Category: Education

Photo Credit: MICHAEL VADON

Mike Pence Visits a Libertarian’s Private School

Vice President Mike Pence visited a school in North Carolina today, ostensibly to show how the power of school choice is the key to reopening schools this fall… In an email sent Monday, school officials said Pence will visit Thales Academy K-5 to see how school choice works and to advocate for its further implementation. Pence also tweeted about how […]

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Secretary Betsy DeVos at CPAC 2017 Feburary 23rd 2017 by Michael Vadon

Betsy DeVos Isn’t Serious About Reopening Schools: Here’s How We Know

You know how I know that the corporate education reformers, and their leader, Betsy DeVos, were never serious about actually improving public education? Because now, in the midst of a global pandemic, and a complete lack of national education policy guidance beyond “SCHOOLS MUST OPEN IN THE FALL!!!“, none of these education policy “experts” have come up with any “out […]

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Never Let A Good Crisis Go To Waste: Michigan Ed Reform Edition

Never Let A Good Crisis Go To Waste: Michigan Ed Reform Edition

If you’ve seen your teacher friends warning about the dangers of the Covid-19 pandemic providing an opportunity for unscrupulous education reformers, like US Secretary of Education and serial public school defunder, Betsy DeVos, to dismantle our system of public schools and wondered to yourself, “Now how would these people do that?”…here’s how. In the Utica (MI) Community Schools (UCS), the […]

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Schools Are Not the Problem

Schools Are Not the Problem

If children are at more risk out of school than in school, then the problem isn’t school. If kids who aren’t in school are hungry, then increase funding to food pantries and community kitchens. (BTW–many public schools have been feeding kids all summer.) If kids who aren’t in school are in greater danger of abuse, then improve child protective services, […]

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Let’s Talk About “Reopening Schools”

Let’s Talk About “Reopening Schools”

Like many of us, I’ve been paying close attention to the various plans and suggestions for “reopening schools” this fall. It’s been more than a tad confusing to track the various recommendations coming from partisan legislative groups, professional associations, school district task forces, and the governor’s advisory board on reopening schools.I wish more than anything that there was more clear […]

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Synopsis of CDC Guidelines for Reopening Schools

Welcome Back to School! But Not So Fast…

As someone who visits a lot of schools each year to observe student teachers and work with my colleagues in the schools, a few thoughts on these newly-released CDC “back to school” guidelines… • kids can’t keep their shoes and socks on for a full school day…masks? • no shared items? everything in school is shared…pencils are shared, books are […]

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“The reports of the death of higher education are greatly exaggerated.”

“The reports of the death of higher education are greatly exaggerated.”

A recent article in New York Magazine predicting the demise of higher education is causing a great deal of anxiety in the professoriate, and for good reason. The author is making some pretty audacious prognostications, and none of them bode well for our profession… enrollments will crater hundreds of colleges will go out of business only a few “elite cyborg […]

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President Donald Trump poses for a photo with students of Saint Andrew Catholic School on Friday, March 3, 2017, during a tour of the school in Orlando, Florida. Also shown is U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos.

A Betsy DeVos-approved accreditation group authorized a “visa mill” college with no students or faculty

According to a breaking story in USA Today, a Betsy DeVos-sanctioned accreditation agency gave approval to operate for Reagan National University in South Dakota, a “university” with no students, faculty, administration, or facilities–things which one might think an “accreditation agency” might notice. DeVos’ Department of Education saved this accreditor from being removed from the DoE’s list of approved accreditation agencies, […]

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Courtesy of Allison Shelley/The Verbatim Agency for American Education: Images of Teachers and Students in Action.

We Measure What We Treasure, and Other Myths About Education Policy…

I received a phone call from a music teacher last night whose principal had recently marked her down on an unannounced, “drive-by” observation…because the students “weren’t engaged.” When she asked how the principal had come up with that rating, she was told the “evidence” upon which the comment was made was based on the principal’s observation that “only 10% of […]

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“How will we know how our kids are doing if we don’t test them?” Here’s how…

“How will we know how our kids are doing if we don’t test them?” Here’s how…

Attending the recent Public Education Forum in Pittsburgh last weekend was a wonderful experience in many ways…getting a chance to hear what many of the presidential candidates had to say about public education; meeting some of my favorite education reporters bloggers, and activists; and finally seeing public education receive the attention it deserves as one of the most important issues […]

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Rating the Presidential Candidates at the Public Education Forum…with the Danielson Teacher Evaluation Rubric!

Rating the Presidential Candidates at the Public Education Forum…with the Danielson Teacher Evaluation Rubric!

I just got home from Pittsburgh where Chris Savage and I were covering the Public Education Forum for Eclectablog, and have been looking forward to sharing my thoughts on what transpired. Before we get to the candidates’ performances, I want to make sure to congratulate the organizers of this event, especially Randi Weingarten of the American Federation of Teachers, and […]

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