In the wake of pandemic schooling, the testing industry sees an opportunity to sell schools on assessments and interventions that line their pocket-books, but do their claims live up the cost?
For decades, the multi-billion dollar testing industry has centered itself in schools. Despite objections from educators and students and the nauseating number of assessments that occur each year, the financial interests of Pearson, Curriculum Associates, and the like, continue to press a need for additional profits to please their shareholders or board members.
The advent of learning loss is connected to the “need” for more assessment. In the wake of pandemic schooling, the testing industry has seen an opportunity to establish additional professional development, coursework, and assessment measures to line their pocket-books. This language has taken hold, with numerous organizations…
Each month, the Human Restoration Project chooses books that we believe are paramount for progressive educators to read. These are not necessarily categorized or numbered by importance, relevance to a certain topic, or release date. Instead, these are the books we’ve read recently to inform our own practice and publications.
You can also learn about this work on our recent podcast with the author Alex Shevrin Venet.
Alex Shevrin Venet’s Equity-Centered, Trauma-Informed Education is a masterful work which inspires a systemic look at the injustices in classrooms, schools, and communities. Not to be confused with a trauma-informed manual, Venet’s work…
This article originally appeared in The Progressive.
The year 2020 was undoubtedly one of the worst for public education. As a high school public school teacher, I saw firsthand how teachers went from being recognized as heroes to being demonized employees facing a crisis of safety.
Our students feel marginalized and distrusted by increasing calls for accountability through panopticon-level surveillance systems and “catch up” virtual curriculums. Meanwhile, government officials are calling for decreased funding and “school choice,” often targeting “radical” teachers unions in the guise of “America First” cultural rhetoric.
At the beginning of the pandemic, educators believed we could…
(The following is a transcription from HRP’s recent podcast episode.)
Paul Geheeb is a relatively unknown progressive education leader. Unlike Maria Montessori or Rudolf Steiner, Geheeb wasn’t focused on writing articles or books, nor inventing new systems of methods. His legacy is solely imbued in Echole d’Humanité, or the School of Humanity. Located in Switzerland, the School of Humanity is an elite international boarding school regarded as one of the best in Europe. Its motto, which Geheeb centered his entire educational philosophy on, is Become who you are.
Geheeb believed that every single child had a unique individual essence that…
Educators who stay in the field believe they can make a difference. We spend hours of our free time trying to reimagine education. This year has highlighted that there is a continual issue with equity in education; and that there’s a serious problem with the way schooling in general is tackling the issues we face today.
I’m very privileged to teach in a well-funded district. I teach in a public magnet STEM school which provides free tuition to underserved students in Springfield, Ohio. We attract students who primarily don’t do well in standardized, traditional classrooms by providing more hands-on, project-driven…
We desperately need our schools and communities to become restorative and transformative spaces. — Mariame Kaba
Mariame Kaba’s collection of writings, We Do This ’Til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice is a perfect encapsulation of understanding the carceral network, the importance of organizing, and counteracting inhumane systems. Taking readers through a variety of topics centered on abolition, Kaba offers organizers advice on maintaining hope in spite of constant looming threats and setbacks. She pushes readers to join the movement and make change.
As an educator, this work provides two radically important narratives:
1) It frames an understanding…
Back in 2003, I was obsessed with the online multiplayer RPG: Star Wars Galaxies (SWG.) Joining hundreds of thousands of other players, enthusiastic aspiring-Jedi, bounty hunters, and Bantha herders, sprung into a massive, open Star Wars universe for the first time. Verant Interactive Inc. (later acquired and renamed to Sony Online Entertainment (SOE)) and LucasArts teamed up to release the widely anticipated title, and expected their widely ambitious game to make millions upon millions of dollars.
Star Wars Galaxies was confusing and filled with technical issues. It required players to read pages upon pages of tutorials to understand what was…
Each month, the Human Restoration Project chooses books that we believe are paramount for progressive educators to read. These are not necessarily categorized or numbered by importance, relevance to a certain topic, or release date. Instead, these are the books we’ve read recently to inform our own practice and publications.
When Nick and I came across this quote, we knew we had to learn about Haim Ginott. Ginott, a child psychologist and bestselling author, wrote a series of books in the ’60s and ’70s on parenting and teaching. …
Each month, the Human Restoration Project chooses books that we believe are paramount for progressive educators to read. These are not necessarily categorized or numbered by importance, relevance to a certain topic, or release date. Instead, these are the books we’ve read recently to inform our own practice and publications.
Manufacturing Happy Citizens: How the Science and Industry of Happiness Control Our Lives by Edgar Cabanas & Eva Illouz provides a convincing condemnation of “positive psychology”, the relatively recent scientific study of happiness. …
‘You have a morbid aversion to dying. You probably resent the fact that you’re at war and might get your head blown off any second.’
‘I more than resent it, sir. I’m absolutely incensed.’
‘You have deep-seated survival anxieties. And you don’t like bigots, bullies, snobs or hypocrites. Subconsciously there are many people you hate.’
‘Consciously, sir, consciously,’ Yossarian corrected in an effort to help. ‘I hate them consciously.’
‘You’re antagonistic to the idea of being robbed, exploited, degraded, humiliated or deceived. Misery depresses you. Ignorance depresses you. Persecution depresses you. Violence depresses you. Slums depress you. Greed depresses you…
Chris McNutt
I'm an educator who wants to reconstruct schools. Let's start a movement! HS Digital Design & Media Educator & Founder of the Human Restoration Project.
