Minneapolis Parents Choose Community Over Testing
April 24, 2017 In early April, the Minneapolis Star Tribune published the results of a new online survey, completed by parents with kids in the Minneapolis Public Schools. The results offer a...
View ArticleOn Buckthorn, Neoliberalism and Other Invasive Things
May 1, 2017 Last week, as I was driving my South High School student to an event, she began naming all of the trees lining the street. There’s a River Birch, she called out, and my favorite, she said...
View ArticleMinnesota Comeback Cites “Laggards,”“Fringe Bloggers” as Problematic
May 10, 2017 In an email blast sent to supporters recently, the local education reform advocacy group, Minnesota Comeback, warned that “laggards” and “fringe bloggers”–myself included–are “spew(ing)...
View ArticleMinnesota Governor “Disrupts” Right-Wing Education Reformers
May 22, 2017 In the middle of a stormy legislative session, which is careening to a close at midnight tonight, Minnesota’s Governor, Mark Dayton, has thrown two clear lifelines to public education...
View ArticleToo Overworked to Attend Your Kid’s Conference? Don’t Worry! We Can...
June 26, 2017 On June 27, three different parent and community education organizing events will take place in Minneapolis, offering a seeming embarrassment of riches for those tracking education reform...
View ArticleMinneapolis Southwest High School Investigation Leads to Administrative Shake Up
August 2, 2017 “We look forward to appointing these new assistant principals as quickly as possible.” With that, Minneapolis Public Schools administrator, Cecillia Saddler, confirmed rumors swirling...
View ArticleMinneapolis Protester to School Board Members: “You are Trash”
August 9, 2017 Minneapolis Public Schools superintendent, Ed Graff, reportedly had to be escorted to his car by in-house security officers late on August 8, at the tail end of a long and loudly...
View ArticleMinneapolis’s Segregated Charter Schools Score a Windfall
October 9, 2017 On September 28, the U.S. Department of Education announced that it would give a handful of states, including Minnesota, an “additional $253 million in grants to expand charter...
View ArticleMinneapolis Teachers Union Pushes for Smaller Classes, Less Testing–and $15...
November 22, 2017 Last night, the best seat in town for education advocates was a folding chair inside the squat, workaday headquarters of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers. It’s negotiation...
View ArticleOpting Out of Standardized Tests? It’s Still Legal in Minnesota
December 14, 2017 The Harvard Graduate School of Education recently posted an eye-opening interview with Professor Daniel Koretz, author of The Testing Charade: Pretending to Make Schools Better. His...
View ArticleFor-Profit McNally Smith College Suddenly Shuts Down: A Student’s View
December 22, 2017 “If we mean anything more than our tuition to you, show us.” This is Ana Hymson’s message for McNally Smith college officials. Hymson is, or was, one semester away from completing a...
View ArticleMinneapolis Public Schools Administrator Runs a Side School Choice Consulting...
January 16, 2018 When it comes to declining student enrollment for the Minneapolis Public Schools, it looks like the fox may be guarding the hen house. Bryan Fleming Bryan Fleming, who has served as...
View ArticleMinneapolis Public Schools Stands By Administrator with Side School Choice...
January 17, 2018 In 2017, according to Minneapolis Public Schools staff, the district’s General Counsel, Amy Moore, investigated whether or not district administrator Bryan Fleming’s consulting...
View ArticleMinneapolis Teachers Rally as Reform Battle Lines Get Drawn
February 14, 2018 If education reform is a political game, and it is, then it looks like the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT) is winning. Here’s why. On February 13, the union held an...
View ArticleMinneapolis Public Schools Hosts Teach for America Recruiting Event
March 5, 2018 A Teach for America recruitment event was held March 2-3 at the Minneapolis Public Schools’ Davis Center headquarters, just as schools across the district are being hit with a familiar...
View ArticleMinneapolis South High Students Walk Out, Then Face Budget Realities
March 15, 2018 On March 14, hundreds of Minneapolis South High School students quietly walked around the school’s perimeter for seventeen minutes as part of the National School Walkout. Today, they...
View ArticleMinneapolis Southwest High School Community Roiled by Rumors of Violence
March 15, 2018 On March 14, interim Minneapolis Southwest High School principal, Karen Wells, sent an email home to families, informing them that a “small fight” had taken place during the day, as...
View ArticleMinneapolis Ranks High–Relatively–On Loving Cities Index
March 20, 2018 Want Education Reform? Try Love Since 2000, according to his own estimation, Bill Gates’s philanthropic foundation has dedicated $1 billion to the remaking of America’s schools. Speaking...
View ArticleMinnesota’s Charter Schools Suspend Kids of Color, Too
March 27, 2018 Linda Brown died on March 25 at age 75. As I read through memorials about her life and her role in the famous 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling, I was struck by this: In 1979...
View ArticleNot Proficient? Minnesota Attempts to Thwart Standardized Testing Opt Outs
April 16, 2018 Q: What’s more jaw-dropping than a blizzard in April? A: The continued pressure tactics being used against Minnesota families who want to opt their children out of the high stakes...
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