CURMUDGUCATION: What Did We Learn From DeVos Hearings This Week?

CURMUDGUCATION: What Did We Learn From DeVos Hearings This Week?

What Did We Learn From DeVos Hearings This Week?

So during Betsy DeVos's terrible horrible no-good very bad week of hearings, what did we learn?

Opposition Parties Matter

This is the third budget in which DeVos tried to zero out Special Olympics. The third. So why so much fuss this time around? Perhaps because somebody made her go before Congress and explain herself (or not) in some exchanges that made for insta-viral hits.

Just imagine what it would be like if more legislators acted more like actual defenders of public education more often.

Finally, Evidence of the Deep State

Donald Trump stepped in to "override" his people, so the Special Olympics are off the chopping block sooner rather than later (this was a cut that was never, ever going to happen). Then DeVos said she was delighted because she has "fought behind the scenes" for the Special Olympics for years. She's the head of the department, and he's the President-- who put that cut in there if neither of them wanted it? It must be--gasp-- the Deep State, trying to make them look bad by somehow sneaking damn fool items into the budget.

But boy-- for someone who fought for it behind the scenes, she sure stood up for it in front of the scenes.

The Benefits of Big Classes

DeVos touted the advantages of larger classes. This is the second time in one month that a North American education official has tried to argue for this piece of fried baloney. It's an idea so bad that CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: What Did We Learn From DeVos Hearings This Week?

Guess Who’s Not Here for Your Nonsense? | Teacher in a strange land

Guess Who’s Not Here for Your Nonsense? | Teacher in a strange land

Guess Who’s Not Here for Your Nonsense?

First off, I have to credit Shanna Peeples, all-around cool edu-person and 2015 National Teacher of the Year, for the title of this blog, swiped from her Twitter feed. It’s about those marvelous young ladies, high school students in Maryland who confronted the boys who were rating their looks and ranking them on a list with numbers calculated to the hundredth place. And then passing the list around for up-to-the-minute updates.

If you missed the story, it’s well worth a read (here). The blog title should give you a clue: these girls were not having it.

Furthermore, they did something about it. When an administrator limited formal consequences to a single boy and asked the girls not to spread the story around, they organized, confronting their principal, gathering 80 students into an ‘intense’ co-ed meeting where they expressed their anger and discomfort, and putting a series of follow-up responses and conversations into action.

The young women interviewed in the story were powerfully articulate about why they wanted an end to this boys-will-be-boys nonsense.

“Knowing that my closest friends were talking to me and hanging out with me but under that, silently numbering me, it definitely felt like a betrayal. I was their friend, but I guess also a number.”

They also talked clearly about what it felt like to suddenly feel unsafe at school, when they already felt unsafe in the wider world. One boy—the contrite and admittedly ‘privileged’ young man who started the list—says All the Right Stuff. No mention of CONTINUE READING: Guess Who’s Not Here for Your Nonsense? | Teacher in a strange land

DonorsChoose fundraising: Some school districts banning crowdfunding - Vox

DonorsChoose fundraising: Some school districts banning crowdfunding - Vox

Teachers often have to crowdfund for classroom supplies. Some districts are banning the practice.
DonorsChoose and other crowdfunding sites are coming under scrutiny.

As public school budgets get tighter and teacher pay stagnates, a growing number of teachers are turning to crowdfunding sites to pay for everything from classroom supplies to field trips. More than 80 percent of schools across the country have at least one teacher that has used DonorsChoose, a popular crowdfunding site designed for teachers, according to the nonprofit’s own statistics.

The estimated average annual salary for K-12 teachers was just over $58,000 during the 2016-17 school year, according to data from the National Education Association. Ninety-four percent of teachers have used their own money to buy school supplies, according to a survey by the National Center for Education Statistics released last May. Thirty-six percent of the teachers polled spent between $251 and $500 each year, and educators in low-income schools reported spending more. It’s no surprise that teachers are turning to crowdfunding sites to fill the gap.

But some districts have reportedly begun prohibiting teachers from using crowdfunding sites for classroom expenses — which, in many cases, could force teachers to go back to spending their own money on necessary supplies.

Nashville’s crowdfunding ban

Nashville’s public school system recently made headlines for banning crowdfunding sites like DonorsChoose. But as Education Week noted, the district’s ban on crowdfunding services isn’t new: The Metro Nashville board of education’s fundraising policy, which was last updated in January 2018, bans individual staff members from using online fundraising platforms. Schools are allowed to use crowdfunding sites for school-wide fundraisers, but the district has to approve the projects.

The school board has several objections to teachers’ use of crowdfunding sites, the Education Week report shows. “The state Comptroller has indicated that such sites are problematic for school districts because of lack of adequate controls,” K. Dawn Rutledge, the district’s communication officer, told Education Week via email. In other words, administrators appear to be concerned that teachers can order products that don’t meet district standards — and that teachers can claim to be raising money for classroom supplies but instead keep it for themselves.

But DonorsChoose says its platform is designed to assuage all of these concerns — unlike other crowdfunding websites. “When a teacher comes on our site, they must be [accredited] with a school,” Chris Pearsall, the vice president of brand and communications at Donors Choose told me. Teachers write an essay explaining what supplies they need, “and then they actually go shopping on our site to select the products they want for their classroom.” Before the project is posted to the public, it gets vetted by a screener.

“When the project is funded, we purchase the materials the teachers requested and ship them CONTINUE READING: DonorsChoose fundraising: Some school districts banning crowdfunding - Vox

Essential California: On charter school reform, what will break the gridlock? - Los Angeles Times

Essential California: On charter school reform, what will break the gridlock? - Los Angeles Times

California’s broken charter school law has defied reform. Can Newsom break the gridlock?

California is home to about one out of every five charter schools in the United States, but state oversight of them is far from a national model.

Since the Charter Schools Act of 1992 was passed more than a quarter-century ago, a political standoff in Sacramento has made it almost impossible to repair even the parts of the charter law that no one disputes are broken.

Even though Democrats have a firm grip on the Legislature, they are not united on charter schools. Torn between allegiances to pro-charter philanthropists and the powerful teachers union, lawmakers have for years begun each legislative session by introducing a handful of bills favorable to one side or the other. Many have died in committee. Those that have made it to a governor’s desk often have often been vetoed.

With the arrival of Gov. Gavin Newsom, there are signs that the gridlock is ending.

Part 1: How a couple worked charter school regulations to make millions

Part 2: Small districts reap big profits by approving charter schools with little oversight

Shortly after he was sworn in, Newsom instructed lawmakers to fast-track charter legislation that politicians had been arguing over for years. The law he signed earlier this month makes charter schools subject to the same public records, open meeting and conflict-of-interest laws that apply to traditional public schools.

“Leadership matters. Who is at the top matters,” said state Sen. Connie Leyva (D-Chino), who chairs the Senate Education Committee. “We have a new governor who is interested in transparency, he’s interested in these issues and he wanted to make it happen.”

How far Newsom will go to tighten regulation of charters remains to be seen, however — and there’s reason to be cautious in predicting legislative support.

For 27 years, the teachers union and pro-charter advocates have been fighting a custody battle over California’s public schoolchildren and the state funding that follows them.

Although the California Teachers Assn. and the California Charter Schools Assn. insist CONTINUE READING: Essential California: On charter school reform, what will break the gridlock? - Los Angeles Times

Fighting teacher stress: Will resilience training exercises help teachers with stress?

Will resilience training exercises help teachers with stress?

Fighting teacher stress
A growing number of mindfulness trainings help teachers cope, but critics say the real problem’s much deeper

A few years ago, Amy Lopes, a veteran fifth-grade teacher in Providence, Rhode Island, learned that teachers at her school could try a mindfulness and yoga training along with their students. Her immediate reaction: “What a bunch of baloney!”

“I said, ‘OK, I’ll try it, but it’s not going to work,’ ” recalled Lopes, who teaches at the William D’Abate Elementary School. “But, within a couple weeks, I just let go and became a learner along with my students, and my whole world has changed.”

That training was given by a nearby nonprofit that had recently changed its name — from Resilient Kids to the Center for Resilience — because, said founder and executive director Vanessa Weiner, whenever trainers visited a school to work with students, “we kept hearing from teachers who said, ‘We need this, too.’ ”

Teacher stress is growing, experts say, pushing educators out of classrooms and hurting learning. On top of chronic underfunding for education and the continued pressure of standardized tests, there’s also the unrelenting pace of newer education reforms. CONTINUE READING: Will resilience training exercises help teachers with stress?

After betrayal of Oakland teacher strike, district lays off hundreds, prepares school closures - World Socialist Web Site

After betrayal of Oakland teacher strike, district lays off hundreds, prepares school closures - World Socialist Web Site

After betrayal of Oakland teacher strike, district lays off hundreds, prepares school closures

The betrayal of the seven-day teacher strike by the Oakland Education Association (OEA) has opened the door for the school officials in Oakland, California to accelerate their assault on public education.

On March 4, the day after the strike officially ended, the school board enacted $22 million in budget cuts, including $1.1 million from services for disabled, homeless and foster care youth support as well as $800,000 from music programs. Another $3.6 million was cut from restorative justice programs for conflict mediation, $1.3 million from nutrition for poor students, and $2.9 million from college preparation programs. As part of the OEA’s deal with the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD), the union agreed to help impose these cuts.

Roughly a week later, the district began to distribute layoff notices to 257 educators across the district, including teachers with strong performance reviews, as part of the $22 million in budget cuts. Prior to the strike, the OEA adamantly refused to include teachers’ steadfast opposition to budget cuts as one of its demands at the bargaining table, echoing the district’s claims that this could not be included in collective bargaining.

A similar process has unfolded in Denver, Colorado, where over 220 positions have been cut to pay for a meager salary increase. Like their counterparts in Oakland, the Denver Classroom Teachers Association called the deal to end the strike an “historic victory.”

Last Wednesday, the OUSD school board held another meeting, at which roughly 200 teachers, parents and community members protested. The school board voted to approve the “Citywide Plan,” which envisions the closure or merger of 24 public schools over the next five years, roughly one-third of all public schools in Oakland.

One of the key demands animating Oakland teachers during their strike was a universal hostility to the school board’s long-standing plans to close public schools and convert them to charter schools. Last fall, the unveiling of the CONTINUE READING: After betrayal of Oakland teacher strike, district lays off hundreds, prepares school closures - World Socialist Web Site

Doing the Same Thing and Expecting Different Results | Live Long and Prosper

Doing the Same Thing and Expecting Different Results | Live Long and Prosper

Doing the Same Thing and Expecting Different Results

FLORIDA’S THIRD GRADE READING LAW IS JUST LIKE THE OTHERS

Florida has a third-grade retention law, just like Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, fifteen other states and the District of Columbia. Learning to read by third grade is so important, according to The National Council of State Legislators, that some states find it necessary to retain children who can’t read.

Learning to read by third grade is important because

Research has demonstrated that students not reading proficiently at the end of third grade are four times more likely to not finish high school. Further, the levels of reading proficiency for third graders are linked to specific long-term outcomes: 23 percent of below-basic readers fail to finish high school, compared to 9 percent of basic-scoring readers and 4 percent of proficient readers.

…not to mention the fact that…

Researchers have pointed out that unintended consequences of retention can include increased costs for school districts (national average of $10,700 per retained student).

So it’s an economic issue, too. [I would agree with that, although the problem is the economic status of the children.] And it’s almost as an afterthought that CONTINUE READING: Doing the Same Thing and Expecting Different Results | Live Long and Prosper

What Has Betsy DeVos Accomplished? Part II | janresseger

What Has Betsy DeVos Accomplished? Part II | janresseger

What Has Betsy DeVos Accomplished? Part II

THIS BLOG WILL TAKE A SHORT SPRING BREAK.  LOOK FOR A NEW POST ON APRIL 9.

Yesterday’s post covered Betsy DeVos’s record as U.S. Secretary of Education—examining her failed quest to privatize the public schools and Congress’s success in blocking her K-12 agenda. But there are other important departmental responsibilities. DeVos has also turned her attention to deregulation.

DeVos has set out to expunge Obama-era rules and guidance protecting students’ civil rights in public schools. She has also quietly erased protection for college students in predatory for-profit colleges and trade schools whose operating budgets depend for their very survival on their ability to market themselves to students who will bring federal loans, grants, and Veterans’ program dollars.  However, again and again, her Department’s justification for cancelling or delaying Obama rules has been blocked by the courts.

Court challenges have forced DeVos’s staff to continue enforcing civil rights protections in public schools and to continue cracking down on predatory for-profit colleges. Politico‘s Michael Stratford describes a long list of failures by DeVos’s department to rescind Obama-era rules: “Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’s attempts to swiftly roll back major Obama-era policies at her agency are hitting a roadblock: federal courts. Judges have rebuffed DeVos’ attempts to change Obama policies dealing with everything from student loan forgiveness to mandatory arbitration agreements to racial disparities in special education programs.  As a result, the Education Department is being forced to carry out Obama-era policies that the Trump administration had been fighting to stop—stymying DeVos’ efforts to quickly impose a conservative imprint on federal education policy over the past two years.”

In many cases, courts have blocked DeVos’s efforts to deregulate on procedural grounds. DeVos’s staff people are accused of failing to follow the requirements for changing federal rules and guidance.  Stratford summarizes Toby Merrill’s reaction to DeVos’s rule changes.  Merrill is the director of the Harvard Law School’s Project on Predatory Student Lending, an organization that has challenged, along with the attorneys general of several states, several of DeVos’s attempts to rescind or delay Obama-era rules: “Every administration has wins and losses in court, Merrill said, but most have done better at making sure they follow the legal rules of the road for rulemaking.”  Merrill explains: “It speaks to the Department of Education’s unwillingness or inability to follow the basic law around how federal agencies conduct themselves… At the very least, they cross their Ts and dot their Is and therefore are CONTINUE READING: What Has Betsy DeVos Accomplished? Part II | janresseger

Social Justice Humanitas Academy (Part 2) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Social Justice Humanitas Academy (Part 2) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Social Justice Humanitas Academy (Part 2)

Geological strata reveal historical periods of plant and animal life eons ago. Schools  birthed in reform unveil similar strata.

In Part 1, I recounted teacher-founders’ (Jose Navarro and Jeff Austin) creation story of Social Justice Humanitas Academy, a Los Angeles Unified District school located in the northeast corner of the San Fernando Valley. These founders placed its origin initially at Sylmar High School where they and other teachers established a Humanitas school-within-a school, offspring of an interdisciplinary curricular reform sponsored by the Los Angeles Education Partnership. LAEP’s Humanitas innovation began in the mid-1980s and slowly spread through the 1990s across LAUSD high schools. Aimed at engaging low-income Latino and African American youth to take academic courses that would prepare them for college, the teacher-led Humanitas program at Sylmar High School gained traction with a growing number of students. The teacher founders who had designed and governed the school-within-a-school, however, wanted more autonomy. They wanted their own school.

Second stratum of reform in SJHA

At the district level, the Board of Education at this time sought to expand parental choice in those neighborhoods where predominately low-income minority children and youth attended low-performing local schools. The reform idea of giving parents more choices among LAUSD schools gained speed and political support. In 2009, the Board of Education approved a Public School Choice resolution to establish innovative and rigorous schools designed to turn around low-performing schools across the district. Teams of teachers, parents, community activists, and others drafted plans for new schools in each of four rounds that Public School Choice sponsored. The superintendent’s review team critiqued proposals. In many cases, proposers revised and re-submitted their plans.

At the same time, another LAUSD reform was underway called “Pilot Schools.” The two streams of reform converged as the teachers at Sylmar High School CONTINUE READING: Social Justice Humanitas Academy (Part 2) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

After Trying for Three Years, Betsy DeVos Fails to Nix Special Olympics Funding | deutsch29

After Trying for Three Years, Betsy DeVos Fails to Nix Special Olympics Funding | deutsch29

After Trying for Three Years, Betsy DeVos Fails to Nix Special Olympics Funding

US Department of Education (USDOE) secretary of education, Betsy DeVos, has been in the news this week for her unfavorable (insensitive? foolish?) decision to propose– and ardently defend– $17.6M in cuts to Special Olympics in USDOE’s FY2020 proposed budget.

It isn’t the first time DeVos has proposed cutting Special Olympics. She has tried to cut Special Olympics in FY 2018 and FY 2019, as well.

Here is the language from the FY2019 budget summary justifying those cuts under the heading, “Programs Proposed for Elimination”:

Programs Proposed for Elimination

The 2019 request supports the Administration’s commitment to eliminating funding for programs that have achieved their original purpose, duplicate other programs, are narrowly focused, or are unable to demonstrate effectiveness. ….

Special Olympics Education Programs ……………………………………………… $12.6

This program supports a directed grant award to a not-for-profit organization. Funds are used to expand the Special Olympics and the design and implementation of Special Olympics education programs. Such activities are better supported with other Federal, State, local, or private funds.

The language in FY2020 and FY2019 was the same as it was in DeVos’ proposed budget for FY2018, with only the amount differing ($10.1M in FY2018).

Despite her repeated attempts to eliminate federal funding to Special Olympics (FY2018, FY2019, FY2020), the House has instead increased funding to the program.

In hearings before the House Appropriations Committee on March 26, 27, and 28, 2019, DeVos defended cutting Special Olympics, including the reasoning that the CONTINUE READING: After Trying for Three Years, Betsy DeVos Fails to Nix Special Olympics Funding | deutsch29