Archive
Book Review: “The Bill Gates Problem: Reckoning with the Myth of the Good Billionaire”
By Anthony Cody What impact has Bill Gates had on the world since he launched the most wealthy tax-exempt foundation in the world? We finally have a book …
The Legacy of the Wide-Awakes and the Hijacking of the American Populist Tradition
By Paul Horton. The Republican assault on American History begins and ends with distortion. The clear intent of attacks on political correctness, books, …
Supporting the Mexican Dream in Chiapas
By Anthony Cody. I recently returned from a trip to the state of Chiapas in southern Mexico. I went to support a friend, Chris Esponda, who was returning …
Learning to Teach the Middle East, Palestine, and Sabra and Shatila
by Paul Horton “Mr. Whorton, we cannot understand a wurd you sayin! You talk waaay tooo fas and you use words that are too big! You talk about places we …
Claiming Space for History Teaching in a Whitewashing World
By Paul Horton. History teaching in the United States is at a crossroads. In many states whitewashing and censorship have replaced Black history and the …
Am I Too Darn Old – For What?
By Anthony Cody. A colleague with whom I worked in facilitating PBL workshops several years ago recently posed a question that comes along for many of us …
When Religion was Radical: The Antebellum Years and Social Reform Traditions
By Paul Horton While the fundamentalist and evangelical right seems to have monopolized the national discourse surrounding religion and politics today, …
PBL Assignment: Immigration Reform Now
By Paul Horton I am finishing up a course that I recently developed on Twentieth Century Latin American History in film that uses several films including …
Rearticulating the Renaissance as a Global Process
By Paul Horton. While the Renaissance has been presented as a European phenomenon, historians have recently begun to recognize the ways that other parts of …
Defamiliarizing the Idea of the Modern: Where Do We Begin World History?
By Paul Horton. No question is more puzzling to teachers of World or Global History than, when did the modern world begin? We inherited this question from …
Interrogating European Exceptionalism: The Scientific Revolution
By Paul Horton. In the introduction to his widely used introductory text, The Scientific Revolution, Steven Shapin, a professor of the History of Science …
Where “Southern Heritage” Falls Short
By Paul Horton. This is the fourth in a series. Here are the prior posts: Part 1: Historians and the “Lost Cause” of the Confederacy Part 2: …
Confederate Monuments and Southern Memory: The Case of One Confederate General
By Paul Horton. Part 1: Historians and the “Lost Cause” of the Confederacy Part 2: The Confederate “Lost Cause” and Southern Women …
The Confederate “Lost Cause” and Southern Women
By Paul Horton. Part 1: Historians and the “Lost Cause” of the Confederacy Part 3: Confederate Monuments and Southern Memory: The Case of One …
Historians and the “Lost Cause” of the Confederacy
By Paul Horton. Part 2: The Confederate “Lost Cause” and Southern Women: Strengthening the Bonds of Patriarchy as a Path to Power Part 3: …
Provincializing “Western Civilization” and European Exceptionalist Narratives: Where do we Begin?
By Paul Horton. When Mahatma Gandhi was asked what he thought about Western Civilization, he reportedly replied that, “I think it would be a very good …
John Thompson: Diane Ravitch’s Slaying Goliath Documents Decades of Disruption
By John Thompson. Part Two of two. Diane Ravitch’s Slaying Goliath: The Passionate Resistance to Privatization and the Fight to Save America’s Public …
John Thompson: Diane Ravitch’s Slaying Goliath Explains How the Disruptors Have Failed
By John Thompson. Part One of Two. Diane Ravitch’s Slaying Goliath: The Passionate Resistance to Privatization and the Fight to Save America’s Public …
Technology and Unemployment: A Lesson
By Paul Horton. It is clear to most critics and economic commentators that digital technology is displacing work and cheapening much of the work that …
My Suggestion for Fordham’s Moonshot for Kids
By Anthony Cody. As reported on Diane Ravitch’s blog, the Fordham Institute and the Center for American Progress are offering a prize for proposals …
Countering “Reform Nonsense” with Common Sense
By John Thompson. Part 1 of this review. Part 2 of this review. This post completes a three part series of reviews of The Wisdom and Wit of Diane Ravitch …
How Could Education Reformers Get it So Wrong?
By John Thompson. Part 1: Holding Diane Ravitch and Corporate Reformers Accountable Part 3: Countering “Reform Nonsense” with Common Sense. …
Holding Diane Ravitch and Corporate School Reformers Accountable
By John Thompson. As we wait for Diane Ravitch’s next, comprehensive masterpiece, Slaying Goliath, a new anthology, The Wisdom and Wit of Diane Ravitch, …
The Test of Our Time: Can We Break the Shackles of NCLB?
By Monty Neill. I came to FairTest in October 1987 as a movement activist and an educator. Over the years I’d worked in anti-war and black liberation …
Alexander Russo Tries to Work the Refs Again
By Anthony Cody. I am not sure who appointed Alexander Russo the chief scold of the education newsbeat, but he has made it his business to criticize …
The Wisdom and Wit of Diane Ravitch: A Review
By Anthony Cody. We think of historians as observers after the fact. They pore over the ephemeral and permanent records of past times and, from that …
Will Oklahoma Rein In Epic Charter Failure?
By John Thompson. As the Network for Public Education documents a billion dollars wasted on failed charter schools, the national news is full of the …
Why I was Shaking My Head at Betsy DeVos
By Anthony Cody. Follow me on Twitter at @anthonycody A video of Betsy DeVos responding to questions from Lucille Roybal-Allard of the House …
Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, and any Other Candidate Seeking Teacher Votes
By Anthony Cody. I just received an issue survey from Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign. It asks which issues I want him to focus on. The twenty …
Oklahoma Prosecutors Defy the Will of Voters Seeking Criminal Justice Reform
By John Thompson. A first post described Oklahoma Christian University’s Complex Dialogues with Bryan Stevenson, and Stevenson’s passionate call for …
Why Does Oklahoma Lead the World in Incarceration?
By John Thompson. Former President Barack Obama recently recommended his short 2019 Black History Month reading list: It included classics by and about …
Charters and Vouchers: The Threat to Public Schools is Real
By Anthony Cody. Across the nation, educators have awakened to the reality that charter schools are a threat to the health and even survival of public …
Two Los Angeles Teachers Examine Their Superintendent, Austin Beutner
By Michael Finn and Michael Jones. As the dust settles on the 6-day UTLA strike, we can see education policy in the City of Los Angeles with fresh …
Slouching Toward Technopoly: A Lesson Plan
By Paul Horton. Technopoly and Addiction In his recent novel,Purity, Jonathan Franzen nearly kills off an expert hacker who is addicted to a video game …
Rescuing Our Schools from the Corporate Goliaths: Lessons from Indianapolis
By John Thompson. The theme of my previous post on the 2018 Network for Public Education conference was: How Was I Wrong? Let Me Count Some Ways. As I …
NPE Conference 2018: Is the Corporate Reform Goliath Truly Dead?
By John Thompson. Part One of Two. Read Part Two here. The theme of the Network for Public Education’s fifth annual conference was that corporate …
Teaching Big Tech
By Paul Horton. As concerns about a return of monopoly capitalism seem to be bubbling up in national political discussions from the progressive left and …
Will the Teacher Rebellion Bring Educators from High Poverty Schools to Office?
By John Thompson. An important result of the teacher walkouts in Oklahoma and elsewhere was unexpected, at least by this former inner city teacher. Even …
How Come a Mostly White Jury Felt Right Sending My Honor Student to Death Row?
By John Thompson. The Justice for Julius rally at the Oklahoma state Capitol began as a spiritual gathering with a prayer and a remembrance of Paul …
Immigrant Students Tell their Stories, Part 2
By John Thompson. Diary of Some Webster Kids: Advocacy in Action is a powerful anthology written and edited by middle school English Language Learners. …
Immigrant Students in Oklahoma Tell Their Stories
By John Thompson. Diary of Some Webster Kids: Advocacy in Action was written and edited by the students. This is the third year that middle school …
Susan DuFresne Uses Art to Fight Racism in Education
By Anthony Cody. Last July, I joined several hundred people for a Restorative Justice Circle in downtown Seattle, sponsored by the Badass Teachers …
Neo-Confederates, Monuments, and Flags
By Paul Horton. Although advocacy groups like the United Daughters of the Confederacy have made statements disavowing any groups that promote hate, many …
Oklahoma School Funding Paves the Way to a Teacher Walkout
By John Thompson. What would it take for Oklahoma to provide every student the opportunity to learn at the national average? Oklahoma is one of the states …
Autopsy of NCLB Reveals Contempt for Teachers
By John Thompson. The morning presenters at the recent American Enterprise Institute’s conference, Bush-Obama School Reform: Lessons Learned, were …
Oxymoron of the Day: “No-Nonsense Nurturing”
By John Thompson. Why do underfunded, high-poverty urban school districts keep diverting the energies of educators to experiments pushed by consultants? …
Race and Class Segregation Encouraged by Charter and Voucher Echo Chamber
By Paul Horton. Because I have been asked to comment on problems facing public schools in the United States, I would like to begin by saying that there are …
Post-Mortem of Bush/Obama Test-Driven Reforms Shows Poor Results
By John Thompson. The morning presenters at the recent American Enterprise Institute’s conference, Bush-Obama School Reform: Lessons Learned, were …
Christmas Angels
By Michelle Gunderson. I want to paint a picture of teaching in Chicago for you. Ten years ago I was teaching music in the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago. …
Closing Schools in Chicago for Gentrification
By Michelle Strater Gunderson. On December 1, the Board of Education of the Chicago Public Schools announced its plan to shutter Harper, Hope, Robeson, and …
Is California’s Teacher Union Building Movement Power?
By Anthony Cody. Last weekend the Network for Public Education held its fourth annual conference in Oakland, attended by about 450 activists from around …
Fordham Institute to Teachers: Don’t Get Sick!
By John Thompson. Should teachers be allowed to bargain for 12 days of medical and personal leave per year? The teaching profession is 77% female, …
Teachers at a Crossroads: Time to Heed Dr. King’s Call
By Craig Gordon. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history there is such a thing as being too late. …
Well-Funded Non-Profits Pave the Way to Privatization
By John Thompson. David Callahan’s The Givers begins with the first politicized think tanks of the 1960s and 1970s, such as the American Enterprise …
Silicon Valley Philanthropy Opens Classrooms to De-Personalized Learning
By John Thompson. David Callahan’s The Givers begins with the first politicized think tanks of the 1960s and 1970s, such as the American Enterprise …
When Philanthropists Rule: Part Two of a Review of “The Givers”
By John Thompson. As explained in this previous post, I began David Callahan’s The Givers with a commitment to avoid confirmation biases. As he notes, …
Beware of Billionaires Bearing Gifts: A Review of “The Givers”
By John Thompson. I began David Callahan’s The Givers with a commitment to avoid three types of confirmation bias. As Callahan observes, plenty of …
Will Corporate Reformers Ever Admit They Were Wrong?
By John Thompson. It’s sure fun to watch corporate school reformers forming a circular firing squad. For a generation, conservative and neoliberal …
Education Activists Craft Viral Videos
By Anthony Cody. Short, punchy films with a message have become one of the most powerful ways the movement to resist high stakes tests has spread the word. …
Supporting Education Activist Sarah Chambers
By Michelle Strater Gunderson. If you are fortunate, every once in a while you will meet someone who breathes the fire of justice. In my life Sarah …
Corporate Reform: Turning a Profit at Public Expense
By John Thompson. I wish I didn’t have to write a positive review of Alex Molnar’s “Dismantling Public Education: Turning Ideology into …
Name Calling in the Time of Trump
By Michelle Strater Gunderson. Last week a group of my first grade girls was taking an unusually long time in the bathroom. When you teach little ones you …
John Kuhn: Vouchers Serve Adults at Children’s Expense
By John Kuhn. The following is a speech delivered on March 5, 2017, to the Association of Texas Professional Educators Legislative Action Weekend. I …
Teaching the History of White Nationalism in the United States
By Paul Horton. During the last year the Southern Poverty Law Center has reported an increase in hate crimes and hate groups. As political discourse in the …
#DearBetsy
Wendy Davis on holding Betsy DeVos accountable for the needs of sexual assault survivors and all students.
DFER Dances Around Trump’s Public School Wrecking Ball
By John Thompson. Rachel M. Cohen’s “The War on Public Schools” warns that “Charters, vouchers, and disposable teachers are Trump’s targets.” …
Stop Betsy Devos!
From Brave New Films with Dr. Diane Ravitch.
Dr. Martin Luther King and Donald Trump
Dr. Yohuru Williams on Donald Trump and the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King.
SPED Shenanigans Highlight Trouble with NOLA Charter Data
By John Thompson. There are so many reasons why anyone interested in public education should read Marta Jewson’s latest expose of the high profile New …
Betsy DeVoucher
I found this great animation by Ryan Sluggett on the web. Hopefully, with Betsy DeVos’ confirmation hearing postponed a week, new disclosures will …
Doubling Down
Buffalo Board Member Carl Paladino stands behind his racist remarks about the Obamas. Read about it here. See the rest of the interview here.
Peace on Earth, Good Will Towards Children
By Michelle Strater Gunderson. When I was small and my world was safe, I would wake up on Christmas morning and there would always be an orange at the …
Is Educational Research Validating Corrupt Practices in New Orleans?
By John Thompson. In the aftermath of the Trump election, and as our “post fact” politics becomes even worse, it will be interesting to see what school …
Where is Evidence that School Closures Actually Help?
By John Thompson. The latest report by the Education Research Association on New Orleans school reform, “Extreme Measures: When & How School …
Back to the Future with Richard Rorty
Richard Rorty seemed to predict strongman Donald Trump’s rise to power nearly two decades ago. For those of us who can’t wait to get their copies …
Do NOLA Test Score Increases Demonstrate Real Learning Gains?
By John Thompson. Author’s Note: This post was drafted before the election, but held until after the anticipated defeats of Donald Trump and …
My Parents, Pat and Fred Cody: An American Story of Resistance and Resilience
By Anthony Cody. This week a Trump surrogate, Carl Higbie, cited the unconstitutional internment of Japanese Americans during World War Two as …
Or Will It Be Michelle Rhee?
The chilling rumor of Michelle Rhee becoming Trump’s Secretary of Education put me in mind of education activist Hannah Nguyen. I met Hannah after …
Ben Carson, Secretary of Education?
Ben Carson, Secretary of Education? Insiders peg him as most likely choice.
How Did This Happen? Post-Election Thoughts
By Nora Cody. Donald Trump didn’t just win, he won Bigly. Everyone I know is shocked, stunned, and deeply saddened, but in many ways we should have seen …
Open Letter to MA Governor Charlie Baker: No Education Lottery for the Lucky
By Ruth Rodriguez-Fey. Governor Charlie Baker has intensified his campaign to lift the cap on Charter Schools with the help of his wealthy investors from …
From “Is School Choice the Black Choice?” Town Hall
John H. Jackson, President of the Schott Foundation, at “Is School Choice the Black Choice?” Town Hall at Howard University. For more click here.
Uncovering Lasting Lessons from Decades of Education Reform
By John Thompson. Learning from the Federal Market-based Reforms: Lessons for the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), edited by William Mathis and Tina …
From Troy LaRaviere’s “What Makes Charter Schools So Toxic?”
From Troy LaRaviere’s “What Makes Charter Schools So Toxic?” See the rest of it here.
Rich Reformers Reject Research
By John Thompson. As test-driven, competition-driven school reform gets closer to scrap heap of history (at least in terms of improving schools), we will …
Gates Want Taxpayers to Subsidize Ed Tech Research
By Anthony Cody. Bill Gates has posted a blog in which he argues for government investment in various sectors, including educational technology. He …
Evidence Shows Brutal Impact of Racial and Economic Segregation
By John Thompson. Most of the chapters in Learning from the Federal Market-based Reforms: Lessons for the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), edited by …
Charters and Choice: Research Shows Negative Impact
By John Thompson. The contemporary school reform movement was rooted in the Michael Deaver, Lee Atwater, Karl Rove, and Dick Morris era of public relations …
Has Competency Based Education Made the Opt Out Movement Passe?
By Anthony Cody. Some have argued recently that the Opt Out movement is dead because it has actually become helpful to those promoting constant online …
When Allies do what Enemies Cannot
By Anthony Cody. This week there has been another round of mean spirited divisiveness aired in the education movement, this time directed at Diane Ravitch. …
More Dread in Ohio
Donald Trump touts failing charter in Ohio. Read more about it here.
Pondiscio Exposes Split in Ed Reform Camps Over Role of Race
By John Thompson. Although I wouldn’t spend too much time eavesdropping on the civil war between liberal and conservative reformers, it is fun to …
When Will “Expert” Reformers Stop Trying to Fix Poor Families?
By John Thompson. In 2014, National Public Radio’s Freakonomics Radio gave almost all of its program on “America’s education …
Will Tom Toch Ever Find a Reform Bad Enough to Abandon?
By John Thompson. In 2008, Tom Toch’s “Rush to Judgment” reviewed science-based alternatives to value-added teacher evaluations. Toch …
Ain’t it a Pity his Ditty is so…
By John Thompson. Three cheers for Warren Buffett’s speech at the Democratic National Convention which borrowed from Joe Welch’s challenge to Joe …
Nowhere to Hide: “The Elephant in the [Class]room”
By Daun Kauffman. Trauma during development, or childhood trauma, changes brain architecture and ability to learn and social behavior. It impacts two out …
The Charterization of Teacher Ed: Relay Moves into Connecticut
By Lauren Anderson. Just last week in Cincinnati, the NAACP voted in favor of a moratorium on the creation of new charter schools and a ramping up of …
Corporate Reformers Spin the Test Score Data
By John Thompson. The education sector is plagued by “astroturf” think tanks that issue “reports” that repeatedly conclude that (surprise!) reform …
A Critical Vote for Clinton
By Anthony Cody. The Democratic National Convention has been painful to watch. In the days prior, we had the revelation of emails which demonstrated what …
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