blogging on education in Worcester, in Massachusetts, and in America
...it might be good to remember that more teens are getting hooked on gambling : A recent national survey from Common Sense Media found that 36% of boys age 11 to 17 in the U.S. have gambled in the past year. "It's a lot of kids," says Michael Robb, the head of research at Common Sense Media, a nonprofit that promotes digital safety for kids. "A third of kids is a lot of kids." Read more »
Is there bad news on AI in education? There is ALWAYS bad news on AI in education! Chalkbeat earlier this month had a look at the AI slop on the Teachers Pay Teachers website: The poster depicting famous inventions by Black figures throughout history should show the invention George Crum is widely credited with: the potato chip. Instead, the picture labeled with Crum’s name shows a firefighter in…
Hey, remember how we've noted that as we lose SNAP enrollment, we're going to lose free lunch enrollment? That has now started to be seen happening, per EdWeek In addition to Miami-Dade, some schools in nearby Palm Beach County, Fla., Houston, the San Antonio area, and Hardin County, Ky., have also announced the end of universal free meals in recent months because they no longer qualify for CEP.…
The chair of House Ways and Means weighed in yesterday : House Ways and Means Chair Aaron Michlewitz has “some serious concerns” about the governor’s election-year proposal to spend $100 million on public schools before they’ve even collected the revenue to support it. “The ink hasn’t dried yet on the actual fiscal year 2027 budget, so I think we’d like to see that be implemented first,” the House…
Not specific to education, but this lengthy piece on "AI mania" in the workplace is a very "the Emperor has no clothes" description, where no one can say the Emperor has no clothes because no one else in business leadership will. The reality is thus: the people in charge either have no plan, or see no path forwards other than keeping their heads down. Not at banks, not at hospitals, not in our…
Regarding the $100M of Fair Share Governor Healey filled a supplemental budget to spend, a smidge of insight yesterday from Colin Young at State House News Service ( here being interviewed by NEPM ): Relatedly, yesterday, both the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education 1 and the Department of Revenue sent out this letter from Healey addressed to "municipal leaders," praising what the…
They're kind of cute, though, aren't they. Though it is, of course, not the done thing to express anything but enthusiasm for additional funding…It is time again for one of my periodic skunk at the garden party posts. Read more »
Please add me to those not at all shocked that little kids are finding their way around various kinds of restrictions on school laptops to get up to all sorts of nefariousness. Kids have been off task and distracted in school long before Chromebooks or iPads existed. But some parents and experts say devices only make it easier to engage in non-academic, inappropriate and even dangerous content.…
And with the Governor's signature, we have a budget. As a result, DESE has released final Chapter 70 and Net School Spending numbers (including, yes, a new complete spreadsheet : download away!). Also, because Governor Healey did not make any changes to the budget, the conference committee numbers on the cherry sheets--for municipal and for regional schools--are now final. Happy fiscal new year…
I posted about this over on Bluesky earlier this week, but I thought it also warranted attention here: The Cambridge Public Schools moved to a model where all eighth graders take algebra, and The Hechinger Report wrote an article on it. Here is the headline they used: Because Hechinger does good work, the resulting article is both worth reading and isn't the default "no" that Betteridge's Law has…
Yes, I am still playing catch-up from being away! the headline I saw from vacation The conference committee budget agreed to by both chambers does have a foundation budget review commission in it. As the guide to the outside sections notes, it is compromise language, which here means that they didn't just take the Senate's language, as, as you might remember, the House didn't have such language in…
...I am not going to say "so you don't have to," because I think if you have an interest in education, you probably should at least skim the report, which is online here. As always, this is me writing as me on behalf of me only. This image deserves more space than it gets in the report, as it isn't bad thinking and it's a solid try at an outline. How is it, though, that they managed parallel…
the report is here completed the tasks described in the three conditions, around governance of their board different than demonstrating sustained improvement will have additional governance requirement; expected that they will apply for renewal next year now having some conversation around the transportation item condition was for them to develop a plan; they haven't fully implemented a plan Read…
backup is here ; public comment summary is here ; redline is here Martinez notes there's no money attached to this strategic about what is in regs; "want to be nimble" "not intended to create a significant financial burden to any of our districts" balancing making sure that our children's needs are being met Read more »
You can find the backup here, summary of public comment here , and the redline version here. Martinez, in introducing the topic, notes the intended move of special education from DoE to HHS at the federal level, stressing that it makes it that much more important that Massachusetts have strong laws and regulations to protect students. amend definition of individualized education program to…
Super weird to me that the update includes this "look this curriculum is everywhere" civics law passed in 2018 student-led civics projects Oddly, this presentation is from iCivics, not from DESE staff or school district people, or...this is kind of weird; "goal of schooling is produced informed engaged citizens" "health of our constitutional democracy requires sustained commitment" now speaking…
State Student Advisory Council for some reason, they never link to the presentation from the SSAC on these...I wish they would used extensive amounts of data in their work host successful regional and statewide stakeholder engagement events Read more »
As I noted earlier this week, this agenda has the end-of-year group of reports today: one on civics, because 250th anniversary of the Declaration; the end of year Student Advisory Report; probably some talk about the statewide graduation report, which had its own meeting last night ; the Mitchell Chester award; plus they have regulations to update. There's a pre-meeting rally happening in the…
Some things I have been reading: The Wall Street Journal covers the parent rebellion on about screentime at schools , particularly looking at Lower Merion School District in Pennsylvania, where the school board recently removed an opt-out provision on tech that they'd previously passed. (Cue "that's a bold strategy, Cotton" gif here). It isn't going away, and the level of resistance in some local…
As a reminder: the Board has a special meeting tonight (Monday) at 5 PM virtually, specifically on the recently released graduation report . They have their regular June meeting tomorrow at 9 AM (yes, both agendas are a single page) in Everett. That agenda includes the end of the school year things--the Mitchell Chester award, the end of year report from the student rep from the State Student…
...but instead I am going to tell you to read this , from someone in Connecticut, because we could learn from their example! You can do whatever you want creating (blue) hills of paperwork for teacher prep programs to prove to you that they’re doing what you already require them to do. But when it comes to fascism masquerading as curriculum reform, that’s a Yeah-No. Friends don’t let friends.…
We had a one-two punch of "who's in charge of this, anyway?" around public education late yesterday: The Trump administration announced that they are moving special education and civil rights enforcement out of the Department of Education ; special education is going to Health and Human Services and civil rights to the Department of Justice. This has of course something that this administration…
...and now rather than talking about what people think it might say, it can be read. You can find the whole thing here . (I haven't read it yet.) The report says it is to the Governor and "Legislative Colleagues," but the first formal discussion will take place at a special evening meeting of the Board of Ed on Monday evening at 5 PM. The agenda isn't up yet, but the livestreams come over this…
...as it was mentioned today on NEPM in this exchange between Carrie Healey (NEPM) and Colin Young (SHNS): Pressure is mounting on Governor Maura Healey to opt Massachusetts into a new federal scholarship tax credit program. Donors can make contributions of up to $1,700 to an approved scholarship group in a participating state that would be distributed as aid. This is an issue that has quickly…
As we're winding down this session of the Supreme Court, there have been two decisions recently that centered on student speech in schools, and in both cases, the Supreme Court declined , backing up earlier decisions that have sided with school districts. The first centered on a 3rd grader wearing a baseball cap with a AK-47 and the words "come and take it" on it. The Appeals Court found:…