Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Nick Covington @covingtonedu.bsky.social · 1h

James is a disappointment to this Covington.

Nick Covington @covingtonedu.bsky.social · 1h

I've also never taught in or worked with a school that didn't teach books, but I know my experience is not universal. I've also experienced policy hurdles so significant in attempting to include monographs in social studies curriculum that eventually our team bailed on the effort.

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Nick Covington @covingtonedu.bsky.social · 1h

I don't think anyone is blaming standards. This very thorough article (from today, oddly enough) cites survey data reporting 1/4 of teachers in grades 3-8 teach primarily/exclusively from basals/excerpts.

www.edweek.org/teaching-lea...

Which teaching materials do you or (if you are an administrator) the teachers in your district or school use for English/language arts/reading instruction in grades 3-8?

24% teach with basal readers and excerpts

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Nick Covington @covingtonedu.bsky.social · 2h

Standards-based "college and career readiness" and STEM seem to be the only policy frameworks schools/teachers are allowed to work within. The takeover is so thorough, Ohio has even rebranded their Department of Education *and the Workforce*.

Who needs literature at work, anyway?

Annie Abrams @annieabrams.bsky.social · 3h

know what's kind of weird? common core's been around for so long now that it's successfully disrupted a long tradition (in some cases inertia, no doubt) of teaching books in schools and it's necessary to make cases for why we should do that again

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Reposted by Nick Covington

Annie Abrams @annieabrams.bsky.social · 3h

why teach literature in high school at all? it's a serious question

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Reposted by Nick Covington

Annie Abrams @annieabrams.bsky.social · 3h

know what's kind of weird? common core's been around for so long now that it's successfully disrupted a long tradition (in some cases inertia, no doubt) of teaching books in schools and it's necessary to make cases for why we should do that again

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Nick Covington @covingtonedu.bsky.social · 3h

I want transgender for everyone who wants it too.

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Nick Covington @covingtonedu.bsky.social · 3h

Thank you!

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Nick Covington @covingtonedu.bsky.social · 4h

Ah, dammit: "The temporary closures began Sunday."

abcnews.go.com/GMA/Travel/s...

Smithsonian museums, National Zoo closed amid government shutdown

Smithsonian museums and the National Zoo, which receive federal funding, are closing temporarily amid the federal government shutdown.

abcnews.go.com

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Nick Covington @covingtonedu.bsky.social · 4h

I'll be flying into DC early-ish tomorrow morning and will have a few hours to kill before driving into Virginia. Does anyone know if/what sites will actually be open or should I just presume anything worth visiting will be closed for the shutdown?

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Nick Covington @covingtonedu.bsky.social · 4h

But I do want transgender for everybody, if they want it, too. That's the whole nature of liberty.

Reposted by Nick Covington

Marcus Luther @marcusluther.bsky.social · 11h

"The most important thing I learned during those months of subbing was to make teaching my own: my own classroom, my own values, my own pedagogy. Succeed or fail, I need to know who I am and how I want to teach."

🙏 @mrneibauer.bsky.social

adrianneibauer.substack.com/p/the-cost-o...

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Reposted by Nick Covington

Marcus Luther @marcusluther.bsky.social · 20h

I think this is exactly what better, more-authentic resources can and should look like around AI and developing critical awareness in students and teachers alike.

substack.com/home/post/p-...

The Reckoning: Sora 2 and the Year We Said Enough

"Can you tell me where we're headin'? Lincoln County Road or Armageddon?"

substack.com

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Reposted by Nick Covington

Anne Lutz Fernandez @lutzfernandez.bsky.social · 13h

"Militarized occupations of entire cities communicate a message...that your existence is suspect, likely criminal. Tanks and armed soldiers in the streets broadcast to those children and their younger siblings: Your country is at war with you."

The Assault on Children

MAGA's use of kids to consolidate authoritarianism

nobody-wants-this.ghost.io

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Reposted by Nick Covington

Preorder Read This When Things Fall Apart @mskellymhayes.bsky.social · 23h

My latest is the story of how my community has rallied to protect and defend our neighbors in recent days, as ICE has targeted the Rogers Park neighborhood in Chicago. "This is not a story about a moment of victory, but a moment of being reminded of our power."

They Came for Our Neighbors. We Showed Up.

Before long, there were dozens, and then hundreds of people in the streets, watching and responding.

organizingmythoughts.org

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Nick Covington @covingtonedu.bsky.social · 15h

Thugs and gangsters, all of them.

Nick Covington @covingtonedu.bsky.social · 15h

He looks like a stock photo cartoon bandit with a hankie pulled up over his nose and we're supposed to assume he's the Good Guy?

Cartoon stock photo of a bandit with a hankie pulled up over his nose

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Reposted by Nick Covington

Tom Joscelyn @tomjoscelyn.bsky.social · 1d

“I spent three nights and three days in federal custody. During that time, I was never told what I was charged with, was not allowed to shower despite being covered in tear gas and pepper spray, had no phone call to my family, and no access to an attorney.” - George Retes, U.S. citizen and veteran.

I’m a US citizen and a veteran. ICE arrested me for no reason.

Jailed for three days without an explanation or ability to notify anyone, George Retes argues the only path to healing starts with the government taking accountability for its actions.

newsletter.ofthebrave.org

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Nick Covington @covingtonedu.bsky.social · 1d

Huh?

Reposted by Nick Covington

Caitlin G. DeAngelis @caitlindeangelis.bsky.social · 1d

ICE kidnapped a 7th-grader with a pending asylum claim and spirited him out of state without notifying his parents, seemingly with the cooperation of the local police in Everett, MA.

www.bostonglobe.com/2025/10/12/m...

Everett 13-year-old arrested by ICE and sent to Virginia detention facility
By Marcela Rodrigues Globe Staff,Updated October 12, 2025, 44 minutes ago

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A 13-year-old boy was arrested by ICE in Everett and sent to a juvenile detention facility in Virginia.
A 13-year-old boy was arrested by ICE in Everett and sent to a juvenile detention facility in Virginia.
A 13-year-old boy was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Everett after an interaction with members of the Everett Police Department and sent to a juvenile detention facility in Virginia, according to his mother and immigration lawyer Andrew Lattarulo.

The boy’s mother, Josiele Berto, was called to pick her son up from the Everett Police Department on Thursday, the day he was arrested. After waiting for about an hour and a half, she was told her son was taken by ICE, Berto told the Globe in a phone interview.

“My world collapsed,” Berto said in Portuguese.

From the police department, the boy was taken to ICE’s holding facility in Burlington on Thursday evening, where he spent a night before being transferred by car to the Northwestern Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Winchester, Va., on Friday morning, his mother said. The juvenile facility is more than 500 miles away from Everett.

The boy is a 7th-grader at Albert N. Parlin School in Everett, his mother said. The teen and his family, who are Brazilian nationals, have a pending asylum case and are authorized to work legally in the United States, Lattarulo said.

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Nick Covington @covingtonedu.bsky.social · 1d

"They want transgender for everybody"

Yeah, I don't know what to tell you? Nonchalant acceptance of transgender & gender non-conforming people of all kinds *should* be an American ideal of the highest order: You be you, live your life. We should all have the opportunity to be so free. 🤷🏼‍♂️

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Nick Covington @covingtonedu.bsky.social · 1d

I'm so sorry, Thomas.

Reposted by Nick Covington

Nick Covington @covingtonedu.bsky.social · 1d

Truly they are banking on never losing power and being held to account.

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Nick Covington @covingtonedu.bsky.social · 1d

The administration's end game is as obvious as it is simple:

1) Maintain and consolidate executive power.
2) Eliminate or break any resistance to #1.
3) Do it flagrantly to overwhelm the system's ability to form a coherent response.

It's the "kill any witnesses" approach to political crime.

Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 2d

Nixon’s crimes look like harmless high school pranks compared to the now-daily unprecedented illegal & unconstitutional crimes being committed daily by this president & his staff

Kevin Elliott @kjephd.bsky.social · 2d

Unconstitutionally taking money that the law says must be spent on one purpose & using it for something else—when it's to establish personalist control over the FUCKING MILITARY—is about as dangerous a constitutional crisis/failure as you can imagine

Via: www.nbcnews.com/politics/tru...

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Nick Covington @covingtonedu.bsky.social · 1d

There is nothing in your child's IEP that any private school must respect. This all but ensures your kid will not get the services they are entitled to by special education law.

Everything that it is possible to do to intentionally sabotage public education from the inside is being done.

Sara Partridge, PhD @sarapartridge.bsky.social · 2d

There are reports that the *entire* office of special education at the US Dept of Education has been cut. These hardworking folks ensure kids with disabilities get equal access to a quality education.

America’s children deserve better than this.

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