Big Education Ape: Dec 24, 2019

Tuesday, December 24, 2019

How to Talk to Your Family About Charter Schools During the Holidays | Diane Ravitch's blog

How to Talk to Your Family About Charter Schools During the Holidays | Diane Ravitch's blog

How to Talk to Your Family About Charter Schools During the Holidays

Jeremy Mohler of the nonpartisan “In the Public Interest” wrote a clear summary of the reasons to be concerned about charter schools:

The holidays are a time of joy and relaxation but also uncomfortable conversations with family. Will Uncle Tommy go on another rant about windmills causing cancer? Does grandma still think Russia is the only reason Trump won?

So, what should you say when someone starts dissing traditional, neighborhood public schools and hyping up charter schools?

Charter schools generally perform academically about the same as neighborhood public schools.

Study after study show that, just like there are high and low performing neighborhood public schools, there are high and low performing charter schools.

In fact, because some charter schools effectively exclude special education students or expel students with perceived disciplinary issues, charter school academic success often can be overstated.

Charter schools can drain school district budgets, taking resources from neighborhood public school students.

Research is revealing that, in many states, school districts and the students they serve are undermined by CONTINUE READING: How to Talk to Your Family About Charter Schools During the Holidays | Diane Ravitch's blog

Pre-Kwanzaa Celebration – Parenting for Liberation

Pre-Kwanzaa Celebration – Parenting for Liberation

Pre-Kwanzaa Celebration

Habari Gani?! Our first annual Pre-Kwanzaa Celebration, in partnership with Dior Sunset Foundation, was an amazing community gathering bringing together 150 Black families in Los Angeles. Kwanzaa is a 7-day African-American & Pan-African holiday created to celebrate our culture, heritage, & foster unity, beginning on December 26-January 1.

While, there are a multitude of ways to celebrate Kwanzaa which involves showing respect for ancestors and coming together through song, dance, African drums, storytelling, and poetry reading, Parenting for Liberation encourage families to be creative and celebrate Kwanzaa in their own way with an intention on practicing the 7 principles of Kwanzaa: Umoja (unity), Kujichagulia (self-determination), Ujima (collective work and responsibility), Ujamaa (cooperative economics), Nia (purpose), Kuumba (creativity), & Imani (faith).

Please share your Kwanzaa celebrations with us using the hashtag #P4LKwanzaa

“May the light of the kinara fill your home with peace and light your new year with love!”

Download Our Kwanzaa Toolkit

kwanzaa-handout DOWNLOAD

CONTINUE READING: Pre-Kwanzaa Celebration – Parenting for Liberation

Celebrating Kwanzaa in Four Easy Steps

Celebrating Kwanzaa in Four Easy Steps

Kwanzaa 101 for the Uninitiated, Self-Conscious, or Confused

Y’all, Kwanzaa is LIT. Seriously. What other uniquely African-American holiday invites you to spend seven days talking about the realest shit?

People get so caught up in how it’s a made-up holiday, but come on—a holiday is a group decision. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday as a federal holiday is younger than Kwanzaa. I’m not saying it’s right, but thems the facts.

So how do you, a Kwanzaa skeptic, get on board without feeling silly? I got you.

Step One: Get your stuff.

The visuals of Kwanzaa are pretty simple. You can get a kit, go to an African market, or get creative. Candles in a Kinara are the traditional way of doing Kwanzaa, but if you don’t have the time or energy to pull that together, don’t. I find having a Kwanzaa table set up is a reminder to stop and think about the Kwanzaa principles, but know that if you’re reflecting on the principles you’re doing Kwanzaa. It’s just like you don’t need a tree to celebrate Christmas; but if you like a tree, it’s nice to have. For Kwanzaa, the main elements are:

Mkeka: Mat
The Mkeka is the base of your Kwanzaa table. The foundation. Historically, it is a raffia or straw woven mat with an earthy vibe.
Kinara: Candleholder
The centerpiece of your Kwanzaa table is your kinara, candleholder.
Mishumaa Saba: The Seven Candles (three red, one black, and three green)
Growing up, it was surprisingly difficult to find black candles in December, but capitalism has caught up with Kwanzaa and my mom called me last CONTINUE READING: Celebrating Kwanzaa in Four Easy Steps

A Plea to Arkansas Officials to Keep Hands Off Little Rock Public Schools | Diane Ravitch's blog

A Plea to Arkansas Officials to Keep Hands Off Little Rock Public Schools | Diane Ravitch's blog

A Plea to Arkansas Officials to Keep Hands Off Little Rock Public Schools

Dr. Anika Whitfield is a leader of Grassroots Arkansas.

She recently posted an open letter to key state officials, including Governor Asa Hutchinson and State Commissioner Johnny Key.

She wrote:

Open Letter: State Oppression Denying Independence

The State of Arkansas continues to strong arm the LRSD with unwelcomed and unsolicited changes that continue to be forced upon us.

As three persons who have some authority and have taken an oath of responsibility to represent the entire state, yet you seem to not feel the need to respectfully and justly represent your Little Rock School District constituency.

Four years and 11 months into state control of the LRSD, you still have not established clear exit criteria and a plan for the LRSD to exit state control.

Four years and 11 months into state control of the LRSD, you continue to deny the LRSD community of our inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness as you are murdering our schools and destroying the lives of students, teachers and CONTINUE READING: A Plea to Arkansas Officials to Keep Hands Off Little Rock Public Schools | Diane Ravitch's blog

Discussing Excellent Outliers and Power of Purpose in Education on 93.1 | Cloaking Inequity

Discussing Excellent Outliers and Power of Purpose in Education on 93.1 | Cloaking Inequity

DISCUSSING EXCELLENT OUTLIERS AND POWER OF PURPOSE IN EDUCATION ON 93.1

Julian Vasquez Heilig became Dean of the University of Kentucky College of Education in July 2019. Just before the annual holiday break Dean Heilig agreed to 93.1 at the WUKY studios to share his vision leading a College of Education, which hosts nearly 2,500 students in over 70 graduate and undergraduate programs. He discusses teacher education, charter schools, excellent outliers, the power of purpose, and much more…

Please Facebook Like, Tweet, etc below and/or reblog to share this discussion with others.

Check out and follow my YouTube channel here.

Twitter: @ProfessorJVH

Click here for Vitae.

Discussing Excellent Outliers and Power of Purpose in Education on 93.1 | Cloaking Inequity

Ellen and Michelle Obama Give a D.C. Elementary School $100,000, But Valerie Strauss Asks Why the City Does Not Fund D.C. Schools’ Needs | Diane Ravitch's blog

Ellen and Michelle Obama Give a D.C. Elementary School $100,000, But Valerie Strauss Asks Why the City Does Not Fund D.C. Schools’ Needs | Diane Ravitch's blog

Ellen and Michelle Obama Give a D.C. Elementary School $100,000, But Valerie Strauss Asks Why the City Does Not Fund D.C. Schools’ Needs

Michelle Obama surprised the staff and children of Randle Highlands Elementary School in D.C. by bringing them a box filled with $100,000 cash to buy whatever they need for the schools.

Valerie Strauss wondered why the school is unde-resourced, why teachers have to dig into their own pockets, when the city has a large surplus.

What about the schools where Ellen doesn’t send a gift of $100,000?

It really is a wonderful gesture, but public schools should not have to depend on charity to meet their basic needs.

Watch the video if you can. It really is heartwarming, and almost makes you forget that the city is failing to fund its schools.

Strauss writes:

Former first lady Michelle Obama recently walked into an elementary school in the nation’s capital and delivered a box with a stunning gift: $100,000 in cash, courtesy of entertainer Ellen DeGeneres. Children and adults CONTINUE READING: Ellen and Michelle Obama Give a D.C. Elementary School $100,000, But Valerie Strauss Asks Why the City Does Not Fund D.C. Schools’ Needs | Diane Ravitch's blog

NYC Educator: On Student Notes and Rubrics

NYC Educator: On Student Notes and Rubrics

On Student Notes and Rubrics

You go to meetings and someone tells you to group kids in a certain way, or present information in a certain way. Maybe if you do this, it will help maintain interest. Maybe it won't.

You never really know, since likely as not the person who came up with the idea isn't a classroom teacher and never tried it, let alone anything else you do in the classroom. There are a whole lot of people whose jobs entail knowing more than we do about what we do, except they don't do it.

We get these rating sheets where we are marked on a rubric. We're effective, highly effective, effectively high, or I want to take you higher. What does it really mean? Unless you get a bad rating, it means little or nothing. Do the people rating you really understand what's going on in the classroom? Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe your supervisor only taught three years, only taught in one situation, only taught one kind of class, and has no idea of the variables going on in your classroom. Maybe your supervisor knows the Danielson rubric and truly believes it encompasses every possibility.

Sometimes kids step up, though, well beyond where the idiotic survey the city put out did, and draw outside the lines. A friend of mine who got a questionable rating recently posted a note from a student on Facebook that CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: On Student Notes and Rubrics