Summer week links round-up

Summertime, so I'm not posting as often. Some things you might like to read:

• This Atlantic article about why some schools are getting rid of their iPads is a worthwhile read, as we have conversations around what technology we invest in. As always, it's not about the technology; it's about what we're doing with the technology. 
• Guess where kids best learn executive function? Not in the classroom. 
• I've been largely staying out of the Campbell Brown/Whoopie Goldberg/insert-person-who-doesn't-understand-due-process-here dustup, but here's a good response on why due process matters and is in the best interest of kids. 
• You may or may not have been following what's going on in Boston around the Dearborn Middle School; either way, here's a good update on that.
• And if your kids are in the Worcester Public Schools, you may well know a lot of this, but read on for why you should choose the Worcester Public Schools!  

Kansas

While the Kansas Legislature did move to fix their unconstitutional funding of the state's schools, they included in the bill something nasty: they took away teacher due process.

New Orleans teachers win in appeals court

I retweeted this decision today, but I'm concerned at how little attention I'm seeing it get in the news. Big deal, folks! 
In a decision that may well bankrupt the school district (once they sort out who's going to pay for it), 7000 former New Orleans teachers won in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals today.

...an appeals court has decided that the School Board wrongly terminated more than 7,000 teachers after Hurricane Katrina. Those teachers were not given due process, and many teachers had the right to be rehired as jobs opened up in the first years after the storm, the court said in a unanimous opinion.

The teachers were laid off after Hurricane Katrina as part of the massive reorganization of the school district, that resulted in a district today in which nearly all children attend charter schools. The court decision awards the teachers two to three years of back pay, an amount that lawyers said during the appeal could total $1.5 billion.
If you can listen, NPR's coverage is excellent, as they've interviewed Sarah Carr, who has been following New Orleans since Katrina (and wrote the book).

I think it's also important to remember that Secretary Duncan in 2010 commented that the hurricane was "the best thing to happen to the education system in New Orleans."