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Saturday, July 18, 2015

CURMUDGUCATION: The Walking Man Walks

CURMUDGUCATION: The Walking Man Walks:

The Walking Man Walks

If you don't know about Dr. Jesse "The Walking Man" Turner, it's about time you did.

Turner has embarked on a shoeleather sojourn, traveling from Connecticut to DC in forty-two days.He's a professor of reading and language arts, and like many of us, he's been pushed out of his comfort zone by the need to get people's attention about what is happening in the world of education. You can hear some of his story from him right here:



He's a man loaded with good questions-- "When does the Department of Education stop calling their 
CURMUDGUCATION: The Walking Man Walks:






Coleman's Double Disconnect
If you'd like to read a long, thoughtful and erudite consideration of Common Core, I'm not sure what you're doing on this blog. But this piece by Johann Neem at the Hedgehog Review provides all that and also provides an answer the oft-asked question, "So what exactly don't you like about Common Core."There's a lot to chew on in the piece, but I was particular struck by a criticism of Com
PA: Monster Equity Plan Report Study Thingy (Part 2)
In Part One, we took a look at how PA diagnosed the issues that it is legally obligated to-- well, the states don't have to solve their problems. They just have to submit a report on how they're going to pretend to solve them. Other states kept it short and sweet, but PA cranked out a massive 200 page monstrosity. We still have 100 to go, so I'm just going to hit the highlights.We're now going to
PA: Monster Equity Plan Study Report Thingy (Part I)
This summer, all states were supposed to get their education equity affairs in order. I'm sitting in Pennsylvania, so their plan was of the most interest to me, which is my bad fortune because Pennsylvania's plan (Pennsylvania's State Plan for Ensuring Equitable Access to Excellent Educators) is over 200 pages long. Also, the title suggests that maybe we are all being trolled. It is possible that
Bottom 5%
Five percent.It's a figure that turns up again and again in reformster rhetoric, usually teamed up with the word "bottom."It has a fine long history. All the way back in June 2009, we can find Arnie Duncan talking about the five percent in his address to the conference of the National Alliance of Public Charter Schools. The address, "Turning Around the Bottom Five Percent," and