2024/02/16/what-we-talk-about-when-we-talk-about-reading/"><b>What We Talk About When We Talk About Reading</b></a></div><div><br /></div><div>Paul Thomas talks about the terms that get tossed around during every skirmish in the reading wars.</div><div><br /></div><a href="https://nancyebailey.com/2024/02/12/student-differentiation-v-alignment-know-the-difference-and-set-children-free/"><b>Student Differentiation v. Alignment: Know the Difference and Set Children Free</b></a><div><br /></div><div>How should teachers differentiate when the goal is to meet a standard? Nancy Bailey considers the question.</div><div><b><br /></b></div><a href="https://janresseger.wordpress.com/2024/02/15/school-ratings-and-rankings-cause-educational-redlining-and-resegregation/"><b>School Ratings and Rankings Cause Educational Redlining and Resegregation</b></a><div><br /></div><div>Jan Resseger, spinning off an article by Ruth Wattenberg, explains another reason that rating and ranking schools is a bad idea.</div><div><br /></div><a href="https://accountabaloney.com/florida-legislature-poised-to-give-preferential-treatment-to-charter-schools-with-conservative-political-agendas/"><b>Florida Legislature Poised To Give Preferential Treatment To Charter Schools With Conservative Political Agendas</b></a><div><br /></div><div>Oh, Florida. Here comes a bill to favor "classical" charter schools, a small group in Florida, but one that involves several well-connected politicians' wives. Sue Kingery Woltanski has the details.</div><div><a href="https://www.southernminn.com/faribault_daily_news/sports/cardinals-honor-injured-teammate-donahue-during-game-against-hayfield/article_e640f914-cb73-11ee-ad0e-87ee6cc9594f.html"><br /></a></div><a href="https://www.southernminn.com/faribault_daily_news/sports/cardinals-honor-injured-teammate-donahue-during-game-against-hayfield/article_e640f914-cb73-11ee-ad0e-87ee6cc9594f.html"><b>Cardinals honor injured teammate Donahue during game against Hayfield</b></a><div><br /></div><div>High school sports story, here on the list because the writer is my nephew, who writes about college sports, but also does some local stringer work in his down time. There are a lot of writers in my family, but only one who actually makes a living at it, and he does some nice work.</div><div><br /></div><a href="https://doctorow.medium.com/big-tech-disrupted-disruption-2a57b6178a00"><b>Big Tech disrupted disruption</b></a><div><br /></div><div>Cory Doctorow is a hell of a writer about tech. This is not directly about education, but disruption is certainly an education thing. Also, every time he points out what a scam Uber is, I think of all the people (like Betsy DeVos) who think Uber is a good model for how education should work.</div><div><br /></div><div>This week at Forbes.com, where I write about education and get paid for it, I put up a widely read piece about a new paper covering <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2024/02/10/research-shows-what-state-standardized-tests-actually-measure/">what the Big Standardized Test really measures</a>, and another about <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2024/02/15/in-florida-a-bill-to-stop-woke-teacher-training/">Florida's latest bad education bill aimed at future teachers</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div>You can subscribe to my substack and get all the stuff I write, wherever it may be. It's free and easy.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>
<iframe frameborder="0" height="250" scrolling="no" src="https://curmudgucation.substack.com/embed" style="background: white; border: 1px solid #EEE;" width="480"></iframe></div>Peter Greenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16511193640285760299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post-63294457317076486352024-02-16T15:13:00.002-05:002024-02-16T15:16:28.111-05:00PA: Central Bucks Culture Panic Board Members Consider Their OptionsCentral Bucks School District suffered through a couple of years as a poster child for MAGA Moms For Liberty takeover of a school board. Now that the winds have shifted, some of the former board culture warriors are spilling tears and beans.<div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSYDUDgpF4xTemG8h6uUnflFvOq0QJDGFXSjx56pUjNGjk06jKChlWu0IzVTev6MCIrvPQMzLzwrCYWIK7VqHji-8TrRaDnraV34UkZKOao85LvxOzhSICanUzkbA_cu9dyEncmYH7fXTHXvv3FgMVaesc-iRnkOb0M6QErHc0FGgzegFD5UwiDW53l3Xl/s407/sulking.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="407" data-original-width="407" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSYDUDgpF4xTemG8h6uUnflFvOq0QJDGFXSjx56pUjNGjk06jKChlWu0IzVTev6MCIrvPQMzLzwrCYWIK7VqHji-8TrRaDnraV34UkZKOao85LvxOzhSICanUzkbA_cu9dyEncmYH7fXTHXvv3FgMVaesc-iRnkOb0M6QErHc0FGgzegFD5UwiDW53l3Xl/w200-h200/sulking.png" width="200" /></a></div><br /><div>Central Bucks drew <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/11/inside-the-knock-down-drag-out-fight-over-the-soul-of-a-pennsylvania-school-district/">national attention</a> for implementing a wave of conservative policies. They instituted a<a href="https://www.phillyburbs.com/story/news/local/2023/01/20/central-bucks-book-challenge-rules-reviewed-by-outside-conservative-group-book-ban/69823793007/"> book banning policy, aided</a> by the I<a href="https://independencelaw.org/">ndependence Law Firm,</a> the legal arm of the <a href="https://pafamily.org/">Pennsylvania Family Institute</a> ("Our goal is for Pennsylvania to be a place where God is honored, religious freedom flourishes, families thrive, and life is cherished.") They <a href="https://www.inquirer.com/news/cbsd-school-board-vote-teacher-advocacy-pride-flag-ban-aclu-20230111.html#:~:text=News-,Central%20Bucks%20bans%20Pride%20flags%20and%20other%20staff%20">banned pride flags</a>. They <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/aclu-files-new-complaint-alleging-central-bucks-is-retaliating-against-a-teacher/ar-AA1fh3qh">suspended a teacher </a>who defended LGBTQ students. They implemented a policy that required the school to out LGBTQ students with <a href="https://buckscountyherald.com/stories/central-bucks-school-district-begins-a-gender-identification-procedure,20070">a "gender identification procedure"</a>. No student name changes allowed without a note from home. Both<a href="https://www.aclupa.org/sites/default/files/field_documents/cbsd_administrative_complaint_-_final_10-6-22_redacted3.pdf"> the ACLU</a> and the U.S. <a href="https://www.inquirer.com/news/central-bucks-lgbqt-aclu-bias-bullying-20221021.html">Department of Education</a> came after the district for creating a hostile environment for LGBTQ students-- so they hired <a href="https://www.inquirer.com/news/bill-mcswain-pa-governor-candidate-gender-sexuality-school-20220310.html">a noted anti-LGBTQ lawyer</a> to do an internal investigation; <a href="https://buckscountybeacon.com/2023/08/central-bucks-school-districts-right-wing-school-board-fed-community-false-information-says-aclu-pa-in-new-court-filing/">the resulting report</a> might not have been entirely forthcoming (but<a href="https://www.inquirer.com/news/central-bucks-duane-morris-bill-20230324.html"> it was expensive</a>).<div><br /></div><div>The community responded by <a href="https://6abc.com/central-bucks-school-district-election-day-2023-democratic-majority-board-elections/14028806/">flipping the board big time</a> in the last election, despite<a href="https://www.inquirer.com/education/central-bucks-school-board-election-results-20231107.html"> some heavy investment by right wing activists</a>. Even then, conservative lame duck board members were not done with their shenanigans, voting their loyal right-wing superintendent <a href="https://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2023/11/pa-central-bucks-super-gets-solid-gold.html">a big fat severance package when he retired</a>. </div><div><br /></div><div>So how have things been going since then? What options are the disempowered folks considering.</div><div><br /></div><div>Well, one former member of the block is now a lot less coy about her connections while on the board. <a href="https://www.phillyburbs.com/story/news/local/2024/02/15/former-central-bucks-official-cites-extensive-work-with-pa-family-leigh-vlasblom-bucks-county-ilc/72574001007/">Leigh Vlasblom </a>was board vp; now she's on the<a href="https://www.leadershipinstitute.org/contactUS/staff/?staff=8629751"> staff of the Leadership Institute</a> as a school board trainer/researcher. The Leadership Institute is a right wing advocacy group focused on getting The Right People into elected positions. Moms For Liberty co-founder Bridget Ziegler worked in the LI school board leadership division <a href="https://flvoicenews.com/bridget-ziegler-wife-of-florida-gop-chair-resigns-from-leadership-institute/">until she resigned</a> recently over some legal and moral issues with her husband and another woman.</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://www.leadershipinstitute.org/contactUS/staff/?staff=8629751">Vlasblom's page on the Leadership Institute website </a>notes many of her previous credits (US Department of Education, Elizabeth Dole campaign), and it also notes, in the paragraph about her school board tenure, that she "worked extensively with PA Family Institute, Independence Law Firm, Keeping Kids in School PAC, Hope 4 PA, and Bucks Families for Leadership." While lots of folks figured out that the culture panic board group was getting some of these outside organizations to write policy for them, this is one of the first times that anyone on the inside has been clear about the connections. Certainly not back when board members were stonewalling "Who actually wrote this" questions.</div><div><br /></div><div>Meanwhile, the remaining conservative members, now in the minority, have been getting cranky about allegedly being on the receiving end of behavior they allegedly used to dish out. There's still work going on to undo some of their damage, like trying to claw back the huge bonus for the former super, and hiring a lawyer more in tune with the board's priorities.</div><div><br /></div><div>After the<a href="https://www.wfmz.com/news/area/southeastern-pa/tensions-continue-at-central-bucks-school-board-meeting/article_83970c24-cae5-11ee-8886-930f94e54388.html"> last particularly contentious meeting</a>, with members Debra Cannon and Lisa Sciscio refusing to take personnel matters to a closed door session. After that drama, witnesses say the <a href="https://buckscountybeacon.com/2024/02/why-i-didnt-quit-central-bucks-school-board/">two publicly quit the board</a> (though they haven't yet turned in any official letters to that effect). </div><div><br /></div><div>If the dream is to get back to a board that focuses primarily on operating a school district that educates students, then Central Bucks seems to have a ways to go yet. I suppose taking their ball and going home is one way for the minority members to aid in the process. </div><div><br /></div><div>This is one of the problems of an authoritarian mindset focused on raw exercise of power-- it may work for you when you have the power, but you never get to hold onto that power forever, and if raw power is the only trick you know, then once you've lost it, you're pretty much out of options except either going home to sulk or getting a job with someone who works in the authoritarian raw power business. Best wishes to Vlasblom, Cannon and Sciscio as they try to work it out. </div></div>Peter Greenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16511193640285760299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post-27449267754334043992024-02-16T10:40:00.002-05:002024-02-16T10:43:05.313-05:00Administrators and The Big Chill<p>The Washington Post just covered <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2024/02/15/teachers-limit-political-social-issues-lessons/">a Rand Corp. report that provides unsurprising data</a>: 65% of K-12 teachers restricted their instruction on "political and social issues." The paragraph that really jumped out at me was this one:</p><blockquote>Teachers’ most common reason for curtailing some forms of education, the report found, was their worry that school or district leaders would not support them if parents expressed concerns — and teachers working in politically conservative areas were more likely to censor themselves.</blockquote><p>In fact, the Rand report found that the percentage of teachers self-censoring was double the percentage of teachers working in a state that has actual restrictive laws forbidding woke DEI CRT race gender divisive concepts etc etc etc culture panic teaching.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVECMsuIf5lryTseH8TkmYyrDZQcowYgmtk728SIIYisUFz1_S4DWyRxfsYaG4LCUMolSaVNhp_ksb-9EPRPQbqo9dZVwaHqqZX0fcjIpVk8pWtxe4Rmz9DCwpaHqZflxsTH_ck_iRVnLt9yd5pbbP83mD_h3BRWVirLYuSf5ktmOvDF165pYghyK6Lqvk/s612/frozen%20person.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="605" data-original-width="612" height="316" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVECMsuIf5lryTseH8TkmYyrDZQcowYgmtk728SIIYisUFz1_S4DWyRxfsYaG4LCUMolSaVNhp_ksb-9EPRPQbqo9dZVwaHqqZX0fcjIpVk8pWtxe4Rmz9DCwpaHqZflxsTH_ck_iRVnLt9yd5pbbP83mD_h3BRWVirLYuSf5ktmOvDF165pYghyK6Lqvk/s320/frozen%20person.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p>I don't know if the culture panic crowd figured this out or stumbled across it, but either way, culture panic has hit on an important tactic-- all you have to do to get a big chill is scare the administrators.</p><p>Far too many administrators operate from a simple vision-- a good day is a day on which the phone doesn't ring. And if it does ring, the easiest way to get the problem to go away is to make the teacher stop doing whatever it is that made the phone calling parent sad.</p><p>This is not a new problem. Every teacher knows stories of that administrator that folded like a wet paper bag when a parent called. Most teachers have given that advice to a parent: "This is what we need to do next for your kid, and I can try to get the ball rolling here, but things will happen much faster if you call the office."</p><p>But culture panic has raised the amount of background noise and added to the list of possible offenses. So in states that don't even have Don't Say Gay laws, administrators are making teachers take down any room decorations that some parent might think are just too gay. Administrators are having staff meetings to deliver the message, "I hear that parents out there somewhere are freaking out over CRT/DEI/LGBTQ stuff, so do us all a favor and just don't come near any of those topics ever." </p><p>And in way too many districts, teachers already know that when push comes to shove, they are working for administrators who will not have their back. They've already adjusted their classroom style accordingly (e.g. adjusting disciplinary requirements because they know that when it comes to problem students, they are on their own), so steering away from the new list of Controversial Stuff is just more of the same. </p><p>It's a great thing to have an administrator who will have your back, who will stand between you and the latest flap (and for administrators, it's a great thing to have a teacher who will take the steps needed to make defending them easier). But it's a luxury that many teachers don't have. The Rand findings are just a reminder of that unpleasant truth. Administrators set the temperature for a building; if those classrooms are extra chilly, the problem lies in the front office.</p>Peter Greenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16511193640285760299noreply@blogger.com3