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,…

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 …