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Sunday, December 22, 2019

Ohio Principal Poses as Active Shooter in School Drill. This Is Where We Are, America. | deutsch29

Ohio Principal Poses as Active Shooter in School Drill. This Is Where We Are, America. | deutsch29

Ohio Principal Poses as Active Shooter in School Drill. This Is Where We Are, America.

An Ohio principal decided to pose as the active shooter in a preplanned, schoolwide drill that went awry.
How he did not anticipate that students could be injured is beyond me. Nevertheless, it seems that the principal plans to continue similar drills in the future.
From FOX19 in New Richmond, Ohio, on December 19, 2019:
Several New Richmond Middle School students were injured Tuesday during an active shooter drill, according to the school’s principal.
The incident happened during an ALICE drill, which stands for ‘alert, lockdown, inform, counter and evacuate.’
The school says it uses the drill to simulate an active shooter situation in the building.
First an alarm sounded in the school’s cafeteria during first lunch period, then Principal Court Lilly appeared.
“I pose as the active shooter,” Lilly wrote in a letter sent home to parents. “I utilize air horns to simulate the noise level that would take place in a real event.”
…
During these ‘chaotic’ moments, the principal says a few students fell to the ground and sustained bumps and bruise. One student reportedly got a cut on her eyebrow.
Following the incident, the school principal sent the following letter to parents. (See FOX19 link for copy of letter, which  CONTINUE READING: Ohio Principal Poses as Active Shooter in School Drill. This Is Where We Are, America. | deutsch29

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CATCH UP WITH CURMUDGUCATION + ICYMI: The Nights Before Christmas Edition (12/22)

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: The Nights Before Christmas Edition (12/22)




 The Nights Before Christmas Edition (12/22)

 Down to the wire (or in some cases, past the wire-- my extended family gathered at my folks yesterday for our holiday celebration). But there's still plenty to read from the last week.

The Science of Writing

"Science is not a hammer." Paul Thomas with some thoughts about the teaching of writing and the science that is (or is not) behind it and science's place in the grander scheme.

Whatever Happened to EdTPA? It's Still Here and Still Messed up

A new study suggests that EdTPA shouldn't be used for, well, much of anything. Fred Klonsky, who's been following EdTPA for a while has some thoughts (and some links) about the study and the program.

How Ending Behavior Rewards Helped One School Focus on Student Motivation and Character 

KQED makes a visit to Jersey to revisit the question of whether or not t's a good idea to reward students for behaving well. Daniel Pink makes an appearance.

Gary Larson Is Back, Sort Of.

Important news from the New York Times-- The Far Side is getting digitized-- and there night even be new panels.

Demand Pennsylvania Reform Its Charter Laws  

Steve Singer reminds Pennsylvanians that there is some legislation just waiting for public comment. A must read for PA residents.

The Lanes That Divide

The Washington Post looks at how the drawing of school district boundaries is still a potent weapon against integration.

American students aren't getting smarter-- and testing is to blame

Testing expert Daniel Koretz is at NBC, explaining that high stakes testing has been a damaging crock. This should inspire you to buy Koretz's book.

Seven Reasons Teachers Trust Each Other More Than...Well, Anyone.

You should be reading Nancy Flanagan regularly, but she is particularly on target this week, talking about how teachers value the judgment of other teachers more than, say, self-professed internet ed experts.

Reporters Faced Resistance At Every Level 

Reporters from the Record and NorthJersey.com have done some good work writing about charter schools, but this article shows how one of that reporting came easily. Another reminder that charter transparency and accountability are not really things.

Why Education Reform Is Not Working

The New York Times runs a few responses to its piece about the Core's tenth birthday. They are not complimentary.

The Myth of Charter School Innovation 

The notion that charters are laboratories of educational innovation just won't die. nancy Bailey explains why it should.

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: The Nights Before Christmas Edition (12/22)


CATCH UP WITH CURMUDGUCATION


OH: Voucher Crisis Looming

29by Peter Greene / 1d
When does a voucher program lose support? When it comes for the wealthy white districts. Ohio has quietly been working to become the Florida of North when it comes to education, with an assortment of school choice programs that are like a cancerous growth gnawing away at the health of the public school system. But now, due to a collection of lawmaker choices, the privatized schools of Ohio have dr

DEC 19

Would Medicare-For-All Come With An Education Bonus?

300+by Peter Greene / 2d
This is the least-read thing I've ever written for Forbes , but I still wonder about the issue. So let me put it out there again. The expansion of Medicare coverage as a path to universal healthcare for the U.S. has unleashed a great deal of debate from think tanks to water coolers. One of the biggest questions remain—how much would it actually cost, and what would the average citizen pay? The ans

DEC 18

Congress To DeVos: "Nope"

76by Peter Greene / 4d
The House has passed a budget , and Betsy DeVos's Education Freedom Tax Dodge is not in it. This is not a big surprise, though both Kellyanne Conwa y and Donald Trump stepped up in recent weeks to try to help sell it. EdWeek reports that the deal struck by federal lawmakers has nary a cent for the Education Freedom Scholarships program. The program was "ignored" and there is neither money for admi
Word Pedometers: Another Really Dumb Tech Idea

21by Peter Greene / 4d
You only have to get one "story at a glance" point into this article to know that this is going to be a freakin' disaster panda, and I have so many wuestions. New devices can be worn by babies and toddlers to count the number of words they are exposed to each day. It's a word pedometer, a sensor that you strap onto your child's chest that, well, records all the words tat show up in the area. They

DEC 16

What Is A Day Of Learning, Anyway?

35by Peter Greene / 6d
The measure crops up frequently in discussions of education policies and, sometimes, products. But what the heck does it even mean? Charter advocates like to point to a CREDO study that shows urban charters giving students an additional 40 days of learning growth in math and 38 in reading (while critics bring up the 2013 CREDO study finding that charter schools provided seven additional days of l

DEC 15

ICYMI: Ed Forum Weekend Edition (12/15)

by Peter Greene / 7d
Yesterday I spent the day in Pittsburgh at the ed forum, then decorating at my in-laws, then banging out a summary. But I still have a few things for you to read from the week. Remember to share! Common Core: The Rest of the Story Blogger and ed historian Adam Laats fills in some gaps in the NYT history of everyone's favorite standards. GRE Fails To Identify Successful PhD Students Shocked. I am s

DEC 14

A Look At The Democratic Education Forum

by Peter Greene / 7d
After live-tweeting the day, I've worked up a summary, which you'll find over at my Forbes spot. Sorry to bait and switch, but that's where you can find my take on the day...

DEC 13



When Betsy DeVos Tells You Who She Is, Listen

100+by Peter Greene / 8d
Yesterday, Erica Green did a masterful job of covering Betsy DeVos's appearance before the House Education Committee to defend her continued efforts to resist any sort of debt relief for students bilked by for-profit schools. The New York Times article isn't accessible to everybody, and that's too bad, 
CURMUDGUCATION
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Angie Sullivan: The Charter Industry in Nevada is Asleep at the Wheel, Gone Off the Road, Crashed into a Ditch | Diane Ravitch's blog

Angie Sullivan: The Charter Industry in Nevada is Asleep at the Wheel, Gone Off the Road, Crashed into a Ditch | Diane Ravitch's blog

Angie Sullivan: The Charter Industry in Nevada is Asleep at the Wheel, Gone Off the Road, Crashed into a Ditch
Angie Sullivan is a teacher in a Title 1 elementary school in Las Vegas. She regularly writes the members of the Nevada legislature to share her outrage about the underfunding of the state’s neediest schools and the state’s waste of money on charter schools, which dominate the state’s list of the lowest performing schools.
Here is her latest:
Still Asleep At The Wheel 
What happened?  
Pile of fraud and graft.  
These charter titles got money and did what?   
This charter changed its name many many times.   It is difficult to follow its trail – 100, One Hundred, Imagine at different locations.   Is this graft? fraud?  Imagine still has a failing charter campus opened? What happened to the two additional campuses?  $300,000 disappeared with change in names and admin?   This is what lack of accountability and transparency does. 
What happened to the Montessori in Carson?   I believe it is still there – complaining about cash.  These charters worry me because they never have a testing year so zero data and zero accountability. This is what lack of accountability and transparency CONTINUE READING: Angie Sullivan: The Charter Industry in Nevada is Asleep at the Wheel, Gone Off the Road, Crashed into a Ditch | Diane Ravitch's blog

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Texas: State Takeover of Houston Schools is an Outrage | Diane Ravitch's blog

Texas: State Takeover of Houston Schools is an Outrage | Diane Ravitch's blog
Texas: State Takeover of Houston Schools is an Outrage

Zeph Capo, president of the Texas AFT,  writes here about the state’s determination to take over the Houston Independent School District because ONE SCHOOL HAS LOW TEST SCORES.
The State has failed in other takeovers, and its only plan in Houston is to usurp the elected school board. Capo believes that the goal is to allow charter operators a free hand in the state’s biggest school district.
He writes:
“In a profoundly unbelievable decision, the state announced last month it will take over the entire Houston school district, the largest district in Texas, even though the schools have been showing remarkable progress. Either the TEA doesn’t know what’s actually happening on the ground hundreds of miles away or, more likely, it doesn’t care because it is anxious to deliver Houston’s 284 public schools to charter operators. If the state succeeds, other Texas school districts could be its next target.
”The TEA has a poor track record on state takeovers and other interventions. Take the Marlin Independent School District, about 100 miles from Austin. In late 2016, the TEA replaced the district’s board of trustees with state- CONTINUE READING: Texas: State Takeover of Houston Schools is an Outrage | Diane Ravitch's blog



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What’s in your water? | Live Long and Prosper

What’s in your water? | Live Long and Prosper
What’s in your water?


Many of America’s children continue to be poisoned by their local and state governments…because the Federal government won’t listen to its own agency.
Around the country, schools are fighting the effects of environmental toxins in their students’ drinking water. The most notorious example is in Flint Michigan, where the school system has seen a doubling of the number of students needing special services due to lead poisoning and the damage to the developing brain that it causes.
Other pollutants are damaging as well. Mercury, along with cancer-causing dioxins, are released from coal-fired power plants and municipal waste incinerators. The airborne toxins travel to the lungs of children or are absorbed into food and water supplies.
2019 was a bad year for lead…in Flint, Newark, Hammond IN, New York City, Detroit, Philadelphia, and elsewhere. Thousands of our nation’s children have had their lives damaged by the toxicity of lead. Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reminds us that even the smallest lead level in the blood of children is unsafe.
No safe blood lead level in children has been identified. Even low levels of CONTINUE READING: What’s in your water? | Live Long and Prosper

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