ICYMI: River's Rising Edition (4/14)
Every so often we get enough rain to make the river at the bottom of our back yard to get really rambunctious. It would take an extraordinary catastrophe to actually threaten the Institute, but it's pretty cool to see what the river can do when it really fills up and unwinds, and that's where we are at the moment. It's one of those majestic splendor of nature things. Never gets old.
Meanwhile, I've got some readings for you from the week. Remember, sharing is caring.
From Tom Mullaney, a former teacher, who blogged this exceptionally useful glossary of AI terms (starting by correctly identifying "AI" as a marketing term).
Pittsburgh-area school district will keep 14 library books challenged by community members
CBS covers this story from my end of the commonwealth. It's a good example of how a superintendent should handle this kind of thing.
Spencer Humphrey for KFOR talks to a woman who thought working for Ryan Walters would be a chance to stand up for her conservative values in Oklahoma's department of education. Instead, she quit. One more picture of just how bad he is at the job he campaigned for.
‘Are We Being Used as a Test Case?’: Oklahoma Justices Question Catholic Charter
Meanwhile, the Oklahoma Supreme Court is hearing the challenge to the attempt to establish the first religious charter school. In many ways, it's a nothingburger because the school's supporters would love to take this all the way to the US Supreme Court. But this is the opening round of an important fight. Linda Jacobson is covering for The 74.
Governor Polis Sides with Far-Right Groups in Opposing Charter School Accountability
Mike DeGuire reports on the push against charter school accountability in Colorado.
Two-Sigma Tutoring: Separating Science Fiction from Science Fact
You've probably heard about research showing that tutoring is super-duper effective. Paul T. von Hippel, at Education Next, of all places, revisits that research and points out there's way less than meets the eye.
House Republican calls for Tennessee Education Commissioner Lizzette Reynolds to resign
Tennessee's newest ed chief is just having a rough time. NewsChannel5 reports on calls for her ouster.
Blaming Low Wages on Bad Schooling Is a Neoliberal Myth
A long-standing assertion of the neo-liberal wing of reformsterdom has been that if everyone got a college degree, everyone would make more money. Nora de la Cour demonstrates the problems with this fairy tale.
Amplify is all ready to jump on the Science of Reading train, complete with bogus marketing claims. Thomas Ultican breaks it down.
Are Science of Reading Laws Based on Science?
Speaking of which, the National Education Policy Center newsletter notes that SoR laws are not exactly science-packed themselves.
Chicago Begins the Hard Work of Dismantling Neoliberal School Reform
Jan Resseger on Chicago's attempt to undo its reformy mess.
At Forbes.com this week, I looked at the new ed honcho in Vermont, and why some folks are concerned about what she might have in mind.
The nearest river (Susquehanna) is about an hour away by car to either the main branch or the west branch. But we have creeks that get quite rambunctious. Last week after all that rain, they were over the roads that tend to follow their course to the point where the local PennDOT folks ran out of "Road Closed" signs. They eventually subsided enough to allow people to fish for trout on opening day but were running fast which made for less-than-optimal fishing.
Then we got almost an inch and a half of rain in a 4 hour overnight storm and while the creeks stayed within their banks, they were on the verge of flooding roads in a few spots. The currents are also swift -- I wouldn't want to be trying to wade when they're that fast.