Above: Booker T. Washington and the backers of racist industrial education policies Loyal Broadie, John Covington (Class of ’08), is headed to Michigan to perform more corporate reform-schooler meat axe surgery on the ailing body of the state’s public schools. Covington announced his decision to leave the Kansas City Superintendent’s post last Wednesday afternoon, and […]
Disaster porn for children
August 31, 2011 By Leave a Comment
ABC news is reporting on a 9/11 themed coloring book, replete with Islamophobic imagery. As he describes it, the book is a 12-hour narrative of the events that happened on the day that forever changed America. Kids can color in the twin towers, Navy SEALS, former president George W. Bush, just to name a few. […]
A new post on the #opt #out movement
August 31, 2011 By Leave a Comment
The costs of #NCLB
August 31, 2011 By Leave a Comment
My students will be reading The Children in Room E4 for a course I’m teaching on urban education. I saw on my Twitter feed a link to the costs of implementing NCLB. One state in particular, Connecticut, is the setting of the Eaton book. Specifically, in New Haven, so here’s the cost at the local […]
Wanted: 21st Century Teachers
August 31, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Wanted: 21st Century Teachers U.S. Department of Miseducation Wanted: 21st century teachers for public education in the U.S. Experience: N/A Education: undergraduate degree (no education degrees considered) Certification: N/A Job Description: Teachers will be required to implement Common Core Curriculum in order to prepare students for the state and national tests administered each academic year. […]
Guest Post: Assumptions that ‘Just Seem Obvious’ to Steve Brill
August 30, 2011 By Leave a Comment
By John Thompson There is a long line of education experts exposing the factual errors in Steve Brill’s Class Warfare so, instead, I set out to illuminate the assumptions underneath his brand of “reform.” I was overwhelmed, however, by the number of times that Brill, and the non-educators he fawned over, discovered findings that “just […]
On #charter #schools in the suburbs
August 30, 2011 By Leave a Comment
School reform efforts avoid the real problem
August 30, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Sent to the Daily News (Los Angeles) August 30, 2011 Re: “`Snapshot’ of reform shows mixed results.” August 29 School reform always has limited results because it avoids the real problem: Poverty. Los Angeles has a very high rate of child poverty. Poverty means poor nutrition, inadequate health care, and little access to books at […]
Conversations on #education #reform
August 30, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Rhee’s Outfit, Students First, Scamming Unsuspecting Activists at Change.Org
August 30, 2011 By Leave a Comment
This morning I got an email alert concerning a petition drive to stop McDonald’s from using their torturous “gestation crates” for breeding the juicy pork product used in their not-so-happy Egg McMuffins. After I signed the petition, other petitions popped up for me to consider as a member of Change.Org. One of them was from […]
Guest Post: The Facts Not Included in Steve Brill’s Tell All
August 29, 2011 By Leave a Comment
By John Thompson Steve Brill’s Class Warfare is full of breathless accounts of the rich and powerful that are reminiscent of the biographies of Kitty Kelly. Ironically, the most valuable part of his Class Warfare may be his accounts of dramatic decisions to undertake risky and revolutionary “reforms” based on minimal evidence and some strange […]
From the #NEA on #bullying
A teacher in one of the schools where I supervise student teachers brought this up to me today. I guess my post about bullying made it to a larger piece in NEA Today. Nice, I had no idea. But where did they get THAT picture? Interesting.