100 Black Men getting involved in education local control issues in NOLA. Important. We could be on the cusp of seeing a lot of different organizations getting involved in this sector. Good!
OK, it’s not every day education is featured in Vogue. Today in safari news: “School districts are on the hunt…” The 74 advances the USAT story on sex abuse and schools.
Jeb Bush is out of the presidential race. The crazy discussion you hear about his education record is a sad sign of the times. Not perfect (charter quality among other issues) but better than most (early reading, rising NAEP scores, real accountability and parental information and choice). A Clinton – Bush race had the best chance of showcasing some interesting education ideas.
I often wonder how effective any of us can really be if we spend our professional careers fighting against systemic injustice, but we navigate our personal lives in such a way that we remain completely untouched by it. The Mother Teresa approach of serving the poor while also choosing to live with the poor has little to no curb appeal…
…As a teacher, my goal is to err on the side of children, which is impossible to do if I have already pledged allegiance to the adults.
Pride of CPS Caroline Bermudez takes no prisoners:
These pieces, typically written by people like Valerie Strauss of The Washington Post, or Jeff Bryant in Salon, parrot political propaganda as nuanced as a jackhammer drilling into concrete. But it is truly troubling when what is arguably America’s premier magazine tasks its film critic David Denby, someone lacking experience in education reportage save for a shallow profile of Diane Ravitch published in 2012, to pen a hollow critique—sans data or any kind of reliable evidence—of education reform that reads less like a work of journalism than that of a dog-eared playbook.
I’ll settle today for this simple response: If you agree with Denby, Ravitch, et al that most of today’s schools are doing fine and the system as a whole has been given a bum rap due to misleading generalizations, then you’re justified in resisting change. If, on the other hand, you are appalled by America’s PISA and TIMSS scores (and how many other countries are doing better on such metrics, both in the average case and at the high end), by the testimony of employers that many great jobs are going unfilled due to the weak skills and knowledge of the applicant pool, and by the rates at which today’s high school graduates (including many from those “good schools” lauded by Denby) are routed into remedial courses in college, then you belong with the reformers.
I’d add to that this idea that a system that somehow results in just 9 percent of low-income students getting a college degree by the time they’re 24 compared to dramatically better outcomes for other students is somehow OK in America. If you believe that then at least turn in your ‘I care about inequality and social mobility’ card.
President Obama taking on absenteeism in schools. Problem for adults and kids in too many schools – and another argument for small schools. Politico takes a look at the organized backlash facing transgender students. Bills in play in a lot of states.
Evergreen but important issue: Common Core has not led to the commonness its advocates promised and hoped for or that its critics feared. Interesting COI issue in New Jersey.
Good education blog you may have missed.
Hello, I’m Johnny Cash. Harper Lee rejection letter. Wolf fighting dogs.
