Everyone appreciates that teacher pensions are backloaded – and some backloading arguably makes sense. But, I’d hazard a guess most people are unaware of the intensity of the backloading and what that means for retirement security for teachers. Chad Aldeman and Marisa Vong take a look at that in a new analysis. Here’s Ed Week on the analysis.
Bellwether’s Brandon Lewis on his history making friend:
We were all there to witness history in the making as my long-time friend Everton Blair was sworn in as the youngest school board member in Gwinnett County history. That night, he also became the first Black person to serve on the County’s board.
I talked with Matt Lewis about the college admissions scam and the education scene more generally for his Matt Lewis and the News podcast.
All of which brings up the question: If this behavior is so reprehensible at the college level, why is it completely acceptable in K-12 education across this country?
Rick Hess with a modest proposal for college admissions. Seems people don’t want to reckon with not only the unfairness of college admissions but also the pure randomness. Does anyone really think the next quartile of people who don’t get into a selective college wouldn’t probably be OK there, or thrive there?
Here’s Rick Hanushek and others with a deep dive on the opportunity gap:
Contrary to recent perceptions, we find the opportunity gap—that is, the relationship between socioeconomic status and achievement—has not grown over the past 50 years. But neither has it closed. Instead, the gap between the haves and have-nots has persisted.
Well regarded and well liked economist Alan Krueger has passed. Among impactful work on a range of issues he produced important education research, including work on this elite college question in the news now. Update: More here on a very tragic event.
Blair Braverman’s book was on the 2018 book list here, this story about how her Twitter followers are funding school projects in support of her Iditarod race is a good one:
Rookie musher @BlairBraveman is still racing in the Iditarod. Her followers, the #uglydogs, are supporting her and school kids as well. @HarrySmith has the story. #Igivearod pic.twitter.com/Uvjbcnyy5c
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) March 16, 2019
In her notebook entry, Yelena Shevel, 10, reported that she likes going to the swimming pool and the shooting range equally. Mykhailo Deinikov, 8, wrote that he believes “it’s important to defend the homeland because it can be captured by the enemy very easily and we can be taken hostage and killed.” Yet he also wrote about his peacetime dream of becoming a fish researcher: “I do not want to become a soldier because it’s scary. I dream that there will be no more wars in the world.”
