"Understanding" Shouldn't Be Vague or Mysterious open.substack.com/pub/pershmai...

The Middle School Transition Is Tough. How Educators Can Help: A new partnership aims to ease the transition from elementary school to middle school.

“Either omniscient robots deliver utopia or we eventually get [vague future payoffs from infrastructure investment]. Every AI investment is thus justified, every crazy promise is thus rendered credible, based on a vision of our glorious future. We’ve entered the realm of faith rather than reason.”

Thou shalt not falsify the AI bubble open.substack.com/pub/buildcog...

Which Pa. cyber charter school boards are most and least transparent? www.pennlive.com/education/20...

and this www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston...

do the highest reaches of literary studies know about this, for instance www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston...

It's absolutely wild how so many people in charge think that the point is the tests. Like, how did the measuring tape get to be in charge?

Obama’s ed policy

Tonight was a very bad night.

'the biggest takeaway from all this is that Donald Trump learns another lesson in the virtues of brazening it out. He is willing to shoot the hostage, and the Democrats are not.' www.thebulwark.com/p/dems-rewar...

Fifty years ago, the Edmund Fitzgerald sank in Lake Superior. Here's a blog I wrote about the iconic Gordon Lightfoot song: teacherinastrangeland.blog/2023/05/02/t...

The So-Called Science of Reading's New Focus on Babies - nancyebailey.com/2025/11/07/t...

This is a fabulous read, a useful examination of New York Times reporting style, and just a crackling piece of prose. lithub.com/maybe-dont-t...

Enshittification: The Book open.substack.com/pub/curmudgu...

The Coming AI Teaching Assistant Boom (And Cheating) open.substack.com/pub/curmudgu...

"...if you have enough money to get somebody, anybody, to produce a white paper for you, which you can then put on some think-tank stationery? Then, my friend, you are ready to enter into the rushing current of elite reportage." lithub.com/maybe-dont-t...

Arne Duncan Is Now Betsy DeVos open.substack.com/pub/curmudgu...

ICYMI: Mom's Birthday Edition (11/9) open.substack.com/pub/curmudgu...

Tech guys six months ago: haha yes we’re cutting all this WASTEFUL spending by eliminating medical research and USAID Tech guys now: yes I think taxpayers will be excited to bailout my non consensual pornography machine

How one photo and a deluge of threats turned an Arizona high school upside down www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...

“When government employees enter public service, they do not sign away their First Amendment rights," U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper wrote in his decision on Friday, "and they certainly do not sign up to be a billboard for any given administration's partisan views."

I'm embarrassed to admit that while I have a good idea of why the federal budget is stalled, I really don't know what has the chuckleheads in Harrisburg once again screwing over Pennsylvanians by failing to do the basic pass-a-budget job.

With no state budget in sight, Centre County school districts face tough choices “We encourage our state legislators to do their job, come to a deal on the state budget that includes meaningful cyber charter funding reform" www.centredaily.com/news/local/e...

AI fails a simple tech test. iPod: Now I can finally carry all my music with me Social media: Now I can finally stay in contact with people pocket wireless phones: Now I can finally stay in touch while leaving the house ChatGPT etc: Now I can finally... what?

Rigid Federal Rules May Block Efforts by Dem. States to Redirect New Federal Vouchers for Pro-Public School Uses janresseger.wordpress.com/2025/11/06/r...

“Every Child Known: The Slogan That Says Everything and Means Nothing” norinrad10.com/2025/11/07/e...

I am a retired teacher, but I spent more than three decades explicitly teaching my students about being an engaged citizen, and appreciating the cultural mix that is America. I am a patriot. And I didn't need research to tell me that most teachers agree. teacherinastrangeland.blog/2025/11/07/t...

One more step in chasing American values out of schools accountabaloney.com/floridas-sta...

Underrated: “Big companies and investors have a limited amount of capital to spend each year, and they’re putting the majority of it toward building data centers. That means less investment is flowing to other sectors like manufacturing, which lost 3,000 jobs last month.”

Zuckerberg was running his own private school illegally www.wired.com/story/mark-z...

In Pennsylvania, The Blue Wave Sweeps A Once-Conservative School Boardhttps://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2025/11/06/in-pennsylvania-the-blue-wave-sweeps-a-once-conservative-school-board/

AI is an academic freedom issue and it's good to see the MLA (and others) pushing on the fact that administrations are making unilateral decisions that should belong with others (including students). open.substack.com/pub/academic...

Excessive force. PERIOD! They called them “violent mobs,” but the violence came from the guys with badges and body armor. 📌 Keep sharing videos, everyone, because they’re evidence.

Citing state budget crisis, Quakertown district reduces charter funding www.buckscountyherald.com/news/citing-... via @BucksCoHerald

The Limits of AI Research for Real Writers open.substack.com/pub/bibliora...

Sexbots, students, and schools open.substack.com/pub/buildcog...

WI: Pushing For Federal Vouchers open.substack.com/pub/curmudgu...

Trump Endangers Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion by Manipulating Vagueness and Fear janresseger.wordpress.com/2025/11/04/t...

The evidence keeps rolling in, demonstrating that teachers who are good at one part of teaching are not necessarily good at other parts of teaching. If assessing the many dimensions of teaching makes sense, then shouldn't we also be assessing the many dimensions of school quality?

Disturbing news out of Auburn University, where the admin is pressuring professors to sign a statement saying they're complying with an "anti-DEI" law and TPUSA is holding a rally and trying to record classes. I hear faculty are terrified to sign, worried this is a pretense for mass firings.

Whatever reason for their immaturity, the effect is miserable policy & corroded democracy. The public is poorly served, does not get answers to important Qs. Tariffs? Inflation? Immigration? Peace/war? Who’s responsible for these choices? Your mother, apparently. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

"Speaker Johnson, it looks as though the president is currently stabbing you with a knife. Do you have any comment?" "Well, look, this is the first I'm hearing about it. As you know, I've been really busy not doing my job, so I just don't know enough about this alleged stabbing to make a comment."

15 years ago, "personalized learning" enthusiasts cited a small 1984 study of *human* tutoring as evidence that technology could improve student learning. Amazingly, OpenAI's idiot VP of Education cites the same study to support AI tutoring today. This is all so dumb. Via @mattbarnum.bsky.social:

Arne Duncan's back in the mix, pushing school vouchers and praising Republicans for their school reform efforts. open.substack.com/pub/klonsky/...

Ed. Dept. Cuts Grants That Were Helping College Students Become Teachers: Ten universities collectively lost more than $20 million for efforts to diversify the teacher workforce.

It has been 2 months since FDA head Marty Makary falsely alleged that “There have been children who have died from the COVID vaccine…We’re gonna release a report in the coming few weeks”. His report is still nowhere to be found. Where’s the report, shitbirds?

The Coming AI Teaching Assistant Boom (And Cheating) open.substack.com/pub/curmudgu... @mattbarnum.bsky.social