Category Archives: Blog

The words used to promote “future ready” public education do not mean to reformers what they mean to you. This post is intended to pull back the curtain and expose the truth behind venture capital’s shiny promises of “personalized” tech-centered, data-driven learning. The list below features vocabulary that should be on everyone’s radar. Short definitions […]

I wouldn’t expect an expose on ed-tech to come out of The Intercept any time soon, despite the solid work they have done on Google and their deep knowledge of online surveillance and ties between Silicon Valley and government officials. Read on to find out why. I’m always looking for opportunities to raise awareness around […]

I am in the process of creating an online toolkit for parents, teachers, and community members fighting the Ed Reform 2.0 agenda of digital curriculum, learning ecosystems and outsourced/badged education. My intent is to: organize the research I have been doing and make it more accessible; link to related work being done by others; provide […]

It seems impossible until the day it becomes inevitable. Change starts with individual acts of moral courage. I posted the above comment on my Facebook page as an accompaniment to this article discussing growth of the protest movement within the NFL that manifested itself this past Sunday. On that day numerous players and owners allied […]

The introduction to this piece including a discussion of ImBlaze can be found here. Big Picture Learning students spend two days a week outside of school pursuing their “passions.” Although I’ve heard off the record that not all student end up with placements and instead languish in front of computer screens killing time. I imagine […]

I am writing this feeling somewhat like a David facing off against a Goliath. It certainly won’t make me popular. There are many of us who keep weighing the evidence. Is Diane Ravitch incredibly wiley or incredibly obtuse? I’ll leave it to you to decide. It IS clear that there are parts of her narrative […]

On September 13, 2017 I attended the Philadelphia School Reform Commission’s monthly meeting and testified to the fact that public education has become an extractive industry, one that uses children to generate profits for private interests including global finance. The poem I wrote equated student data-mining with fracking, a toxic industry that has caused great […]

The following poem was presented as my 3-minute testimony at the Philadelphia School Reform Commission’s monthly meeting held September 14, 2017. Our children, your profit centers. Their data, digital toil, your oil. Not to sell…outright,   But to collect and package for the gamblers of global finance. Titles and social standing held out. Such a […]

Or, how my day would have been very different had I worn khakis. This is a story about access; who has it, and who doesn’t. This week my friend and fellow activist Tomika Anglin and I both pushed back against a system that attempted to marginalize us in order to more easily advance private interests […]

I really need you to keep in mind that all the data run through those programs (your intellectual property, student work, correspondence, etc.) is being used to refine the AI systems destined to replace you. There is a price for this “free” convenience. The bill may come due after you leave the profession, but I […]