Diane Ravitch’s Blog: Florida: Vouchers Pay for TVs, Disney Passes, and Water Sports Diane Ravitch’s Blog: Florida: Vouchers Pay for TVs, Disney Passes, and Water Sports The Orlando Sentinel reported that the $8,000 voucher handed out to every student in a non-public school may be used for non-educational purchases. Florida endorsed universal vouchers so family income doesn’t matter. Rich families get vouchers too …

10th Period: Vouchers Keeping Public School Kids Starved of Funding 10th Period: Vouchers Keeping Public School Kids Starved of Funding Amazingly, in districts where 87% of EdChoice voucher kids reside, 100% of the state’s continued public school funding shortfall has occurred.   You don’t see these correlations much. But when you do, it requires attention. In the state budget, the legislature cont…

Curmudgucation: Advocacy, Journalism, and the Science of Reading Curmudgucation: Advocacy, Journalism, and the Science of Reading My position in the reading wars is pretty simple: The person who claims that one particular approach to reading instruction, codified in law and disseminated through teacher-proof scripted program-in-a-box instruction, will successfully turn every single child into a …

Ed in the Apple: A Magic Bullet: The Key to Teaching Children How to Read Ed in the Apple: A Magic Bullet: The Key to Teaching Children How to Read On the Tuesday after Labor Day teachers in New York City return to school. For some, a few weeks vacation after teaching summer school, others, taking college courses required for certification or working in a camp, or getting reacquainted with their own fami…

Nancy Bailey’s Education Website: Is Mississippi Shifting to Online Teacher Education with Reading Universe? Nancy Bailey’s Education Website: Is Mississippi Shifting to Online Teacher Education with Reading Universe? Switching from face-to-face, in-person public education to computer screens is concerning. It’s happening in K12 and appears to be driving privatization with teacher education at the university level. The Science of Reading …

Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice: Parents Saying No to Smartphones (Olivia Reingold) (Guest Post by Olivia Reingold) Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice: Parents Saying No to Smartphones (Olivia Reingold) (Guest Post by Olivia Reingold) “Olivia Reingold co-created and executive produced Matthew Yglesias’s podcast, “Bad Takes.” She got her start in public radio, regularly appearing on NPR for her reporting on indigenous communities…

Teacher in a Strange Land: Things That Make Teachers Go Hmmm Teacher in a Strange Land: Things That Make Teachers Go Hmmm For flat-out exhausted teachers, finishing a school year filled with unjust accusations and pointless restrictions, the headline must seem ludicrous: Want to Make $100,000 a Year? Here’s Where You Should Apply. Turns out it’s a charter school in Detroit, and the spiel ini…

Gadfly on the Wall: Teaching Blind Obedience is Child Abuse Gadfly on the Wall: Teaching Blind Obedience is Child Abuse My daughter is not a little soldier. She does not jump at my orders. She can be rude, crude and badly behaved. But I wouldn’t want her any other way – because the alternative is worse. The same goes for my middle school students. If you enter my classroom, you may find som…

Janresseger: New Oklahoma Religious Charter School Will Once Again Test the Constitution’s Protection of the Separation of Church and State Janresseger: New Oklahoma Religious Charter School Will Once Again Test the Constitution’s Protection of the Separation of Church and State Charter schools are privately operated, publicly funded schools that serve children in grades K-12 in 45 states.  While charter schools may use private philanthropic grants to fund some of thei…

Curmudgucation: Teach for America Is Rebranding Again (Again) Curmudgucation: Teach for America Is Rebranding Again (Again) Teach For America is announcing its new “brand identity,” and it’s…well, not great.  The announcement, nominally by TFA honchos Elisa Villaneueva Beard, is a word salad with a dressing of corporate argle bargle: This view is moving and remarkable, and it has called us …

Nancy Bailey’s Education Website: Problem-Solving Through Play: What Children Miss With Age-Inappropriate Expectations Nancy Bailey’s Education Website: Problem-Solving Through Play: What Children Miss With Age-Inappropriate Expectations Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood. ~Fred Rogers Lately, when do children get chances to solve p…

Teacher in a Strange Land: Holding Kids Back Teacher in a Strange Land: Holding Kids Back When Michigan passed a mandated retention law for third graders who were not testing at grade level, back in 2016, I thought it was a terrible idea. I wrote about it, in several venues—the idea that children who wanted to master reading, but had been unable to, for whatever reason, would…

Code Acts in Education: Degenerative AI in Education Code Acts in Education: Degenerative AI in Education After months of hype about the potential of artificial intelligence in education, signs are appearing of how technologies like language models may actually integrate into teaching and learning practices. While dreams of automation in education have a very long history, the curren…

Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice: Can Schools Reduce Obesity in Children and Youth? Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice: Can Schools Reduce Obesity in Children and Youth? Public schools have been drafted again and again to fight national problems (e.,g., racial segregation, teenage pregnancy, cigarette smoking, drinking alcohol, and drug use). Americans believe that schools must be part of any solu…

Answer Sheet: New Breed of Charter School Pushes Limits on Separation of Church, State Answer Sheet: New Breed of Charter School Pushes Limits on Separation of Church, State The religious right scored a win this week when Oklahoma’s virtual charter school board approved the opening of the nation’s first religious charter school, which, if it is actually allowed to open as planned in 2024 for grades K-12, will weave C…

Letters from the Future (of Learning): With Generative A.I., We are Frogs in the Pot Letters from the Future (of Learning): With Generative A.I., We are Frogs in the Pot Whether the story of the frog in the pot is true or not, one thing seems clear: We homo sapiens are the ones being cooked — slowly, inexorably — even though our insistence on pretending otherwise stubbornly persists. Case in point: the major stor…

Shanker Blog: Demystifying the Science of Reading Shanker Blog: Demystifying the Science of Reading Over the past year, the Albert Shanker Institute has been examining four years worth of literacy legislation — stay tuned for our report, which will be released soon. In discussing our findings with colleagues and friends, we often find ourselves starting from scratch, filling gaps,…

Gadfly on the Wall: Efforts to Legalize Child Labor Are the Next Logical Step After Corporate Education Reform Gadfly on the Wall: Efforts to Legalize Child Labor Are the Next Logical Step After Corporate Education Reform Standardized testing.  Privatizing public schools.  Defunding poor students.   What’s next?  Republicans across the United States have an answer – legalizing child labor.  Since 1938 with the Fair Labor Standards Act, the …

Janresseger: 10 Reasons Why Matt Huffman’s Proposed Ohio Voucher Explosion Is So Dangerous Janresseger: 10 Reasons Why Matt Huffman’s Proposed Ohio Voucher Explosion Is So Dangerous What is the Ohio Senate’s private school tuition voucher proposal? While the Ohio House Budget passed last month would dangerously expand private school tuition vouchers (called scholarships by the legislature) by bumping up family eligibilit…

Radical Eyes for Equity: Critically Reconsidering Teacher Education (and NCTQ’s Shoddy Reports): A Reader Radical Eyes for Equity: Critically Reconsidering Teacher Education (and NCTQ’s Shoddy Reports): A Reader In 2018, a simplistic but compelling story was established: Teachers do not know how to teach children to read (60+% are not proficient readers!) because teacher educators have failed to teach the “science of reading” (SOR) in …