James Noonan
@jmnoonan.bsky.social
560 followers 1K following 250 posts
associate professor at Salem State University in Salem, MA | studying leadership, learning, unlearning, equity | Boston dad interested in public education & politics | more at https://jamesnoonan.scholar.st | he/him | I support 🏳️‍⚧️ folx
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Reposted by James Noonan
jimmcgrath.bsky.social
"Decision making, or action, is important in part because a stated commitment to antiracist values alone—what Ahmed (2006) calls “nonperformativity”—is too often seen as sufficient action, even though a commitment to antiracism alone still enables racism to persist."
jmnoonan.bsky.social
Pleased to share a new publication -- coauthored with @salemstate.bsky.social colleagues Drs. Jacy Ippolito and Megin Charner-Laird -- about the connection between adult development and antiracist educational leadership: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... @ucea-leadership.bsky.social
journals.sagepub.com
jmnoonan.bsky.social
Pleased to share a new publication -- coauthored with @salemstate.bsky.social colleagues Drs. Jacy Ippolito and Megin Charner-Laird -- about the connection between adult development and antiracist educational leadership: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... @ucea-leadership.bsky.social
journals.sagepub.com
jmnoonan.bsky.social
Reading Lawrence Wright’s novel about Palestine and Israel (“The Human Scale”), I have to take breaks about every 15 pages. It’s brilliantly plotted and punctuated with paradoxes and history, but the weight of the story is just so heavy with sorrow.
A book cover for The Human Scale, a novel by Lawrence Wright — featuring a car on fire, the orange flames and haze coloring the cover a blinding orange
jmnoonan.bsky.social
If you’re interested in talking through some of the questions, I’m happy to share my take!
jmnoonan.bsky.social
Attention Boston Public School parents: it’s worth wading through the morass of slides on proposed changes to the exam school policy to offer feedback, especially in the interest of preserving the equity-focused policy goals. Here’s the link: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
English - 2025 Exam School Admissions Policy Feedback
On June 17, 2025, BPS shared a report with the Boston School Committee about the exam school admissions policy. The report included data from the last five years and considerations for possible future...
docs.google.com
jmnoonan.bsky.social
View from Highland Park in Roxbury tonight @universalhub.com
Silhouette of trees, above which lightning appears from a large gray and magenta cloud Just after sunset, dark. Green grass leading to a lit-up house, next to which are trees silhouetted against a gray sky. A bolt of lightning appears over the trees and in the direction of the house (from Highland Park, Roxbury)
jmnoonan.bsky.social
The Shooter McGavin Jacket for Creative Golf Scoring
The Golden Sash for Most Presidential Impeachments
The Kevorkian Prize for Innovation in Self-Harm (for bleach-drinking as a response to respiratory illness)
The Presidential Unfitness Award, sponsored by Diet Coke
kevinmkruse.bsky.social
A Democratic Party with any spirit would stage a press conference every single day to present Donald Trump with one sarcastic award after another.

The Dennis Hastert Award for Enabling Pedophilia
The Richard Nixon Memorial Trophy for Lawlessness
The Blue Ribbon for Setting a Record Federal Deficit
acyn.bsky.social
Trump: Since 1978 the Kennedy Center honors have been amongst the most prestigious awards. I wanted one, never able to get one. I would have taken it. I waited and waited and waited and I said to hell with it, I'll become chairman. I will give myself an honor. Next year we'll honor trump, okay?
jmnoonan.bsky.social
I did *not* see this coming
taniel.bsky.social
New Hampshire’s Governor Ayotte (R) vetoed a series of GOP bills — including meant to help censor books in schools, a “bathroom bill”, a bill to facilitate vaccine exemptions for kids, a bill to require sex eds to emphasize fetal development. www.seacoastonline.com/story/news/s...
Gov. Ayotte vetoes book removal bill, bathroom ban bill, more Republican legislation
Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte vetoed seven New Hampshire bills, many intended to strengthen parental rights, bucking conservative wing of her party.
www.seacoastonline.com
jmnoonan.bsky.social
The next president will have a lot to repair and we need to start laying a foundation of support for it now—to describe, in detailed and evocative language (as in ANAR), the crisis before us and, by so doing, to catalyze our deep connections to and a robust defense of public education.
jmnoonan.bsky.social
We need to stand in the breach. We need to reclaim our voice. We need to stand up for teachers, principals, all students (not just our own). Schools work when they work for everyone.
jmnoonan.bsky.social
McMahon is “succeeding” where Bell “failed” in part because she has no respect for process. But she is also building on decades of work to erode public trust in public education (h/t @jenniferberkshire.bsky.social @jackschneider.bsky.social for documenting this) www.wolfattheschoolhousedoor.com
A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door
www.wolfattheschoolhousedoor.com
jmnoonan.bsky.social
Now, there is a lot to critique about A Nation at Risk—for example, its tacit assumption that schools are engines of capitalism—but it also catalyzed a deep affection for and defense of public education.
jmnoonan.bsky.social
But public response (and, I think, public commitment to schools) led to a greater government investment in education. You couldn’t say schools were failing and then prescribe “voluntary school prayer” as the solution. You had to do more and spend more.
jmnoonan.bsky.social
At the White House event releasing the report, Reagan’s remarks still mentioned his desire to abolish the US Department of Education. (Skip to 8:20-ish). m.youtube.com/watch?v=pQzd...
President Reagan’s Receiving the Commission on Excellence in Education Report on April 26, 1983
YouTube video by Reagan Library
m.youtube.com
jmnoonan.bsky.social
Bell appointed a committee to study conditions in American schools. (Reagan wouldn’t appoint it himself.) The commission spent over a year holding hearings and gathering data. What they produced was a scathing indictment of US public education. The final report was called “A Nation at Risk.”
jmnoonan.bsky.social
Well, for one, Bell was quite different from McMahon (and Trump). He was a former high school teacher. He was also far from a billionaire—when appointed, he rented a U-Haul to move himself to DC. But most critically, he knew he couldn’t act unilaterally and sought to build his case.
jmnoonan.bsky.social
Consider: Ronald Reagan’s first secretary of education, Terrel Bell, was given the same directive as Linda McMahon—to end USED—but he failed where she is (apparently, on the verge of, for all practical purposes) succeeding. Why?
jmnoonan.bsky.social
The DOE decision yesterday is so disheartening, especially because I feel pretty sure it couldn’t have been accomplished through a normal open process. The public has a strong attachment to schools but we were cut out of this process completely. 🧵
Reposted by James Noonan
alfiekohn.bsky.social
1/2
Eleanor Duckworth's reminder: The more intensely interested a teacher is in a student’s thinking, the more interested the student becomes in his or her own thinking.

Corollary: The more a teacher just wants to see right answers, the less interested students become in their (or any) thinking.
jmnoonan.bsky.social
Critical reporting here. I’d like to see the @bostonglobe.com quoting that #MAedu stands not to receive $107,694,933 in federal funds allocated to it by Congress.
jmnoonan.bsky.social
BIG = a massive expansion of the administrative deep state, especially covert & unaccountable arrests

BEAUTIFUL = applies only to the ultra rich, who can spend stolen Medicaid money on another yacht

BILL = as in, a $5,000,000,000 expansion of the national debt, paid for by our uninsured children