Curmudgucation: The Pandemic and the Testing Red Herring Curmudgucation: The Pandemic and the Testing Red Herring The pandemic exacerbated some of US education’s major problems, and that’s reflected in the effects on children. Unfortunately, it’s also reflected in how we respond to those effects; policies that were a bad idea in “normal” times become terrible ideas in a post-pandemic wor…

Teacher in a Strange Land: Where the Boys Aren’t: Why is Teaching Still a Female-Dominated Profession? Teacher in a Strange Land: Where the Boys Aren’t: Why is Teaching Still a Female-Dominated Profession? Last week, the Michigan Department of Education named Candice Jackson, a third grade teacher and instructional coach in the Detroit Public Schools Community District, the 2023 Michigan Teacher of the Year.  Hearty congratulations …

Sherman Dorn: Attacking Trans People and Criminalizing Teachers Sherman Dorn: Attacking Trans People and Criminalizing Teachers In education, Ron DeSantis and Chris Rufo are the boys who cry woke, the politician and polemicist currently getting the most public attention for hyping the 2020s version of the culture wars.1 Adam Laats is among the many historians who have provided important histori…

10th Period: House Budget is a Good Step 10th Period: House Budget is a Good Step File this House Budget under “So Close, Yet So Far.” I don’t mean for this to be an outright takedown of the House Budget that just passed last week. It does, for the most part, keep the march toward fully funding the Fair School Funding Plan on track — quite an achievement. However, while t…

Gadfly on the Wall: Student Projects Are Better Than Tests Gadfly on the Wall: Student Projects Are Better Than Tests The class was silent.  Students were hunched over their desks writing on paper, looking in books, consulting planners.   I stood among them ready to help but surprised at the change that had overcome them.   Maybe 10 minutes before I had heard groans, complaints and the kin…

Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice: Do No Harm: The Case of U.S. School Reform Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice: Do No Harm: The Case of U.S. School Reform My personal view is policymakers should be risk-averse when it comes to changing public school systems. To alter the institutional structure of U.S. schools radically without sufficient evidence that the ‘reforms’ would be successful is …