Can you imagine never being able to jump off a Merry Go Round? The fight over education policy is like that. It involves the same worn-out problems that could have been addressed years ago if Americans truly got behind their democratic public schools. The middle class and the poor, Democrats and Republicans, who understand the […]
18 Issues for Ed. Secretary Cardona to Better Drive the School Bus
Education Secretary Cardona focuses on reducing absenteeism, tutoring, and after-school programs. And he refers to raising the bar, which sounds like A Nation at Risk talk. Yet there are so many K12 issues that Cardona and the Biden administration could address, lead, and support the states and local school districts. Here are some educational issues […]
10 Years Later: The Continuing Intentional Unraveling of America’s Public Schools
School reform continues to privatize and destroy public schools. August marks ten years since I began blogging. Within that time I have written two books and co-authored a third with Diane Ravitch. I’m proud of all this writing but Losing America’s Schools: The Fight to Reclaim Public Education is the book title that especially stands […]
The Trouble with Social-Emotional Learning: Why Be Concerned? Here’s Why!
. . . we must hold social media platforms accountable for the national experiment they’re conducting on our children for profit. It’s time to strengthen privacy protections, ban targeted advertising to children, and demand tech companies stop collecting personal data on our children. ~President Biden, State of the Union Address, March 1, 2022 Social-emotional learning […]
My Blogging Anniversary: How Has School Reform Changed in Five Years?
I recently passed the five-year anniversary of when I started writing my blog. What has changed? In this post, I analyze some of the issues I’ve written about over the years. Then, I thank you for your support. Change or lack of change in education can seem dark and foreboding, but there’s a great deal […]
K-12 Mega-Merger: What Strange World Is This? Teachers Want Lowered Class Sizes!
Teaching children can be a beautiful thing. But there are so many needs right now due to years of inadequate funding and mismanagement. One solution to many problems is lowering class sizes. But read this article about a K-12 Mega-Merger and it’s easy to see that lowering class size is only on the minds of […]
The Troubling Trend to Collect Behavioral Data on ALL Children
As school starts, many parents are being bombarded with information about behavioral data collection on their children. A lot of this is tied to the trendy push for social-emotional learning (SEL), and the attempt to connect behavior with a child’s ability to read and do well in school. But it’s troubling to see schools monitoring […]
Data Frenzy!
A parent was bemoaning the fact that her young student is made to carry his notebook with his standardized test scores around the school in the chance an administrator, or test Nazi, might need to take a look at the scores. Are test scores this important that administrators must have access to them every minute […]