2019 NAEP Scores: Achievement Gap or …?

Here you go: A ‘Disturbing’ Assessment: Sagging Reading Scores, Particularly for Eighth-Graders, Headline 2019’s Disappointing NAEP Results NAEP 2019: Reading scores drop for US students, with mixed math results What To Make of the 2019 Results from the ”Nation’s Report Card” DeVos Bemoans ‘Devastating’ NAEP Scores, Pushes for ‘Education Freedom’ I used GOOGLE and typed… Read more »

Just Asking for some Teachers I know.

Recently Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers stated, We must … recognize that part of supporting our kids in the classroom means supporting the educators who teach our kids. Wisconsin pays our public school teachers less than the national average, which makes it harder to recruit and retain talented educators. According to recently-released data, Wisconsin has fallen… Read more »

The “X”odus Files: The School Climate Hole.

I happens over and over again. Why? Is it an inability to truly dissect and understand this moment? Or, is it a willful need preserve the status quo? These are the questions I continue to ask after reading some post, blog, or journal article that maintains the “teacher shortage” narrative. But last week NEA Today… Read more »

#BustEDPencils Live!

#BustEDPencils Live!Tuesday June 11 at 7 pm.Talk 92.7 MadisonReal teachers in studio. Imagine that!

The “X”odus Files: Toxic Stress and Accountability.

Last night I posted this on my personal Facebook page. How many of our colleagues need to take medication, pursue counseling, have their own families disrupted, and then finally quit teaching before we can say, “accountability is the poison?” Slekar Facebook The reason for posting this came as I was combing over my survey results… Read more »

The “X”odus Files: Accountability is the Problem.

It’s time to stop trying to rescue “accountability.” It’s a horrendous word and its application only results in blame based authoritarianism. I have seen the attempts to “reclaim” accountability and I have taken my fair share of criticism for my critique of accountability. But why reclaim something that has nothing to do with empowering the… Read more »

The “X”odus Files: Shortage Denial Syndrome.

A few weeks ago Peter Greene posted a blog about the fact that there is NO TEACHER SHORTAGE. He even mentioned me as one of the shortage deniers. I sent his post to a host of people—teachers, politicians, government agencies, and anybody else that needed a reminder. I then went on with my day delusionally… Read more »

The “X”odus Files: Richard.

Frustration. Irritation. Anger. Despondency. This is the range of emotions I go through every time I read about some new “study” or “task force” purporting to take on the “teacher shortage.”

The “X”odus Files: Andrea

So don’t say “We have a teacher shortage.” Say “we can’t convince qualified people to take this job”: or “we won’t try to make these jobs attractive enough to draw in qualified people.” Stop pretending this is some act of God; even the dust bowl turned out to be the result of bad human choices… Read more »

The “X”odus Files

It’s time for the teacher shortage myth to be exposed. In the coming weeks you will hear directly from real teachers about the conditions in our nations’ schools and the ridiculous policies that are responsible for a mass exodus—not shortage—of passionate professionals from their classrooms. Since the release of A Nation at Risk in 1983,… Read more »