Betsy DeVos’ 6 Worst Moves of 2019 By Amanda Menas In 2019, educators across the country stood up for their students, their schools, and their communities, to call out the funding cuts and harmful legislation proposed by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. Betsy DeVos has a long history of turning her back on public schools. As secretary of education with the backing of President Trump, DeVos has p
Mercedes Schneider Discusses Richard Phelps’ Critical History of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute Among rightwing think tanks, none has more intellectual firepower than the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, due to its leading thinker Chester E. Finn Jr., who has an Ed.D. from Harvard Graduate School of Education and worked in the administrations of Reagan and Nixon, as well as working for Daniel Patri
Virginia School District To Give Students One Day Off Per Year For 'Civic Engagement' One of the largest school districts in the country is trying something new: Starting next month, students in Fairfax County, Va., can take one day off per school year to engage in political activism. The plan has its roots in the 2018 shooting at a Parkland, Fla. high school that left 17 dead. In its aftermath
DeVos, kids, tests: What readers clicked on the most in the last decade Betsy DeVos. Early-childhood education. Kids. Equity. Standardized tests. Teachers. Did I mention DeVos? These are some of the topics that drew the most readers to The Answer Sheet over the past decade. I’ve been authoring The Answer Sheet as a continuing experiment in telling stories about education, of which I take an expa
VA: Ideas About How To Recruit and Retain Teachers As squawking about the teacher "shortage" many states have developed methods to either take advantage of the situation ("Now we can finally break the teachers union and public education by letting any warm body stand in front of a classroom because, hey, there's a shortage") or try to figure out a way to actually solve the problem. In Virginia,
LETTER FROM 23 ORGANIZATIONS TO THE FTC ABOUT THE NEED TO STRENGTHEN RATHER THAN WEAKEN COPPA Submitted in response to the FTC request for Public Comment on the Implementation of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule Dec. 11, 2019 https://www.regulations.gov/comment?D=FTC-2019-0054-0001 Federal Trade Commission Washington, DC 20580 Re: COPPA Rule Review, 16 CFR part 312, Project No. P195
Please remember Class Size Matters in your year-end gift-giving! Dear all-- I hope you had a wonderful holiday break with friends and family. Please consider making a year-end, tax-deductible donation to Class Size Matters so that we can continue our passionate advocacy for the smaller classes that all kids need for a quality education. We also promote the parent voice in education decision-maki
Using Students with Severe Special Education Needs As Lab Rats In An Education “Reform” Experiment Outcome 7 – Part 1: Reduce the number of students with moderate to severe disabilities ages 6-18 at special education centers by a total of 33% over three years.” – Chanda Smith Modified Consent Decree Nick Melvoin justifies his plans to force a school serving students with severe special education
Congratulations! I recently hired a high tech data-crunching firm to analyze my 5,000 person mailing list. Their task was to divide my list into three groups based on their disposable income: “Significant,” “Reasonable,” and “Negligible.” Lucky you! You are in the “Significant” category! Happily for all concerned, this news comes during ‘The Giving Season,’ meaning that you can help others while
NewBlackMan (in Exile) New Film, 'Clemency', Looks at Death Row From a Warden's Eyes by Mark Anthony Neal / 14h ' A new death row drama called Clemency premiered at Sundance Film Festival in January this year where it won the U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize, making director and writer Chinonye Chukwu the first Black woman to win the festival’s biggest prize. The film stars Oscar-nominee Alfre Woo
Education Research Report THIS WEEK Education Research Report Digest of Education Statistics 2018 provides new and historical data on all aspects of education by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 1d Compiled by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the Digest of Education Statistics is a comprehensive statistical reference for all levels of education in the United States. Topics include educat
Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007 This Week With Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... The latest news and resources in education since 2007 A Look Back: “English Language Learners and the Power of Personal Stories” by Larry Ferlazzo / 21min I thought that new – and veteran – readers might find it interesting if I began sharing my be
Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all KEEP UP/ CATCH UP WITH DIANE RAVITCH'S BLOG A site to discuss better education for all Slaying Goliath: The Passionate Resistance to Privatization and the Fight to Save America's Public Schools CLICK HERE TO Pre-order NOW Robin Lithgow: Boys’ Acting Companies Launch “the Golden Age” by dianeravitch / 49min Robin Lithgow, former dir
UMOJA Habari Gani? Umoja! Today is the first day of Kwanzaa, a week-long celebration that honors African heritage of the Black Diaspora. We will be highlighting the importance of the seven core principles of Kwanzaa, how you can practice in your families and communities, and share how Parenting for Liberation work embodies the tenets of each principle. Today, on the first day of Kwanzaa we celeb
NEW: The ethics of digital literacy: Developing knowledge and skills across grade levels homas, P.L. (2019). The ethical dilemma of satire in an era of fake news and the brave new world of social media. In K.H. Turner (ed.). The ethics of digital literacy: Developing knowledge and skills across grade levels (pp. xx-xx). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. The Ethics of Digital Literacy
Education Law Center: The Failure of Vouchers in Texas and of Voucher Expansion in Arizona It has not been a good year for vouchers. The research continues to show that they don’t “save poor kids from failing schools.” They are in fact more likely to cause their academic performance to decline. Pastors for Texas Children has led the effort to block vouchers in Texas and SOS Arizona led the effor
Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007 “What Was Your Best Math Lesson?” by Larry Ferlazzo / 10h What Was Your Best Math Lesson? is the new “question-of-the-week” at my Ed Week Teacher column. Feel free to leave your comments there or here… Most Popular Posts Of The Week by Larry Ferlazzo / 10h I’m making a change in the content of the reg
Charter schools vs teachers union: A high stakes L.A. school board election takes shape The candidates are confirmed and the upcoming Los Angeles school board races are all but certain to make for a high-stakes election cycle that will pit teachers and their allies against backers of charter schools for influence over the nation’s second-largest school system. The March election, in which four o
Betsy DeVos: the billionaire Republican destroying public education Cuts, attacks, rollbacks – the education secretary’s campaign to dismantle America’s public system has continued unabated Betsy DeVos has become accustomed to hostile audiences. The House of Representatives’ education committee earlier this month was no exception. “When you approach a public school, you are protested,” the Democ
That Older Me Is A Real Jerk As a boy, I dreamt of being a super hero, Batman in particular. I suppose I would have rather been Superman with his flying and extraordinary strength, but I understood enough about reality to know that those powers were impossible, whereas the more mortal abilities of Batman actually seemed attainable. Children dream all kinds of things, but even then, even as I pla
CURMUDGUCATION: Big Brother U The Surveillance State Big Brother U & The Surveillance State If you missed this article at Washington Post about on campus surveillance of students-- well, congratulations on having one less troubling thought in your head over the past week. Because the surveillance is continuing its slow, steady advance. Now technology lets colleges monitor their students 24/7. Yay
A teacher assesses the past decade in K-12 education — and makes 9 predictions for the 2020s Veteran educator Larry Ferlazzo writes annual lists of what he considers the best and worst education news — for which you can find links below — as well as predictions for the year ahead. This piece is something new. Here, Ferlazzo, who teaches English and social studies at Luther Burbank High School in
Sights and Sounds of the Season and The Importance of the Arts in Public Schools This is a good time to think about the arts. The visuals and sounds of the holidays, art, music, and drama, surround us. It’s a reminder that children need access to learning about the arts in public schools. The arts help children learn in academic areas. They keep children interested in school. The arts alone are
The Best Book of 2019 – Kochland By Thomas Ultican 12/26/2019 This may be the finest book thus far in the twenty-first century. Kochland; The Secret History of Koch Industries and Corporate Power in America is the second book by former agribusiness reporter for the Associated Press, Christopher Leonard. His first book, The Meat Racket; The Secret Takeover of America’s Food Business received rave
“Two North” – A true Christmas story “Two North” is a story about a Christmas when I was in grade school during a period when my mom was spending time on the psychiatric ward of our town’s hospital after trying to commit suicide to escape a physically-abusive husband. I was thirteen. It was a cataclysmic event in our lives but it brought us together into a two-person tribe like no other event ev
NEPC Review on Academic Progress of Children of Color The National Education Policy Center publishes reviews of research and reports from think tanks and advocacy groups. In this post, Professor Jaekyung Lee of SUNY, Buffalo, reviews a report from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute on the academic progress of children of color. To the surprise and delight of many, including me, TBF concluded that p
The Dilemma of the Xmas Tree in Mixed Marriages (Hannah Ingber) Hannah Ingber works at the New York Times . This appeared December 24, 2019. The first time I had a Christmas tree was 1987, the one year my father was married to Susan. I was 6 and remember my father having to climb a ladder to decorate it. The second time was last year. This tree was much smaller and looked a bit sad. It tapered o
New Podcast Episode! All About Kwanzaa 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. This episode feat
Do You Hear What I Hear? Many years ago, in December, we were having burgers and beer in a local pub, with friends. The sound system was pumping out Burl Ives, Bing Crosby and Mariah Carey, all the ‘classic’ Christmas tunes. One of our dinner companions remarked that I must be happy, surrounded by the Christmas music he was sure I loved. But no. I do have a thing for Christmas music—always have,
Garrison Keillor: Harper Lee’s Best Christmas Present Ever I recently subscribed to Garrison Keillor’s free website called”A Writer’s Almanac.” He told this wonderful Christmas story today: It was on this day in 1956 that novelist Harper Lee ( books by this author ) spent Christmas in New York City with friends , and received a gift that changed her life. In 1949, Lee had dropped out of a law pr
On Academic Language When I was a grad student, there weren't enough courses for me to complete my MA in Applied Linguistics. I'd been offered a choice between that and an MS in Education in TESOL. Most people went for the latter, because it led to certification in teaching. However, I already had a certification in English. I didn't need the MS, and I thought Applied Linguistics sounded margina
Transcending “College and Career Ready” on Christmas I had a wonderful Christmas. One of the events that I treasure is the errand I needed to make to one of the few open stores in order to buy hamburger buns. (My brother grilled burgers, and what? No buns!) I invited one of my young relatives to take the ride with me. It gave us a chance to talk. Three years ago, this young man graduated from hi
Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas, Happy Chanakuh, Happy Kwanzaa. Whatever you celebrate, have a great day! Make it a great day by doing something kind for someone else. Diane Merry Christmas! | 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
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
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 i
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 uns
DISCUSSING EXCELLENT OUTLIERS AND POWER OF PURPOSE IN EDUCATION ON 93.1 Julian Vasquez Heilig on 93.1 WUKY 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 an
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 hav
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
#TeacherLife — the exhausting, amusing and touching lives of teachers right now CONTINUE READING: #TeacherLife — the exhausting, amusing and touching lives of teachers right now - The Washington Post
in taking action to ensure Yeshivas provide an adequate education to their students Yaffed's press conference responding to the revelation of foot-dragging by the city and state in taking action to ensure Yeshivas provide an adequate education to their students One day after a Department of Investigation inquiry revealed that in 2017, the Mayor had delayed the release of an interim report into t
GreatSchools Ratings Are Skewed (Matt Barnum, Gabrielle LaMarr LeMee) Ranking and evaluating schools across the country is a blood sport. Superintendents prize high ratings for their schools and look closely at those labeled below average. Realtors advertise homes by including highly ranked schools as part of the appeal for the property. And parents ready to move into a new neighborhood look at
7 Great Things that Happened in 2019, thanks to public education activism By Amanda Menas After more than a decade of deep education cuts and lagging teacher salaries , a renewed commitment to public schools is emerging because of educator advocacy and voter turnout. At #RedforEd rallies, phonebanks, and in voting booths, educators spoke up for students and public schools, making sure their legi
The Billionaire Boys and Girls Club NEW YORK — The Bloomberg Billionaires Index tracks the world’s 500 richest people on an almost continuous basis. The number and power of billionaires became an issue in the 2020 campaign, because both Senators Warren and Sanders have proposed a wealth tax aimed at billionaires to pay for their expansive social programs. Bloomberg News updates the figures that
10 Ways to Support & Help Students with Anxiety in School By Gigi Ward Anxiety disorders affect millions of children each year, ranging from children experiencing panic attacks to disorders such as “school refusal” anxiety. According to recent statistics, 31.9% of adolescents, aged 13-18 in the US currently struggles with anxiety, around 7% of Australian children experiencing some type of anxiet
Top Posts of 2019 You’ll notice a trend around the “science of reading” Reading War that gained momentum in 2019. Since I spent so much of the past year writing about that topic, I am now using much of that work to compose a new book for IAP: How to End the Reading War and Serve the Literacy Needs of All Students: A Primer for Parents, Policy Makers, and People Who Care . Hoping to have this to
Behind The Lens episode 61:'Even if a school is not performing well, parents generally don't want to see this overturn every year.' This week on Behind The Lens: Charters for two New Orleans schools will not be renewed next year – and one of those schools will return to Orleans Parish School Board control. Marta Jewson has the story. Also, the governing board of the Morial Convention Center defe
Education Law Center: A Graphic Display of the Battle to Preserve Public Funds for Public Schools in 2019 The Education Law Center created this graphic and explanatory information about the battle to keep public funds in public schools. The graphic shows the state of the voucher movement and identifies which states have advanced or repelled efforts to privatize public funding to religious and pr
TIER ONE AND TIER TWO AND FIXIN’ TO DIE We have a Honda CRV that we bought in 2013. Anne and I are both 71 and we don’t want to buy another car. Living in the city means there are plenty of transportation alternatives that don’t involve trying to find a parking spot after six in evening in Logan Square. Which is already impossible to do. But we are hanging on to this one for as long as we can. W
Charter Schools, Harrisburg & Mayor Peduto Created Pittsburgh Public Schools’ Budget Deficit Where did all the money go? Pittsburgh Public Schools will start 2020 with a $25.1 million budget deficit . Superintendent Dr. Anthony Hamlet has asked for a 2.3% tax increase to cover the shortfall, but school directors ended up approving his spending plan without approving the tax increase. The school
9 Poems in 2019 Writing poetry is a distinctly different process for me when compared to blogging or traditional scholarly writing such as essays for journals, chapters for books, or complete book volumes. Poetry, as I tend to explain, simply comes to me for no conscious rhyme or reason. Often, I quickly type out those first bursts in Notes on my smartphone, mailing that draft to myself. Some da
WI: Pre-K Cyberschool Shenanigans A few Wisconsin legislators have a dumb idea for a law . They'd like to spend $1.5 million on cyberschool -- on line computerized instruction-- for pre-schoolers. This is just layers and layers of dumb. First, cyberschools in general have proven to be lousy. Spectacularly lousy -- and that's in a study run by an organization sympathetic to charters.. Students wo
The Podcast School Colors Is An Interesting Listen School Colors is a podcast that focuses on District 16 schools in Brooklyn and while I don't agree with many of their conclusions, I still believe it is an interesting listen. The podcast has eight episodes and follows a chronology. It starts with the Ocean Hill-Brownsville experiment that resulted in the longest teacher strike in NYC history an
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 Decembe
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 stu
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 l
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
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
Charter School Transparency and Accountability Remain Low | Dissident Voice Charter School Transparency and Accountability Remain Low Transparency and accountability have never been the strong suits of non-profit and for-profit charter schools. Unlike the nation’s public schools, all charter schools (about 7,100) are run by unelected individuals, and many, if not most, charter schools regularly v
Thanks, Betsy DeVos – with special guest Mitchell Robinson Mitchell Robinson on Twitter: @MRobMSU Mitchell Robinson at Eclectablog : Rating the Presidential Candidates at the Public Education Forum…with the Danielson Teacher Evaluation Rubric! Eddie Scarry at the Washington Examiner : Betsy DeVos has cut 600 staff positions at the Department of Education Danielle Douglas-Gabriel at The Washingto
What Is Hanukkah? A Guide For Jews And Non-Jews Alike At sundown Sunday, Jews around the world begin celebrating Hanukkah, the eight-day "Festival of Lights." What is it? Patch fills you in. Hanukah starts at sundown Sunday, which means Jews around the world will spend the following eight days lighting candles and celebrating, while non-Jews will wonder what it's all about and whether they're mi
Vicki Cobb: Great Stuff for Kids for FREE Vicki Cobb is a very successful author of children’s books and is active in promoting children’s interest in reading and in science. She writes here about a wonderful FREE resource for children. No catch. Wonderful reading online at no cost. She begins (open the link to read it all!): In my recent post Why Education Should Always Be Nonprofit I examined
The Myth that Charter Schools are Innovation Paradigms For years charter school advocates have claimed that charter schools have something new and innovative to share with public schooling. It’s a myth. Charter schools bring nothing new to the table. Any innovative charter schools are likely run by real teachers. Jeanne Allen, who founded the Center for Education Reform (CER,) called the nation’
Big Education Ape TOP POSTS THIS WEEK 12/21/19 The real story of New Orleans and its charter schools - The Washington Post Bill Gates spent hundreds of millions of dollars to improve teaching. New report says it was a
