Lead external relations @bellwetherorg. Husband, twin dad, @PPSConnect parent, @NBA junkie. Working to build stronger public schools. Past: @TNTP, @NYCSchools.
Portland, OR
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Reminder that teacher strikes and the disruption they bring are always choices by unions. Teachers will still get paid under the current contract if it expires. Negotiations can continue for as long as it takes. There's no reason kids in Seattle shouldn't go to school tomorrow.
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Any creative thinking on speeding up games is good but two easier changes that would help even more:
(1) Last 2 minutes = 1 timeout and 1 WNBA-style "reset" (take the ball to halfcourt but can't huddle) per team
(2) Failed challenge = delay of game, one shot (inspired by NHL)
The one free throw rule will be tested at the upcoming NBA summer leagues.
With this rule, any foul that would typically result in one, two or three free throws under standard NBA rules will instead result in a single free throw attempt. That attempt will be worth the same total number of points as the free throws it replaces.
Standard NBA free throw rules will apply during the last two minutes of the fourth quarter and throughout overtime.
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Wow, basketball is really fun when you play the last 20 seconds in 20 seconds instead of 10 minutes, who knew? Maybe the world's premier basketball league should consider some rule changes to make that happen more often -- just an idea, no worries if not @NBA.
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Somehow people are still way underestimating the extent to which voters value "answers a question directly and sounds like they believe it" more than any particular policy position.
KRISTEN WELKER: If Democrats win the midterms do you want to see Leader Jeffries become the speaker of the House?
MAYOR-ELECT ZOHRAN MAMDANI: Yes.
KRISTEN WELKER: Okay. That was a firm, quick answer.
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This is sad on many levels, not least because focusing on raising reading and math scores to the degree Louisiana and Mississippi have would be a very popular thing for any Democratic gubernatorial candidate to run on.
WATCH: Louisiana and Mississippi aren’t the punchlines they used to be.
They’ve led the nation in reading gains in recent years.
If you’re mocking them in 2025, you haven’t been paying attention.
cc: @MikieSherrill @Jack4NJ
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Andy Jacob retweeted
The peak of the ed reform movement by policymakers, philanthropists and advocates occurred from 2009-14. Much of that attention has since shifted to career pathways. That holds much promise, but if we keep turning away from the 100,000 public schools, these trends will continue.
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This is the only acceptable presentation of this national treasure and I would rather not hear it at all than see NBC use it so lazily. I feel more strongly about this than any ed policy position I hold FYI.
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I will say for the 492,593rd time: no right-wing policies are hurting public education as much as the people in public education trying to help by advertising they aren't especially interested in how much kids are learning in school.
"We're defining success in a way that reflects our community values..not someone else's"
Dr. Reid unveils the Future Readiness Index, an effort to push back on new state accountability standards w a counter narrative that will allow FCPS to rely on various academic & non-academic metrics (such as degree of belonging & community involvement) to represent that FCPS is doing terrifically, no matter what the state standards say.
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There are legit pros and cons to starting gifted programs in kindergarten. More interesting/telling to me is why this is even the conversation by him or any candidate when nearly half of NYC students aren't on grade level in reading and math. Way bigger fish to fry.
Mamdani Says He Would Phase Out N.Y.C. Gifted Program: nytimes.com/2025/10/02/nyreg…
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The thing that throws vulnerable people under the bus is Democrats losing the power they need to protect them by running losing campaigns. Anyone who doesn't care first and foremost about electoral results doesn't actually care about protecting people.
On this website, anytime you suggest that Dems should mount a heterodox appeal that combines economic populism with right-leaning stances on cultural issues, you get a bunch of people saying “who are you going to throw under the bus??” Yet a lot of those same people then back candidates like Dan Osborn who (correctly, imo) combine economic populism with right-leaning cultural stances.
The purity-test pretext is a scam — “I will never compromise” yields clicks and donations for individual candidates and clout-chasers on here, but obfuscates on the important question of where the party needs to go. It would be better if everyone was just open and honest about how this is a winning formula in the red states Dems need to win to be competitive in the Senate and not continue to steadily lose ground in the electoral college.
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You can make a strong argument that we're in this mess largely because we already did "return education to the states." Wild that even after years of these dismal results, no major leaders from either party are willing to just demand a renewed focus on teaching and learning.
Today, we learned that in 2024, nearly 80% of high school seniors were not proficient in math and nearly two-thirds of them were not proficient in reading. That is unacceptable.
We can no longer go along with the status quo. It’s time to return education to the states.
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Update on how much we care about kids being in school here in Portland: it's a half day in @PPSConnect due to "extreme heat." It's currently 67 and cloudy and I just had to wear a jacket when I was sitting outside because it was a little chilly.
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The confetti in the accompanying graphic is just 👌
1/3 of kids are nowhere close to grade level in reading, party time!!!
Guys, good news! No reading problem.
(Ignore the debate about proficient, just go to the NAGB website, look the percentages of students who are *below basic" and look at the standards/items and decide if you think that is OK.)
washingtonpost.com/opinions/…
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This sort of unseriousness about student learning and schools' responsibility to do the hard work of making it happen is a bigger long-term threat to public education than the current administration, funding levels, etc.
New SF public school plan would
- eliminate homework and weekly tests from counting toward semester grade
- allow students to take the final exam multiple times
- convert all B grades into As, and all Fs into Cs
It’s hard to see the difference between this policy and what you’d get if a bunch of 10yos locked the teachers in a closet and rewrote the rules.
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I agree but also feel this way about any game coming down to intentional fouls — why limit the conversation just to fouling up 3?
absolutely has to be legislated out of the game. for a game that intense and competitive and heart racing to end in the most dull free throw shooting match possible is an affront to the game of basketball
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