Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #edpolicy
Most recents (15)
Thread: At #Jeffco board meeting, Director Miller’s questions get to the truth about the current state of the scandal ridden $800m bond program…@wsj @The74 #copolitics #edcolo #k12 #edpolicy #edchat
(1) After net $19m in costs at schools receiving students from 16 closed ES, only $34m (!) is left from $118m in bond premium ($51m was spent on athletic facilities not disclosed to voters in 2018)…
(2) About $100m from original bond proceeds is currently allocated to projects that haven’t begun, including construction of 2 new ES (!!!). This includes $17m for projects now in design phase, and $83m that haven’t begun.
Thread: If a picture is worth 1,000 words, this 1Feb23 video of the teachers union presentation to the board of @JeffcoSchoolsCo (nation's 39th largest district) is worth a million. But first, some background... #edpolicy @FoxNews #edchat #suptchat #k12 #edcolo #jeffco @WSJ
Before the union presentation, the Jeffco board spent more than an hour discussing this affluent, educated suburban district's dismal student results, which have been declining for a decade... 
Last June, the 4 (out of 5) union backed board directors approved such a large comp increase for teachers that Jeffco was plunged into financial chaos. Faced with $130m of projected deficits and reserve drawdowns, 16 ES have been closed, with more MS and HS to follow...
Why have #schoolvouchers programs persisted and expanded despite a more lopsided base of objective evidence against them than nearly any other current #edpolicy #education initiative?
A few reasons 🧵🪡
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A few reasons 🧵🪡
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First is that today #schoolvouchers activists are directly part of the larger #trump-style revanchist and anti-democratic turn in American politics since Obama’s second term.
Politically their success is intertwined.
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Politically their success is intertwined.
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But as a policy matter too we see #schoolvouchers linger around even as #education research has tried to place itself in an #evidencebased position to inform policy.
If evidence were all that informed #edpolicy then vouchers would have been dead a decade ago.
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If evidence were all that informed #edpolicy then vouchers would have been dead a decade ago.
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One reason #schoolvouchers are still described as having “mixed” outcomes is the success of advocates propping up shoddy studies to flood the zone and offset quality evaluations showing dreadful impacts.
But it’s also because few people know what “mixed” truly looks like.
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But it’s also because few people know what “mixed” truly looks like.
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But another reason is non-researchers don’t know what “mixed” truly looks like. #SchoolVouchers outcomes are mixed compared to a standard of “all results show bad outcomes.”
Most do—and all recent do—but not all studies ever show negative.
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Most do—and all recent do—but not all studies ever show negative.
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But that’s not the question. Relative to other #edpolicy questions #schoolvouchers research over the last decade is entirely one-sided.
I could tell a data-driven story on either side of many #edpolicy questions. Where you have to decide the general tendency not an absolute
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I could tell a data-driven story on either side of many #edpolicy questions. Where you have to decide the general tendency not an absolute
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I always go back to @matt_barnum on this, who said we need to take seriously the alarm from school leaders even as we explore the mismatch with admin data.
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It’s silly to argue that admin data show anything like a crisis on teacher exits. Those data don’t.
But I’m surprised that with advent of mixed methods in policy research more folks aren’t looking for ways to join both #educators perspectives and admin data.
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But I’m surprised that with advent of mixed methods in policy research more folks aren’t looking for ways to join both #educators perspectives and admin data.
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I suspect some of this comes down to the same old difference in the way economists study data without always interrogating sources.
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🧵 for #MIpol reporters: all fall I called Ducey MVP of #schoolvouchers and here he’s getting that actual award from Jeb Bush’s ExcelInEd
That group damage to #miched is huge. They’re behind 3rd Grade Fail modeled on #FloridaEd. Snyder gave them literal seat at the table
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That group damage to #miched is huge. They’re behind 3rd Grade Fail modeled on #FloridaEd. Snyder gave them literal seat at the table
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ExcelInEd will lead the fight against repeal of 3rd Grade Retention in the new #mileg. @PaulaMEAPres @mrobmused
Expect bogus “inside” stories like this one, which got started pre-Whitmer #migov and then released early in her term to keep foot on gas
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excelined.org/wp-content/upl…
Expect bogus “inside” stories like this one, which got started pre-Whitmer #migov and then released early in her term to keep foot on gas
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excelined.org/wp-content/upl…
ExcelInEd *seems* safe because they’re moderate relative to crazy Dixon-type book ban howls today and have impressive array of moderate funders you’d expect from a Bush-led org.
And as an org in many ways they are. I’d take them over @BetsyDeVos any day.
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And as an org in many ways they are. I’d take them over @BetsyDeVos any day.
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🤬🤯😡🙄
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NO the evidence for #schoolvouchers isn’t “mixed.”
Voucher “empirical” research showing positive academic effects are no less a political tactic than this piece of garbage here—and by the same organizations.
#edchat
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NO the evidence for #schoolvouchers isn’t “mixed.”
Voucher “empirical” research showing positive academic effects are no less a political tactic than this piece of garbage here—and by the same organizations.
#edchat
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Heritage, Goldwater, Cato and EdChoice form the entire favorable base of evidence for #schoolvouchers.
No reporter would consider a study like this a neutral “study”
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No reporter would consider a study like this a neutral “study”
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No reporter would consider this anything but a politically motivated “study”
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1 For anyone trying to understand why young people are struggling so much (@Literature_Lady @Edu_Historian ), here is how @stevensonhs administration has been grading students since before the pandemic as early as 2012! The crisis has been coming, but Covid made it worse. @ASCD
2 The Stevenson Administration (like Troy Gobble, Eric Twadell and Anthony Reibel) has travelled around the country with Solution Tree consulting to promote these ridiculous grading practices. I say ridiculous because they are not research based or peer-reviewed. #atAssessment
3 They are theoretical ideas bastardized from peo like @robertjmarzano and Gusky but repackaged by administrators who have not taught in the classroom in over a decade. But they happen to be at a high achieving school so ...
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This piece is fine for what it is. What it and others are understating or flat out missing is the link between religious fanaticism and anti-democratic anti-election white supremacism in the school #privatization push
nytimes.com/2022/09/01/opi…
This piece is fine for what it is. What it and others are understating or flat out missing is the link between religious fanaticism and anti-democratic anti-election white supremacism in the school #privatization push
nytimes.com/2022/09/01/opi…
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To give serious space to people like DeAngelis (a ~30 yo lobbyist-w/PhD) to give “thoughts” is appropriate for what the #vouchers movement is but to quote him intellectually rather than a political actor misses the role rightwing think-tanks have played in election denialism
To give serious space to people like DeAngelis (a ~30 yo lobbyist-w/PhD) to give “thoughts” is appropriate for what the #vouchers movement is but to quote him intellectually rather than a political actor misses the role rightwing think-tanks have played in election denialism
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It’s esp problematic given the only real offset to #DeVos/DeAngelis is Mann himself who’s been dead since 1859 and isn’t even directly quoted at that.
It’s esp problematic given the only real offset to #DeVos/DeAngelis is Mann himself who’s been dead since 1859 and isn’t even directly quoted at that.
Thread: @JeffcoSchoolsCo is closing 16 elementary schools. More closures will be needed if we can't stem enrollment declines. Some believe these are due to falling birthrates. The data say this is only part of the story... #edcolo #Jeffco #copolitics #edpolicy #suptchat #k12
This slide shows changes in total enrollment in Jeffco schools (Neighborhood, Option, and Charter) since 2012. As you can see, the fall in Grd 1 enrollment (a proxy for birthrate declines) is much smaller than the fall due to other factors.
Let's look at enrollment changes in more detail. As you can see below, district-managed Option schools have added students since 2012.
Thread: #Jeffco parents and voters: The district's Capital Improvement Program has spent about $173 million on cost overruns, scope changes, and projects not disclosed to Prop 5B voters in 2018. Let's look at the facts. #edcolo #copolitics #edchat #k12 #edpolicy
In 2018, Jeffco voters approved the issuance of $567 million in bonds to fund a $705 million Capital Improvement Program (CIP). The remaining $138 million was to be provided by the annual transfer of $23 million to the district’s Capital Fund from the General Fund for 6 years.
Of the 705, 56m went to charters, $563m was to be spent on projects at district run schools, and $86m was for "Program Contingency." Each project at a district run school included a 10% "project contingency" to cover cost-overruns and scope changes. If these were > 10% ...
The English government has created such a binfire in #ITE and #TPD #edpolicy to a point that former favourites & courtiers are now lawyering up to fight the gov’t for their survival. Students, schools & communities continue to lose out to culture wars promoted by the state. 1/7
England really is worth watching for #edpolicy. For all the wrong reasons. 2/7
tes.com/magazine/news/…
tes.com/magazine/news/…
For example: #ITE providers can be awarded an ‘outstanding’ (top) grade by @Ofstednews in one month and then failed on their reaccreditation by @educationgovuk two months later, like @UniofNottingham 3/7
schoolsweek.co.uk/top-grade-uni-…
schoolsweek.co.uk/top-grade-uni-…
Who are the 10 decision-makers shaping MN #edpolicy in the final weeks of #mnleg session? Swipe to find out! 1/ 🧵⬇️
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🧵Excited to amplify all the good work to be presented under the @AERADiv_J (postsecondary #education) - Section 3 "Organization, Management, & Leadership" banner during #AERA21 #AERA2021. If you're into #OrgTheory #EdPolicy #EdLeadership #HigherEd #EdLaw - Bookmark this thread
🪜-1 (step 1) is to get your #AERA2021 #AERA21 schedule filled with all the @AERADiv_J - Section 3 goodness so you can attend the sessions live:
🪜-2: Bookmark this thread as I will be tweeting out the papers/authors for the different sessions. Lots of great work!
Super excited that our book on teacher diversity, w @DrMikeHansen & @Dr_ConstanceL will be published by @Harvard_Ed_Pub in Feb 2021. It’s available for pre-order now !! so claim your copies today: hepg.org/hep-home/books…
The book's premise is that newish causal evidence, along with older qualitative evidence, on the benefits of same-race teachers points to teacher race as an important but often overlooked policy lever. 2/
In other words: ***Teacher diversity is teacher quality*** and should be treated as such in teacher recruitment, assignment, and retention policy. Many states and districts have started to take diversity seriously, though not enough strategic policy guidance in this space. 3/
