Virginia Votes – Is The Ed Issue Fatal For Dems This Cycle? How To Fix That…

If we’re being honest, the most charitable explanation for the handling of a sexual assault by the Loudoun County Public School’s leadership is incompetence. It’s downhill from there. Even if they were under legal constraints relative to placing the accused student in an alternative setting their public communications have been dishonest, and officials clearly did …

Kaepernick And RBG Might Offer A Lesson For “CRT?”

Julia Galef has a great book recently out called The Scout Mindset. The world needs scouts and soldiers but Galef argues the scout approach has unique value. I’d say that’s especially true in a sprawling sector like education. Oversimplifying a bit, scouts seek to see things as they are and have habits around seeking dissenting …

When The Narrative Doesn’t Fit: Trump And Education Reform Or CIA Dogs And Discipline, Internships, Karim Ani On OER And Bryce Harper, Magee, Kingsland, Chalking News, Bears And Unicorns

At U.S. News I take a look at internships, should they all be paid in all sectors of the economy? Interesting! New Mexico calling out AFT on PARCC ties.* (This does seem like the kind of story the financial press would have a field day with.) Karim Kai Ani is writing letters to friends on various …

Closure? And What Are Schools For Anyway? Chicago Still Matters…More Edumusic

As I mentioned in December I don’t have a big take on the whole “should schools stay open?” debate. That’s because it seems situational to me and there are a whole bunch of secondary questions like what’s the local context with regard to Covid and other things, for whom should they be open, how, etc…* …

What Drove Education Voters In Virginia? Plus Goldstein Goes Wild, Texeria, Jacobin, Hess, More…

This Michael Goldstein essay on evidence and education is excellent. Recommend. Also, what teachers are saying about teacher pay. Here’s a reasonable take on the CRT in schools debate: To be sure, voices on the political right, including Youngkin, must do better when it comes to specifying what they oppose. They, and we, would be better …

Election Reax

A little election reax. I did an interview with The 74, it’s a 5 questions kind of deal. The post-mortem you need to read. @KevinMahnken talks to @arotherham about the aftermath of what most educators said they always wanted: An election where K-12 issues were front and center. @The74 https://t.co/3O0ZvlvmGb — Andrew Brownstein (@Misterodney) November …

When Do Teacher Free Speech Rights Collide With Welcoming School Culture?

First, why is the @ACLU taking the side of compelled speech? Second, Loudon County…again?! https://t.co/o9zCyZ3HWc — Robert Pondiscio (@rpondiscio) October 16, 2021 It’s Loudoun people! And since it’s emerging as a toxic edge case you’re going to hear about it more. More seriously, this is a take you are hearing a lot. But it seems …

Tax Policy And Teacher Shortages, Plus Ward On Culture, CREDO On Ohio, Kettleman On Reading, Pearson Sells, More!

We released our annual report today, look back at some of what we did at Bellwether in 2018. Lynne Graziano on an amazing school leader. Tresha Ward on school culture and tools to help school leaders think about culture intentionally. Ryan Frailich on the myth of the gold plated teacher pension. Max Marchitello on how longer life expectancy …