Janresseger: Public Funding for Private Education Is Not Useful to Students in Most Rural Areas and Small Towns Janresseger: Public Funding for Private Education Is Not Useful to Students in Most Rural Areas and Small Towns Last Saturday morning, members of the Northeast Ohio Friends of Public Education discussed a report by one of our members, Susie Kaeser, who has been researching how any one of the three school voucher expansions being co…

Shanker Blog: Rethinking the Revenue Side of the K-12 Funding Equation Shanker Blog: Rethinking the Revenue Side of the K-12 Funding Equation Most discussions of school funding focus on “how much.” There is a good reason for this: the end goal of any finance system is for all school districts to have enough to meet their students’ needs. Yet achieving this goal is as much about how money is allocated …

Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice: Teachers as Both the Problem and Solution to Improved Schooling: The Perpetual Paradox Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice: Teachers as Both the Problem and Solution to Improved Schooling: The Perpetual Paradox Has anyone noticed that much of the blame pundits shower on teachers and unions for blocking school reform and tolerating low-performing students is usually followed by perky pay-for-performanc…

The Hill: Social Science Explains Why K-12 Integration Efforts Should Continue The Hill: Social Science Explains Why K-12 Integration Efforts Should Continue Originally published by The Hill on 07/10/23. The Supreme Court’s recent ruling to overturn affirmative action in higher education comes at a time when racial inequality in K-12 schools is deep and growing. The court’s decision immediately curtails what …

Gadfly on the Wall: Disaster Capitalists Try Ending the Teacher Exodus by Erasing Experienced Educators Gadfly on the Wall: Disaster Capitalists Try Ending the Teacher Exodus by Erasing Experienced Educators “You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it’s an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.” –Rahm Emanuel, Chief of Staff to President Barack Obama (Later Chicago Mayor); Nov. 1…

Curmudgucation: Do Vouchers Make Babies? Curmudgucation: Do Vouchers Make Babies? Sometimes, choicers really, really reach to push their policy ideas. There is a now-classic formula used by reformsters and choicers: 1) Define a problem, including the consequences. 3) Propose your solution. Yeah, it just skips Step 2, which is the part where you build a connection between …

Teacher in a Strange Land: Would You Recognize a Good Lesson If You Saw It? Teacher in a Strange Land: Would You Recognize a Good Lesson If You Saw It? Here’s a scary headline: Michigan Democrats Look to Change Teacher Evaluation System. Not so much the “Democrats” part—although I’d argue that not having a clue about evaluating teachers is common in both parties—but the implication that way fewer than 99% …

Answer Sheet: Gaslighting Americans About Public Schools: The Truth About ‘A Nation at Risk’ Answer Sheet: Gaslighting Americans About Public Schools: The Truth About ‘A Nation at Risk’ In April 1983, a commission convened by President Ronald Reagan’s education secretary, Terrel H. Bell, released a landmark report about the nation’s public education system, “A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform.” It famo…

Progressive Magazine: What’s Behind the State Takeover of Houston’s Schools Progressive Magazine: What’s Behind the State Takeover of Houston’s Schools On March 15, Texas officials announced plans to take over Houston’s public schools—the largest school system in the Lone Star State and the eighth largest in the nation. The takeover will put Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath in charge of Hous…

Sam Chaltain: In Finland, the Future of Learning Has Arrived — Just Not Where You Think Sam Chaltain: In Finland, the Future of Learning Has Arrived — Just Not Where You Think I spent last week in Finland, the small Scandinavian country that, for educators, has become a Mecca of sorts. And while I was there, a surprising thing happened: I came for the schools.  I stayed for the library. It’s hard not to be aware of t…

Gary Rubinstein’s Blog: Success Academy Attrition Worse Than Ever Gary Rubinstein’s Blog: Success Academy Attrition Worse Than Ever On April 5th The New York Post published their annual ‘100% of Success Academy students get accepted into four-year colleges’ editorial. The class of 2023 will be the sixth graduating class of the infamous charter chain and according to the first paragraph of the edi…

Stories from School AZ: Juggling Glass Cups, Plastic Balls, and Ghosts Stories from School AZ: Juggling Glass Cups, Plastic Balls, and Ghosts Teacher Appreciation Week is usually a week filled with cards, flowers, candy, and lots of good food. Although it may not always show, we really love our teachers. Teachers help parents guide their children through the ups and downs of childhood. Teachers provid…

Nancy Bailey’s Education Website: Third-Grade Retention: Parents Show Common Ground Fighting It Nancy Bailey’s Education Website: Third-Grade Retention: Parents Show Common Ground Fighting It My last post criticized Science of Reading (SoR) advocates for not fighting against third-grade retention or believing it’s good remediation for reading problems. Third-grade retention based on a test is a ploy to drive parents to take t…

Curmudgucation: Should We Spare the Rod? Curmudgucation: Should We Spare the Rod? Classroom chaos is an issue. How bad is it? Why is it bad? What do we do? (Warning: this ended up being quite a ramble). Daniel Buck raised a bit of an internet stir with a complaint about school discipline issues, “Don’t Spare the Rod,” that ends with this rather dark paragraph: Schools fai…

Alfie Kohn: Pay Attention, Class: Here Come More Facts for You to Forget Alfie Kohn: Pay Attention, Class: Here Come More Facts for You to Forget A.P. European History was the best-reviewed class in my old high school. The teacher was a kindly man with an admirable devotion to his subject. Despite his skills, however, and despite the fact that I received an A, all that remained in my head from the entir…

Janresseger: What Will We Lose if Public Schools Are Privatized? Janresseger: What Will We Lose if Public Schools Are Privatized? In our gerrymandered statehouses, school voucher bills of various sorts are being fast tracked. Koch money, dark money, so-called think tanks in the State Policy Network, and big advocacy organizations like Bradley, Heritage and Goldwater are behind all this activity …

Shanker Blog: Beyond the Blame Game: Remote Schooling Was Predicted by Spending Adequacy (Guest Post by Mark Weber) Shanker Blog: Beyond the Blame Game: Remote Schooling Was Predicted by Spending Adequacy (Guest Post by Mark Weber) Our guest author today is Mark Weber, a member of the research team for the School Finance Indicators Database project. He is also the Special Analyst for Education Policy at the New Jersey Policy Perspective, and a L…

CU Boulder Today: What SCOTUS Ruling on Affirmative Action Means for American Higher Ed CU Boulder Today: What SCOTUS Ruling on Affirmative Action Means for American Higher Ed On Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling effectively ending the practice of affirmative action in college admissions. Admissions officers at colleges and universities across the country can no longer directly consider the rac…

Nancy Bailey’s Education Website: Fighting for a Public School for Students With Autism and Neurodiversity: Choices Parents Want Nancy Bailey’s Education Website: Fighting for a Public School for Students With Autism and Neurodiversity: Choices Parents Want For years, parents of children with special needs have demanded classroom inclusion. They want a Free, Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) in general classes, the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE). But …

Janresseger: New Report: When Legislators Expand Vouchers, They Divert Dollars Desperately Needed in Public Schools Janresseger: New Report: When Legislators Expand Vouchers, They Divert Dollars Desperately Needed in Public Schools Politicians promoting publicly funded school vouchers to pay for private education tell us that increasing state spending on vouchers—whether old-fashioned private school tuition vouchers, tuition tax credit vouchers,…