Curmudgucation: Let’s Just Test All The Damned Year Curmudgucation: Let’s Just Test All The Damned Year One of the repeated techniques of reformsters is this: when a proposed policy fails, insist that we need to do it more harder. Using the Big Standardized Test as the foundation of all school evaluation is a failure. It hasn’t provided teachers with actionable data. It hasn’t impro…

Janresseger: Research Shows State School District Report Cards Do Not Measure the Quality of Public Schools Janresseger: Research Shows State School District Report Cards Do Not Measure the Quality of Public Schools The state of Ohio released 2023 public school district report cards last week.  As usual, the press has reported that the state’s wealthy exurban school districts are the champions, and poor rural and urban districts are the …

Answer Sheet: The Big Problems With College and K-12 School Rankings Answer Sheet: The Big Problems With College and K-12 School Rankings The U.S. News & World Report’s 2024 college rankings came out last week, as my colleague Nick Anderson notes, with a somewhat revamped methodology that does not escape what has been growing criticism of the enterprise. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona captured s…

Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice: Students Taking Timed Tests (Adam Grant) (Guest Post by Adam Grant) Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice: Students Taking Timed Tests (Adam Grant) (Guest Post by Adam Grant) Adam Grant is an organizational psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. He authored “Hidden Potential” and “Think Again.” He also hosts the TED podcast “Re: Thinking.” A few years ago, I …

Curmudgucation: How Vouchers Bust State Budgets Curmudgucation: How Vouchers Bust State Budgets One of the consistent features of voucher programs is that they grow, sometimes rapidly, to suck up huge chunks of the state budget. Nobody understands this better than Arizona’s Governor Katie Hobbs. She posted this memo on the Dead Bird app yesterday: Hobbs has rung this alarm bell…

LA Progressive: Community Schools Address the Youth Mental Health Crisis LA Progressive: Community Schools Address the Youth Mental Health Crisis Kaci Rodriguez knew her son was struggling mentally. His behavior was increasingly impulsive. He was becoming more easily distracted. And he was having more trouble with academic work and behavior issues at his elementary school. When she brought her concerns …

Janresseger: Ohio Has a New Universal Voucher Program, and the Problems Are Already Starting Janresseger: Ohio Has a New Universal Voucher Program, and the Problems Are Already Starting As we watch the emergence of Ohio’s new universal school voucher program, passed in June as part of the state’s new biennial budget, problems have already become apparent. Voucher Program Is Already Exceeding Cost Estimates It is already cl…

Radical Eyes for Equity: Forty Years of Failure: When Caricature Drives Education Reform in Post-Truth America Radical Eyes for Equity: Forty Years of Failure: When Caricature Drives Education Reform in Post-Truth America Reporting for NPR about A Nation at Risk, Anya Kamenetz (2018) noted: When it appeared in April 1983, the report received widespread coverage on radio and TV. President Reagan joined the co-authors in a series of public h…

Answer Sheet: Why a New Attack on Small Class Size Doesn’t Add Up Answer Sheet: Why a New Attack on Small Class Size Doesn’t Add Up In 2014, I wrote this: “Every now and then someone in education policy (Arne Duncan) or education philanthropy (Bill Gates) …. will say something about why class size isn’t really very important because a great teacher can handle a boatload of kids.” Well, some can…

Gary Rubinstein’s Blog: Success Academy Games U.S. News & World Report Best High School Ranking Gary Rubinstein’s Blog: Success Academy Games U.S. News & World Report Best High School Ranking In the latest U.S. News & World Report Best High School Ranking 2023-2024, the Success Academy High School was ranked the 102nd best high school in the country and the 12th best high school in New York State. Here is the list of the top …

Gadfly on the Wall: If You Don’t Want Teachers to be Saviors, Don’t Put Them on a Cross Gadfly on the Wall: If You Don’t Want Teachers to be Saviors, Don’t Put Them on a Cross At the end of the school year, I like to show my 8th grade students the movie “Freedom Writers.”  t’s a good culminating film for the class because many of the subjects and texts we read are mentioned by the characters – “The Diary of Anne Fran…

Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice: The Unstoppable Search for “Successful” Teaching In U.S. Schools Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice: The Unstoppable Search for “Successful” Teaching In U.S. Schools In my office I have a very old textbook used for beginning teachers called Hall’s Lectures on School-Keeping. It was published in 1829. “While the class is reading,” Samuel Read Hall tells novices, “the entire atten…

Curmudgucation: Yes, Engage Curmudgucation: Yes, Engage Intuitively, you’d think that student engagement was a clear positive. As a teacher, I certainly found it easier to teach a student who was engaged and involved than one who was checked out. And there is, in fact, a boatload of research that supports what we intuit. But there is also research that sugges…

Janresseger: Important New Publication Explores How Inadequate School Funding is Intertwined With Race and Segregation Janresseger: Important New Publication Explores How Inadequate School Funding is Intertwined With Race and Segregation What happens when we get so used to a long injustice that we can’t see it anymore?  In a fine new collection of articles, University of North Carolina law professor, Osamudia James explains how blind we have all be…

Teacher in a Strange Land: There IS Such a Thing as a Free Lunch– a Good Thing. Teacher in a Strange Land: There IS Such a Thing as a Free Lunch– a Good Thing. So—Michigan just adopted a policy of offering free breakfast and lunch to all K-12 public school kids. Charter school kids, too– and intermediate school districts (which often educate students with significant disabilities). More than half of Michigan s…

Answer Sheet: A Program to Cut School Suspensions in Chicago Worked Very, Very Well. Here’s How. Answer Sheet: A Program to Cut School Suspensions in Chicago Worked Very, Very Well. Here’s How. Last year, the Biden administration issued new school discipline guidelines aimed at reducing high rates of suspension and expulsion for students with disabilities. This year, it directed public schools to comply with civil rights laws …

LA Progressive: Why Do Some Schools Excel at Addressing Student Mental Health Needs? LA Progressive: Why Do Some Schools Excel at Addressing Student Mental Health Needs? It seems that no community may be immune to what many are calling a national mental health crisis among children and teens. “We needed a lot more mental and behavioral help after COVID,” Meredith Mullen told Our Schools. Mullen is the community sch…

Gary Rubinstein’s Blog: Will KIPP NYC Be Disqualified (Again) From U.S. News & World Report Best High School Rankings? Gary Rubinstein’s Blog: Will KIPP NYC Be Disqualified (Again) From U.S. News & World Report Best High School Rankings? There is exactly one KIPP high school in New York City. KIPP NYC College Prep High School was started in 2009 to serve students graduating from KIPP middle schools. In 2013 they moved into a new facility that was p…

Ed in the Apple: The Long Road: Can “Performance Tasks,” or, “Projects” Replace Standard Testing as Assessment and Accountability Metrics? Ed in the Apple: The Long Road: Can “Performance Tasks,” or, “Projects” Replace Standard Testing as Assessment and Accountability Metrics? ….any powers that are not specifically given to the federal government, nor withheld from the states, are reserved to those respective states, or to the people at large. Educa…

Gadfly on the Wall: The Hidden Bias Against Male Teachers Gadfly on the Wall: The Hidden Bias Against Male Teachers No one wants to be the disciplinarian. Not at the expense of being a teacher. Often you need to do the one so you can do the other. After all, it’s difficult to teach a class that can’t listen or sit or refrain from arguing. But that’s the role men are often given in the fie…