iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Nate @jessenathaniel.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Was in DC visiting family this past weekend and was staying with an elder who still gets actual folded papers with news typed onto it (I believe these were called “newspapers” in the 1900s). I swear someone was just setting me up to enrage me with this WaPo story 🤦🏾‍♂️ What are we doing here folks?!

Front of Washington Post business section from 9/27/26 with the headline, “The algorithm knows you’re a new parent.”

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Nate @jessenathaniel.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Faux engagement — the favorite metric of every compliance-oriented “leader” — because she couldn’t possibly have seen evidence of learning by any reasonable definition in the context she described 🤦🏾‍♂️

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Nate @jessenathaniel.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Let me take my educator hat off for a second and just respond to this as a parent …

static.klipy.com

Anger Inside Out

Alt: Anger Inside Out

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Trevor Aleo @mraleosays.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

There are many reasons to take issue with the NYT article making the rounds, but one of them is the fact it treats incredibly complex, abstract, & contested methods/approaches that require specialized training, implementation, etc. & treat them like they’re an app you install to make scores go 📈.

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Nate @jessenathaniel.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I was talking to teacher whose administrators are constantly applying pressure about the math data… and yet no matter how well his class performs, it only ever matters if the school, area, and district level data is good. It’s an absurd hamster wheel, but more importantly it’s just disrespectful.

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Nate @jessenathaniel.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

For some reason this doesn’t even make me feel old because this legit feels as though it could only be an artifact from a completely different era - that was an incredible time to be a young hip-hop fan and there’s just nothing to approximate it now.

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Nate @jessenathaniel.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Totally random thought on the use of data in schools: Data is good. Data-driven decisions can support equity. But it’s also a slippery slope to rigidly technocratic mindsets where nothing outside of data is appreciated and student/teacher input is ignored — we have to guard against that.

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John Downes-Angus @johndownesangus.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

If you care about the development of the American mind, you need to pay attention to K-12 curriculum in a way that takes it seriously. Lots of people, many of them unqualified, are doing this and having a big influence in blue and red states.

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MathIsLife @damianmolinari.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

SFUSD was under a court ordered desegregation for years, and while it may have addressed some issues, our schools were still rife with inequities. White supremacy is a rot from within that can't be addressed by moving students around.

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Nate @jessenathaniel.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

A lingering thought about this alluded to elsewhere: A through line in NHJ’s work is that school desegregation has been successful, but individuals can make or break it—it’s present in her 2019 piece about busing in response to Kamala Harris’ viral debate moment. That’s a problematic position.

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Trevor Aleo @mraleosays.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

David Backer is spot on here. For anyone interested in fine-grained leftist analysis of education policy, he is a must-follow. bsky.app/profile/scho...

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Nate @jessenathaniel.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

And that highlights my primary gripe with all of NHJ’s work: I’m not usually that guy who harps on education journalists who aren’t actually educators, but it’s really hard to read her work without noticing that because she tries to make systemic claims based on personal observations.

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Nate @jessenathaniel.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

I strongly recommend that everyone — especially educators — go read NHJ’s latest NYT Mag article reflecting on the schooling choices she made as a prominent education journalist for her own daughter … I have A LOT to say about the article, but the quoted post/thread sums up my thoughts well…

nytimes.com

In Fighting for Every Black Child, Did I Betray My Own? (Gift Article)

A decade ago, I made a decision about my daughter’s education that I hoped would challenge New York City’s separate and unequal school system. Now 16, she thinks I made the wrong choice.

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Anna Gifty @itsafronomics.blacksky.app · 20/09/2026

I guess my question while reading this was: why the insistence that individual proximity would have addressed systemic gaps?

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Marcus Luther @marcusluther.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

“In my class of 39” shouldn’t be allowed to be something teachers say

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Nate @jessenathaniel.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

This whole article is outstanding, but I really want to focus on the intro because tech fetishes are nothing new new, even if the contours are. And, imho, it comes from the misguided obsession we have with preparing kids for an unknown future instead of focusing on the humanity they present us with.

Excerpt from the article:

“l've been around the education innovation block a few times, having started my teaching career in Silicon Valley in the late 1980s. I was one of the first teachers to pilot the Apple Classroom of Tomorrow when we thought HyperCard (an early stab at hyperlinked media) and laser discs could transform high school classrooms (not so much). I founded and ran the first Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound Charter School and helped support one of the first Edison Schools.
While I'm a natural skeptic about
"revolutionary" school designs, I do think we need to rethink most of the traditional models of schooling with a teacher standing in front of a group of 20-30 kids.”

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Nate @jessenathaniel.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

This article highlights something that I don’t think we discuss enough when talking about school closures: predatory privatization. Under-enrollment is often a symptom, not the disease; school closures not only fail to cure the disease, but this research suggests they amplify its effects.

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MathIsLife @damianmolinari.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

This part of the new district classroom walk-through rubric made me experience all of the emotions. Laughed out loud > offended > a little angry > worried about what this means for academic freedom and making decisions based on the students I teach.

Indicator is about use of adopted materials with highest scores from evidence of using materials and lower scores from not using materials, which evidently leads to lack of coherence and straying from the standards.

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John Downes-Angus @johndownesangus.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

This would be a difficult story to report, because nobody would want to go on the record about it, but the actually important story about American schools is the persistence of thousands of teachers who give their kids what we know they need despite the barrage of mandates, standards, tests, etc—

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Charles Hughes @charleshughes2.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

There is no more renewable resource in the United States than wrongheaded takes by writers who confidently use country music as a simple symbol of rurality without having a clue about the music or seemingly anything else. If only we could harness such empty pontificating as a fuel source...

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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

This is how it’s done.

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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

On the same day Ted Cruz gets roundly booed by Texas fans, Abdul El-Sayed has Michigan fans running over to shake his hand. Please tell us more about who's popular with Real Americans™

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National Security Counselors 🕵 @nationalsecuritylaw.org · 13/09/2026

Saoirse is in an afterschool program, and today she excitedly told me all about the SMART test for evaluating the credibility of information (source, motivation, author, review, two-sources). I can think of a lot of adults who would benefit from this class designed for 4th and 5th graders.

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Marc Elias @marcelias.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

I am tired of people saying we can’t win in front of the Supreme Court. I’m annoyed by those who say my firm is too partisan to be effective. Today we won a huge redistricting fight before SCOTUS and a ballot access case before the Nebraska Supreme Court. The lesson: When we fight we win.

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Nate @jessenathaniel.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Someone could construct a pretty dope syllabus about AI and society with this meme as the centerpiece …

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Nate @jessenathaniel.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

“Hate” is not too strong a word to describe my feelings about rushed curriculum implementation — how in the world do you expect kids to improve whatever nonsense outcomes you have if teachers aren’t prepped? “Wow, we need to ask teachers about this 🤔” should not be a post-implementation revelation 🤦🏾‍♂️

chalkbeat.org

Philadelphia spent $25 million on a new reading curriculum. But there are already problems.

Philadelphia is beginning its third year with a new reading curriculum. A new report highlights problems with how school leaders first rolled it out.

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Nate @jessenathaniel.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

This idea has come up for me a LOT lately and this comment was WAY too resonant: “Democracy requires a certain amount of enjoyment of arguing…rather than demonizing your opponent…the most shocking thing about public education was how undemocratic it was...It was entirely top-down dictatorship.”

podcasts.apple.com

Episode 40: "Changing the World Is Possible" with Deborah Meier and Matt Alexander

Podcast Episode · Street Data Pod: Imagining the Next Generation of Education · June 18 · 43m

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Nate @jessenathaniel.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

I’ve been a part of 2 IEP meetings recently in which district reps either insulted parents or stood up and yelled at them for asserting themselves. In reflecting on mediating those situations, I’m left considering the impact of systemic pressure for illusory compliance with policy over human need 😞

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Marcus Luther @marcusluther.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

I'll keep it simple: I'm very grateful for LAUSD and NYC public schools for taking an intentional, clear stance around limiting AI for students, classrooms and schools. 🙏 Yes, let's keep talking and learning—but we also need leadership. To be very clear: this is what leadership looks like.

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Nick Covington @covingtonedu.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Exactly. If there's a threshold where the quest for perfect scientific efficiency begins to dehumanize — if teaching & learning are about more than effectiveness & efficiency — then we need tools in our toolkit to understand, navigate, and do the messy relational human stuff well, too. 🤷

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Brenny @pissedoffinnh.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

What teachers look like when they OBVIOUSLY love what they do ..and the amazing result

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Nate @jessenathaniel.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Something I’m fascinated by in schools is the speed of transition to new curricula … and how it’s so often entirely driven by money. (i.e. “We spent this money, so now you must implement it immediately.”) The speed of implementation alone almost encourages resistance. 🤦🏾‍♂️

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Nate @jessenathaniel.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Was at an IEP coordinators meeting talking about common challenges and in the end the solution to every problem was basically the same: communication. And that’s true for myriad other problems in schools. Time is scarce, of course, but improved communicating always makes things better long-term.

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Nate @jessenathaniel.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

I was showing my 6yo son this video of Chelsea Gray doing a drill that he had seen at basketball camp this summer and my 3yo daughter’s face lit up and said, “Hey! She’s a girl basketball player like me!” I’ve been a fan for decades, but seeing the impact on my daughter already has been incredible.

youtube.com

Chelsea Gray Has an INSANE Dribbling Routine 🔥

YouTube video by TPGC Highlights

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Nate @jessenathaniel.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

I rarely feel this, but this podcast ep captured why I was initially drawn to the teaching profession, specifically how the best moments were all about human connection…even when I was my school’s tech coordinator starting out… Love the idea of “tech free Fridays” because we all need a break.

podcasts.apple.com

How Nicholas Ferroni is Rewiring His Classroom for Human Connection

Podcast Episode · School of Practice · August 25 · 23m

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Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Thank you for this ambitious thread. I lack all ambition. It’s very generous.

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Marcus Luther @marcusluther.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Do not forget: this vision of education—students with headphones on staring at screens—is VERY unpopular, especially right now. The vast majority of students don't want it. The vast majority of teachers don't want it. The vast majority of families don't want it. That's the story.

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Nate @jessenathaniel.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Random pet peeve about the education world right now: the belief that the existence of something new justifies its adoption and implementation without any thoughtful evaluation process. Yes, this is about AI and this bested thread makes the point so well that I recommend you peruse it:

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Trevor Aleo @mraleosays.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Least surprising thing ever to see a number of the more influential “Science of Learning & Direct Instruction Only™️” advocates signed the Cofnas defense letter. 😒

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Nate @jessenathaniel.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Something really present for me in reflecting on my first week of school: I really pride myself on listening to teachers and using what they say to inform my decisions — it builds collective efficacy. I find it odd that so many school leaders pretend to listen and do nothing with what they hear.

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Nate @jessenathaniel.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

I don’t even have the words to explain how horrifying this is…

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Gil Durán @gilduran.com · 16/08/2026

Xavier Becerra has gone silent since winning the primary for California governor. But here he is with Peter Thiel protégé Garry Tan—Palantir’s employee #10. “Garry’s List” is an AI-generated right-wing news site. Garry is a top Network State figure & tweeted “die slow” at SF city leaders in 2024.

Photograph of Becerra with Carrie Tan at A Gary’s list event

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Marcus Luther @marcusluther.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

This is a great example, I think, of what critical AI literacy can/should look like. Unfortunately, too often we are skipping past conversations like this and immediately into "here's how to use this tool/save time!"—and I very much worry about the consequences of this trend...

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Nate @jessenathaniel.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

There was a passing point about school requirements that connects this exchange to the ongoing discourse about the transactional nature of school. But Rondo’s take on the inescapability of this 24/7 professionalized youth sports culture is sad…and probably reflects some problematic social trends…

youtu.be

Rajon Rondo REFUSES to Run Up the Score in AAU Basketball

YouTube video by Road Trippin' Show

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Steve @stephenh.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

I’ve worked with teachers who were obsessed with producing incredibly detailed planning. Funnily enough, they had control issues with their class but couldn’t see why. It was though they thought the more detailed a plan, the better the lesson would be. Pupil engagement was not factored in

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Nate @jessenathaniel.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

After a week of annual planning meetings, something at the forefront of my mind is the number of educators who find security in control and/or rigid structure. That’s not inherently bad! But I think it’s worth acknowledging that getting people from that place to co-constructing meaning is a journey.

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Nate @jessenathaniel.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

This explains so much about political punditry right now … and even sadder is when you see people on-the-ground regurgitating their nonsense even when they sense that disjunction…

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Nate @jessenathaniel.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

This is literally the video!! 🤦🏾‍♂️ Again: how does anyone think this is ok?!

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