Author Archives: wrenchinthegears

Last week Susan Patrick of iNACOL (International Association of K12 Online Learning) and Chris Sturgis of CompetencyWorks presented “An Overview of K12 Competency-Based Education for Education Leaders and Teachers.” The webinar and slides can be accessed here. Compare the slides below and consider the gravity of our situation. The first shows the reach of Competency-Based […]

Silicon Valley serves up schools on screens. Faceless data dashboards echo drive thru menus. Illusions of choice codified by corporations after focus groups strategically set the frame. Designed for profit, efficiency, and control of imagination, intellect, portion size, and calories.   Cheap ingredients and harried workers draw in students with online games. Content consumed without […]

I posted the scenario below in November of 2015 as a Facebook note. Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve come across a number of items having to do with skills, automation, and human capital management, so I thought I would pull it back out to share. Below are a couple of articles that caught my eye: New Tools Needed […]

Yesterday Peter Greene expanded on an idea I’d put forth a few months back that Competency Based Education (and really all digital curriculum) was a way of gradually turning neighborhood public schools into charters from the inside out. I encourage you to take a few minutes to read his piece “Charterizing From Within.” I’m glad this proposition is making it […]

  Competency-based education’s march through New England continues. In the fall it was Massachusetts with its fanfare around MAPLE (Massachusetts Personalized Learning Ed-Tech Consortium), and now on April Fools Day the joke appears to be on Rhode Island. This weekend hundreds of educators gathered in Providence for the sixth annual “Blended and Personalized Learning Conference” […]

It’s great to have another opportunity to discuss where things are headed with this next wave of privatization. Thanks so much to Brian St. Pierre and the Port Jefferson Station Teachers Association for the invitation to participate in tonight’s discussion.

This weekend I relished the opportunity to meet up with some wonderful activists with whom I have been collaborating online for many months. Virtual worlds provide useful starting points for building networks and sharing information, but nothing beats being able to be in the same physical space, shake hands, share a hug, and discuss the future of education looking directly into each […]

Earlier today I posted the following comment on Diane Ravitch’s March 12 post “Send a Message to Betsy DeVos: Opt Out of Federally Mandated Testing.” I second Former Teacher’s comments regarding the damage interim assessments are doing to the educational process. Opt Out can no longer simply be focused on end of year testing. It MUST expand […]

From this week’s newsfeed: Chicago schools may end classes three weeks early due to lack of funding. Several dozen Detroit schools close temporarily due to a “boil water” advisory. Some Boston schools anticipate 20%+ cuts to already meager budgets. Philadelphia teachers crowd-fund a billboard explaining they’ve been working without a contract or raises for nearly […]