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Sunday, December 27, 2015

Schneider’s ESSA Digest, Part II (Pages 47 – 90) | deutsch29

Schneider’s ESSA Digest, Part II (Pages 47 – 90) | deutsch29:

Schneider’s ESSA Digest, Part II (Pages 47 – 90)



I am in the process of carefully reading the 1,061-page Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), the December 10, 2015, reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), and writing a series of posts that will form a digest of those 1,061 pages.
As previously noted, it will take me some time to read and comment on the entire document.
My first entry covers the first 47 pages.
This entry continues by adding info from pages 47 to 90.
Sometimes I refer to pages beyond page 90, and sometimes, I alter the format of quoted excerpts for ease of reading. Sometimes I comment, and sometimes I just summarize.
Here we go.
Pages 47-48: In applying for ESSA Title I funds, each state need not show its “challenging academic standards” in English language arts (ELA), math, and science, and to the US secretary of education; states only need to provide an “assurance” of such standards. States applying for Title I money must also “assure” the US secretary of education that those “challenging academic standards” are tied to a system of measuring “achievement” consisting of at least three achievement levels.
The “challenging academic standards” and associated achievement levels must apply to all students except for “alternate academic achievement standards for students with the most significant cognitive disabilities” (page 49).
Other sets of standards or modifications to existing standards are prohibited (page 50).
States applying for Title I funds must also show that they have adopted English language proficiency standards for English language learners (page 51).
Page 51 also includes limits on the US secretary regarding approval of state standards:
(G) PROHIBITIONS.—
(i) STANDARDS REVIEW OR APPROVAL.—A State shall not be required to submit any standards developed under this subsection to the Secretary for review or approval.
(ii) FEDERAL CONTROL.—The Secretary shall not have the authority to 
Schneider’s ESSA Digest, Part II (Pages 47 – 90) | deutsch29:

DIARY OF A PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHER!: Just Because Our Students Are Living in Poverty...

DIARY OF A PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHER!: Just Because Our Students Are Living in Poverty...:

Just Because Our Students Are Living in Poverty...



BAN KI-MOON


Many times we allow stereotypes to rule our perceptions of others, whether it's race, gender, or socioeconomic status. We allow these perceptions to cloud our judgment, and we make decisions based on these misconceptions. We believe if it is true of one, it is true of all. How unfair to the students who walk into our classrooms every day.

A child "living in poverty" seems to be a hot button issue right now, and rightly so. But how much do we let the fact that any of our students are living in poverty affect how we relate to them? How does the fact that our students are living in poverty, change the way we teach ALL of our students?

I'm just thinking out loud. We need to make sure that we put the "brush" away, and see our students as individuals, and not a statistic.

Just because they are living in poverty, it does not mean that:

The Atlantic: The New Preschool Is Crushing Kids | Seattle Education





The Atlantic: The New Preschool Is Crushing Kids | Seattle Education:

The Atlantic: The New Preschool Is Crushing Kids

preschool
Kindergarten children will be taking the MAP test this year in Seattle, cruel as that might sound, and preschoolers will be evaluated for “kindergarten readiness” through “evaluations” per the mayor’s “Preschool for All” program.

With the focus on standards, learning and being evaluated by way of computers and test scores, folks who are not teachers or parents have gone overboard in the most ridiculous fashion and doing to other people’s children what they would never consider doing to their own with less than stellar results.
From The Atlantic:
Step into an American preschool classroom today and you are likely to be bombarded with what we educators call a print-rich environment, every surface festooned with alphabet charts, bar graphs, word walls, instructional posters, classroom rules, calendars, schedules, and motivational platitudes—few of which a 4-year-old can “decode,” the contemporary word for what used to be known as reading.
Because so few adults can remember the pertinent details of their own preschool or kindergarten years, it can be hard to appreciate just how much the early-education landscape has been transformed over the past two decades. The changes are not restricted to the confusing pastiche on classroom walls. Pedagogy and curricula have changed too, most recently in response to the Common Core State Standards Initiative’s kindergarten guidelines. Much greater portions of the day are now spent on what’s called “seat work” (a term that probably doesn’t need any exposition) and a form of tightly scripted teaching known as direct instruction, formerly used mainly in the older grades, in which a teacher carefully controls the content and pacing of what a child is supposed to learn.
One study, titled “Is Kindergarten the New First Grade?,” compared kindergarten teachers’ attitudes nationwide in 1998 and 2010 and found that the percentage of teachers expecting children to know how to read by the end of the year had risen from 30 to 80 percent. The researchers also reported more time spent with workbooks and The Atlantic: The New Preschool Is Crushing Kids | Seattle Education:


Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 12/27/15



CORPORATE ED REFORM




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Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 12/26/15
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