Teacher in a Strange Land: Weaponizing Empathy and Other Heritage Foundation Rhetoric for School Reform Teacher in a Strange Land: Weaponizing Empathy and Other Heritage Foundation Rhetoric for School Reform When I first retired (from the classroom, not from working in education), I moved away from the school district where I had lived and taught. I’d been there for well over 30 years and had seen—up close and personal—the power of s…

Shanker Blog: Reading Policy, the Wind and the Sun Shanker Blog: Reading Policy, the Wind and the Sun There is a well-known tale about the Wind and the Sun who once debated who was stronger. They agreed that whoever could make a traveler remove his coat would win. The Wind went first, blowing with all his might, but the harder he blew, the tighter the man wrapped his coat. Exhauste…

Daily Kos: Expect the Right to Tighten Control Over School Curriculum Daily Kos: Expect the Right to Tighten Control Over School Curriculum Donald Trump has vowed to ensure a “patriotic” history curriculum gets taught in every public school in the United States and to withhold federal funds from school districts that permit the teaching of “woke” ideas. Seventeen Republican controlled state governmen…

Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice: Rubik’s Cube and School Reform Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice: Rubik’s Cube and School Reform When the Rubik’s Cube appeared in the 1980s, I tried twisting and turning the colors to get them all aligned. I failed. Finding out that there are 3 billion possible ways to turn the Cube’s corners, edges, and center to get the solution comforted me…

Janresseger: Who Is Linda McMahon and What Would Be Her Priorities as Education Secretary? Janresseger: Who Is Linda McMahon and What Would Be Her Priorities as Education Secretary? Last week President-elect Donald Trump announced that he will nominate Linda McMahon to serve as the U.S. Secretary of Education. Linda McMahon formerly served as an executive of World Wrestling Entertainment; led the Small Business Administr…

Progressive Magazine: Voters Across the Political Spectrum Gave Public Education Important Wins in the 2024 Election Progressive Magazine: Voters Across the Political Spectrum Gave Public Education Important Wins in the 2024 Election In a general election that was by-and-large disastrous for the Democratic Party, voters across the political spectrum united to oppose efforts by Republicans to privatize and politicize public schools. The wins mostl…

Diane Ravitch’s Blog: John Thompson: Will We Ever Get Free of NCLB’s Mandates and Let Teachers Teach? Diane Ravitch’s Blog: John Thompson: Will We Ever Get Free of NCLB’s Mandates and Let Teachers Teach? John Thompson, historian and retired teacher in Oklahoma, wonders if the days of authentic teaching and learning will ever return. After a quarter-century of NCLB mandates, are there still teachers who remember what it was like in …

Josh Cowen’s Newsletter:Three Kinds of Voucher Billionaires—and Other Big Questions Josh Cowen’s Newsletter:Three Kinds of Voucher Billionaires—and Other Big Questions Hey Friends, The team at Public Funds Public Schools recently hosted a webinar on education issues in the upcoming Trump Administration. Specific topics were school vouchers in general, a renewed voucher push in places like Tennessee and Texas, and …

Letters from the Future (of Learning): The Good, The Bad & The Ugly In Trump’s “Ten Principles for Great Schools” Letters from the Future (of Learning): The Good, The Bad & The Ugly In Trump’s “Ten Principles for Great Schools” Let’s get something straight: it’s over.  The people have chosen Donald Jessica Trump to be their 47th president, which means he gets to make all the decisions — including what to do with our nation’s public schools. A…

Nancy Bailey’s Education Website: How Assessment and Data are Used to Stigmatize Children as Failing Nancy Bailey’s Education Website: How Assessment and Data are Used to Stigmatize Children as Failing School districts continue to purchase high-cost commercialized tests that depersonalize teaching, stigmatize children and schools as failing, and build public distrust. Assessment should inform educators and parents about where chil…

Second Breakfast: The State of the “Art” Second Breakfast: The State of the “Art” It’s been absolutely fascinating to watch the narrative about AI shift over the last few weeks – from very boisterous claims that “AGI (artificial general intelligence) is just around the corner” to a rather big “maybe not.” According to some researchers, the current approach isn’t going to …

Citizen Jack: Senator Rubio’s Ideas on Science: Should We Be Concerned? Citizen Jack: Senator Rubio’s Ideas on Science: Should We Be Concerned? I wrote this post in 2012, about Senator Marco Rubio’s answer to a question that’s interesting to consider 22 years later. Trump picked Senator Rubio as the Secretary of State. He might become a very good Secretary of State. I hope he is in terms of working wit…

David Labaree on Schooling, History, and Writing: Teacher Persona David Labaree on Schooling, History, and Writing: Teacher Persona This post is a reflection on one particular component of the practice of teaching — the need for each teacher to construct an authentic and effective teacher persona.   In the first part of the post, I draw on a section from chapter five of my book, Someone Has to Fa…

School Finance 101: Defining Productivity, Cost, and Efficiency School Finance 101: Defining Productivity, Cost, and Efficiency Recycled material here… The central problem with US public schools is often characterized as an efficiency problem. We spend a lot and don’t get much for it; and over time we’ve spent more and more but our outcomes have remained virtually flat. Yet rarely are these cla…

Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice: I’m a Gen Z Teacher: Schools Rely Too Much on Chromebooks (Skyler Graham) (Guest post by Skyler Graham) Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice: I’m a Gen Z Teacher: Schools Rely Too Much on Chromebooks (Skyler Graham) (Guest post by Skyler Graham) “Skyler Graham is a co-teacher apprentice at Ember Charter Schools. She currently teaches high school English and social studies.” This article appeared in Chalkbeat, September…

Curmudgucation: When Schools Are Businesses Curmudgucation: When Schools Are Businesses Tech writer Cory Doctorow writes a lot these days about enshittification, for instance in this piece that spins from Prime’s continued addition of advertising to the content you thought you had already paid for. The explanation isn’t complicated: The cruelty isn’t the point. Money is the …

Teacher in a Strange Land: In Praise of Social Studies Teacher in a Strange Land: In Praise of Social Studies In my long and checkered career as a classroom teacher, I taught instrumental and vocal music, mathematics, ESL and the occasional oddball middle school class necessitated by the fact that, as a (qualified) music teacher, my music classes could contractually be huge—so I could …

Janresseger: Voucher Explosion Threatens Funding for Public Schools that Serve 90% of Ohio Students Janresseger: Voucher Explosion Threatens Funding for Public Schools that Serve 90% of Ohio Students Ohio’s outrageous voucher growth this year didn’t quite cost the state a billion dollars, as public school educators and parents had feared, but the amount the state diverted to vouchers for the 2023-2024 school year came dangerously…

Josh Cowen’s Newsletter: And Now for Some Good News! Josh Cowen’s Newsletter: And Now for Some Good News! Hey friends, I’m writing this edition on the way back from a swing through Florida, Iowa, Ohio, and Kentucky. Officially this is a book tour, but the first three of those states are dealing with the fallout of devastating universal voucher schemes, and the fourth – Kentucky – has…

Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice: Grading Students: A High School Teacher Challenges the System Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice: Grading Students: A High School Teacher Challenges the System When I served as a superintendent, I fired a teacher for giving an A to every student he taught. George D. was a high school social studies teacher in Arlington (VA) when I led the district (1974-1981). In the Fall of …