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…

Critical Studies of Education & Technology: Claims That ‘AI Can Replace Teachers’ Betray a Very Poor Understanding of Teachers’ Work Critical Studies of Education & Technology: Claims That ‘AI Can Replace Teachers’ Betray a Very Poor Understanding of Teachers’ Work As Felix Simon recently argued, claims that ‘AI will replace profession X’ tend to come from people with very little understanding (let alone firsthand experience) of working in these professions. Thi…

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…

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day: A Look Back: What I Think Artificial Intelligence Will Do – & What It Won’t Do – In K-12 Education Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day: A Look Back: What I Think Artificial Intelligence Will Do – & What It Won’t Do – In K-12 Education I have share a lot about the potential use of Artificial Intelligence in K-12 education, and you can see many related “Best” lists, along with two animated videos we did with Education Week on the…

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…

Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice: High Schoolers Need to Do Less So That They Can Do Better (Tim Donahue) (Guest Post by Tim Donahue) Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice: High Schoolers Need to Do Less So That They Can Do Better (Tim Donahue) (Guest Post by Tim Donahue) “Mr. Donahue teaches high school English at Greenwich Country Day School in Connecticut.” This article appeared in The New York Times, September 7, 2024. To earn the distinction of…

Janresseger: Voucher Programs Prove Again and Again What We Already Know Janresseger: Voucher Programs Prove Again and Again What We Already Know As we all know,  state legislators across the country originally justified passing small, experimental voucher programs as a way to help poor kids escape from their so-called “failing” public schools. A year ago, at the end of The School Voucher Illusion: Expo…

Teacher in a Strange Land: Are You an Instruction Geek? Teacher in a Strange Land: Are You an Instruction Geek? I generally don’t pay much attention, anymore, to the rightwing young guns who dominate edu-social media. Mostly this is because they’re not providing any new content about what you might call school improvement—genuinely interesting or useful ideas for making lessons interest…

Curmudgucation: Why Do State Report Cards Stink Curmudgucation: Why Do State Report Cards Stink Morgan Polikoff (USC Rosier School of Education, FutureEd) and some folks at the reformy Center for Reinventing Public Education along with the Data Quality Campaign wanted to put together a report on what state report card sites had to say about pandemic learning loss trajectories.  …

Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice: Cash Incentives to Improve Schooling Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice: Cash Incentives to Improve Schooling In What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets (2012), Michael Sandel says that today “almost everything is up for sale.” He gives some examples. #Rent out space on your body to display ads: Air New Zealand paid 30 people $777 to shave t…

Shanker Blog: A Legislator’s Lessons From Fifth Graders Shanker Blog: A Legislator’s Lessons From Fifth Graders Our guest author is Massachusetts State Senator Becca Rausch. Earlier this year, I walked into one of the elementary schools in my district to visit with the fifth grade –- all 300 of them. (For those who might not work with young people routinely, that is a lot of fifth grade…

Janresseger: How Billionaires Bought College Departments, Set Up Think Tanks, Fostered White Nationalism, and Ignored the Evidence to Promote School Vouchers Janresseger: How Billionaires Bought College Departments, Set Up Think Tanks, Fostered White Nationalism, and Ignored the Evidence to Promote School Vouchers A new book by Michigan State University professor of education, Josh Cowen, The Privateers: How Billionaires Created A Culture War and Sold School Vouchers, combines academic …

Teacher in a Strange Land: What Do Parents Know About Public Education? Teacher in a Strange Land: What Do Parents Know About Public Education? Not much. But don’t take my word for it. Kappan recently took a look at American adults’ knowledge of public schools: Our findings shed light on a key question: What do adults know about U.S. education? Specifically, what do they know about what is taught, who …

Curmudgucation: Are Grade Level Texts the Magical Cure? (The Ghost of Common Core) Curmudgucation: Are Grade Level Texts the Magical Cure? (The Ghost of Common Core) At The Hechinger Report, Suzanne Simons wants to complain about English Language Arts instruction in middle and high schools. It’s a familiar kind of mess, but I promise a tiny twist at the end, which might almost make up for the length. Simons is th…

10th Period: Chickens Coming Home to Roost 10th Period: Chickens Coming Home to Roost I don’t usually like to say, “I told you so,” but when the shoe fits… In 2013, Kasich and his legislative allies eliminated the so-called “property tax rollback” in order to pay for his continued tax cuts benefitting the wealthy. When I was at Innovation Ohio, we pointed out how disastrous…