Rob Wisc

NEPC Talks Education: An Interview With Erica Turner and Bryan Mann About Demographic Change, Segregation, and the Future of School Equity University of Wisconsin‑Madison Assistant Professor Christopher Saldaña interviews Erica Turner and Bryan Mann about how demographic change is reshaping American schools and how current policy respons...

February's NEPC Talks Education podcast is here! @cmsaldana.bsky.social interviews @ericaoturner.bsky.social and @bryanmann.bsky.social about how demographic change is reshaping American schools and how current policy responses can promote equity and integration. bit.ly/3OjNEEO

Protect Academic Freedom, Vote No to Revising The Code The UNC System Board of Governors will vote to amend the UNC System Code with new restrictions on academic freedom at its February 26 meeting. The Board of Governors plans to rewrite the very definiti...

I just signed the @ncaaup.bsky.social petition calling on the UNC Board of Governors to Protect Academic Freedom, Vote No to Revising the UNC System Code.

Sign here: actionnetwork.org/petitions/pr...

Schools: Drop ICE Mass Call · AFT We will cut off ICE’s corporate enablers — starting on our campuses. Donald Trump’s deportation machine depends on private corporations for technology to track, places to sleep, cars to drive, planes...

See you tomorrow night!

www.mobilize.us/aft/event/89...

Protect Academic Freedom, Vote No to Revising The Code The UNC System Board of Governors will vote to amend the UNC System Code with new restrictions on academic freedom at its February 26 meeting. The Board of Governors plans to rewrite the very definiti...

Join @ncaaup.bsky.social in opposing major restrictions on academic freedom in the UNC System--sign the petition actionnetwork.org/petitions/pr...

Theory At The Bargaining Table (Vandal Live at UIC) with Dominique Baker & Anna Kornbluh

Here's a must-listen item from the folks at UIC UF. Covers lots of important labor organizing topics, and is especially informative on ways to push back against edtech and the imposition of AI and data mining across university systems @aaup.org
theamericanvandal.substack.com/p/theory-at-...

Text: SUPPORT THE STRIKERS The Free Alabama Movement has announced a work strike, set to begin on Sunday, February 8. Incarcerated people across Alabama are answering the call and refusing to participate in their exploitation and oppression. "This nonviolent comes in response to decades of unconstitutional sentencing practices, forced prison labor, and the ongoing humanitarian crisis throughout Alabama's prison system," FAM leaders said in a statement. Read the list of demands below and stand in solidarity with the strikers of the Free Alabama Movement. DEMANDS 1. REPEAL ALABAMA'S HABITUAL FELONY OFFENDER ACT (HOA) 2. MAKE THE PRESUMPTIVE SENTENCING GUIDELINES RETROACTIVE 3. MAKE HJR 575 RETROACTIVE (DRIVE-BY-SHOOTING STATUE REFORM) 4. FIRST-TIME OFFENDER/CAPITAL MURDER REFORM BILL 5. PAROLE BOARD REFORM AND CRITERIA 6. MEDICAL FURLOUGH/COMPASSIONATE RELEASE EXPANSION 7. STATEWIDE CONVICTION REVIEW UNIT 8. ABOLISH FORCED PRISON LABOR 9. STRENGTHENING FAMILIES ACT (INCLUDING CONJUGAL VISITS)

🚨 Led by the Free Alabama Movement, incarcerated workers across Alabama are ON STRIKE to protest brutal labor exploitation and inhumane conditions behind the walls 🚨

Watch ‘The Alabama Solution” doc and read on for ways to support their strike:
docs.proton.me/doc?mode=ope...

Don't forget: our children are being abused in taxpayer funded immigrant prisons where medical care is deplorable, freedom is nonexistent, & trauma is rampant.

Imprisoned children are left with a lifetime of anxiety, depression, & PTSD.

They deserve to be as free as Liam is today.

Opinion | Democracy Dies by Database

“You need only know this: Whatever is happening with your data, it is important enough to the most egregiously lawless administration in American history that it be collected and consolidated.” Always read @tressiemcphd.bsky.social (gift link)

'Fear Is a Thief of Focus.' A Teacher on the Impact of ICE and Renee Nicole Good's Death (Opinion) At a time that feels like a state of emergency, educators are doing their best to protect students.

"When a student who is usually in class suddenly stops showing up, or when a senior once excited to go to college says they don’t want to go anymore, we know why." www.edweek.org/leadership/o...

After almost two-year wait, education advocates call on Supreme Court to rule on Leandro More than 700 days after the North Carolina Supreme Court last heard arguments in the nearly 32-year-old Leandro school funding case, there’s still no ruling.

This is what it looks like when legislators refuse to adequately fund schools and the current NC Supreme Court majority allows legislators to continue violating the state constitution.
www.wfae.org/education/20...

Worth reiterating:

All my respect and more to academic women, especially full professors who’ve put up with this their whole careers.

I am genuinely in awe of you.

I’m really looking forward to this, and especially to talking about some of our reporting on immigrant dairy workers which began just a few miles from Madison… please come if you can make it!

ICE is using two facial recognition programs in Minnesota, they said, including one made by the tech company Clearview AI and a newer program, Mobile Fortify. The agency is also using cellphone and social media tools to monitor people’s online activity and potentially hack into phones. And agents are tapping into a database, built by the data analytics company Palantir, that combines government and commercial data to identify real-time locations for individuals they are pursuing, the current and former officials said.

The government is using technology to identify protestors, and then using that information to track and intimidate them. The people using the devices are wearing masks, but we know the companies creating the technology.
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/30/t...

The @interruptcrim Block It! Don’t Build It! Don’t Fill It! Don’t Fuel It! toolkit is also a great source of actions you can take and organizing you can join or be inspired by to throw sand in ICE’s gears even if you can’t be in the streets

www.interruptingcriminalization.com/block-it

This article reports that Deloitte has been given nearly $100 million in contracts from ICE and CBP since January 2025.

I would love to see the states that have been targeted by federal immigration enforcement action relieve Deloitte of their human service and benefits system contracts.

Last week I wrote that ICE (& immigration judges) are increasingly openly defying courts. lpeproject.org/blog/immigra...

Now, a judge compiled 100 cases from ICE’s MN siege where ICE ignored court orders.

Yet what are dems offering? Basically—laws that ask ICE to please follow the law.

Education Today - January 28, 2026 | KPFA Professor David Backer looks at educational policy and finance from within a Marxist perspective, and he leads a group within the American Education Research Association Education Today is a radio sho...

Here’s my interview on KPFA yesterday, talking about Marx, education, etc. kpfa.org/episode/educ...

Does anyone know what's up with the California School Dashboard's growth measure? It doesn't *seem* to match the growth model that was approved by the state, though honest to god I'm not sure I know how it's even being calculated given the description. www.caschooldashboard.org/reports/0161...

My understanding only comes from skimming some details in the July 2025 SBE Item Word doc (where they also recommend using the type of language you quoted), so looking there might be most helpful!

A screenshot of a section of text in the linked FAQ. Two of the questions in the FAQ have been expanded in the screenshot. The text of those questions and answers is: How are growth scores calculated? First the expected growth score needs to be calculated. To do this, all students who completed the assessment in the current year are grouped together by grade level, with their current year scores on one single assessment along with their previous assessment scores in both ELA and math. For example, all students in Grade 4 who took the ELA assessment in 2024–25 would have their current year scores along with their 2023–24 Grade 3 ELA assessment and 2023–24 Grade 3 math assessment scores. All of that information is used to calculate the score expected of those students in 2024–25 in grade 4. We then compare their actual score on the 2024–25 Grade 4 ELA assessment to the expected score calculated using the growth model. How many years of data are used to calculate average growth scores? Individual student growth scores are calculated using two years of assessment data. For the 2025 Dashboard, assessment data from 2023–24 and 2024–25. Average growth scores, however, are calculated using either one year or two years of student growth scores. A simple average growth score, using only one year of student growth (for the 2025 Dashboard, two years assessment results from 2023–24 and 2024–25), is valid and reliable when it’s based on many student scores. Therefore, a simple average is used to calculate average growth scores for student groups with more than 500 students in an LEA. However, low year-to-year stability was found when using just one year of growth at other aggregation levels. To increase the accuracy of these average growth scores, California uses a weighted average of two years of growth scores (that is, three years assessment results from 2022–23, 2023–24, and 2024–25) at the LEA, school, and school student group levels.

The Growth Data FAQ page from the Cal Dept of Ed provides more context about the data used to determine the growth measurements:

www.cde.ca.gov/ta/ac/growth...

Based on that same file, it seems like SBE decided to name the levels:

Level 1 – Minimal
Level 2 – Moderate
Level 3 – Average
Level 4 – Accelerated
Level 5 – Exceptional

as also used on the Washington Elementary Dashboard.

Screenshot of Table 5 on p. 30 of linked document. The text above the table reads: Based on the distributions for LEAs from the 2024 Dashboard, CDE recommends that the SBE adopt the Growth Performance cut scores for ELA and Math as shown in Table 5. Table 5: Suggested Cut Scores for ELA and Math Growth Performance Table 5 has two columns and six rows. The first column is labeled Status Level; the second labeled Status Cut Score. The following text summarizes the table in the format "Status Level" [dash] "Status Cut Score": Level 1 - 20.1 points below or fewer Level 2 - 20 points below to fewer than 5 points below Level 3 - 5 points below to fewer than 5 points above Level 4 - 4 points above to fewer than 20 points above Level 5 - More than or equal to 20 points above

The "Additional Resources" linked on that page are mostly State Board of Education items and memos. The July 2025 SBE Item describes how the SBE determines the cut scores for the various levels on the growth measurements for schools. Table on p. 30 of linked document.

www.cde.ca.gov/be/ag/ag/yr2...

Screenshot of a section of the linked website that reads: How Do We Measure Student Growth in California on the Dashboard California’s student growth methodology uses the statewide Smarter Balanced results from students in grades four through eight in both ELA and math. Students who take assessments outside of these grades, or those that take the California Alternate Assessments (CAAs) are not included in the measurement. The first step in calculating individual student growth scores for a subject area (ELA or Math) is to determine the student’s expected test score. The expected test score is determined by looking at students who had similar test scores in the previous grade and then evaluating their typical test scores in the current year. Once expected test scores are determined for each student, the difference between student's expected test scores and their actual test scores are compared to arrive at their individual growth scores. These individual scores are averaged for students at the district, school, and student group levels, using either a simple average—when there are large numbers of students, or a weighted average— when there are small numbers of students. For a complete and in-depth technical review of the growth model methodology, please view the Additional Resources made available at the end of this web page.

Here is how the Cal Dept of Ed explains their growth model:

www.cde.ca.gov/ta/ac/acctgr...

Minneapolis is really laying a blueprint here that is telling a powerful story in organized, community resistance. Pay attention.

While this is for new organizers from @prisonculture.bsky.social it’s an excellent reminder to veteran organizers. In these times (see why I did there?) we must all be grounded in the hope of what’s possible so we can continue to work for it and build it.

So which politician is calling for the dismantling of the probably illegal database that ice & this government is collecting biometric data of protesters?

Every member of congress has a duty & right to conduct oversight on DHS.

They should all come do rapid response. Come inspect the Twin Cities ICE HQ. Push in and do some oversight. Do not let the guards turn you away. Make them arrest you or beat you or let you in.

I am not being snarky. I need my colleagues who wrote on covid school lockdowns to engage with this. To be as loud as they have been about prior "learning loss." Hell, you can cite Tom & Mark's AERJ paper so you feel better that there's some econ somewhere in your argument.

Any Minnesotan teachers who can give me intel about ICE on school campuses? Will keep you anon.

Mrs.frazzled@gmail.com or text/leave a voicemail 202-847-6577