The Learning Landscape, Are The New AP Standards Marxist? Pensions, Ed Politics Everywhere! Turnarounds, ESSA Opportunities, Barnum V. Tough, Prize Pushback, HRC Policy And Politics, LA Equity Data, Plus Attack Pigs & Adventure Cats

New resource from Bellwether: The Learning Landscape. Be sure to check this out. It’s a wide-ranging overview of the landscape and performance of K-12 public schools. So a good resource for anyone who needs a fact-based look at what’s happening. And it’s free so great for students, too.

Chad Aldeman explains why, if we want accountability for teachers, then their retirement system has to be more fair, too. And here’s a really good explainer on how it all works in the first place.  Also, efforts underway to address the uneven teacher licensure rules that complicate things for trailing military spouses who teach. You know what else is a drag on them? Our patchwork pension system, which isn’t portable so forces people to leave a lot of retirement wealth they’ve earned on the table.

Whitmire on the – very political, given the evidence – fight over Massachusetts’ charter school cap.  Jonas on the Democratic platform. Sawchuk parses Secretary Clinton’s AFT speech. If she’s going to throw bouquets for organizing graduate students someone better line up a speech to the UAW, too!

Guys, you will never believe this: Content knowledge important for elementary school teachers. Crazy, right!

Lauren Morando Rhim responds on the question of charter school discipline and the suggestion there isn’t a problem with charters. Who is on what side of the ESSA line-up?

Matt Barnum v. Paul Tough! Paul Hill and Bethany Gross versus history!

From New York, it turns out turning around urban schools is harder than it looks. This line is a beauty:

If it is seen as successful, it will bolster the view, embraced by Mr. de Blasio, that the right approach to ailing urban schools is to reinvest in them. But if the effort ultimately falters, it will give ammunition to those who say that states and cities should focus instead on creating alternatives for parents, like charter schools.

First, why not do both? But also, about those charters, if only there were some evidence about how those charters would fare compared to other options students have in the city….(pdf). I mean, imagine if we knew how they might fare in Harlem or elsewhere in the city, or in reading and math….it’s all so abstract! Related, here’s some data on Colorado’s charters. 

Buried lede:

The premise of The Prize, Cerf says, was that if he, Anderson, and Booker had moved more slowly and worked harder to build local support for their ideas, they would have gotten a warmer reception. But, he says, that analysis is flawed.

“For Dale to criticize Cory and Cami for failing to have overcome political saboteurs, but give a complete pass to the saboteurs themselves, tells only part of the story. There was a vicious campaign of misinformation that was designed to thwart any changes.”

Here’s a Dallas principal on improving schools and some larger societal conditions kids are facing in their communities.

How will Hillary Clinton make sure her college plan doesn’t lead to increases in tuition?  There is also this gem:

Federal wage data shows that the value of a college education is higher than it has ever been.

“Purely from an economic standpoint, it has never been a better investment,” Mr. Nadauld said. “Even though costs are obscene, the returns are obscene, too.”

Here are two takes on the new European history AP frameworks: Not Marxist versus Marxist.

Equity data from LAUSD (pdf), includes charter schools and special needs students.

Large pig emerges from the ocean and attacks beachgoers. Apparently real thing: Adventure cats. Lots of planets.

One Reply to “The Learning Landscape, Are The New AP Standards Marxist? Pensions, Ed Politics Everywhere! Turnarounds, ESSA Opportunities, Barnum V. Tough, Prize Pushback, HRC Policy And Politics, LA Equity Data, Plus Attack Pigs & Adventure Cats”

  1. The premise of The Prize, Cerf says, was that if he, Anderson, and Booker had moved more slowly and worked harder to build local support for their ideas, they would have gotten a warmer reception. But, he says, that analysis is flawed.

    “For Dale to criticize Cory and Cami for failing to have overcome political saboteurs, but give a complete pass to the saboteurs themselves, tells only part of the story. There was a vicious campaign of misinformation that was designed to thwart any changes.”
    And thus, Cerf shows that he is either a fool or a liar.
    Reforms failed because of (unnamed) saboteurs.
    The notion that they failed because they would never work doesn’t penetrate Cerf’s skull. “I’m right” murmurs Cerf in his sleep.

    So, why did Eduwonk highlight this passage?
    To show us the stupidity of Cerf?
    Or because Eduwonk believes like Cerf?

    Whatever the answer is, Eduwonk would never allow this to be done to children in Arlington County Public Schools.

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