Without support, Minnesota students left behind at graduation #MuckReads https://t.co/j95ojwufV1 pic.twitter.com/ryFP31y6gi
— ProPublica (@ProPublica) March 8, 2016
Check out the rest of this great MPR story package.
It was February, 1988 -- nearly 30 years ago now.
Hidden in the news that author Pat Conroy passed away recently was the reminder that the popular author started out as a one-room schoolhouse teacher and wrote "The Water Is Wide," a book about his experience that was turned into a feature film and then a TV special.
From thePost and Courier: "Conroy took work as a teacher in the Beaufort County School District, where he was assigned a one-room schoolhouse on Daufuskie Island. He soon came to realize he was expected to be nothing more than a baby sitter to an island full of underprivileged black children. He made it his mission to give them a good education. His unorthodox methods and ambitious plans led to his dismissal."
According to Wikipedia, The Water Is Wide came out in 1972 and "details Conroy's efforts to communicate with the islanders, who are nearly all directly descended from slaves and who have had little contact with the mainland or its people."
"A film adaptation, titled Conrack, was created in 1974, starring Jon Voight. A Hallmark Hall of Fame TV movie titled The Water Is Wide, starring Jeff Hephner and Alfre Woodard, was made in 2006."
On one hand, teachers have to be happy that Clinton and Sanders defended them so vigoriously in last night's Democratic debate. On the other hand, they might well be concerned that CNN moderator Anderson Cooper chose to have them talk about education in the context of sexual predators who need to be removed.
America Rising via Erika Sanzi. Check out her interpretation of events here. Or take a look at PK12's coverage here. The Guardian has some recaps and quotes here. Look back at Maggie Haberman's NYT story from last summer where Clinton also referenced the issue of teacher scapegoating.
As you may recall from just a few days ago, the New York Times obtained and published video of a Success Academy teacher dramatically ripping up a student's work and telling her to do it over. The video and accompanying story went viral.
But the Times wasn't just Internet shaming an individual teacher for her behavior. It was making the case that ripping up student's work was a common practice at Success Academy schools:
“Five of the teachers interviewed… described leaders at multiple Success schools and a Success supervisor in the teacher training program that the network runs with Touro College endorsing the practice of ripping up work if it was deemed not to reflect sufficient effort. The purpose, they said, was to get students’ attention and demonstrate urgency. At some schools, there was even a term for it.” “It was ‘rip and redo’…”
According to that interpretation, teacher Charlotte Dial wasn't just losing her cool at a moment that happened to be caught on video. She was doing what she'd been taught to do. In which case this GIF of teacher Charlotte Dial ripping up a student's work is an illustration of something that someone, somewhere, taught or told her to do:
This is #SuccessAcademy @SuccessCharters in NYC run by @MoskowitzEva #Success4who #NeverLovedUs pic.twitter.com/MNRu30Onpq
— Judith Browne Dianis (@jbrownedianis) February 12, 2016
But is that true? Spoiler alert: nobody knows.
The phrase "rip and redo" is dramatic and memorable. But there's nothing about rip and redo that's easily found on the web -- no course syllabus or materials endorsing the practice. Nobody seems to know, and everyone who might tell us seems not to be aware of or approve of the practice.
At a now-infamous press conference, Success Academy's Eva Moskowitz disavowed rip and redo: "It is not our policy to rip up student work,'" she's quoted as saying. "It is our policy to insist that children re-do. We make no apologies for the need to re-do work when it's not done."
Asked again about the practice a spokesperson from Success responded: “As we have repeatedly said, this practice is not and has never been part of our program.”
But in an email, the folks at Touro also disavowed the practice: "The practices discussed in the [NYT] article are absolutely not part of our curriculum, and Touro neither condones nor approves of them."
The Times says that rip and redo was being taught by Success trainers, and it's not hard to imagine that kind of scenario. After all, school districts and big charter networks can exert tremendous influence over what's taught to its teachers and by whom. In some cases, teacher training providers can be asked to include specific materials or to hire specific instructors as adjuncts.
But Tauro says that's not the case: "Success Academy staff enroll at Touro College on a cohort basis and matriculate in our Graduate Education master’s program. Full time and adjunct Touro faculty deliver our programs. We pay our faculty."
And NCTQ's Sandi Jacobs isn't so clear that Touro would necessarily know what is going on in each and every of its courses, even if it hired all its instructors. "It is generally our sense that it is up to the individual instructor to teach whatever they want," she said in a phone interview.
"I don't know how they would know" whether all its teachers were or weren't teaching rip and redo. "We don't generally see that programs are coordinated in such a way that anyone could say what is going on in an individual course."
So the mystery remains. Someone out there -- a rogue Touro instructor or Success supervisor -- has apparently been teaching "rip and redo" to Success teachers. But both Success and Touro disavow any knowledge of the practice, and the Times doesn't appear to have any concrete evidence that it is as widespread as has been claimed.
A version of this post was originally published at The Grade.
Here's a review of a book that sounds really interesting and timely:
"Many saw the 2008 election of Barack Obama as a sign that America had moved past the issue of race, that a colorblind society was finally within reach.
"But as Marianne Modica reveals in Race Among Friends, attempts to be colorblind do not end racism—in fact, ignoring race increases the likelihood that racism will occur in our schools and in society.
"Modica finds that even in an environment where students of all racial backgrounds work and play together harmoniously, race affects the daily experiences of students and teachers in profound but unexamined ways.
"In the end, the school’s friendly environment did not promote—and may have hindered—serious discussion of race and racial inequity. The desire to ignore race in favor of a “colorblind society,” Modica writes, has become an entrenched part of American culture. But as Race Among Friends shows, when race becomes a taboo subject, it has serious ramifications for students and teachers of all ethnic origins."
You can listen to an interview she did on WNYC in December.
Related posts: New Yorker Writer's Year Embedded In High School English; Ta-Nehesi Coates' New Book On Race (& Schooling) In America; 'Confessions Of A Headmaster'; Teacher Perceptions Of Autonomy Vary By Race; Educators & Advocates Need Authentic Conversations About Race, Too.
From PBS: "The Los Angeles school system has come far in the last ten years, especially in terms of inclusivity. In 2003, only 54 percent of LA’s disabled students were taught alongside their nondisabled peers; today, it’s more than 90 percent. But some parents worry that general education schools won’t provide the specialized attention their children require." (LA schools grow more inclusive, but at what cost?)
I got my masters in education in advance of teaching, I did even more student teaching than was required, I sought out good mentors. This was not a silly whim. I may not have had the chops for the job, but if so I have plenty of company... I’m trying to call attention to the fact that we are expecting teachers in high poverty schools to do too much. We must end the myth of the hero teacher.
- Author Ed Boland on Diane Ravitch's blog (Ed Boland Responds to Critics)
Here's a 12-minute documentary about a home visit nurse, which as you may recall was the subject of Kate Boo's 2006 feature story, Swamp Nurse. Go here if the video doesn't appear or you want more background.
Or, go listen to an WAMU story about how white parents' decisions not to send their kids to a local middle school affect its demographics and test scores.
Or, watch this new Viceland documentary about young African Americans in Compton, featuring a brief segment at Centennial High School, via Mark Walsh.
I think that the same way that our current school system is disengaging to our students of color, it's disengaging to our teachers of color as well. There are many teachers or potential teachers that take issue with the current system of micromanagement or the lack of respect for teacher expertise.
-- Pamela Lewis, author of Teaching While Black, in HuffPost (What It's Like To Teach While Black)
This cute, inspiring Android commercial is the talk of Twitter during the #Oscars. https://t.co/vMQPYSesxJ
— Mashable (@mashable) February 29, 2016
"The commercial has a "paper" student show up to school to face a group of mean-mugging "scissors" to find even the fellow "papers" have turned on him. It eventually takes a "scissors" and a "paper" — both sworn enemies according to the rules of the game — to befriend the lonely rock and break away from the schoolyard cruelty." via Mashable.
USA Today's massive look at the inadequate national and state tracking system for teachers who have abused kids continues to make the rounds (and has already generated some renewed interest in closing the existing loopholes.
The main story package is here: Broken discipline tracking systems let teachers flee troubled pasts. There have been several updates and add-ons, including this one from Wisconsin: Educators do little time for sex crimes.
If you're interested, here are some other education-related examples of what's called "digital storytelling" that I can find, riffing off a recent piece about what makes some of these multimedia presentations work better than others:
From the Miami Herald: Higher-Ed Hustle
From the Tampa Bay Times: Failure Factories
From EdWeek: Rural Schools Still Struggle to Get Connected
There are a couple of examples that have education elements but are about other things (homelessness, gentrification):
From the New York Times: Invisible Child: Dasani’s Homeless Life
From NY Magazine: One Block
Some others that have been pointed out to me as great examples aren't about education but may still be worth looking at for the way they use maps, animations, videos, and text:
From The Guardian: NSA files decoded: Edward Snowden's surveillance revelations explained
From AP: 22 Years a Slave
From AP: Faded Grace
From the Washington Post: The perils at Great Falls
From the NYT: A Portrait of the Sandtown Neighborhood in Baltimore
If you're curious about what makes these examples work (and make some other examples seem like a giant waste of time), take a look at my attempt to dissect the USA Today story with the help of a few experts here.
"Public schools in Los Angeles have experienced rapid change in the last decade, and graduation rates for the city’s 80,000 special needs students have nearly doubled since 2003. But greater transitions lie ahead: the district plans to transfer these students from special education centers to neighborhood schools." PBS NewsHour (Los Angeles’ bold move to reform special education)
I think he is correct to argue that reform movement, such as it is, ought to advance a coherent anti-poverty agenda, put more political capital towards raising teacher pay, improve teacher evaluation systems, and do more to cut back on unnecessary testing. Indeed, some of what Denby recommends — higher teacher salaries, greater efforts to address poverty — are not at odds with the reform agenda. They actually complement it, and many reformers recognize as much.
- Matt Barnum in The Seventy Four (Don’t Humiliate Teachers… But Fire the Worst)
It's finally here: New Progressive Education Podcast launches, hosted by Jennifer Berkshire and Aaron French. First up is a look at African-American parents in Philadelphia who oppose standardized testing. Or, check out the fundraising site. Agree or disagree with the perspective being explored, you've got to admire the sound quality.
You might know David Denby for his writing in the New Yorker about movies among other things, but he's also interested in education.
He wrote a big profile of Diane Ravitch four years ago.
Now, the Washington Post's Valerie Strauss has this excerpt from his new book, ‘Lit Up.’
It's the account of his return to English class, following up (20 years later) on a similar tale about returning to college.
In the introduction, he explains the motivation behind the project:
"Teenagers may be reading more words than ever, but many of those words are scraps, messages, fragments of books and articles, information from everywhere and nowhere. What about reading serious books? The best way to find out, I reasoned, was not to scan education research and statistical surveys but to “embed” in a single tenth-grade English class all year long and to see what happened as a good teacher worked with 15-year-olds. I would read everything the kids read, sit on the side of the room, keep my mouth shut, and interview the kids when they had some free time."
Denby chose Beacon School, which he describes as a magnet school "with a multi-ethnic and multi-class population of New York kids." From this Wikipedia entry, you can see it's not your typical NYC high school. And the teacher whose classroom Denby observed was not just a teacher, according to Denby, he was "a maker of souls as well as a maker of readers."
It's got blurbs from Dave Eggers and Diane Ravitch, among others. Click the link above for the excerpt, or click here for some reviews.
Watch out, world. A week from today starts TFA's 25th Anniversary Summit in DC.
According to the event organizers, Friday includes "sessions focused on leadership development" (including one about social media that I'm going to be participating in), followed by Saturday's big day of panels (including a Denver case study panel I'm moderating) and an appearance from Janelle Monáe (above).
There are a bunch of social events, including charter networks (Democracy Prep, etc.), diverse charters (Brooklyn Prospect), and districts (Denver Public Schools).
#TFA25 seems to be the event hashtag.
There's a big EdWeek deep dive.
There's a BuzzFeed listicle: 19 Things To Do At The TFA 25th Anniversary Summit.
19 things to do at the #TFA25 Anniversary Summit: https://t.co/kulheg7Hgk via @BuzzFeed and @achievement1st pic.twitter.com/NxVWlRwF4T
— Teach For America (@TeachForAmerica) January 28, 2016
There's an app.
TFA Alumni Affairs (aka @onedayallkids) have put together a "TFA25 Twitter Track" for the conference http://ow.ly/XB7aA.
There's some great TFA memorabilia floating around on Twitter and Tumblr and Facebook, including this 1992 poster:
If Deray McKesson isn't there, I think there might be a riot. [He's scheduled to be there on Saturday, I'm told.]
What about LAUSD Board Chairperson Steve Zimmer, or StudentsFirst co-founder Michelle Rhee (pictured at #TFA20)? Jesse Hagopian? Alex Caputo-Pearl? [No idea]
The NYT's Nikole Hannah-Jones is going to be there, according to Twitter. (Not as a TFA alum but on a panel on school desegregation.)
The last big gathering of TFA folks was in February 2011, which seems like 100 years ago. People were still talking about the Arab Spring back then. Michelle Rhee was sort of the rock star of the event. Questions about the organization's role and impact were coming up (including from founder Wendy Kopp herself) but hadn't gained real traction yet. There was no #BlackLivesMatter. Teachers in Chicago hadn't gone on strike for the first time in nearly 30 years. Yet.
Related posts: Key Takeaways From The NJ TFA Media Panel; 7 Things I Learned From The LA Times' TFA Article; TFA20: A Premature (Or Even Unwarranted) Celebration?; Looking Ahead To #TFA25; Stop Talking About Education's "Egypt Moment"; Five Ideas For TFA's *Next* 20 Years.
Six years ago, Arne Duncan was getting the New Yorker treatment. Seven years ago, he was going through an unusually easy confirmation process.
The confirmation hearing was so boring I spent most of the time making screengrabs and lame comments about folks sitting behind Duncan in the hearing room:
"Sneaking a peak at the ole Blackberry while Senator Alexander is talking." [
Remember Blackberries?
As you may recall from Duncan Gets The New Yorker Treatment that came out a year later, I didn't think much of the New Yorker piece: "By and large, it's the Spellings treatment all over again. Homey details, celebrity name-dropping, and lots of backstory about Duncan's childhood. There's also the familiar effort to puff Duncan up over his "unprecedented" budget and his buddy-buddy status with the POTUS, as well as the (to my mind) overheated notion that we're on the verge of some great age of education reform."
Around that time, I was also touting this Slate article about Obama's detached relationships with people and institutions and a 2008 piece I'd written about Obama's elusive support for local control in Chicago schools.
"Snow... it's me. I know we just got out for Christmas but I'm ready for some more... time to myself." via TIME, via Nuzzel. The original performance is pretty good, too. She's a third grade teacher.
Or, on a much more serious topic, listen to this new Macklemore & Ryan song, White Privilege II, which includes the repeated line:"We take all we want from black culture, but will we show up for Black lives?"
The Seattle-based duo credits a group of collaborators including local educator Georgia Roberts. Lyrics and explanations here.
Check out this video short (School of Hip-Hop) about the "hip-hop therapy" program at New Visions Charter High School that accompanies Winnie Hu's feature (Bronx School Embraces a New Tool in Counseling: Hip-Hop). The white hipster counselor is unfortunate, and I'm not sure using hip hop this way can be considered "new," but I'll let it go this time.
As the snowstorm Jonas approaches the East Coast and all other action seems to slow down, this seems like a good a time to remind you that there are other places where you can read/follow my posts: my Facebook page (which features blog posts and Tweets), the media-focused The Grade at the WashMonthly (@thegrade_), and of course my Tumblr page, Hot For Education, which includes lots about pop culture in education, human interest stories, and Tumblr-like stuff.
There's also a daily This Week In Education email you can sign up for, and a weekly email version of "Best Education Journalism Of The Week" that at this point you have to email me (at thisweekineducation@gmail.com) to get on. Please do!
No Instagram or SnapChat yet, but it could happen. Yes, that's the bar at the old Riccardo's in Chicago -- one of my dad's gang's favorite watering holes.
Concerns about insufficient numbers of speakers and panelists of color at conferences, the need to talk more directly about racism, and "handing over the microphone" in general have been big issues this past year in education circles, media newsrooms, and the broader society.
Both Arne Duncan and Randi Weingarten participated in #BlackLivesMatter events (Duncan Wasn't The Only One At Last Weekend's Protests).
I wrote about the BLM-education connection in Scholastic earlier this year (#BlackLivesMatter, Deray McKesson, & Education Reform).
And we all remember last year's Yale Education Summit where an all-white, all-male panel followed a Bruce Fuller speech on race in education? (6 Ways To Diversify That Conference Or Panel).
And so it was a feel-good moment a few days ago when Stephen Colbert had Deray McKesson on his show, talked about white privilege and structural racism, and even switched seats momentarily with the #BlackLivesMatter leader. (Click this link if the video doesn't render properly.)
Historically, Colbert has arguably done better than others booking guests of color in the past, including a memorable 2008 segment with Roland Fryer. And he even wore a BLM wristband on the air at one point.
What didn't get addressed in the segment with Deray-- baby steps, right? -- are Colbert (and other late-night hosts') guest lists and staffing patterns. Women and persons of color are notoriously ill-represented in comedy writing rooms. It's not clear that Colbert's is any different -- and Deray missed the chance (or was holding back) when he didn't bring that issue up in response to Colbert's invitation to help him unpack white privilege.
For Twitter commentary on the appearance start here.
Related posts: 6 Ways To Diversify That Conference Or Panel (ie, "Pass The Mic")*; Whatever Happened To Roland Fryer (& Cash Incentives For School)?; Where #BlackLivesMatter Meets Education (Reform); "I Thought I Knew How To Listen To People".
American Rage https://t.co/gtO8fEAori "Not enough educational opportunities. 3%" pic.twitter.com/JFjEvHmRov
— alexanderrusso (@alexanderrusso) January 6, 2016
A new survey from Esquire and NBC shows that there's lots of upset folks out there, about a lot of different things, but educational opportunities is not a big priority. About all that anyone agrees about are school shootings.
By far the most interesting of Forbes' 2016 30 Under 30: Education list is WteiLab's Matthew Remirez, who not only thinks that 90 percent of feedback kids need to learn writing can be automated but also has time to do some ballroom dancing (and showed off some moves on camera). Thanks to the folks at Forbes for digging out this embeddable video.
Longtime educator Paul Cummins has a memoir out ('Confessions Of A Headmaster') that's gotten some much-deserved attention, especially because his background ("privileged kid and ivory-tower scholar") mirrors that of so many other folks trying to improve education (for better and worse). He's credited with helping launch several LA schools, including Crossroads School, New Roads School, Camino Nuevo Charter School, and New Village Charter School. I got to know him nearly 30 years ago when I was looking for a teaching job out of college, and have interviewed and socialized with him occasionally over the years. For more, read here: Paul Cummins, Education Warrior, and Renowned Educator Dishes Lessons From A Life Spent Empowering Youth (WNYC).
Over at NPR, they got Claudio Sanchez to say a couple of things that I'm not sure I think are correct.
In 6 Education Stories To Watch In 2016, Sanchez says:
"The controversy over the much-maligned Common Core State Standards will diminish. States will continue their efforts to re-brand or rename the standards, while for the most part following them. Despite the political controversy, the push for high academic standards will continue, and we'll see little of the "race to the bottom" that happened under NCLB."
First and foremost, predictions are worth what you pay for them, which is basically nothing. They're wishful thinking and confirmation bias as much as astute analysis, whether they come from advocates, practitioners, or veteran journalists.
I don't think anyone knows for sure whether the controversy over Common Core will diminish in 2016. They could just as easily flare up again, or potentially even get even stronger than in 2015.
Just as important, reporters as smart and knowledgeable as Sanchez shouldn't repeat the "race to the bottom" line about NCLB that even Arne Duncan stopped using so casually after being called out on it repeatedly.
Some states did lower standards and cut scores in response to NCLB, sure -- 20 states according to Duncan in early 2015 -- but many didn't and a few even raised them.
And some states have already tried to begin to water down expectations for students within Common Core assessments. Watering things down is what states do, to some extent, regardless of statutory framework.
Previous posts: Duncan Cherry Picks NCLB History To Sell Waivers (2012).
You can expect these publicly funded, privately run schools to face new scrutiny, and new criticism.... Charters will also be one of the very few education issues to get any attention in the presidential campaign.
- NPR's Claudio Sanchez (6 Education Stories To Watch In 2016)
At least two education books have made some of the annual year-end roundups that are going around right now:
First up is Dale Russakoff's "The Prize," which gets a nice writeup in The New Yorker (The Books We Loved in 2015).
Greg Toppo's "The Game Believes In You" made the list in the Kansas City Star (Best nonfiction of 2015).
Any other examples? Let us know.
Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
While LA schools closed yesterday, NYC schools did not. That's caused a certain amount of concern about how districts react to threats. NYPD's Bratton didn't help things much by calling the threat a hoax.
Here's a roundup of the Top 20 Education Next Articles of 2015 from Education Next, a magazine I've written for a few times over the years. Topics addressed include poverty, Success Academy, Common Core, AltSchools (of course!), Detroit, English Language Learners.
In a perfect world, other education outlets -- Education Week, Chalkbeat, Hechinger Report, the Atlantic Education Page, Vox -- would do the same with their best or top-read pieces. But I don't think most do -- at least not yet.
Listen to this WNYC segment about a relatively diverse suburban charter school where an attempt at "colorblind" education didn't work out so well (A Case Study of "Colorblind" Schooling).
Or, listen to this hilarious Chicago WBEZ segment about kids' never-ending efforts to get out of swim class:
Here's an AP segment with highlights of the Obama speech before the actual signing of the bill into law.
Or, click the link to watch EdWeek's Alyson Klein explain what the law does and doesn't change on the PBS NewsHour.
But really you owe it to yourself to watch this CollegeHumor video urging kids to go to college featuring Pharoah and some rapping from First Lady Michelle Obama.
Here's another good roundup of books and articles you should check out, from @NYCLeadership, which describes itself as "An independent, national nonprofit organization that prepares and supports school leaders who create equity in education and foster student success."
The list (Top Education Equity Reads of 2015) includes many of the usual suspects (Ta-Nehisi Coates, Pedro Noguera, etc), along with a few unfamiliar (to me) or less well-known titles that look intriguing:
Race, Equity and Lessons at St. Paul’s Como Elementary is a MinnPost article by Beth Hawkins that examines the strategies used to increase racial equity in schools in St. Paul, Minnesota. It serves as an important example of an entire school using an equity lens for every decision and observation — big and small.
Lead With Love [Spring Valley High Is Your School Too] is an article by New York City teacher, writer and EduColor co-founder Jose Vilson, who challenges educators to recognize their role in protecting children and standing up against racism.
White America’s Racial Illiteracy: Why Our National Conversation is Poisoned from the Start is an article by Dr.Robin DiAngelo, the author of “What Does It Mean to Be White?” This book and article list examples of challenges that trigger racial stress for white people and why it is worth working through the discomfort these challenges present.
The State of Teacher Diversity in American Education report commissioned by AFT’s Albert Shanker Institute provides data and insights into the role educators play in reducing implicit bias. In The Shanker Blog, Burnie Bond puts the findings in perspective.
And, unlike many other such things, this list includes both 2015 and previous years -- as well as speeches, films, and other forms of media -- and has its own hashtag (#equityreads).
This livestream of AtlanticLIVE's Unfinished Business conference features the AFT's Randi Weingarten, among others.Full agenda and speaker list here. Hashtag #AtlanticLGBT.
Previous posts: Despite Progress, Many LGBT Educators Still Feel "Stuck In A Time Capsule"; Gay Marriage: On Equality, Education Has A Long Way To Go*.
This PBS NewsHour segment focuses on reactions to Common Core test results that are coming back in states like New Jersey.
Comedy Central's Larry Wilmore Skewers Textbook 'Whitewash' (featuring a made-up children's book called "Good Night, Slavery.") Warning: NSFW ("Good night to wrongs done in this nation. Good night Native American decimation.) I'm not sure how I feel about Wilmore reading this story aloud to real kids. Via EdWeek.
Looking for a new education book to look forward to? You might consider Ed Boland's forthcoming The Battle for Room 314: My Year of Hope and Despair in a New York City High School.
"In a fit of idealism, Ed Boland left a twenty-year career as a non-profit executive to teach in a tough New York City public high school. But his hopes quickly collided headlong with the appalling reality of his students' lives and a hobbled education system unable to help them: Jay runs a drug ring for his incarcerated brother; Nee-cole is homeschooled on the subway by her brilliant homeless mother; and Byron's Ivy League dream is dashed because he is undocumented.
"In the end, Boland isn't hoisted on his students' shoulders and no one passes AP anything. This is no urban fairy tale of at-risk kids saved by a Hollywood hero, but a searing indictment of reform-minded schools that claim to be progressive but still fail their students.Told with compassion, humor, and a keen eye, Boland's story will resonate deeply with anyone who cares about the future of education."
The book's slated to come out in February.
I've met Boland and his candor and fearlessness talking about the experience are pretty eye-opening.
It'll be interesting to see how the book has turned out.
Other than Dale Russakoff's Newark book and Greg Toppo's education learning book, it seems like it's been a relatively slow year for much-discussed education books. Or perhaps we've just gotten greedy, or can't tolerate anything but the most simplistic kinds of narratives.
Good thing that there are some intriguing-sounding books in the works, and more that I'm sure I'm not yet aware of.
Related posts: Cohen Joins Huffman ...; The Rise of AVID; An Anthropological Look At School Fundraising; When [White] Parents Are An Obstacle To Making Schools More Equitable.
"Today, school secretary Lisa Sutherland (above) is given 15 names to enter. Each click of her mouse is followed by an excruciating delay. The system times out. Sutherland grits her teeth and starts over. Nearly half an hour after it begins, a process that should take seconds is finally complete." (EdWeek: The Slowest Internet in Mississippi)
There's way too much interesting stuff to put it all in one place -- especially pictures and videos and off-beat human interest stories related to education.
That's why I created a side project called Hot For Education.
If you like videos, GIFs, and all the rest, you should definitely check it out.
There's no Facebook page (yet), but you can follow it, or get it via RSS (Feedly, Digg), or track it via Twitter (@hotfored).
Children learn to love or hate at an early age.I think it's time we actively work towards teaching love and acceptance.
Posted by Special Books by Special Kids on Sunday, November 15, 2015
Some people like this -- it makes others cringe. Which are you? via HuffPost: Special Ed Teacher Compliments Every Single Student Each Day. Or, watch the EWA Livestream at #EWAelection
I had the chance to look back over my blog posts the other day and came up with these 7 that struck me as notable or interesting:
Educators & Advocates Need Authentic Conversations About Race, Too.
One thing I'd add is that it's not just kids who need more and better racial awareness programs but also educators and advocates. Teachers -- predominantly white and middle class -- need space and time to talk about and understand not only their students' backgrounds but also their own. And advocates -- reformers and critics alike, also predominantly white and college-educated -- would do well with more of the same.
Reflections On Last Night's Newark Panel.
First and foremost, there was the visual of Newark mayor Ras Baraka sitting next to grey-haired Chris Cerf, the appointed head of Newark schools. How and why Chris Christie chose an awkward preppy white guy to replace Cami Anderson is unclear to me and can't have been welcome news to Baraka and his supporters. Contrast the move with what happened in DC, where Kaya Henderson succeeded Michelle Rhee.
HBO's John Oliver Swings (& Misses) Against Standardized Testing.
It's no easy job being smart and funny at the same time, and especially so when the topic is something as boring and controversial as standardized testing. But last night's John Oliver segment didn't seem to succeed at either task, and came off somewhat blinkered with its focus on the concerns of (mostly) white teachers and (mostly) white parents and students. Watch for yourself and let me know what you think:
Is Reform Really Stalemated -- And Is Early Childhood Really That Easy?.
Let's all take a look at both those things before packing up and pivoting (or thinking that others are going to). I am sad to report that I'm not so sure that the stalemate or the consensus are as clear as Kristof and others might wish them to be.
2 Things About The NYT's "Hillary Being Squeezed" Piece.
I can't imagine folks as smart and experienced as Team Clinton are feeling any real pressure to do something "crazy" (like coming out hard for the Common Core or even annual testing) anytime soon. (Coming out in favor of vaccinations was already a bit of a surprise.) So if anything, the Clinton folks might not like the public display that DFER et al are trying to put on here, and Team DFER could get some cold shoulder. For a little while. Nobody can hate nice-guy Joe Williams for long.
New Voices Challenging Reform Critics' "Belief Gap" On Social Media.
For the last few years, claims of success by reform supporters -- a high-poverty school where students are learning at high levels, say -- have regularly been met with detailed takedowns from the likes of Diane Ravitch or Gary Rubinstein, followed by a swarm of followups from reform critics and allies. But over the weekend things took a somewhat different turn (at least on Sunday, when I last checked in), and it was the mostly white, mostly male reform critics like Rubinstein and Cody who were on the hotseat for expressing a "belief gap" from a handful of Chris Stewart kicked things off (and storified the exchange below).
The Hype Cycle Created By Innovators & Journalists.
Of particular interest, the piece describes the Hype Cycle, which "begins with a Technology Trigger, climbs quickly to a Peak of Inflated Expectations, falls into the Trough of Disillusionment, and, as practical uses are found, gradually ascends to the Plateau of Productivity."
"Moore, indeed, has fun in France, where even at a school on the low end of the socioeconomic pole, students enjoy healthy, restaurant quality-meals, with not a soda or snack vending machine to be found." (New Michael Moore Film Looks to Europe for Education Policy Ideas) Or, watch a pro-charter ad from Washington State (via Morning EDU).
Just the description of the picture might make you think a bit more about it than you did when you first saw it online:
"Beneath the jacket is a fleece-lined hoodie, also black, and in his hand the boy holds a black plastic bag, stretched by the weight of what might be groceries. The sidewalk behind him is cracked and dotted with litter. Dull-brown public-housing towers—as much a part of the quintessential visual New York as the bodega bag—form a jagged horizon."
The critique of HONY -- and TED Talks, and The Moth -- might make you bristle:
"A story has lately become a glossier, less thrilling thing: a burst of pathos, a revelation without a veil to pull away. “Storytelling,” in this parlance, is best employed in the service of illuminating business principles, or selling tickets to non-profit galas, or winning contests."
The New Yorker piece urges us to do the impossible and forget the story, focusing back on the image:
"Forget, for a moment, the factual details that we have gathered in the course of knowing-but-not-really-knowing him... Consider, instead, the ease of the boy’s sneakers against the sidewalk; his shy, smirking confidence; the preternatural calm with which he occupies the space within the frame. Viewed like this—as, yes, irrefutably real, but also as a readable image—he is reminiscent of Gordon Parks’s squinting Harlem newsboy. Both convey something almost spiritual: something about the delicate string that hangs between youth and resilience, about the miraculous talent of children, however voiceless, to stand unswallowed by the city."
Whether you agree or disagree with the point -- and the rest of the essay's reflection on images in politics and society -- it's helpful I think to remember that stories and images can overtake us if we let them, and that sometimes we need to step back from the narrative we're constructing and look at the individual parts.
Related posts: "Humans Of New York" Comes To The White House; Unemployed Photographer & Bronx Middle School; "Humans Of New York" Principal Was Thinking Of Quitting.
Link from Florida TV station is here.
Or, watch a Washington Post story (and video) about the high school science experiment that seems to lead to a number of classroom injuries.
Ostensibly a sports-themed site, Grantland.com was actually full of culture writing. And some of the best writing about education explores its cultural aspects.
For example: The Teacher (Maya Angelou) and the Students (Dave Chapelle, Common); A Teacher Abuses His Power Over a Drummer in ‘Whiplash’; What ‘Dangerous Minds’ and Other Movies Get Right and Wrong About Teachers.
That last one, by Shea Serrano, is particularly about pop culture and K-12 education.
There were occasional references to the site here: Neighborhood Segregation The Central Issue In New HBO Show; "Breaking Bad" Will Solve All Our STEM Problems; Homey The Substitute Teacher.
And a few more on Twitter.
After a slow start, #eduween15 is off and running. Check out some recent entries, and feel free to toss in your own: #eduween15 Tweets
On Friday night, the PBS NewsHour ran this interview with Dale Russakoff about her Newark school reform book. Transcript here.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in This Week In Education are strictly those of the author and do not reflect the opinions or endorsement of Scholastic, Inc.