It’s official - Chicago’s Arne Duncan will be the new Secretary of Education.
The Twittersphere is abuzz as are the blogs. There’s no shortage of Duncan-related link dumps. You can get started on your own personal Duncan Familiarity Web Research Project over at Mr. Russo’s This Week in Education. Oil your scroll wheels, kids - there’s a lot to see.
I’ve pulled two clips that represent the two camps pow-wowing on Twitter.
First, the “progressives,” who feel betrayed and saddened that a charter stooge like Duncan will run the DoE in President-Elect Obama’s Land of Hopenchange:
I see four little scamps in the video - I’ve named them Constructiraptor, CharterRage, Unionmartyr and Dewey. I’d be remiss if I didn’t honor ed school ideology properly with a little Dewey-worship.
Actually, strike that - our fuzzy little Dewey’s had a name change. He’s now Hornswaggle.
And boy, are they panicking. I assume that piece of food is a piece of medium-rare public teat.
Look at’em fight!
But the progressives aren’t alone. There’s horror on the other side, too. Ms. Malkin, a favorite of mine, has missed the mark badly. Following E.M.’s lead, she’s popped three Alka-Seltzers in her mouth - Bill Ayers, Everyday Math and the Annenberg Challenge - taken a gulp of blog-soda and shaken her head vigorously. Here’s the resulting Duncan-drool from Malkin and E.M..
I’m as sympathetic to those arguments as anyone, especially on the Conservative side. I don’t, however, conflate three problems into criticizing Duncan’s appointment - Malkin et al. have made a mistake.
These scream queens sum up the Conservative reaction:
And then there are the more sensible folks like the Democrats for Education Reform. Peep their statement on Duncan’s selection.
Me? Well, I wouldn’t have chosen him, but we could’ve gotten much, much worse. Like Linda Darling-Hammond worse.
We’re in for a wild ride. I’ll criticize Duncan’s poor ideas and praise the good ones.
“We must have hit a nerve,” sayeth one of those Tampa-area bloggers. I believe that blogger is right.
I also believe that it won’t be long before Ms. Faliero et al. try to silence Tampa education bloggers officially, or at least try to intimidate them into submission.
I might be wrong. I hope I’m wrong.
I wrote a lengthy guest piece for the UMiami Education Students blog about Hillsborough County Schools and blogging. You can read about Jennifer Faliero foaming at the mouth about misinformation and lies on blogs - and read her call for the St. Pete Times to literally employ someone to monitor blog comments “round-the-clock.”
Oh, and she wants to “force” commenters to register in a verifiable way - and one has to assume Faliero would want that information accessible to HCPS. Good Lord, it’s almost as if she’s a union boss.
Faliero puts a panicked, high-pitched, uptalk “eeee!” in the phrase “Free press.”
Here’s are a few lines from my piece titled “Hillsborough County Schools’ Blog Problem is About Communication“:
“A [growing] segment of the Hillsborough public doesn’t trust the district. That takes time to erase. But in the meantime, trust can be built by using these channels of communication rather than complaining about them.”
It’s probably true of your district, too. I suggest you read the whole thing.
I was pleased to join hosts Lisa Parisi and Maria Knee on Episode 19 of EdTechTalk Conversations this Sunday. We spent an hour discussing digital footprints/online image of teachers - and whether they have a special responsibility to tailor that image to the profession’s standing - when private actions bleed into the public sphere, and a ton of offshoot issues that ranged from political to lighthearted.
I had a great time talking with them both and interacting with the live listeners in the chat room. If you haven’t heard ETT Conversations before, I recommend subscribing…
… when you pop over to listen to Episode 19, of course.
Tom Farber, what have you done?!? Saved a few people a buck, I suppose.
In case you haven’t heard, Farber tried to offset printing costs for his Rancho Bernardo, CA high school by selling ads on tests:
“Farber started letting parents and local businesses sponsor tests this fall after learning budget cuts would limit his in-school printing allowance — tracked by the school’s copy machines — to $316 for the year. The cost of printing quizzes and tests for his 167 students will easily be more than $500, he said.
That meant Farber, whose courses prepare students for the Advanced Placement exam, would have to give fewer or shorter tests, or find money. Farber, who says 90 percent of his students got a 5 — the top score — on AP exams last year, said skimping wasn’t an option.”
Oddly enough, I don’t remember a story about how Farber was a remarkable teacher who got 90% of his students a 5 on the AP exam.
Must’ve gotten lost in the shuffle. Maybe now that he’s famous for generating $300 of ad revenue, someone might notice he’s pretty awesome at his job.
Anyway, printing companies are realizing that schools can’t keep doing everything in-house, whether it’s newsletters, premium/promotional items, laminating, etc. That, and putting a company’s lips to the public teat is appealing.
PSPrint education has a 15% discount for educators/schools now. I’ve come across them before as doing sticker and brochure printing, but why not use private services like these to print mundane stuff like tests?
I forget which web app I used to send print jobs directly to a huge printing/office supply chain… but it was very cheap, very handy. Why not contract printing services out from schools to those chains? Send the print job, pick up the box - or have a runner do it once in the morning, once in the evening. Boom! More instructional time, cheaper for the district, etc. etc.
Who’s going to pitch these services first? Staples, Office Max? We all know the admins won’t go seeking out sensible contracting deals. Or they might. Who’s going to surprise me?
Passing along an announcement about the National Association of Scholars annual conference - and the schedule is a doozie.
The first panel is on the ‘changing political landscape of higher education,’ followed by an afternoon debate on the meaning of academic freedom. I’ll save a seat for Bill Ayers.
Other panels include the military and academe, the changing economic/technical landscape of higher ed and the politicization of the dorms. I’d encourage Columbia students to attend the first, ed-tech’ers to attend the second and University of Delaware faculty/staff to attend the third.
Will I be there? Probably. I’ll let y’all know as soon as I know.
And while you’re peeping that schedule, consider joining the NAS.
