"We give them good food."
Let’s milk the culinary trope for all it’s worth. What a treat this evening—while suffering mild shpilkis in my genechtagazoink from attending my zillionth workshop on cooperative learning earlier...
View ArticleWhoa, Nellie!
Is it finally time to yank the reins on the runaway growth of the educratclass? A new study by the Friedman Foundation would seem to indicate so. Since 1950, the hiring of administrators, non-teacher...
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Vote for Scylla
In the Odyssey, our hero, Odysseus, is famously given a choice that hardly seems like any choice at all: sail past the Charybdis, the deadly whirlpool that sucks down whole ships and swallows all...
View ArticleLearning Johnny
Another presidential horserace is over—gods be praised—but the offensive against teachers charges breathlessly on. While we can only hope that Mitt Romney’s defeat poses a setback for the privatization...
View ArticleGetting Scary about Data
For those who perhaps need an illustration of the New Clinicism at work, here’s a positively chilling…er, edifying exhibit, courtesy of the indispensable Robert Pondiscio at the indispensable Core...
View ArticleTeaching Is for Chumps
From the indefatigable Diane Ravitch comes word that the same trend of administrative bloat which dominates public schools also dominates higher education. And the Lord said: “Let free-market...
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Calling Basil Exposition
The movie Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, directed by Jay Roach and written by Mike Myers. Seen here, Michael York as Basil Exposition, with British Intelligence. Initial theatrical...
View ArticleWould You Like a Side of Learnings with That?
Know a sophist by his linguistic perversions. The word “learnings” is gaining near ubiquity in education circles of late, part of the ever-growing mutant lexicon of congealed crap known as edspeak....
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Marzano Is God
In the hazy, crazy, late 1960s, a young bloke’s smokin’ blues guitar on a one-album stint with a soon-to-be-defunct British blues band inspired some other bloke (or blokes) to spray-paint CLAPTON IS...
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Memo: No More "i" in Office
Over at AllThingsPLC, we have a forehead-slapping rationale why even school-office personnel should be trained in the ways of a Professional Learning Community: they perform their duties “in...
View ArticleThe Name Game
How refreshing to see Texas actually tap the brakes on testing this past week. But even if HB 5 or something like it clears the legislature, the age of the New Clinicism, in which everything taught in...
View ArticleField Testing: What Price Validity?
Among the scurrilous multitude of wrongs inspired by the most totally bitchin’ education law ever is the practice of field testing, in which students are made to undergo standardized tests that don’t...
View ArticleBlooming Corruption
In the “Data Is Fabulous!” department, efforts are afoot to place every American schoolchild’s academic records on the cloud. In fact, it’s not just afoot: it’s a done deal. A newborn nonprofit called...
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MAPping Revolt
Cartoon courtesy of maineiac.com. The Seattle Schools superintendent has magnanimously chosen not to behead those upstart employees who boycotted the MAP® “universal screener” test earlier this year....
View ArticleFaking the Grade
Earlier this year the National Council of Teachers of English issued a position statement criticizing the proliferation of computer-software programs to grade student essays. In the tradition of all...
View ArticleProfiting by Design
Dr. Grant Wiggins, of Understanding by Design® fame, recently took down two of my all-time idols, E.D. Hirsch and Diane Ravitch. Because teachers, like it or not, must contend with a pompous pageant of...
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Mission Accomplished
As of 12:00 AM tomorrow, January 1, 2014, every schoolchild in America will be reading and calculating at grade-level proficiency. This is a stunning achievement, an unparalleled breakthrough in the...
View Article"The test must match the curriculum."
For anyone who's interested, that's the answer from Victoria Young of Texas Education Agency as to why the state ELA test persists in misconstruing "expository" writing and imposing that misconstrual...
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Research and Sour Owl Poop
I’m a lifelong Trekkie, and one of my favorite bits of Star Trek lore concerns a feud between writer Harlan Ellison and Trek creator Gene Roddenberry. Ellison scripted probably the best episode of the...
View ArticleLet's Be Clear
Over at All Things PLC we have a striking illustration of the reality gap between education executivesand peasant teachers. A middle-school principal presents a problem gleaned from his breeze-throughs...
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Love Stinks
In one of those perky web-only junk articles masquerading as news, Yahoo! Education offers predictable advice on selecting a major for the college-bound: ditch the humanities and go with what employers...
View ArticleThe SLO Creep of Idiocracy
Like a lot of teachers, I frequently moonlight as a college adjunct, and in recent years I’ve observed a slow but steady incursion of the same noxious trends that plague the K-12 system into the realm...
View ArticleThe Right to Gripe
In a September 2013 Phi Delta Kappan article, Julie Underwood correctly asserts the right of teachers to engage in public discourse, especially on matters related to public education. I agree, but I...
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Scaling Mount Proficiency
Courtesy of funnyjunk.com. Among other random pursuits this summer, I’ll be spending a week helping to cook up fresh curriculum for my school district. It used to be that curriculum-writing gigs...
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Merry Christmas!
Courtesy of lostateminor.com.It’s late summer, a new school year’s afoot, and for most educators the mere prospect of Christmas vacation is so remote right now as to inspire morbid depression. But for...
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