I’ve been working on teacher evaluation for most of my career as a teacher, administrator, and teacher educator; first being evaluated, then doing the evaluation as an assistant principal and subject area coordinator, then helping design a state-wide beginning teacher evaluation initiative. After nearly 40 years in education, all I can say is that the current system is the worst […]

What happens when the evidence showing that vouchers do not improve student learning, or “fix failing schools”, becomes too obvious to ignore? Well, if you’re Betsy DeVos, you just flip the rhetoric (i.e., lie). Just as Ms. DeVos and President Donald Trump are poised to dump $20 billion into a federal voucher program, a new study shows that students receiving […]

Tuesday is National Death to TrumpCare Day. Call 866-426-2631 and be a lifesaver. Despite little evidence of that it’s swaying anyone, Trump’s White House wants a vote on the new, even more deadly version of TrumpCare this week and it could come down to just a few votes. We explained why on this week’s The Sit and Spin Room but […]

I received the note below from a former student who is now a teacher. For obvious reasons, I won’t identify her or where she teaches, but–shockingly–her story is becoming all too common… We had a union meeting yesterday where they warned us that the governor is going after the certificates of teachers that opted out their kids (of the state […]

I’m tired. Specifically, I’m sick and tired of being made to feel that my fellow “East Coast elites” and I are somehow to blame for the continually unfolding and horrifying mess our country finds itself in these days. My phone tweets CNN “Breaking News” updates on the hour, alerting me to the new atrocities being introduced to our nation by […]

In fallout from his flippant remarks before a Senate Education Committee panel where he said he wanted to shake School Reform Officer Natasha Baker “like I like to shake my wife“, Gary Naeyaert has resigned from his position as Director of the Great Lakes Education Project (GLEP). GLEP is a corporatist anti-public education group founded and largely funded by Education […]

Donald Trump, in a moment of rich irony, appears to have been caught just a bit off guard with just how complex the American health care system really was last week. “Now, I have to tell you, it’s an unbelievably complex subject,” he added. “Nobody knew health care could be so complicated.” Notwithstanding the fact that nearly every American who […]

The news broke on January 20, 2017 that as many as 38 schools could be closed in Michigan, 24 of those in Detroit, due to “poor academic performance.” Parents in the city, and throughout the state, were understandably stunned, as this announcement represented an abrupt change in the state’s previous position on school closings: Gov. Rick Snyder’s administration has switched […]

Two Michigan House Democrats are calling for the resignation of Gary Naeyaert, the head of Betsy DeVos’s anti-public education group Great Lakes Education Project (GLEP) following remarks he made at a Senate Education Committee meeting on Tuesday. GLEP was founded and is heavily funded by the billionaire Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. During his testimony, Naeyaert expressed frustration over what […]

“I wanted to shake her, like I like to shake my wife.” Gary Naeraert is the Executive Director of the Great Lakes Education Project (GLEP). GLEP was founded and largely funded by U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos to influence policy and law in Michigan with the aim of promoting charter schools and the elimination of traditional public schools. The […]

In the aftermath of the American Civil War, black Americans found themselves unable to attend colleges and universities because they simply were not allowed entrance into them. In response, they were forced to form their own institutions of higher education. These institutions are now referred to as Historically Black Colleges & Universities (HBCUs). Today, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos issued […]