Thursday, November 28, 2019

Big Education Ape: Happy Thanksgiving! I Am Thankful for Great Public Education Bloggers! #HappyThanksgiving #thankful #Thanksgiving2019 #gratitude #grateful

Big Education Ape: Happy Thanksgiving! I Am Thankful for Great Public Education Bloggers! #HappyThanksgiving #thankful #Thanksgiving2019 #gratitude #grateful

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Happy Thanksgiving! | Diane Ravitch's blog - https://wp.me/p2odLa-lbM via @dianeravitch


Happy Thanksgiving!
Enjoy your day.
If you are not making dinner, go to a church or homeless shelter to volunteer to serve others. It will remind you of your blessings and good fortune. Former President Obama helped prepare food bags for those in need in Chicago (imagine Trump doing that, I can’t).
The spirit of giving is contagious.
When I think of those to whom I am thankful, I Think first of family and loved ones.
I think of you, who take time from your day to read what I write.
I think of the teachers in West Virginia, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Colorado, North Carolina, and Arizona who taught the nation a lesson.
I think of all those who work tirelessly for others to make our communities better places to live.
Despite our woes, we have much to be thankful for.
Diane


Seattle Schools Community Forum: Happy (Grateful) Thanksgiving - http://saveseattleschools.blogspot.com/2018/11/happy-grateful-thanksgiving.html
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NYC Educator: Happy Thanksgiving - http://nyceducator.com/2018/11/happy-thanksgiving.html


Thanksgiving: Family, Friends, Teachers, HOPE, and Public Schools - https://nancyebailey.com/2018/11/22/thanksgiving-family-friends-teachers-hope-and-public-schools/ on @NancyEBailey1

glen brown: Thanksgiving: Celebrating the Day Americans Fed Undocumented Aliens from Europe - https://teacherpoetmusicianglenbrown.blogspot.com/2018/11/thanksgiving-celebrating-day-americans.html




Decolonize Thanksgiving! – Parenting for Liberation - https://wp.me/p7fXox-Ne via @Parenting4Lib
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New PBS NewsHour Video Segment: “How teachers are debunking some of the myths of Thanksgiving” | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/?p=92805 on @Larryferlazzo



A Thanksgiving Present for You: Laughter! | Diane Ravitch's blog - https://wp.me/p2odLa-lcR via @dianeravitch

I Am Thankful for the Resilient Educators Teaching Children After the Fire in California | Diane Ravitch's blog - https://wp.me/p2odLa-lch via @dianeravitch
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I Am Thankful for Freedom of the Press | Diane Ravitch's blog - https://wp.me/p2odLa-lcw via @dianeravitch
I Am Thankful for Those Who Defend an Independent Judiciary | Diane Ravitch's blog - https://wp.me/p2odLa-lcp via @dianeravitch
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NANCY BAILEY: Parents and Teachers United: A Force for Students, Public Education, and America!

Parents and Teachers United: A Force for Students, Public Education, and America!

Parents and Teachers United: A Force for Students, Public Education, and America!

On this Thanksgiving, I am remembering parents and teachers, Republicans and Democrats, who work together to create public schools that serve all children. This relationship is sacred and critical for children to learn. Without this bond there’s little hope for public education and America’s future.
The corporate reform, dystopian goal is to destroy public education for a privatized system. This will mean the end of democratic public ownership of public schools. Schools will be owned and marketed by outsiders who collect tax dollars for their own pursuit of profit on the backs of America’s students.
But parents and teachers working together goes a long way to push back the harmful corporate reforms making many troubling changes to schools.
Here are examples of threats to the parent-teacher relationship.    
Astroturf Parent Groups with a Charter School Agenda. 
Charter schools are mostly run by outside organizations who hire alternatively trained individuals like those from Teach for America. Parents usually have little say as to how these schools are run. They must follow the rules created by the owners.
Recently parents from a Memphis organization funded by the Walton Family Foundation showed up at a rally for Elizabeth Warren at Clark University in Atlanta and interrupted her speech. Warren has called for making charter schools more transparent.
This astroturf group and others like it, have parents who are convinced that charter CONTINUE READING: Parents and Teachers United: A Force for Students, Public Education, and America!

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Grassroots Organizing Just Won $1.5 Billion for Public Schools + Give to the Grassroots on #GivingTuesday | Schott Foundation for Public Education

Grassroots Organizing Just Won $1.5 Billion for Public Schools | Schott Foundation for Public Education

Grassroots Organizing Just Won $1.5 Billion for Public Schools

Yesterday the landmark Student Opportunity Act was signed into law in Massachusetts, guaranteeing an additional $1.5 billion in funding for k-12 public schools across the Commonwealth: 
Four years after a state commission determined the existing foundation budget formula underestimates the cost of education by $1 billion annually and more than a year after a previous bill to correct inequalities collapsed, the focus now shifts to implementing the funding law and holding districts accountable for improvement plans.
The new money is intended to reduce disparities between districts across the state and to put communities with larger cost drivers — special education, employee health care, and high numbers of low-income students and English language learners — on a more even footing with their peers.
While the finish line for this bill may have been Boston and Beacon Hill, the route that got us here went through cities, neighborhoods, and schools all across Massachusetts. This kind of dramatic shift in funding priorities only comes about when grassroots pressure builds from the bottom-up and makes a change inevitable: when the people lead, politicians must eventually listen. Incredible, tireless work was done by a constellation of education justice groups ​including those that Schott supports, ​such as MassBudget's independent budget and policy analysis, which played an important role in the education funding increase. ​Partners like Youth on Board, Massachusetts Community Action Network, Worcester Interfaith, and Massachusetts Jobs With Justice, as well as leading-edge community and labor coalitions like Boston Education Justice Alliance (BEJA) and Massachusetts Education Justice Alliance (MEJA) helped to center the voices of communities of color: students and parents brought a framework of racial justice to the public debate that won funding for English language learners and low-income students.
But it's important to highlight that the roots of this victory go much deeper. Systemic change is not a one-time victory but a commitment realized over the course of time. Since Schott’s founding in 1993, we have fostered and resourced cross-sector CONTINUE READING: Grassroots Organizing Just Won $1.5 Billion for Public Schools | Schott Foundation for Public Education
Here's Why You Should Give to the Grassroots on #GivingTuesday | Schott Foundation for Public Education - http://schottfoundation.org/node/4203


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We are still here — and we still need your support! - SF PUBLIC SCHOOL MOM

We are still here — and we still need your support! - SF PUBLIC SCHOOL MOM

We are still here — and we still need your support!

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Guest Post by Mari Villaluna

This Thanksgiving many families will celebrate a holiday founded on the genocide of Native people. When we teach kids that Native people only existed in the past, we participate in their erasure. Many Americans don’t know there are many Native people still fighting for legal recognition by the United States government.

Mari Villaluna is a twin-spirit parent, educator and Indigenous organizer. In this guest post, they share ideas on ways you can GET INVOLVED TODAY to support justice and self-determination for Native people. You can follow them on Instagram @solomamihood and Facebook at @beautifulmariposa.

We are still here — and we still need your support!

The Wampanoag are the people that discovered the “Pilgrims”. Currently, the Trump Administration is refusing to give this tribe the federal recognition status of the Mashpee Wampanoag this year. This literally means that their reservation, tribal services, etc.could all be lost!


This is settler-colonialism and is an example of the ways the US government uses the legal system to genocide a whole nation of people.
In the Mashpee Wamppanoag’s own words:
“The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe’s citizens are currently suffering a massive loss of resources and services due to the uncertainty of the trust status of CONTINUE READING: We are still here — and we still need your support! - SF PUBLIC SCHOOL MOM

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Happy Thanksgiving: A Meditation on Religious Liberty, | Diane Ravitch's blog

Happy Thanksgiving: A Meditation on Religious Liberty, | Diane Ravitch's blog

Happy Thanksgiving: A Meditation on Religious Liberty

Happy Thanksgiving!
Today is a day when we pause and give thanks to whatever deity we worship (or not) for the blessings we enjoy: our freedom, our family, our friends, and our good fortune to live in a democracy where we are all responsible for making it better for our brothers and sisters.
I want to share with you a profound speech delivered by our good friend Rev. Dr. Charles Foster Johnson about religious liberty and the public schools and the future of our democracy.
Charlie Johnson is the founder and leader of Pastors for Texas Children. PTC has led the fight against vouchers in Texas and has helped like-minded religious leaders in other states form their own organizations to support religious liberty and public schools. I never expected, at this late chapter in my life, to discover that I have a dear friend who is a Baptist minister in my home state of Texas. I admire his courage, his intellect, and his passion for the common good. Needless to say, he is on the honor roll of this blog, and I name him as a hero of the Resistance in my forthcoming book Slaying Goliath. I can’t think of a better way for you to spend a few free CONTINUE READING:  Happy Thanksgiving: A Meditation on Religious Liberty, | Diane Ravitch's blog

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NYC Educator: Happy Thanksgiving to All

NYC Educator: Happy Thanksgiving to All

Happy Thanksgiving to All
I wish a happy holiday to every reader of this blog, whether regular, occasional, or accidental.  This is one of the best holidays. Unless you're the one doing the cooking and cleaning (I'm not), all you have to do is get together with family. I'm grateful for having family with which to get together, and I certainly hope you do too.

Of course, there's your crazy uncle in the red hat who thinks being a teacher is akin to being on welfare, but sometimes it's best to smile and let him pass. After all, whether or not you engage him he's still going home to hear the Gospel According to Fox News.

I'm thankful for living by the Nautical Mile in Freeport, pictured at left. I walk there every morning with my best bud Toby. I tell him all my deep dark secrets, and he's never betrayed my trust. We make a lot of friends, both human and canine, on that road. (I'm not quite as thankful during natural disasters like Sandy, when the canal comes to my house to visit, but I won't dwell on that today.) I'm thankful for the balance Toby and I experience walking up and down the canal in absolutely every kind of weather.

I'm thankful today for having the best job in the world. Every day I get to wake up, go to work, and meet kids who inspire me. They come from all over the world, and they have every sort of story to tell. If I succeed in making them write and speak enough, I get to see them. Of course that's not always the case.

My second job is chapter leader of the largest school in Queens. That job is insane, but who's to say that's different from being a New York City public school teacher? Sometimes I'm able to help people. Sometimes I'm able to get people over the fear that CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: Happy Thanksgiving to All


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Seattle Schools Community Forum: Revenge of the Students - Garfield Speaks

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Revenge of the Students - Garfield Speaks

Revenge of the Students - Garfield Speaks

 From the student newspaper, The Garfield Messenger (bold mine):
Dear Superintendent Juneau,


In the past months, you have made it your mission to make the district more equitable by ending the Highly Capable Cohort (HCC). We know from firsthand experience that the HCC program has its flaws, and we appreciate that you want to make it equitable for all. However, we don’t believe that your approach to this issue is appropriate.

Despite your good intentions, The Messenger feels that your perspective on the issue and the words you have used have alienated the people you are attempting to help. By using terms like “slave ship” and “Apartheid High” to describe the most racially diverse high school in Seattle, you not only disrespect and belittle the students of Garfield, you also oversimplify the effects of a complex issue the district created in the first place.


The term “Apartheid High” was born out of a history of segregation and racial conflict at Garfield — and the student body is very aware of this. However, this language is extremely outdated. Today it sounds less like a word that a Garfield student would use, and more like a slogan that has been dug up to garner public support for your agenda.

Your efforts to turn the public against HCC has taken a toll on CONTINUE READING: Seattle Schools Community Forum: Revenge of the Students - Garfield Speaks

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CURMUDGUCATION: AI: Bad Data, Bad Results

CURMUDGUCATION: AI: Bad Data, Bad Results

AI: Bad Data, Bad Results

 Once upon a time, when you took computer programming courses, you had two things drilled into you:

1) Computers are dumb. Fast and indefatigable, but dumb.

2) Garbage in, garbage out.

The rise of artificial intelligence is supposed to make us forget both of those things. It shouldn't. It especially shouldn't in fields like education which are packed with cyber-non-experts and far too many people who think that computers are magic and AI computers are super-shiny magic. Too many folks in the Education Space get the majority of their current computer "training" from folks who have something to sell.

AI is too often used inappropriately, when all we've really got is a fancy algorithm, but no actual intelligence, artificial or otherwise. We're supposed to get past that with software that can learn, except that we haven't got that sorted out either.

Remember Tay, the Microsoft intelligent chatbot that learned to be a horrifying racist? Tay actually had a younger sister, Zo, who was supposed to be better, but was just arguably worse in different ways. Facial recognition programs still mis-identify black faces.

The pop culture notion, long embedded in all manner of fiction, is that a cold, logical computer would be ruthlessly objective. Instead, what we learn over and over and over and over and over and over again is that a computer is ruthlessly attached to whatever biases are programmed into it.

Wired just published an article about how tweaking the data used to train an AI could be the new CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: AI: Bad Data, Bad Results


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How NOT to teach Thanksgiving - The Washington Post

How NOT to teach Thanksgiving - The Washington Post

How NOT to teach Thanksgiving

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In a growing number of classrooms around the country, students are learning a very different story about Thanksgiving than their parents did.
Instead of focusing on a joyful turkey feast in 1621 shared by Pilgrims in Plymouth Colony and Wampanoag Indians, some educators today frame the holiday around the way Native Americans were treated by Europeans who settled on the continent.
In North Carolina, for example, teachers receive this guidance from the Wake County school system’s Office of Equity Affairs, as shown in this tweet by Lauryn Mascareñaz, a director in that office:
The office provided links to help teachers look at the holiday in “a historical and culturally appropriate way.”
The nonprofit Center for Racial Justice in Education has compiled a guide for teachers on how to approach Thanksgiving, which you can find here. And one educator, Debbie Reese, posted a striking series of tweets (see below) in which she tells teachers how not to teach Thanksgiving.
Reese has taught elementary school in traditional public schools and in two schools for American Indians: Riverside Indian School in Anadarko, Okla., and Santa Fe Indian School in Santa Fe, N.M.
Enrolled in the Nambé Pueblo tribe in northern New Mexico, she taught children’s literature, American Indian studies and other courses at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. And she is the founder of an organization called American Indians in Children’s Literature.
Here are many of the tweets she posted:
CONTINUE READING: How NOT to teach Thanksgiving - The Washington Post
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