Teachers on re-opening schools: “Not without protecting kids” WASHINGTON—When the issue comes down to reopening the nation’s schools as the coronavirus plague continues, GOP President Donald Trump says “yes,” but leaders of teachers unions say “no”—or at any rate, not until you can truly protect the kids. The uproar started with a Trump dog-and-pony show with his Education Secretary, Elizabeth “
Big Education Ape TOP POSTS THIS WEEK 7/11/20 ‘Slaying Goliath’: Diane Ravitch argues in new book that public education advocates have beat back efforts to privatize schools - The Washington Post The real story of New Orleans and its charter schools - The Washington Post glen brown: Why a return to campus is a bad idea Los Angeles teachers union: Don’t open school buildings - The Washington Post
Betsy DeVos’s Education Freedom Plan for Covid-19: My Way or the Highway! Betsy DeVos’s Education Freedom Plan for Covid-19: My Way or the Highway! Take the highway! For four years, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has worked to destroy democratic public schools and the teaching profession while touting her Education Freedom plan, vouchers. But Americans should be asking what she really means by e
GAO: shootings at K-12 schools most commonly resulted from disputes or grievances The Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that shootings at K-12 schools most commonly resulted from disputes or grievances, for example, between students or staff, or between gangs, although the spec
Johns Hopkins Launches New Tracker For School Reopening Plans The university’s site tracks where each state currently stands on safety, health and academic help. The go-to site for the latest national and world COVID-19 data has launched a special tracker for U.S. school reopenings . Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore is monitoring which states have addressed 12 criteria, including safety and
The President Has Weaponized the Opening of Schools On Tuesday, July 7th, President Donald Trump said : We’re very much going to put pressure on governors and everybody else to open the schools, to get them open,” Mr. Trump said at a forum at the White House. “It’s very important. It’s very important for our country. It’s very important for the well-being of the student and the parents. So we’re
King Solomon Meets Bill de Blasio You may have heard the biblical story about King Solomon. Two women claim a baby is theirs. King Solomon the wise says cut the baby in half and let them share it. One woman says sure, go ahead. The other says no, give it to the other woman. King Solomon then gives the baby to the second woman, since she is the only one concerned with the baby's welfare. Of cours
Mask-to-Mask Instruction May Be More Problematic Than Distance Learning People talk about the upcoming school year as if we have a choice between in-person classes or distance learning. We don’t. The fact is there will be NO face-to-face learning this year. Neither in our school buildings or on-line. No matter which path we choose, we will be teaching behind a mask or behind a computer screen. T
Chris Guerrieri makes the USA Today Mr. G for District 3: Chris Guerrieri's Education Matters: Why can't schools go to distance learning and provide some limited child care as well? - https://jaxkidsmatter.blogspot.com/2020/07/why-cant-schools-go-to-distance.html Okay yeah talking in the third person is annoying but I think it is important people know they should talk to whoever will listen. Fro
Oakland: Teachers Will Not Go Back to Work Unless the Schools Are Safe for Students and Staff FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 10, 2020 Contact: Bethany Meyer OEA Secretary and Communications Chair (510) 575-7060 bethanynmeyer@gmail.com This week, educators from the Oakland Education Association began talks with the Oakland Unified School District to determine what learning will look like for students
Rating the NYC Dept of Ed’s Reopening Plan (safety) Thursday Carranza released the plan. I did a quick survey of the school scheduling part (not good), but need to return to that in depth. But today I want to take a first look at safety. There are now three documents to look at. There’s the June 9 doe-planning-overview-for-principal-meetings Powerpoint-is-not-a-Plan powerpoint, the July 2 school
Nation's Pediatricians Walk Back Support For In-Person School The American Academy of Pediatrics once again plunged into the growing debate over school reopening with a strong new statement Friday, making clear that while in-person school provides crucial benefits to children, "Public health agencies must make recommendations based on evidence, not politics." The statement also said that "scienc
Teacher talk has shifted from cops to corona Two weeks ago, the battle was raging over cops in the schools. Who should decide whether Chicago schools get to keep or lose their SRO -- the school board or the city council? Or should it be left up to each local school council to opt-in or out, as the mayor had argued? Should the $33M contract between CPS and the CPD be broken or renewed? And if it
MY THOUGHTS ON THE KENTUCKY COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION DECISION For many reasons I am very relieved that the Kentucky commissioner search has completed. Working with the Bluegrass community as Dean of @UKCollegeofEd, the @USNews top ranked College of Education in Kentucky (top 30 among publics in nation), is an incredible honor. I was glad for the opportunity to discuss with the entire Board a vi
NASHVILLE, WE HAVE A PLAN “Things happen. The only thing that matters is how we deal with the now. Either we face the difficult moral decisions with ever-stronger responses, or we do not. This is what separates the mensch from the asshole. Full stop.” ― Olen Steinhauer, All the Old Knives: A Novel “It is not a matter of what is true that counts, but a matter of what is perceived to be true.” ― H
COVID AND SCHOOL VENTILATION Ventilation systems in most schools are outdated and barely work as designed. Even before Covid teachers often felt the effect of poor ventilation in their rooms. Research shows that when room air is not adequately vented out and replace with fresh air CO2 levels rise sharply in s short period of time and as those levels increase cognitive abilities decline by 50% or
NewBlackMan (in Exile) How Pholk Beauty Grew Its Brand By Embracing Authenticity by Mark Anthony Neal / 11h ' For Niambi Cacchioli , Black people have always been green folk. Growing up in Kentucky she was used to being around gardens, but after traveling around the world, she realized there weren’t many skincare companies catering to skin’s needs. She switched careers as an academic and started
Education Research Report THIS WEEK Education Research Report Higher fruit, vegetable and whole grain intake linked to lower risk of diabetes by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 15h Higher consumption of fruit, vegetables and whole grain foods are associated with a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes, according to two studies published by The BMJ today. The findings suggest that even a modest increase
Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007 THIS WEEK IN EDUCATION Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... The latest news and resources in education since 2007 Around The Web In ESL/EFL/ELL by Larry Ferlazzo / 8h BiljaST / Pixabay Six years ago I began this regular feature where I share a few posts and resources from around the Web related to E
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 Pennsylvania: The Death Spiral of York City Public Schools by dianeravitch / 52min This is a powerful editorial written by the editorial board of the York Dispatch. The Republican-controlled legislature has imposed a funding system that is litera
People talk about the upcoming school year as if we have a choice between in-person classes or distance learning. We don’t. The fact is there will be NO face-to-face learning this year. Neither in our school buildings or on-line. No matter which path we choose, we will be teaching behind a mask or behind a computer screen. There is no middle ground here – nor should there be. Even if schools try
‘Big Mess’ Looms if Schools Don’t Get Billions to Reopen Safely - The New York Times ‘Big Mess’ Looms if Schools Don’t Get Billions to Reopen Safely Bus monitors to screen students for symptoms in Marietta, Ga.: $640,000. Protective gear and classroom cleaning equipment for a small district in rural Michigan: $100,000. Disinfecting school buildings and hiring extra nurses and educators in San Die
Schools Are Not the Problem | Eclectablog Schools Are Not the Problem If children are at more risk out of school than in school, then the problem isn’t school. If kids who aren’t in school are hungry, then increase funding to food pantries and community kitchens. (BTW–many public schools have been feeding kids all summer.) If kids who aren’t in school are in greater danger of abuse, then improve
In rebuke to Trump, Los Angeles teachers’ union says campuses should stay closed for start of school year The union that represents teachers in Los Angeles, the second-largest school district in the country, said late Thursday that it wants school campuses to stay closed in August when the 2020-2021 academic year is scheduled to begin. The decision by the United Teachers of Los Angeles, the firs
Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007 Four School Reopening-Related Articles From The Past Day That Are Worth Reading by Larry Ferlazzo / 21min Clker-Free-Vector-Images / Pixabay Wow, school reopening has been getting a lot of attention the past few days. I’ve already shared some of the most interesting and useful resources that have appe
Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all DID YOU MISS DIANE RAVITCH'S BLOG TODAY? A site to discuss better education for all The Report of the Biden-Sanders Unity Task Force: Good But Weak Pablum on Charters by dianeravitch / 17min The Biden and Sanders campaigns created a “Unity Task Force” to make recommendations on important issues. Here is their report with recommenda
BLACK LIVES MATTER at SCHOOL 2020 National Student Voter Toolkit This work embodies the Black Lives Matter principle of Loving Engagement, in that it is the commitment to practice justice and liberation. We dedicate this collection itself to honor Audre Lorde and James Baldwin, who both taught us so deeply about challenging unjust systems. We offer this to acknowledge and support the efforts of
“I Can’t Breathe.” It Happens at Schools, Too. Students in Illinois schools said “I can’t breathe” while being restrained at least 30 times over the time period we investigated, according to our analysis of the records. The practice of face-down restraint is still legal in Illinois. ProPublica Illinois is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to get weekly updates about
Taking a radio break. – Fred Klonsky TAKING A RADIO BREAK My brother and I have been doing our radio show, Hitting Left with the Klonsky Brothers for over three years. We started doing our hour-long show every Friday morning at 11am in February of 2017. The studio at Lumpen Radio in the always sunny neighborhood of Bridgeport on Chicago’s south side made for a welcoming home. In early 2017 our fr
DeVos and Trump Throw Cyberschools Under Bus Here is Betsy DeVos speaking as part of a coronavirus task force presentation back in March: Learning can and does happen anywhere and everywhere. It's a sentiment that she has expressed numerous times in connection with the idea that technology could be the brand new key to better education. As in, cyberschool or its fancier name, "virtual learning."
Can Public Schools Open Safely for Children and their Teachers? Trump Worries Instead About His Own Political Future Should public schools reopen this fall? Is there a single plan that will work everyplace? Can school districts make social distancing workable with some kind of hybrid plan in which children are sometimes in class personally and sometimes online? Should schooling go online full-ti
UTLA: It Is Not Safe to Open Schools This Fall Media Contact / Anna Bakalis 213-305-9654 For immediate release / June 9, 2020 Press release: https://www.utla.net/news/utla-recommends-keeping-school-campuses-closed UTLA recommends keeping LAUSD school campuses closed; refocus on robust distance learning practices for Fall LOS ANGELES — Amid COVID-19 infections and deaths surging to record highs,
COVID School: Breathing the Air, Staying Apart, and Shortening the Day As one might expect, since I am a classroom teacher, I have been thinking a lot about the COVID-19 school day. In this post, I offer a number of thoughts on physically returning to school during this coronavirus pandemic. To begin, I have been thinking about how children may not be manifesting COVID symptoms and still have th
How the city's "plan" for re-opening schools highlights the cruel inequities of class size as never before Yesterday, the DOE released the preliminary outlines of a “plan” for how schools will be restructured in the fall is they are reopened next fall. DOE officials have determined that to maintain proper social distancing, a range of 9-12 students per classroom will be allowed , varying accordi
KIPP Drops the Motto But Keeps the Brutality Four out of five students who started school at the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute during the decades just after the Civil War never earned their certificates of completion, even though academic expectations were far below schools for white students. Getting booted from Hampton's residential program, you see, was more likely to come from a
Tell Congress: The Trump/DeVos Plan for School Reopening is Reckless and Dangerous Send your email by clicking here and let Congress know that you oppose the Administration’s reckless plan to reopen schools. Read our official statement below: The Network for Public Education opposes the Trump Administration’s dangerous and reckless proposal to reopen schools without regard to safety or resources
UFT Executive Board July 9, 2020--Riding a Hybrid Safely Roll Call 2:50 UFT Secretary LeRoy Barr welcomes us. Minutes--approved. UFT President Michael Mulgrew --You all saw mayor's "blended plan." In April, after multiple models, there were two options to open safely. Either we triple classrooms and teachers, or have one third of students present. We are okay with the model as the way to go. The
Trump and DeVos Can't Make Up Their Damned Minds About Schools It doesn't seem all that hard to figure out how Donald Trump and Betsy DeVos feel about public schools in this country. And yet, they seem oddly conflicted. DeVos famously called public schools a "dead end." Just last week, reflecting on the SCOTUS decision, she opined that the history of American education is "sad and static" and "t
Is it Time to Cancel Teach Like a Champion? Teach Like a Champion, the best-selling guide to effective teaching by Doug Lemov, has sold millions of copies. But a growing group of critics charge that Lemov’s approach is racist and embodies “carceral” pedagogy. And because we have a thing about education history, we go all the way back to 1895 to explore another controversial teacher training mode
What Happens When They Don’t? States have finally started to release guidance to school districts for the “safe” reopening of buildings for in-person instruction. My state’s Return to School Roadmap takes a phased approach, with each phase providing guidelines that are either “required,” “strongly recommended” or “recommended.” In Phase 4, some of the requirements are: “Facial coverings must be
What it could cost to reopen schools with covid-19 safety measures The San Diego Unified School District has come up with a plan for the fall: It will reopen school buildings for all students who want to come, full time, five days a week. But, its leaders say, the district needs more emergency funding from Congress to promise this for the entire 2020-21 academic year. If that money doesn’t come
NEA President: No One Should Listen to Trump, DeVos on Reopening Schools In a flurry of tweets, President Trump condemned CDC guidance on reopening schools and threatened to withhold funding to schools that don’t reopen for fall, creating more panic for stressed families seeking leadership and assurances that their children can return to school safely during a deadly pandemic. Then he politicize
For Teachers Who Are Parents, Schools Reopening In The Fall Is Bad News Educators share the thoughts and questions racing through their minds right now. Thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, many parents have already faced a major challenge: homeschooling their children while working full-time. As back-to-school season starts gearing up, many parents are getting updates from their school districts
Rating the NYC Dept of Ed’s Reopening Plan (scheduling) Yesterday Carranza released the plan. Let’s start by comparing it to my “ What to Look for ” guide. Variety of levels – Look not just for multiple models, but for multiple models at each level . They have separate D75 models, but not models tailored to HS, MS, ES (they really are all ES models) 2/5 Details – lack of details would be a tell
Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007 “Q&A Collections: Cooperative & Collaborative Learning” by Larry Ferlazzo / 3h Q&A Collections: Cooperative & Collaborative Learning is the headline of my latest Education Week Teacher column. All Classroom Q&A posts sharing advice on Cooperative & Collaborative Learning (from the past nine years!) ar
Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all DID YOU MISS DIANE RAVITCH'S BLOG TODAY? A site to discuss better education for all Kevin Welner on Trump’s Failure to Make It Safe to Open Schools 21 by dianeravitch / 52min Kevin Welner is the director of the National Education Policy Center and a Professor at the University of Colorado in Boulder. He writes: The definition of ch
Thoughts on "opening" schools From the perspective of someone who has taught every grade from 7 through 12, in public, charter, and private (both religious and secular) schools. CLASSROOMS — It is impossible in most schools to have 6 foot between students. Last year I had up to 30 seniors in a room at a time, with a social distance rarely even 2 feet between them. To get to 6 feet I would have t
The Chancellor Writes Us Again Dear Colleagues, I hope you and your families are staying healthy and safe as we transition to the 2020-2021 school year. Earlier today, Mayor de Blasio and I announced our latest planning for bringing students back to school buildings in September—a plan that was informed by an internet survey with no controls whatsoever. I want to make sure you hear my rationale,
No Force on Earth Can Stand Before Us Yesterday, I awoke to learn that the President of the United States and his education secretary are talking about punishing public schools that don't open in the fall by withholding federal funding. They've walked that back a little in the intervening 24 hours, but the message is clear: they are willing to sacrifice children and their families in the name of
Betsy DeVos Is Failing Hard In the midst of all this chaos and confusion, it's perhaps easy to miss how thoroughly Betsy DeVos is doing a terrible job as Secretary of Education. And by so many measures. There's the business of managing college loans. DeVos, you may recall, has been pointedly spanked by the courts for going after students who owe money on their college loans even in those cases w
The AAP's school guidance principles don't align with Trump/DeVos mandated reopening. President Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos are threatening to cut federal funding if schools don't fully physically reopen in the fall, regardless of the state of the pandemic and with or without required CDC safety measures being in place. They may think they think their reckless mandate is supported
When It Comes To Reopening Schools, 'The Devil's In The Details,' Educators Say Jeanne Norris is a teacher, the wife of a teacher and the mother of an 8-year-old in St. Louis. She'd love to send her son back to school in August. But, she says, "I feel like my government and my fellow citizens have put me in a position where it's not really in the best interests of our family." Norris has a long
Intro to Next Book (Part 1) I have been writing posts for this blog over a decade. One of the purposes for it is to take drafts of a forthcoming book that I am working on and use them as posts to try out new ideas (or renovated old ones) and see how readers respond. I am now working on a book about the three major reform movements over the past century that have swept over schools and what I exp
Chutzpah and the Push for In-Person Instruction The definition of chutzpah, according to the old joke, is the kid who kills his parents and then asks the judge for mercy because he’s an orphan. President Trump has added a twist on the joke: the kid who kills his parents and then complains that they don’t drive him to school. When the European Union was hit early and hard by the COVID-19 pandemic
Reopening Plans Translated FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 8, 2020 CONTACT: pressoffice@cityhall.nyc.gov, (212) 788-2958 MAYOR DE BLASIO AND CHANCELLOR CARRANZA ANNOUNCE PRELIMINARY SCHOOL REOPENING PLANS FOR FALL 2020 Health and safety will lead all planning, even though health and safety are concepts rather than leaders. This, however, takes us off the hook, since we’ve publicly committed ourselve
Governor Cuomo on School Re-Opening: Data-Driven State Guidance, Local Input and Many Unanswered Questions Governor Cuomo has emphasized and re-emphasized; pandemic decisions will be made by the governor, including decisions on school re-openings “The state law governing schools and business closings or openings has been in effect since the pandemic first started and all such decisions are made
SCHOOL REOPENING: TEACHER AND LIBRARIAN VIEWS WITH WTU AND AASL Equal access, inclusion at a distance, and basic health and safety are crucial and urgent concerns for schools and their libraries amidst pandemic. WTU President Elizabeth Davis and AASL President Kathy Carroll share teacher and librarian perspectives on reopening plans in DC and across the nation. On We Act Radio’s July 8 “Communit
State Superintendent Tony Thurmond Hosts First Virtual Classroom Session in Ethnic Studies Featuring Educators and Students SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond today convened the first in a series of virtual classroom events on ethnic studies. The event today engaged students in a real-time dialogue about on the importance of ethnic studies and offered a lesson an
Trump to blow off CDC recommendations and issue his own guidelines for reopening schools: report – Raw Story Trump to blow off CDC recommendations and issue his own guidelines for reopening schools: report President Donald Trump plans to blow off the recommendations issued by his own Centers for Disease Control and Prevention by releasing his own set of guidelines for reopening American schools d
Trump disavows his own administration’s guidance for reopening schools The president also threatened to slash federal funding to schools that do not physically reopen. President Donald Trump on Wednesday publicly disavowed his own administration’s guidance for reopening schools amid the coronavirus pandemic, arguing the federal recommendations were too burdensome as he ramped up his bid to have
Are Teachers Babysitters? Maybe. People are uber-touchy, even panicky, about the questions around returning to school—it’s a life and death issue, all right, including potentially gambling with our most precious asset: our children. Like any venture that is launched before all the facts and outcomes are available—marriage and childbirth spring to mind here—both in-person schooling in some fashio
National Report Highlights Root Cause of Pervasive Racism and Inequality in America's Most Populated Cities The Schott Foundation for Public Education's Loving Cities Index, with a foreword written by Nikole Hannah-Jones, offers a framework to help cities transform systems to dismantle racism and institutionalize love. (New York, NY) – On Wednesday, the Schott Foundation for Public Education rel
Teachers Say Rush to Reopen Schools Without Covid-19 Safety Plan Shows Trump and DeVos 'Do Not Care About Students' "America must listen to the health experts on when to reopen schools and to educators on how to return to in-person instruction." A coalition representing millions of American teachers and parents slammed President Donald Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on Tuesday over th
Coronavirus surge puts reopening of K-12 campuses at risk, says county’s top health official The pending reopening of K-12 campuses is suddenly at risk because of the ongoing surge of coronavirus cases, and all public and private schools must prepare for students to continue learning entirely from home, Los Angeles County’s top public health official has told local education leaders. This soberi
Trump and DeVos: Schools Must Reopen, Without Needed Resources Trump demanded that schools reopen for in-person instruction in a few weeks , as the pandemic surges in more than half the states. He and his party have refused to pass the HEROES act to provide additional resources for schools. DeVos blasted school districts that hesitate to open, fearing risk to students and staff. She said, patron
Every Year We Hold Schools Accountable for Test Scores in Reading, but Recessionary Cuts Threaten Jobs of the Nation’s School Librarians We think we’ve learned the important lessons, but how quickly we forget. Americans spent 2018 and 2019 learning from teachers as, ten years after the Great Recession, they launched strikes from West Virginia to Oklahoma to Arizona to Kentucky to North Carolina
Education Research Report Gifted Students Aren't Perfectionistic by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 47min There is a rich literature on perfectionism among gifted individuals, but the results of these individual studies are ambiguous. This meta-analysis aimed to clarify the nature of the relationship between perfectionism and giftedness by focusing on quantitative studies that compared the perfectionism l
The Best Equity Money Can Buy I taught Zoom lessons for three months. I have ideas on how they can be better, but no one asks me what they are. They will never substitute for the face to face teaching I signed up for. That’s the very toughest work I do, but like the overwhelming majority of my colleagues, I love doing it. It doesn’t look like that’s what I’ll be doing in September, though. This
NYC School Schedule Models – What was Wrong with the DoE’s First Try New York City’s first attempt to make plans for September did not stand up to scrutiny. Is there a chance that today’s “Schedule Models” will contain better news? Should we be glad they were delayed a day – or should that worry us? On June 9 the Department of Education released a planning document, “SCHOOL BUILDING RE-OPENING P
Don’t Sacrifice Teachers and Students to a Neoliberal God By Thomas Ultican 7/8/2020 The US is not ready to open schools. We blew it. Let’s face reality squarely and quit making outcomes in our country even worse. New York’s Michael Flanagan Ed. D. wrote , “The pressure to reopen schools , and return to work, will continue to intensify, no matter how many new cases of Covid-19 there are each day
24 WRONG Reasons to Reopen Schools 24 WRONG Reasons to Reopen Schools The reasons for returning to school might sound good, but those reasons always bump up against the enemy, the coronavirus. Here are concerns that deserve attention, but they are the wrong reasons for schools to reopen. 1. President Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos say SCHOOLS MUST OPEN IN THE FALL! Neither the Presiden
Teachers Face A Summer Of Soul Searching. What Do They Do In The Fall? This originally ran in early June. No signs that things are looking up at all. We know a handful of things. We know that virtually nobody wants to continue the pandemic shut-down crisis school model in the fall (with the possible exception of ed tech companies that hope to keep cashing in on it). Elected officials across the
Letter to regents regarding reopening schools | A clearinghouse for information on class size & the proven benefits of smaller classes Letter to regents regarding reopening schools Below is a letter we sent last week from Class Size Matters and NYC Kids PAC to Chancellor Rosa, the Board of Regents and the NY State Education Commissioner, with copies to Chancellor Carranza and other education dec
Parent and educator concerns on the reopening of schools from our online survey and conference Below is a letter we sent last week from Class Size Matters and NYC Kids PAC to Chancellor Rosa, the Board of Regents and the NY State Education Commissioner, with copies to Chancellor Carranza and other education decision makers, highlighting some of the most important concerns and ideas offered by pa
Nutrition Requirements for Fluid Milk in the CACFP Nutrition Services Division Management Bulletin Purpose : Policy, Beneficial Information To : Child and Adult Care Food Program All Child Care Agencies Attention : Child and Adult Care Food Program Operators Number : CACFP-02-2020 Date : July 2020 Reference : U.S. Department of Agriculture Policy Memorandum CACFP 17-2016: Nutrition Requirements
After Years of Underfunding, Now Public School Teachers Are Supposed to Save the Nation’s Economy? - Citizen Truth After Years of Underfunding, Now Public School Teachers Are Supposed to Save the Nation’s Economy? It’s taken a pandemic to make people realize public schools are a key to prosperity, but so far they’re bringing too little, too late. “After 9/11, New York City police and firefighters
Twin Rivers teacher claims retaliation for going public After he alleged mistreatment of students, district investigation accused him of hostile campus environment Seven days after Twin Rivers Unified School District teacher Mohamed Bashamak shared allegations that district officials retaliated against him for whistle-blowing over their treatment of students and instructors, the two-time Teacher
Can schools open safely in the fall? Discuss... Can schools reopen in the fall? And by open , I mean, children, educators, and staff safely occupy school buildings which are now shuttered because of the pandemic. If we're just talking about distance learning, then we have to say schools are already open and teachers have been hard at work since the outbreak of coronavirus, trying under near-impo
Just how little U.S. students learn about African American history — and five steps to start to change that The nationwide racial and social justice demonstrations led by Black Lives Matter in reaction to the May 25 police killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man in Minneapolis, have led to calls for overhauls in policing, criminal justice and, among other things, school curriculums. Studen
State Superintendent Tony Thurmond Announces Implementation Tool for Assessing Student Learning SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent Tony Thurmond announced today that the California Department of Education (CDE) has released a new implementation tool on diagnostic and formative assessments as a resource for schools. Being able to identify where students are in their learning within key content areas
Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007 ‘Teachers & Aides Need to Work as a Team’ by Larry Ferlazzo / 1h is the headline of my latest Education Week Teacher column. Three educators share advice on working with instructional aides/paraprofessionals, including having a “team” mindset and demonstrating empathy. Here are some excerpts: The Best
Carl J. Petersen: Los Angeles Charter School Took $4.6 Million from PPP, Then Laid Off Employees Carl J. Petersen, writer and public school parent in Los Angeles, writes here about a Los Angeles charter schools that took millions from the federal Paycheck Protection Plan, then laid off employees anyway. The purpose of PPP was to help small businesses and to ensure that they did not fire employee
Elite private and charter schools across Washington got millions in PPP loans Dozens of publicly funded charter schools and elite private schools across the Washington region received millions of dollars in federal aid intended to keep nonprofits and small businesses afloat during the coronavirus pandemic, according to data released Monday by the Small Business Administration . Private and chart
Defund the private schools Defunding the police won’t mean much if we keep defunding schools that serve Black children and allowing a school choice movement rooted in anti-Blackness to thrive A national uprising for racial justice and a pandemic killing disproportionately more Black people have made the call to action clear: We must dismantle the structures that generate racial disparities. Educ
AFT Leader to Police Unions: Can't Ignore Blacks Being Abused Outrage over the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer who pressed his knee into his neck for nearly nine minutes has prompted some unions to demand changes regarding those representing cops, from the Minnesota chapter of the AFL-CIO demanding that the belligerent leader of that city's police union step down to a pet
Scholars, Educators, and Students as Public Writers Early in my career as a high school English teacher in the Deep South during the early and mid-1980s, several weeks into the new school year, a tenth grade student became so exasperated that she blurted out in class, “When are we going to do English? All we do is read and write, read and write!” In those days, my school system had a grade 7-9 j
Chalkbeat Gets It Wrong Again, Finds Out, and Can't Be Bothered Making a Correction Chalkbeat wrote a long piece about the education budget. I was planning to read the whole thing, but had to stop. actually sent a message to a Chalkbeat reporter over this passage : There is a freeze on new hires within the education department, but schools will be able to hire from the Absent Teacher Reserve, a
Andre Perry: Defund Private Schools. They Perpetuate Racism Tomorrow night, Andre Perry and I will talk about his new book Know Your Price: Valuing Black Lives and Property in America’s Black Lives in a ZOOM discussion sponsored by the Network for Public Education. We can accommodate only 100 people, so please sign up early. If you don’t get into the first 100, the discussion will be live-stream
“Defund the Police,” and, “Defund the Billionaires,” Create a Job-Friendly, Equitable Economy for All In the early 2000’s I was at the New School University listening to Reverend Floyd Flake, senior pastor at the 23,000 member Greater Allen African Methodist Episcopal Cathedral. Reverend Flake served as a member of Congress (1987-97) and is a strong supporter of charter schools . Flake was criti
A Declaration of Interdependence for Young Children, Parents, Caregivers, and Educators In 1776, 56 men in the American colonies signed their names to a radical document called the Declaration of Independence . As a result they were, without trial, proclaimed traitors by the British government and sentenced to death. These were middle class people. John Hancock was the wealthiest among them and
Do NOT Play Russian Roulette with Our Lives – No In-Person Schooling During a Pandemic Are you responsible for gambling with another person’s life? The Pennsylvania Supreme Court says “yes.” Back in 1947, James Malone, 17, and William Long, 13, played a version of Russian Roulette during a sleepover. Malone stole a revolver from his uncle and Long sneaked into his father’s room and got a bullet.
The 6th Annual Give-A-Kid-A-Book Day! Today, July 6, 2020, marks the 6th annual National Give-A-Kid-A-Book-Day. This is the yearly celebration dedicated to getting books into children's hands over the summer. Literacy research has shown that the single best way to combat summer reading loss is to get books in kids hands. One way to do this is to give children books. Participation is easy. All yo
Why schools must find a safe way to reopen for the most vulnerable students — by a veteran educator School district officials are consumed with trying to figure out if, when and how to reopen schools during the coronavirus pandemic — with no definitive answers from even the top experts on infectious diseases. The American Academy of Pediatrics recently issued guidance for school reentry that sai
Are you responsible for gambling with another person’s life? The Pennsylvania Supreme Court says “yes.” Back in 1947, James Malone, 17, and William Long, 13, played a version of Russian Roulette during a sleepover. Malone stole a revolver from his uncle and Long sneaked into his father’s room and got a bullet. They put the cartridge in a chamber, spun the cylinder and then took turns pointing the
Reopening Bars Is Easy. Schools Are Difficult. - The Atlantic Reopening Schools Was Just an Afterthought If American society is going to take one major risk in the name of reopening, ideally it should be to send children back to school. This issue is personal for me. I have three kids, one in college and two in a local public high school. It’s now early July, and we still have no idea whether or
NewBlackMan (in Exile) Uncle Bobbie's Presents: Bakari Sellers 'My Vanishing Country' by Mark Anthony Neal / 21h ' Uncle Bobbies own Dr. Marc Lamont Hill stayed home with author and state representative Bakari Sellers to discuss his newest work My Vanishing Country: A Memoir .' People's Party: Talib Kweli & Reginald Hudlin Talk Black Excellence, Afrofuturism and Happy Rap by Mark Anthony Neal /
What White Folk Want KEEP AMERICA PURE WITH LIBERTY PAINTS. ( Invisible Man , Ralph Ellison, p. 196) What do white folk want? Rigid accountability for other people . License for “me” (the white view of the world is rugged individualism masking white nationalism/supremacy). And “whiteness” never to be named, never voiced—only allowed to be embedded as an understood in “human” (“There is only one
Biden tells teachers their profession is ‘the most important’ on same day Trump trashes public schools Former vice president Joe Biden told members of the largest teachers union in the country during a virtual event that their profession is “the most important” in the United States. On Friday, the same day President Trump said America’s public schools teach students “ to hate their own country ,
Facing Uncertainty: Opening Schools during a Pandemic As an ex-superintendent of schools (I served seven years in a mid-sized East coast city), family and friends have asked me often what I would specifically recommend to a school board when to re-open schools and under what conditions. I have given the question a lot of thought but have been reluctant to answer simply because I no longer sit in
A Grand Bargain: Reopen the Schools (Where Feasible) But Only If the Feds Pay for It This post will propose a GRAND BARGAIN for reopening the schools. There is a great demand to reopen the schools for the sake of the economy, and there is great resistance to reopening the schools due to fears about the safety of children and staff. Parents and teachers are worried that if schools open too soon,
Teachers, Parents, Doctors Have Different Concerns about Reopening Schools, but Congressional Teachers, Parents, Doctors Have Different Concerns about Reopening Schools, but Congressional Passage of HEROES Act Remains Top Priority The U.S. House of Representatives passed a second COVID-19 relief package—the HEROES Act—on May 15. At the end of last week, however, without taking up the HEROES Act,
Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007 “A ‘Communication, Action, Reflection’ Cycle Makes a Teacher-Paraprofessional Relationship Work” by Larry Ferlazzo / 3h A ‘Communication, Action, Reflection’ Cycle Makes a Teacher-Paraprofessional Relationship Work is the headline of my latest Education Week Teacher column. Three educators share ideas
Bonnie Lesley We Have Lost a Champion for Children in Texas It is with great sadness that I inform you that our dear friend Bonnie Lesley, leader of Texas Kids Can’t Wait, died of pneumonia. She was a champion for children, and we will miss her friendship and her guidance. She was beloved by everyone who had the good fortune to know her. Her son Bruce posted this notice today on Facebook: Our fa
Sac Bee Reporter accepts and uses deceptive data on “ Personalized Learning” schools response to Covid. Welcome to Sacramento. In the Bee Article “ Lawmakers, advocates say budget hurts top schools, “ published in the Bee on July 5, new Bee reporter Mackenzie Hawkins makes a series of claims based upon a fundamental, and highly partisan claims. Hawkins has been at the Bee for 2 months. Prior to
Where is DOE stashing $400 million in savings from cancelled busing this year? Ever since April, when I saw that the DOE was asking the Panel for Educational Policy to approve retroactive extensions of the busing contracts for March costing $180M, to be automatically renewed in April for about the same amount, I've been concerned about why they were intent on spending these funds despite the fac
KIPP's rebranding A little more than a decade ago, teacher union organizers in the midst of an organizing drive at a KIPP charter school in Brooklyn, used KIPP's slogan , "Work hard. Be Nice" against the school's anti-union leaders. They launched a national campaign urging KIPP teachers everywhere to get organized under the slogan of "Be Nice." Now, feeling the impact of the continuing Black Liv
CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: Pet Recovery Day Edition (7/5) Pet Recovery Day Edition Our current dog is impervious to pretty much everything other than people on our front porch. But my previous dog spent every July 4 cowering under a shed, and every year I think of him and all the pets like him. This year, a number of things derailed our usual Fourth celebration, including the cancellation of local fi
The Blessings of Liberty Include Fully Public Education I wrote this blog on July 5, 2018–at a site that is now blocked by a paywall. Yesterday, I read Donald Trump’s speech at Mt. Rushmore, and his follow-up speech–pretty much the same blah-blah–at the White House, on July 4. When this popped up in my feed today, it felt as if I was naive then–that I had no idea just how far evil would rise, ho
Announcing The 2020 “Black Education Matters Student Activist Award” Winners! Meet the new winners of the Black Education Matters Student Activist Award! All around the nation young people are joining an uprising for Black Lives. These youth are not only rejecting police violence, but increasingly rejecting a system that allow the killing of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDa
Wendy Lecker: Connecticut Charter Schools Are Double Dipping Wendy Lecker is a civil rights attorney who writes often for the Stamford (Ct.) Advicate. she writes here about the disgraceful double dipping of charter schools in Connecticut, taking funds designated for public schools, then seeking and getting federal funds intended for small businesses. Are charter schools to be defined as public s
EdAction in Congress July 5, 2020 New COVID-19 Senate bill provides relief for students and educators As Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) ignored the resurgence of COVID-19 and shut down the Senate for two weeks, Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) introduced the Coronavirus Child Care and Education Relief Act to help reopen schools and campuses safely and save educators’ jobs. The bill would provide
"Sesame Street" talked to our kids about racism. Parents need to keep teaching those lessons Growing up as a brown child in Kentucky, my family didn't teach me about racism or white supremacy. I wish they had " Sesame Street " hosted a televised town hall special with CNN on COVID-19 a month ago. It was informative and helpful, if a little dry at times: Elmo and Big Bird asking Dr. Sanjay Gupta
As Covid-19 Takes Toll, DeVos Denounced for New 'Craven' Public School Privatization Scheme "With our country dealing with a pandemic, an economic recession, and structural racism, she's spied an opening to exploit this crisis to resuscitate her failed agenda." With the Trump administration planning to demand that Congress devote a large chunk of the state and local education funding in the next
Trump’s newest assault on America’s public schools: They teach kids to ‘hate their country’ President Trump started his administration with a dystopian inaugural speech on Jan. 20, 2017, in which he talked about “American carnage” and said the country has “ an education system flush with cash but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of all knowledge.” This year, in his Fourth o
Why a return to campus is a bad idea “It might be time for parents to get into the conversation about reopening college campuses. University administrators are deciding they’re going to go for it, which is exactly the same thing as saying, ‘We’re going to do what we can, hope for the best, and gamble that infection rates will be low enough to justify the unavoidable threat to the students.’ “For
The School Safety Shuffle There's a recent Post article that suggests it's a bad idea to take school security from the police and assign it to the DOE. They trudge out Mona David and her mysterious parent organization, and offer two examples of bad behavior before the officers were under the supervision of NYPD. David, of course, is the woman who thinks teacher tenure will lead us to Armageddon.
Trump Is the Second Coming of George Wallace I am old enough to remember the original George Wallace, a hateful racist who was Governor of Alabama. He ran for president as a champion of white nationalism. His base is now Trump’s base. Trump is the second coming of Wallace. This post says it succinctly. Trump channeled Wallace in front of Mount Rushmore. Racism is alive and living in the White Ho
Trump Comes After Public School Teachers Against every law of society and nature, our children are taught in school to hate their own country and to believe that the men and women who built it were not heroes but that were villains. One of the big pull quotes from Donald Trump's historically shallow paean to the idea of American exceptionalism on July 3rd at Mount Rushmore, an attack on public e
27 Blank Pages The Department of Education’s new PowerPoint for principals around reopening in September is little better than 27 blank pages. Really. I’ll go page by page later, but just an overview now. Actually, there are some things in this powerpoint. But either we already knew them, or they are problems. If you are looking for actual content, beyond these notes, try pages 13, 14, 16 and 24
Big Education Ape TOP POSTS THIS WEEK 7/4/20 ‘Slaying Goliath’: Diane Ravitch argues in new book that public education advocates have beat back efforts to privatize schools - The Washington Post The real story of New
