Shanker Blog: Out of School But in a Book: Leveraging the Socio-Cultural Aspects of Reading Shanker Blog: Out of School But in a Book: Leveraging the Socio-Cultural Aspects of Reading So often, when we talk about reading, we focus on the technical or cognitive side of it – learning how students decode words and understand their meaning. While this makes sense because schools tend to prioritize the technical aspects of rea…

Curmudgucation: Computers And Defective Children Curmudgucation: Computers And Defective Children Kristen DiCerbo is the “chief learning officer” at Khan Academy, the hot new ed tech firm that is using computer programs to replicate some of the oldest problematic behavior in the educational universe.  “If bringing AI into the classroom is a marathon,” asserts DiCerbo in a recent …

Teacher in a Strange Land: Work Hard. Be Nice. Or Don’t. Teacher in a Strange Land: Work Hard. Be Nice. Or Don’t. I hate it when retired teachers comment on how glad they are not to be in the classroom in 2024. Their reasons range from academic and justifiable (“teachers have lost their professional autonomy”) to annoying (“kids today…”) to reflections on teaching in the era of Trump, wh…

Janresseger: The Dangerous Values Underneath the Politics of School Choice Janresseger: The Dangerous Values Underneath the Politics of School Choice I suppose many of us think about the classes we wish we had signed up for in college.  Right now, as somebody who believes public schools are among our nation’s most important and most threatened public institutions, I wish that in addition to enrolling in T…

Josh Cowen’s Newsletter: My Address to the Center for Journalism and Democracy at Howard University Josh Cowen’s Newsletter: My Address to the Center for Journalism and Democracy at Howard University Hi again from the road! On October 8, I had the honor of addressing a gathering of journalists at the third annual Democracy Summit at Howard University’s Center for Journalism and Democracy. The Center was founded by Nikole Hannah-J…

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day: A Look Back: Feds Find in New Report That Most of Their Funded “Innovations” Didn’t Work – Perhaps Its Time to Fund Teacher Initiatives? Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day: A Look Back: Feds Find in New Report That Most of Their Funded “Innovations” Didn’t Work – Perhaps Its Time to Fund Teacher Initiatives? (I’m republishing my best posts from the first half of the year. You can see the entire list of them here)   Only a quarter of federally funded education in…

Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice: High Tech Devices: Addiction, Dependency, or Hype? Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice: High Tech Devices: Addiction, Dependency, or Hype? “We used to talk more before we had fire.” The New Yorker cartoon about the possible decrease in Neanderthal communication after the invention of fire pokes fun at the current hullabaloo over users’ addiction to smart phones, tab…

Curmudgucation: Even in a Red Wave, Voters Reject School Vouchers Curmudgucation: Even in a Red Wave, Voters Reject School Vouchers As has often been noted, school vouchers have never survived being put to a vote. Despite all the noise voucherphiles make about how beloved school choice is among the people, when you actually ask voters if they want vouchers, they say no. Three states tested that r…

Teacher in a Strange Land: Nine Reasons Why Standardized Tests and Grades Shouldn’t Necessarily Match Up Teacher in a Strange Land: Nine Reasons Why Standardized Tests and Grades Shouldn’t Necessarily Match Up Headline from a recent piece in Education Week: Grades and Standardized Test Scores Aren’t Matching Up. Here’s Why. Let me give you the gist: Grades are unreliable, whereas standardized test scores scientifically measure real co…

Janresseger: Doomed to Fail: New Report Examines Educational Instability Due to Charter School Closure Rate Janresseger: Doomed to Fail: New Report Examines Educational Instability Due to Charter School Closure Rate Public schools promise a place for every child with services that meet each student’s academic needs with each year building upon the one before it. By contrast, charter schools, grounded in marketplace churn which promises t…

Shanker Blog: Digital Technology and the Reading Brain: What Reading Legislation Overlooks Shanker Blog: Digital Technology and the Reading Brain: What Reading Legislation Overlooks The Shanker Institute and Maryland READS recently facilitated a conversation between state and local education leaders in Maryland and literacy expert Dr. Maryanne Wolf to explore the impact of digital technology on students’ reading developm…

Nancy Bailey’s Education Website: Questioning the Classroom Impact of Neuroscience and the Science of Reading Nancy Bailey’s Education Website: Questioning the Classroom Impact of Neuroscience and the Science of Reading Suppose one tries to debate the Science of Reading (SoR) and what it is precisely. They will likely be met by cognitive psychologists, parents, and educators who are insistent about the importance of neuroscience. Trying to…

The Becoming Radical: Proposed: NCTE Resolution Statement on Teacher Autonomy The Becoming Radical: Proposed: NCTE Resolution Statement on Teacher Autonomy NCTE Members, Please support the proposed resolution below: Voting: All NCTE members are invited to attend the Annual Business Meeting, scheduled this year for November 22, 2024, from 5:30–7:00 p.m. ET, and to take part in discussions and vote on resolutio…

Letters from the Future (of Learning): Across the United States, A New Form of Education System Starts to Spread Letters from the Future (of Learning): Across the United States, A New Form of Education System Starts to Spread Recently, from the rooftop balcony of a hotel in Brooklyn, I looked down on the borough that hosted my twenties. Back then, at street level, everything around me felt like a mad frenetic swirl — chaotic and inchoate. Se…

Josh Cowen’s Newsletter: Beware State Education Departments Pushing School Voucher Schemes Josh Cowen’s Newsletter: Beware State Education Departments Pushing School Voucher Schemes Hello from the road! I’m writing this edition of The Private Eye while traveling between bookstore visits at Politics and Prose in Washington, D.C., Changing Hands near Phoenix, and Princeton University. I appreciate all the well-wishes and e…

Progressive Magazine: How a Struggling Boston School Found Success in the Roots of its Haitian American Community Progressive Magazine: How a Struggling Boston School Found Success in the Roots of its Haitian American Community In 2016, Boston’s Mattahunt Elementary was a school on the brink. A letter from the Massachusetts state education commissioner sent to Boston superintendent Tommy Chang threatened to use “state receivership”—essentially…

Code Acts in Education: Critical Edtech Gets a Conference Code Acts in Education: Critical Edtech Gets a Conference Critical perspectives on educational technology (edtech) are more important than ever. Just in recent days, I’ve seen a lengthy post about the “buttonification” of AI in education, as new interfaces make it possible for educators to design and create lessons “at the push of …

Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice: Fixing Public Schools Again and Again Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice: Fixing Public Schools Again and Again School reformers have a bad habit. Over the past century, they have skipped from one big policy fix to another without analyzing what happened the first time around. Or even whether the reforms succeeded or failed. Since World War II, U.S. pu…

Janresseger: Kamala Harris’s and Donald Trump’s Education Policies Radically Contrast Janresseger: Kamala Harris’s and Donald Trump’s Education Policies Radically Contrast Public schools developed as an institution unique to the United States, an institution providing free schooling in every city, suburb, town, and rural area. The purpose of public schooling has long been defined as preparing students to participate…

Curmudgucation: AZ: Fighting For Less Accountability for Taxpayer Funds Curmudgucation: AZ: Fighting For Less Accountability for Taxpayer Funds The Goldwater Institute, an Arizona right wing advocacy group, has filed suit against the state because it thinks there are too many rules attached to the state’s voucher program. Parents using the education savings account money shouldn’t have to show that the…