I’m not sure why this is finally making the rounds in September (did it earlier and I not see it?- because that would be hard to believe)- but this from the New Yorker was pretty spot on. A couple of minor missteps but it’s worth the read.  

For those who may have taken the summer off from such matters, Jesse Hagopian does an excellent job of summarizing where we are at in our fight for equity in our education system. An EXCELLENT read that covers the keys information regarding charter schools, DFER, the NAACP, standardized testing, and the Black Lives Matter movement…. Read more »

“I’d rather sit alone than sit with fakes and snakes. If you can’t be real and loyal then stay away from me and my table.” ― Reddioui Islam This from the excellent Fred Klonsky: Lily and Randi get their seat at the table. They are surrounded by corporate reformers. Maybe it’s just me, but I find myself… Read more »

Sometimes opportunities are too good to pass up. This tweet came out from the US DOE recently and as a friend from Hawaii noted, “Seriously? The Feds destroy schools and then want us to send them pictures of the damage they created?” Why yes- and I hope everyone responds appropriately. Respond via the original tweet… Read more »

“The idea behind charter schools is that not all kids are the same—they have different needs; they have different environments—but there is a certain common level of education that all kids need, no matter how different they are, and that it would be a good thing to allow schools to be developed which had a… Read more »

The irreverent humor of John Oliver strikes again. This time he takes aim at charter schools with an emphasis on the mess that is Ohio. Most of the good stuff is NSFW (I mean, c’mon, it is Last Week Tonight)- and I wish I had that writing team! Watch it on the YouTube channel here…. Read more »

There’s a lot of great writing out there today. Peggy Robertson and Steven Singer both have important reads for your Sunday. I may have time to revisit those later today. But I’m going to ask you to include this piece from Alison Collins on your list today. Her blog is something I share from time to time, but this is… Read more »

“Study hard what interests you the most in the most undisciplined, irreverent and original manner possible.” -Richard Feynman A recent report out of Massachusetts has a New Hampshire-based company coming up with the “Next Generation MCAS”. Is this like New Coke? It’s a $150 million dollar waste, that’s for sure. And “next generation” makes me… Read more »

“If a black and white student respond identically to questions on the NAEP assessment, the reported ability for the black student will be lower than for the white student, reflecting the lower average performance of black students on this assessment.” -Brian A. Jacob from “Student test scores: How the sausage is made and why you should care” “Profits, like sausages…… Read more »

“Race doesn’t really exist for you because it has never been a barrier. Black folks don’t have that choice.” ― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Recently, NPR attempted to discuss race in our schools. The piece, Want To Address Teachers’ Biases? First, Talk About Race, is a pretty fair (if basic) look at how some of our implicit biases are… Read more »