Teacher in a Strange Land: Racing, Striving, Accelerating, Winning. And Reading. Teacher in a Strange Land: Racing, Striving, Accelerating, Winning. And Reading. I wrote the core of this piece a decade ago, but it feels evergreen. Back then, we were trying to improve reading scores by offering kids rewards. Including pizza. Have we left competitive reading behind—or are ‘supplementary’ programs to raise scores,…

Janresseger: America Neglects to Address the Big Problems for Public Schools Janresseger: America Neglects to Address the Big Problems for Public Schools Two weeks ago this blog covered problems stemming from the rating and ranking of public schools required by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), the 2015 reauthorization of the federal education law. That post covered the widespread exacerbation of racia…

Radical Eyes for Equity: Big Lies of Education: National Reading Panel (NRP) Radical Eyes for Equity: Big Lies of Education: National Reading Panel (NRP) Similar to A Nation at Risk and a core part of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), the National Reading Panel (NRP) was a bi-partisan committee formed under Bill Clinton and then elevated under George W. Bush. Joanne Yatvin, a panel member who issued a Minority R…

Curmudgucation: TX: Using Computers To Make STAAR Test Worse Curmudgucation: TX: Using Computers To Make STAAR Test Worse There are several fundamental problems with trying to use standardized testing on a large scale (say, assessing every student in the state). One is the tension between turnaround time and quality. The quickest tests to score are those based on multipole choice questions; …

Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice: Why Do School Reforms Occur Again and Again? Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice: Why Do School Reforms Occur Again and Again? School reforms unfold less like an auto engine piston pumping up and down within a cylinder and more like a large weather front of uncertain origin moving across a region. Reforms, like weather fronts varying by seasons but similar acr…

Education Technology Society: Digital Technologies and the Commercialism of Education Education Technology Society: Digital Technologies and the Commercialism of Education In this podcast episode of Education Technology Society, Professor Neil Selwyn speaks with Faith Boninger about how digital technologies are increasingly implicated in the commercialism of education. They discuss her involvement in the long-runnin…

Teacher in a Strange Land: Do Core Democratic Values Belong in Schools? Some Say No. Teacher in a Strange Land: Do Core Democratic Values Belong in Schools? Some Say No. I try, when thinking about the path this nation is currently on, not to immediately jump to worst case scenarios or inept comparisons. The uptick in the language of fascism shouldn’t be ignored, however—comparing certain people to Hitler or bemoani…

Janresseger: How Committed Are Each State’s Leaders to Democratically Governed Public Schools? Janresseger: How Committed Are Each State’s Leaders to Democratically Governed Public Schools? Yesterday the Network for Public Education (NPE) released an excellent and desperately needed report on the state of public schooling across the states in the midst of well funded, far-right campaigns pressing state legislatures to underm…

Nancy Bailey’s Education Website: “Back to Basics” Again! What Does it Mean for Students and Teachers? Nancy Bailey’s Education Website: “Back to Basics” Again! What Does it Mean for Students and Teachers? Many of our elected officials have virtually handed the keys to our schools over to corporate interests. Presidential commissions on education are commonly chaired by the executives of large companies. ~Alfie Kohn, The Schools Our…

Radical Eyes for Equity: Contrarian Truths About Public Education and Student Achievement Radical Eyes for Equity: Contrarian Truths About Public Education and Student Achievement “The 2022 NAEP results show that the average reading score for fourth graders is lower than it has been in over 20 years. For eighth and twelfth graders, average scores are at about a 30-year low,” states Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) in his new…

Shanker Blog: School District Fragmentation, Segregation, and Funding Equity in New Jersey Shanker Blog: School District Fragmentation, Segregation, and Funding Equity in New Jersey District fragmentation is a very important but sometimes overlooked factor shaping school segregation, school funding equity, and the relationship between them. Put simply, fragmentation refers to the fact that, in some states, there are hund…

Radical Eyes for Equity: Close Reading: Social In/Justice and the Deficit Foundations of Oracy, Ian Cushing Radical Eyes for Equity: Close Reading: Social In/Justice and the Deficit Foundations of Oracy, Ian Cushing “Schooling in the United States is revered as a societal foundation for possibility, empowerment, and social mobility,” explain Rios, Matthews, Zentell, and Kogut, adding, “However, US schooling systems also serve as institut…

Nancy Bailey’s Education Website: Student Differentiation v. Alignment: Know the Difference and Set Children Free Nancy Bailey’s Education Website: Student Differentiation v. Alignment: Know the Difference and Set Children Free In a democracy that stresses freedom and individuality, education reformers remade public schools focusing on aligning children to narrow high-stakes standards, even before Common Core State Standards appeared in 2010….

Janresseger: Who Redefined Teaching as the Production of High Test Scores and Who Taught Us to Believe in the Myth of the Soft Bigotry of Low Expectations? Janresseger: Who Redefined Teaching as the Production of High Test Scores and Who Taught Us to Believe in the Myth of the Soft Bigotry of Low Expectations? The history that happens in our lifetimes is sometimes the most obscure.  We live it without thinking about it, and it hasn’t yet been recorded or analyzed by historians who hel…

Teacher in a Strange Land: Star Tech: The Next Generation of Record-Keeping Teacher in a Strange Land: Star Tech: The Next Generation of Record-Keeping In her last year of a degree program in Justice Studies, my daughter took a course called “Surveillance in Society.” The readings and discussion were around intrusions into personal privacy and data made possible by technology. Dear Daughter and I had many …

Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice: Whatever Happened to Mayoral Control of Urban Public Schools? Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice: Whatever Happened to Mayoral Control of Urban Public Schools? On the ever-changing agenda of reformers seeking to improve outcomes of U.S. schooling, how schools have been governed ranked in the middle and seldom rose to the top. Locally elected school boards, established in the …

Curmudgucation: Voucher Bankruptcy’s Feature Future Curmudgucation: Voucher Bankruptcy’s Feature Future It is no longer news that school voucher programs lead to increasing costs, costs that swiftly balloon to suck up extraordinary piles of taxpayer dollars in state after state, threatening to bust the budget.  Public education advocates have been pointing this out in state after st…

Code Acts in Education: Saliva Samples and Social Policy Code Acts in Education: Saliva Samples and Social Policy Claims that genetic data could be used to inform educational policy or practice have been growing for the last decade. Studies examining the connections between genetics and educational outcomes have captured media and public attention, as well as leading to significant criti…

Code Acts in Education: The Power of Edtech Investors in Education Code Acts in Education: The Power of Edtech Investors in Education Venture capital investors are increasingly powerful in education, with the wealth and resources to shape schooling and universities in the future. Edtech has become a major presence in education over the last decade or so, promoted through ideals of transforming ped…

Gadfly on the Wall: Teaching in Pennsylvania’s Unconstitutional School Funding System Gadfly on the Wall: Teaching in Pennsylvania’s Unconstitutional School Funding System t’s hard not to wonder about things in my new basement classroom. I kill what bugs I can, wipe away the damp from the desks and try to think over the rattling hum of the ancient overhead heating and cooling system. The room is about 1/3 smaller th…