Code Acts in Education: Critical Keywords of AI in Education Code Acts in Education: Critical Keywords of AI in Education Notes for a keynote talk presented at the event Digital Autonomy in Education: a public responsibility, convened by the Governing the Digital Society initiative at Utrecht University and Kennisnet, 7 November 2024, for an audience of school leaders, teachers, teacher educ…

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 …

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…

Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000: The Newsletter: ChatGPT Has No Place in the Classroom Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000: The Newsletter: ChatGPT Has No Place in the Classroom On November 20, 2024, OpenAI and an outfit called “Common Sense Media” released a guide to using ChatGPT in K-12 education—a guide which shows a shocking lack of common sense. Just as Melanie Dusseau tells us in the context of higher ed, K-12 edu…

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…