Mike Antonucci: We have heard a lot about educator shortages recently, but over the past few weeks the media have sounded the alarm over a different shortage: students. The Associated Press, Washington Post, Chalkbeat, Politico and The 74 are national outlets that highlighted steep declines in K-12 public school student enrollment and the dangers of layoffs and deep budget cuts when federal … Continue reading Declining student count vs Growing $pending →

Emily Hanford & Christopher Peak: The fact that students who participated in Reading Recovery did worse in later grades than similar students who did not get the program surprised May. [study] “Was Reading Recovery harmful? I wouldn’t go as far as to say that,” he said. “But what we do know is that the kids … Continue reading “At least 2.4 million students in the United States have participated in Reading Recovery”. Madison? →

David Leonhardt Across much of the Northeast, Midwest and West Coast, school buildings stayed closed and classes remained online for months. These differences created a huge experiment, testing how well remote learning worked during the pandemic. Academic researchers have since been studying the subject, and they have come to a consistent conclusion: Remote learning was … Continue reading Mandates and closed schools: yet another experiment on our children →

Jeffrey Anderson: The conference featured one compelling presentation after another, all of which are now posted online. It was a rich opportunity for students to hear viewpoints outside of the academic mainstream so dominated by the groupthink Left. Scott Atlas, Jeffrey Tucker, Wilfred Reilly, and I all gave presentations on the ill-advised response to Covid, during which … Continue reading Civics: Free Speech, or not at St Vincent →

Robert Meyer for Governor: Wisconsin is one of the last states to move on from antiquated “three cueing” K-2 reading instruction. Pre-service teachers are actually still taught this disproven theory at the UW! A lifelong, bureaucrat, Dr. Evers has determinedly avoided this problem despite our African American 3rd graders (and other subgroups) reading an entire … Continue reading Our Schools Need the Science of Reading →

Scott Girard The Madison Metropolitan School District received 42 proposals for names for Thomas Jefferson Middle School on the city’s west side as officials consider a renaming. Four suggest keeping it as “Thomas Jefferson Middle School” and another would make it simply “Jefferson Middle School,” though the submission makes it clear the author wants it to still … Continue reading Notes on renaming Madison’s Jefferson Middle School amidst our long term, disastrous reading results →

David Leonhardt: Massachusetts, North Carolina, Texas and other states more rigorously measured student learning and pushed struggling schools to adopt approaches that were working elsewhere. The accountability movement went national in the 2000s, through laws signed by George W. Bush and Barack Obama. The timing of the test-score increases is consistent with this story, as … Continue reading “First, many states began to emphasize school accountability starting in the 1990s” →

Donald Devine: Ludwig von Mises’ Yale University Press classic Bureaucracy explains in a relatively few pages the difference between public and private-sector bureaucratic management. The private sector can measure what is going on in large hierarchies of bureaucracy below its CEO simply by asking whether each unit is making a profit. The public sector has no equivalent measuring … Continue reading The Countless Failures of Big Bureaucracy →

Rebecca Jack, Claire Halloran, James Okun and Emily Oster: We estimate the impact of district-level schooling mode (in-person versus hybrid or virtual learning) in the 2020-21 school year on students’ pass rates on standardized tests in Grades 3–8 across 11 states. Pass rates declined from 2019 to 2021: an average decline of 12.8 percentage points … Continue reading The price of lockdown mandates: “The value to in-person learning was larger for districts with larger populations of Black students” →

Elizabeth Beyer: The district is receiving $70.6 million over the course of three payments. The district’s first installment, ESSER I, was approximately $9.2 million and had been exhausted by the end of the 2020-21 school year. Currently, $39.8 million of the second two installments, ESSER II and III, are written into the 2022-23 preliminary budget. … Continue reading Taxpayer Supported Madison School District plans to spend $543M+ during 2022-2023; about $21k/student →

Scott Girard: In MMSD, 34.9% of students in grades 3-8 scored “proficient” or “advanced” on the statewide Forward Exam in 2018-19, the most recent year the exam was given with a high percentage of students participating. The results were worse for every non-white group of students other than Asians, who had the same percentage as … Continue reading Madison’s taxpayer supported K-12 system spends $5.6M on literacy curriculum →

Scott Girard: In a statement last week, Madison Teachers Inc. put the blame on DPI for the last-minute change from the district. “DPI should understand that to us who have to actually implement this additional work, this move signals the prioritization of compliance above compassion,” MTI president Michael Jones wrote. Jones wrote that the other … Continue reading Notes on the taxpayer supported Madison School District’s “asynchronous learning” scheme →

Daniel Lennington and Will Flanders Last week, Wisconsin Superintendent of Public Instruction Jill Underly put out a press releasebroadly outlining her plans to address Wisconsin’s racial achievement gap. While it is perhaps a positive to finally see the superintendent addressing the failings of Wisconsin’s public schools, this release offers a disturbing window into the way … Continue reading Notes on politics and the achievement gap →

Emily Hanford and Christopher Peak The new, federally funded study found that children who received Reading Recovery had scores on state reading tests in third and fourth grade that were below the test scores of similar children who did not receive Reading Recovery.  “It’s not what we expected, and it’s concerning,” said lead author Henry May, director … Continue reading Madison’s literacy disaster, continued: reading recovery’s negative impact on children →

Rory Linnane: With more money in federal COVID relief coming to Milwaukee Public Schools, administrators said they will fund bonuses to retain older teachers, hire temporary staff to improve literacy, and take other steps to steady the workforce and improve academics. This $9.6 million installment, coming after the district already received about $770 million in … Continue reading Notes on Milwaukee’s use of Redistributed Taxpayer CovID fund$ →

Scott Girard “There is a lot of evidence that the state of Wisconsin has the most extreme gaps in opportunity and outcomes based on race and that within Wisconsin, MMSD is often ranked among the worst or the worst in some of these indicators,” MMSD director of research Brianne Monahan said. Jackson said the process … Continue reading Notes on the taxpayer supported Madison school district “equity audit” →

Paul Fanlund: That said, his indictment of liberals in college towns echoes something Gloria Ladson-Billings, a renowned UW-Madison professor emerita, told me for a column last year about liberals and race. “Everyone is for the most part self-interested,” she said. “You can only go so far before people start seeing it as an erosion of something they … Continue reading Mission vs organization, redux; Madison’s disastrous reading Results →

Glenn Elmers: Science has always introduced doubt regarding long-held verities. But now the authority of science, rather than the scientific method, is used to create confusion about things that had once been considered obvious and indisputable. There have always, for instance, been rare individuals who did not precisely fit into the categories of either man … Continue reading “Instead, we seem to know less” →

Balaji Srinivasan: Why a new school? Confidence in public schools is at historic lows. Parents want a change. And people can sense that the Prussian education system, the model for American schooling, just isn’t working anymore. Perhaps fifty years ago you might well pull the same lever every day on an assembly line, but today you hit a different key … Continue reading “A full Replacement for K-12” →

Scott Girard: Lessons and coursework will be available through Seesaw and Google Classroom, with paper copies also available.  “Each school will send families follow-up communication with additional details about asynchronous learning time,” the email states. The district has chosen to use asynchronous learning as its solution. According to an email sent to families Wednesday, K-12 … Continue reading Madison’s taxpayer supported K-12 make up “asynchronous” time →

Bob McManus: What should happen to a high school principal who can’t educate kids but cheats to pretend that he can? In New York City, he gets a happy handshake and a $1.8 million payday. That’s the latest from the compost heap masquerading as the city Department of Education — which took two years to … Continue reading Controversy over NYC Principal’s going away payment →

Elizabeth Beyer: “That was my first-ever protest,” he said. “It was remarkable to see people outside of Door 1, outside of the Castle (what students call the Collegiate-Gothic style façade that faces East Washington Avenue) all together coming as one. We actually made change from it.” The protests were organized in response to what students … Continue reading “I would say Madison schools were definitely a place where you could be yourself more, and you’re able to explore more,” he said.” →

Elizabeth Beyer: In Natasha Sullivan’s AP English class at La Follette High School, students are assigned books by prominent Black authors alongside works like Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice.” At Memorial High School, English teacher Maureen Mead aims to help her English language learners develop their language skills instead of penalizing them if they enter … Continue reading Curricular Commentary →

Associated Press: Several businesses and residents have filed suit in state court in Pennsylvania seeking to overturn Philadelphia’s renewed indoor mask mandate scheduled to be enforced beginning Monday in an effort to halt a surge in Covid-19 infections. The lawsuit, filed in Commonwealth Court on Saturday, said Philadelphia lacks the authority to impose such a mandate. Philadelphia … Continue reading Lawsuit seeks to overturn renewed Philadelphia mask mandate →

Dahlia Bazzaz: was under the warehouse lights at Costco, about a year ago, when Aida Herrera first noticed something had shifted in her daughter, Sofia, who was lingering by the book table. Neither she nor Sofia’s dad are big readers, Herrera said, and she’d never seen her youngest tackle a chapter book as large as … Continue reading Notes on “the science of reading” curriculum →

Collin Binkley: Early results of data gathering by some of the country’s biggest school districts confirm what many had feared: Groups of students that already faced learning gaps before the pandemic, including Black and Hispanic students and those from low-income families, appear to be behind in even greater numbers now. In Fairfax County, tests given … Continue reading “Some teachers say they’re doing great, others say they can do better.” →

Elizabeth Beyer and Emily Hamer: Most other Dane County school districts shifted their masking protocol to strongly recommend, as opposed to require, face coverings while in school buildings on March 1, when the Public Health Madison and Dane County emergency masking order expired. The decision by the city-county health department to lift the mask order … Continue reading Ongoing Mask Mandate in our taxpayer supported K-12 schools (1 of 2 statewide) →

WILL In recent years, WILL has represented several public-school parents after their local school established policies and procedures that undermined fundamental parental rights to make decisions about their child’s education, healthcare, and overall welfare. AB 963/SB 962 is a response to this common experience for Wisconsin’s public-school parents. Right to review educational materials and access to learning materials: This … Continue reading Notes on K-12 Parental Rights →

Typical clinic day now includes a 2-year-old who only has 5 words, an 8-year-old with new-onset obesity, and a preschool-age child with no social skills from being home bound. A disastrous avalanche of child health probs of our own making—not “from the pandemic.” @AmerAcadPeds — elizabeth bennett (@ebennett74) April 13, 2022 Mandates, closed schools and Dane … Continue reading The price of Mandates, continued →

Joanne Jacobs: At Ivywood Classical Academy in Plymouth, Michigan, fourth-graders are studying early and medieval African kingdoms, dynasties of China, Europe in the Middle Ages and the founding and spread of Islam. Hillsdale-affiliated schools teach the liberal arts, sciences and the “great works of literature, philosophy, politics, and art” and attempt to “lead students toward … Continue reading A classic education via charters (timely) →

Phil Kerpen, Stephen Moore and Casey Mulligan: Almost exactly two years ago COVID-19 spread to the United States and our federal, state and local governments implemented strategies to mitigate the damage from this deadly virus. We now know from the responses across countries that the U.S. federal government (and most governments around the world) made … Continue reading A Final Report Card on the States’ Response to COVID-19 →

Michael Bender: Democrat Jennifer Loughran spent the pandemic’s early days sewing face masks for neighbors. Last month, as a newly elected school-board member, she voted to lift the district’s mask mandate. That came four months after she voted for the state’s Republican candidate for governor. After a monthslong political identity crisis, Ms. Loughran decided her opposition … Continue reading ‘So disillusioned”: Mandates, Parents, Students and K-12 Governance →

John Fensterwald: The analysis, which looks at performance over time, shows that students fell behind each year incrementally even before the pandemic, starting in third grade when tests were first given. Progress completely stalled last year, when most students were in remote learning. Eighth graders overall scored at the same level that they did when … Continue reading Analysis finds average eighth graders may have skills indicative of fifth grade →

Will Flanders: Obviously, these results have implications for Wisconsin’s upcoming fall elections. Both of the major candidates for governor on the Republican side, Rebecca Kleefisch and Kevin Nicholson, have expressed support for education reform — both on the public school side and in expansion of school choice. The current governor, Democrat Tony Evers, has rejected several pieces of … Continue reading Elections and taxpayer supported education →

Jocelyn Gecker: “I don’t want to read about another teenager where there were warning signs and we looked the other way,” said Sen. Anthony Portantino, author of a bill that would require all California middle and high schools to train at least 75% of employees in behavioral health. “Teachers and school staff are on the … Continue reading Experts warned COVID would hurt students’ mental health. Now, teachers are living that reality →

Jason Riley: “I find it hard to take seriously the state of Michigan’s contention that racial diversity is a compelling state interest—compelling enough to warrant ignoring the Constitution’s prohibition of distribution on the basis of race,” Scalia began. “The problem is a problem of Michigan’s own creation. That is to say, it has decided to … Continue reading MIT Leads the Way in Reinstating the SAT →

“CRT is not taught in schools.” West High School in Madison is teaching the basics of CRT once a month to their entire student body. Called “Regent Pride,” the slides explore the basic tenets of CRT. Multiple concerned parents have contacted me. Thread below: pic.twitter.com/qrsRTe65oU — Dan Lennington (@DanLennington) April 8, 2022 Mandates, closed schools and … Continue reading Madison West high School Curriculum Practice Notes →

Robby Soave: On March 16, Washington, D.C., became one of the very last major metropolitan areas in the country to finally end mask mandates for students. According to Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, kids who attend D.C. Public Schools (DCPS) no longer have to wear masks. That’s not always what happens in practice, of course. Earlier this … Continue reading “People’s irrational fears are taking over these policy decisions,” says one parent. →

Darlene Click: As the saying goes, you catch flack when you’re over target. Disney execs boast about secret queer agendas, teachers boast on social media how they will defy parents and, now, that bastion of inane Leftwing propaganda, Salon states parental rights are harming kids. Across the country, students are struggling to regain a sense of normalcy as they cope with the … Continue reading Commentary on K-12 Parental Rights and legacy Governance; “we have the children” →

Nathan Yau: Among 15-year-old students, here’s how 77 countries compare in reading, math, and science. Higher scores are better. Mandates, closed schools and Dane County Madison Public Health. The data clearly indicate that being able to read is not a requirement for graduation at (Madison) East, especially if you are black or Hispanic” 2017: West High Reading Interventionist Teacher’s Remarks … Continue reading Literacy Scores by Country, in Reading, Math, and Science →

Rory Linnane: In an emailed statement, the Republican Party of Wisconsin touted “flipping” some school boards to conservative majorities and highlighted Manitowoc as now having a “fully conservative board.” “Parents are fed up with far-left school boards who have kept students out of the classroom, implemented divisive curriculum, and put teachers unions over kids,” Republican … Continue reading Commentary on Competitive school board races →

Scott Girard: This year’s election showed lower interest than recent contested races, in both fundraising for School Board races and voters. The number of votes was less than even last year, which featured two seats up for election with both candidates unopposed. Just over 41,000 people voted in those races. The 2020 election, which included the Democratic … Continue reading Civics: Ongoing Decline in Madison School Board Candidates and Voters; Unhealthy →

David Blaska has launched a write-in campaign for this seat, supported by former Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz. Mandates, closed schools and Dane County Madison Public Health. The data clearly indicate that being able to read is not a requirement for graduation at (Madison) East, especially if you are black or Hispanic” 2017: West High Reading Interventionist Teacher’s Remarks to the … Continue reading Always interesting 2022 Madison School Board Election Agitation, via SMS →

Jill Barshay: Schneider thinks that a lot of so-called rigorous high school classes are now terribly watered down. He pointed to an old 2005 course content study, conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics. It looked at the actual content and curriculum underneath course titles. Analysts concluded only 18 percent of honors algebra I … Continue reading Transcript study suggests rampant grade inflation and watered down high school coursework →

MacIver News Wisconsin public school teachers got a crash course in “A Black, Queer, and Feminist Mandate for Radical Movements” during a professional development meeting in February. The Department of Public Instruction (DPI) conducts monthly webinars to provide Wisconsin’s public school teachers with advanced training on critical race theory (CRT). CRT is a highly-controversial, divisive, race-based … Continue reading Wisconsin DPI Guest Speaker says CRT Is Just the Beginning →

So said a former Madison School District Administrator some years ago. Rod Dreher on recent taxpayer supported federal government actions: I remind you that this very US government policy document actually states that there are “no scientifically sound” reasons to doubt whether hormones and surgery for minors is harmful, and to say, therefore, that children … Continue reading “We have the children” →

LinkedIn post. A majority of the taxpayer supported Madison School Board rejected (2011) Kaleem’s proposed Madison Preparatory Academy IB charter school. Consider the implications for the many children… Mandates, closed schools and Dane County Madison Public Health. The data clearly indicate that being able to read is not a requirement for graduation at (Madison) East, especially if … Continue reading Rather interesting →

Will Flanders: Last month, the Biden Administration announced new regulations on the federal Charter Schools Program (CSP). The CSP is designed to offer a funding source for charter schools to expand access for students to high-quality school options, as well as to help schools fund facilities. The regulations are ostensibly designed to create better oversight. … Continue reading Biden Administration Proposes increased Charter School Regulatory Spaghetti →

Bill Glauber: One panelist from suburban Milwaukee was critical of the amount of time schoolchildren spend on electronic devices, including computers, claiming that it connects students to pornographic images and affects their learning. Johnson said: “This is their testimony, this is their viewpoint … that is something that should concern parents if that is happening.” … Continue reading K-12 Governance and Election Climate: Wisconsin edition “A lack of accountability should concern us all.” →

C Bradley Thompson: “The aim of public education is not to spread enlightenment at all; it is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed a standard citizenry, to put down dissent and originality.” —H. L. Mencken I have thus far attempted in this series of essays to … Continue reading An F for Government Schools →

Elizabeth Beyer: A contract, inked in February with the UW System, greenlit Caire’s 33-year dream of growing One City Schools from early childhood education and elementary to include students through grade 12, roughly a decade after the Madison School Board rejected a similar proposal for a charter school overseen by the Madison School District that … Continue reading One City Charter Schools continues to fundraise and grow (Monona) →

Dave Cieslewicz: I’m voting for David Blaska. God help me. But God help us all if we continue down the path laid out for us by the current board without at least someone to challenge the status quo.  Postscript: This is not just a Madison problem. Liberal San Francisco voters recently recalled three hard-left school … Continue reading Supporting David Blaska (2022 write in) for Madison School Board; Muldrow Campaign messages →

Emily Burns, with Josh Stevenson, and Phil Kerpen (Figure 1).The same districts also had 2.5 times higher case rates during the same period as we demonstrated in analysis published on March 9th, 2022. This result is as important as it was expected. The CDC promised that whatever potential (and willfully ignored) harms might come to children … Continue reading Children in masked districts experienced, on average, 4-times the number of disrupted learning days as those in mask-optional districts →

MD Kittle: Who was the state superintendent who violated state law at the time? Gov. Tony Evers, who led the Department of Public Instruction for a decade before becoming governor in 2019. WILL previously won its lawsuit after an appeals court ruled Evers’ DPI broke the law, but  the court did not resolve the core … Continue reading Wisconsin DPI Tactics: “Don’t say Catholic” →

Marie Szaniszlo A loaded 9 mm pistol was found inside a city school this week, renewing cries for police to be allowed back patrolling the hallways. The gun was found in a storage room at the Young Achievers Science and Math Pilot K-8 School, according to Boston Police investigating the incident. “If there are armed … Continue reading Loaded Gun found in Boston high school →

Jennifer C. Berkshire and Jack Schneider Democrats can reclaim education as a winning issue. They might even be able to carve out some badly needed common ground, bridging the gap between those who have college degrees and those who don’t by telling a more compelling story about why we have public education in this country. … Continue reading A perspective on the politics of US k-12 governance (casting aside achievement?) →

Annmarie Hilton: Home-schooling has grown like never before since the pandemic first upended traditional in-school education at the end of the 2019-2020 school year. The number of U.S. households that were home-schooling doubled at the start of the 2020-21 school year, according to the Census Bureau. Mandates, closed schools and Dane County Madison Public Health. The data clearly … Continue reading Notes on substantial Wisconsin home schooling growth →

Elizabeth Beyer: Four-time Badger State Spelling Bee champion Maya Jadhav will go on to represent Wisconsin at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in May. Jadhav, an eighth-grader from Vishva Home School in Fitchburg, won the competition Saturday against 54 other spellers in grades 4-8 from across the state at the first in-person statewide spelling bee … Continue reading Fitchburg home school student wins Wisconsin spelling bee →

“Whites Only” – If you think we’ve gotten past the horrifying racial segregation of the 20th Century, think again. @WisconsinDPI promotes “whites only” affinity groups (image below). More examples of how EQUITY leads to segregation @WILawLiberty: https://t.co/AQbl41jQlQ pic.twitter.com/7q0bVFaW8e — Dan Lennington (@DanLennington) March 25, 2022 Mandates, closed schools and Dane County Madison Public Health. The data clearly indicate … Continue reading Our Wisconsin DPI tax Follars at work →

Scott Girard According to an email sent to board members Tuesday morning, there are currently 286 students enrolled in online programming, with 150 in third through fifth grades and 136 in grades six to 12. When the school year began, there were about 750 requests for virtual instruction in elementary grades and 452 applications for grades … Continue reading Madison’s taxpayer supported schools spend more one time funds on “virtual school” expansion →

Darcy Moore: The year 1937 was a seminal one for both men and useful for highlighting their different lifestyles, politics and literary experiences. Tolkien, the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at the University of Oxford published The Hobbit – a quaint novel for children with dwarfish miners, dragons and wizards – in a modest print run of 1500 … Continue reading On Tolkien and Orwell →

Nicholas Wade: The argument is ingenious. Its fatal flaw lies in assuming that the non-market cases chosen for study were selected at random by the Chinese authorities. In fact, as Chan has noted, one of the authorities’ criteria was closeness to the market. The spatial pattern of non-market cases reflects this selection bias, not a … Continue reading Notes on Science Reporting veracity →

gao.gov For millions of students, teachers and their families, the last couple of school years during COVID-19 were rife with challenges that disrupted education. But many teachers nationwide reported having students who never even showed up during the entire 2020-2021 school year. We’ll find out more from GAO’s Jackie Nowicki. Mandates, closed schools and Dane County … Continue reading 1.1 Million Students Did Not Show Up For School →

Elizabeth Beyer “I do feel like I need more information on how the current program is functioning and the potential consequences of expanding this program by 10 (full-time staff members) with non-reoccurring ESSER funding,” Gomez-Schmidt said. “I think we’re just creating a problem that a future board in two years is going to have to … Continue reading Addison expands online school staff, with one time redistributed taxpayer funds →

Roni Caryn Rabin Drug overdose deaths also reached record levels during the first year of the pandemic, with more than 100,000 Americans dying of overdoses during the 12-month period that ended in April 2021, a nearly 30 percent increase over the previous year, according to reports issued in November. The number of deaths from opioids in which … Continue reading The (ongoing) price of “mandates” →

Elizabeth Beyer: “include instituting law and order in schools, questioning diversity and equity initiatives in curriculum and promoting charter schools. His viewpoint, an outlier among the predominantly left-leaning board, would create diversity of thought if he is elected, he said.” I did not see Madison’s long term, disastrous reading results mentioned in this article. Mandates, closed … Continue reading Commentary on Madison’s taxpayer funded K-12 Governance and Spring 2022, largely unopposed school Board candidates →

Scott Girard In MMSD, 34.9% of students in grades 3-8 scored “Proficient” or “Advanced” on the statewide Forward Exam in 2018-19, the most recent year the exam was given with a high percentage of students participating. If the overall number isn’t bad enough, the results were worse for every non-white group of students other than … Continue reading Madison’s long term disastrous reading results, taxpayers and the school board →

Scott Girard: While the walkout was focused on Assad, as Yang continually reminded the group when conversation drifted to other resources and solutions, it also highlighted a larger concern: many of the students there said they couldn’t trust any other adult in the school. “If you’re not a minority, you wouldn’t understand the impact of … Continue reading “No other Trusted Adults” →

Madeline Fox: “I plan to focus on a broad spectrum of issues, including making sure students have access to high quality schools across the state, curriculum transparency and making sure that schools follow the constitution in enacting policies that respect and empower parents and their constitutional right to direct the upbringing of their child,” Brewer … Continue reading Lawfare, Parents and Taxpayer supported K-12 school Governance →

Simpson Street Free Press, via Dylan Brogan: Ali Muldrow largely defended the Madison school district’s current policies while David Blaska levied broad criticism at the district’s focus on “creating anti-racist school culture and curriculum.” “If we stopped telling people that Madison is racist, if we stopped teaching that some kids succeed all because of privilege, I think … Continue reading 2022 taxpayer supported Madisin School Board Candidate Forum →

NEO Remember back when transgender rights was about adults, and there was lengthy screening by the medical and therapy professionals involved to make sure that those adults were not making the choice because of other mental health issues? Now it’s about keeping kids’ secrets from parents whose rights diminish every day: “Parents are not entitled … Continue reading Parents, taxpayer supported Administrators and Governance Rights Notes →

Wikipedia: Civics is the study of the rights and obligations of citizens in society.[1] The term derives from the Latinword civicus, meaning “relating to a citizen”. The term relates to behavior affecting other citizens, particularly in the context of urban development Word recently arrived that Don Severson died in December, 2021. This news appeared a … Continue reading Civics: our taxpayer funded “School Board is out to lunch” →

John McWhorter: When we expect less of people, it’s often because we think less of them: In 1974, the linguistic anthropologist Elinor Ochs documented that in rural villages in Madagascar, women were associated more with direct and therefore less refined speech than men. Their culture heavily valued circumlocution — diplomatic, even delicate speech — but … Continue reading Making the SAT and ACT Optional Is the Soft Bigotry of Low Expectations →

David Blaska: Blaska’s beef is that ex-mayor Dave accuses Republicans of cynically playing the culture wars purely for political gain while doing exactly that himself. “Republicans aren’t raising these issues at every opportunity because they really care about kids or parents one way or the other. They’re exploiting these things because they see a hot political issue that they can … Continue reading Notes on taxpayer supported K-12 Governance in Madison. →

David Blaska: Thanks to the Simpson Street Free Press for hosting a Madison school board debate Thursday 03-17-22. We’ll include the link when it is posted. Must admit, was taken aback by the Wisconsin State Journal’s question. Reporter Elizabeth Beyer asked Blaska which classrooms are teaching critical race theory?Suppose she wanted your write-in candidate for Seat #4 to rat … Continue reading Notes on taxpayer supported Madison Schools curriculum and media perspective →

Susan Miller: Moreover, these strategies usually focus on aspirational goals and avoid the far tougher issue of how to achieve them. The end result of the typical school district strategy process is minimal change and preservation of the poorly performing status quo which fails to adequately prepare students to meet the challenges they will face … Continue reading “almost always produce a final result that uses vague language in an attempt to smooth over conflicting views” →

Perry Stein: Like most of the nation’s school districts, Lewis-Palmer 38 abruptly closed its school buildings and sent students home on March 13, 2020. They learned online for the remainder of the academic year, and teachers quickly saw many students’ progress slow. Children struggled with the coursework and felt depressed and anxious, educators say. Story … Continue reading These schools did less to contain covid. Their students flourished. →

David Blaska: Were they just hoping problem would go away? Now the Madison school board is developing a committee to study school safety. NOW? Today? Five months after a widespread brawl at East high school induced one-third of the student body to shelter at home for safety? Two years after defunding school resource police officers? And all the … Continue reading Advocating a “study on stupidity”: Madison school crime edition →

Joanne Jacobs: Luke Rosiak’s new book, Race to the Bottom, blames public schools’ problems on special interests that put ideology before education. Rosiak, who broke the story of how Loudoun County, Va. school officials lied about a bathroom rape, writes in the New York Post about a data-loving dad who was dubbed “Enemy #1” in Loudoun after seeking statistics on teacher … Continue reading Parent K-12 Governance Lawfare →

C Bradley Thompson In the first two essays in this series on the relationship between government and the education of children (“How the Redneck Intellectual Discovered Educational Freedom—and How You Can, Too” and “The New Abolitionism: A Manifesto for a Movement”), I established, first, how and why the principle of “Separation of School and State” … Continue reading Notes on the history of taxpayer supported K-12 Schools →

Channel3000: The district couldn’t provide any examples of history that would be taught differently. Jackson instead says teachers will use more perspectives when covering a topic. 2005: When all third graders read at grade level or beyond by the end of the year, the achievement gap will be closed…and not before. 2004 notes. Mandates, closed schools and Dane … Continue reading “What we have been teaching our students doesn’t always tell the full truth from different perspectives” →

Wisconsin State Journal Commentary Two other seats on the board are mostly uncontested. Nichelle Nichols, a former Madison School District administrator whom we’ve endorsed in the past for School Board, will do a fine job filling Seat 5.  For Seat 4, incumbent Ali Muldrow is the only name on the ballot, with conservative agitator David Blaska making a … Continue reading “She’s not a fan of charter schools outside the control of the district” (achievement…..) →

“Heinrich has exercised the powers of a dictatorship in Dane County for 2 years.” — Justice Pat Roggensack during today’s argument. https://t.co/53oA4zbjrz — Dan Lennington (@DanLennington) March 9, 2022 2005: When all third graders read at grade level or beyond by the end of the year, the achievement gap will be closed…and not before. 2004 notes. Mandates, closed … Continue reading Notes on administrative mandates vs. elected official legislation: Dane County edition →

Pat Schneider (2018), dives into a look at the aborted Madison Preparatory Academy IB charter school proposal (2011). The book includes several recommendations to improve information exchange around controversial public policies. Talk about the most important. The most important thing is that we all do our own individual work of understanding our own biases. We … Continue reading Status quo defense: “everyone was so proud of their school district and yet they had some of the largest disparities in the country” →

Scott Girard The mixed recommendation would cost approximately $4 million for its curricular materials, while the single-vendor option would cost approximately $3.2 million, according to the presentation. Board members did not generally make their preferences clear Monday. “It’s really important that we understand the impact that we’ll be making in this investment and understand how … Continue reading Ongoing taxpayer supported Madison school district reading spending commentary →

Dana Goldstein: The kindergarten crisis of last year, when millions of 5-year-olds spent months outside of classrooms, has become this year’s reading emergency. As the pandemic enters its third year, a cluster of new studies now show that about a third of children in the youngest grades are missing reading benchmarks, up significantly from before the pandemic. In Virginia, one study found that early … Continue reading The fallout from the pandemic is just being felt. “We’re in new territory,” educators say. →

Scott Girard: MMSD spokesman Tim LeMonds wrote in an email that the 6.1 FTE cut is a combination of two years of enrollment losses. Last year, enrollment decreased such that West lost three positions, LeMonds wrote, but the school was “allowed to retain those positions due to COVID.” Based on projections for next year, enrollment … Continue reading Eliminating Latin at Madison West high school amidst enrollment declines and taxpayer supported district budget growth →

Libby Sobic and Will Flanders: The Department of Public Instruction has estimated that expanding school choice will cost taxpayers over $500 million. This DPI estimate rests on faulty assumptions that would not occur in the real world.  If a student whose family is currently paying for private school moved on to the voucher, there are, indeed, some tax … Continue reading The Truth About Wisconsin’s Education Reform Bills →

Scott Girard: Despite taking that student into custody, the school received another “threatening call” on Friday, according to an email to Memorial families from principal Matt Hendrickson. The school has received at least one such call each day this week, but police investigations have found none of them to be credible. “MPD is continuing a … Continue reading One arrest made in threats to Madison’s Memorial High School →

James Pethokoukis: Central to that cultural history has also been the notion of meritocracy, going back to the Mandarin bureaucrat-scholars who obtained their positions through the imperial examination system. More recently, China’s communists have attempted to run a more vibrant economy by reintroducing meritocracy — and not just in government.  As Adrian Wooldridge, author of The … Continue reading The War on Gifted Education: Why the landslide loss for San Francisco’s school board is a victory for American meritocracy →

C Bradley Thompson: My working thesis is simple: America’s “public” school system is the most immoral and corrupt institution in the United States today, and it should be abolished as soon as possible. It should be broken up for the same reason that chattel slavery was ended in the 19th century: Although obviously different in … Continue reading Advocating the elimination of taxpayer supported non diverse schools →

As Minneapolis teachers ready themselves to strike with all of the co-opted social justice language that white progressive teachers can summon, here’s something the public rarely gets to see: how they through teachers of color under the bus time and again. Read… cc: @keban5 pic.twitter.com/0aSvXDR19p — Citizen Chris (@citizenstewart) March 4, 2022 My Question to Wisconsin … Continue reading Teacher Union Climate notes: Minneapolis Edition →

David Blaska: It’s heart-breaking, it really is. Two Madison teenagers took different paths. Anthony Chung was a National Merit Scholar at Memorial high school, student representative to the Board of Education, about to graduate from elite Georgetown University. With him in the car the night of 09-12-20 on Mineral Point Road was the former classmate he … Continue reading Madison schools outcomes and “Restorative Justice” notes →

Patrick Mcilheran: The warden of Wisconsin’s public-school status quo, the Department of Public Instruction, was wrong, when it recently made an absurd estimate about the cost of opening up school choice to all families without regard to income. More than that, DPI betrayed an arrogance — a presumption that thousands of parents can go right on … Continue reading Wisconsin DPI: Department of Public Inaccuracy →

Thomson Reuters: Sweden should have adopted tougher early measures and the government assumed clearer leadership as COVID-19 hit, though the mostly voluntary no-lockdown strategy was broadly correct, a commission reviewing the country’s pandemic response said on Friday. Sweden polarized opinion at home and abroad with its handling of the pandemic, opting against the lockdowns implemented … Continue reading Sweden’s no-lockdown COVID strategy was broadly correct, commission suggests →

Jim Bender: One of the nation’s leading opinion research firms conducted a random, scientific sample poll in February of likely Wisconsin voters. The survey focused largely on education issues. It showed significant support, across the political spectrum, for policies that expand parent options. Respondents also were in broad agreement on what they see as constituting … Continue reading A “parental awakening” survey →

Scott Girard: The only non-unanimous vote came on the instructional time waiver request. Pryor wrote in the memo the district still intends to meet the state’s required hours of instruction for students, but the three-day extension of winter break in early January means the district needs “flexibility to meet the needs of our students.” “Our … Continue reading Waivers (and Mulligans); Madison’s K-12 Governance Climate →

Richard orange Malmo: Recurring lockdowns imposed across Europe to curb Covid-19 were neither “necessary” nor “defensible”, Sweden’s official inquiry into its handling of the pandemic has concluded…. Mandates, closed schools and Dane County Madison Public Health. The data clearly indicate that being able to read is not a requirement for graduation at (Madison) East, especially if you are black … Continue reading Covid lockdowns weren’t needed, finds inquiry in the country that stayed open →

School Choice Wisconsin: Wisconsin voters strongly support making all families eligible for the state’s school choice programs and favor ending funding inequities between choice, charter, and traditional public schools. These are among key findings on education issues in a scientific, random sample poll conducted earlier this month by one of the nation’s leading opinion research … Continue reading Notes on pro school choice poll results →

Keith David: At the American university where I teach, one of my assigned tasks is to advise undergraduates—mostly freshmen and sophomores. This essay describes a conversation I had in 2017 with one of those advisees. I will call him Daniel. Daniel was a sophomore at the time. He had been an advisee of mine for … Continue reading Notes on academic veracity →