Big Education Ape TOP POSTS THIS WEEK 8/22/20 ‘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 Teacher Tom: Building a Learning Machine Kamala Harris Has Strongly Supported Public Schools and Cracked Down on Unscrupulous F
Biden, Harris, and Dr. Biden Will Send DeVos Yachting! Biden, Harris, and Dr. Biden Will Send DeVos Yachting! You gotta have a dream, if you don’t have a dream, how you gonna have a dream come true? ~from the Broadway Play South Pacific If you’re Democrat or Republican , and you care about public education, vote for V.P. Joe Biden to remove Education Secretary Betsy DeVos from the U.S. Department
"Have To" History: Landmark Supreme Court Cases (Promo & Supplementals) I’ve considered blogging about the process itself in hopes it might help others considering something similar, but I’m pretty sure the way I approach most things is roundabout and unnecessarily convoluted and would probably make any reasonable person want run from the room screaming. I will say this, though – it’s an amazing
Teachers Know Schools Aren’t Safe to Reopen No wonder our union is considering a strike. We are high-school teachers in Brooklyn, and we love what we do. We want nothing more than to go back into the classroom and teach our students. However, we have little confidence in New York City’s strategy for reopening during the pandemic. Officials have given families and teachers vague assurances and cl
Setting America’s Schools Up to Fail The “Great” Reopening S eventeen years ago, against the advice of my parents, I decided to become a public school teacher. Once I did, both my mother and father, educators themselves, warned me that choosing to teach was to invite attacks from those who viewed the profession with derision and contempt. They advised me to stay strong and push through when budg
Pod Save Us: How Learning Pods are Going to Destroy Public Education. Or Not . The first thing I thought of when people started murmuring about getting groups of kids whose families were connected together for a little home-based
Emily Harris: Have Faith in Tulsa Public Schools Emily Harris teaches A.P. U.S. History at Will Rogers High School in Tulsa. She writes here about her faith in the public schools. She is concerned that some students have enrolled in the EPIC virtual charter school, which has a horrible record and operates for profit. I am a teacher at Will Rogers High School. My husband, John, is a teacher at Na
Letter to Staff--We are union, and we demand safety for us, our students, and our families. Dear colleagues, I hope you and your families are doing well and keeping occupied at this extremely trying time. I apologize in advance for being an agent of further complication, but we all have our jobs to do. Our job now is to stand as one and fight for our safety, and the safety of our families and co
Covid in the Classroom? Some Schools Are Keeping It Quiet Some states and school districts provide detailed data on school outbreaks. Others choose to keep such information under wraps. On the first day of school in Camden County, Ga., local Facebook groups were already buzzing with rumors that a teacher had tested positive for the coronavirus. The next day, a warning went out to school administ
Comparing the 1918 Flu Pandemic to Covid-19 “This isn't the first-time leaders have struggled with deciding whether to keep schools open in a pandemic. During the influenza pandemic in 1918, even though the world was a very different place, the discussion was just as heated. That pandemic killed an estimated 50 million people worldwide, including 675,000 Americans, before it was all over. “While
"Essential" My Aunt Fanny At this point, the adjective "Orwellian" has been absolutely beaten to death (with "Kafkaesque" right behind it). But this latest Orwellian bullshit just pokes my last nerve with a sharp stick. You would think that an "essential" worker would be the one that you want to take the greatest steps to protect and preserve. That person guarding the door while a fire-laced sha
School Year 2020-21: We Are Asking the Wrong Questions It is perfectly understandable that many in our country want public school buildings to be open for in person instruction this year. Among the many hardships of COVID-19 lock downs school closures were especially hard on children and families. Essential workers with very young children suddenly found it impossible to provide childcare and su
Important Update from the Chancellor Dear Colleagues, For many of us, the five months since COVID-19 hit New York City in March 2020 have been the most painful, challenging, and heartbreaking of our lives. At DOE, it’s been meeting after meeting. They run into one another as we ignore our current problems and desperately pretend we dealt well with them back in March, when we sent people to their
DISAPPOINTED BUT STILL SUPPORTIVE . “Seek not the favor of the multitude; it is seldom got by honest and lawful means. But seek the testimony of few; and number not voices, but weigh them.” ― Immanuel Kant “Grant stood by me when I was crazy, and I stood by him when he was drunk, and now we stand by each other.” ― William T. Sherman As I have previously mentioned, in a past life I worked in and
An Open Letter to Gov. Murphy on School Reopening Dear Gov. Murphy, Within the next two weeks, school districts across New Jersey will be reopening in some way, shape or form. And while every district's plans will, no doubt, look different, one thing is the same from High Point to Cape May: this is a hot mess. In March, you gave us a clear directive to prepare for 100% virtual teaching until the
"Rivalry Play" A five-year-old girl complained that some boys were being "mean" to her and her friend. I answered, "Oh no, what did you do?" "I told them to stop it, but they didn't stop." I looked across the playground at the "mean" boys in question. "It doesn't look like they're being mean right now." "No, they're not being mean now, but they were." "And you told them to stop." "I did." "And t
California Department of Education SSPI THURMOND STUFF THIS WEEK FROM THE CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AUG 19 Specialized Secondary Programs 2020-2021 RFA. 2d Instructions for AUG 17 Welcome to School Year 2020–21 4d Appreciation and gratitude letter sent to Food Service Directors on August 10, 2020. The letter is written by NSD Director Kim Frinzell on the behalf of the CDE NSD. AUG 14 202
Mr. G for District 3: Chris Guerrieri's Education Matters A MAN WITH A PLAN Mr. G for District 3: Chris Guerrieri's Education Matters Richard Corcoran thinks he is king of education 400+ by Unknown / 4d First, Corcoran issues an executive order that flies in the face of the state constitution bullying districts with the threat of losing my money, and now he has told districts before you close a c
NewBlackMan (in Exile) The Quarantine Tapes: Claudia Rankine by Mark Anthony Neal / 41min 'On episode 94 of the Quarantine Tapes, Paul Holdengräber is joined by poet and writer Claudia Rankine . Rankine talks with Holdengräber about her upcoming book, Just Us: An American Conversation , and how it addresses what it means to talk about race in this country. They discuss how she approached writing
Education Research Report THIS WEEK Education Research Report Affirmative action incentivizes high schoolers to perform better by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 13h California voters will be asked to approve a return to affirmative action on Nov. 3 with Proposition 16, which would restore the right of the state's colleges and universities to consider race, ethnicity and gender in admission decisions. Affi
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 Most Popular Posts Of The Week by Larry Ferlazzo / 7h I’m making a change in the content of the regular feature. In addition to sharing the top five posts that have received the most “hi
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 Missouri Lowers Standards for Substitute Teachers by dianeravitch / 20min In an amazingly alarming move, the state of Missouri plans to lower standards for substitute teachers. One superintendent of a rural district has floated the idea of bringi
What it would take to end child poverty in America Rep. Barbara Lee on why rebuilding the economy should mean investing in our kids. In 2019, about one in six children in America — 12 million kids nationwide — lived in poverty. That’s a rate about two or three times higher than in peer countries. And that was before the worst economic and public health crisis in modern history. The scale of chil
Level Up – Life In A Post Pandemic Video Game This Saturday August 22, 2020 from 10am to 1pm EST, Joseph Gonzalez and I will host a three-hour program through Incite Seminars exploring what it would mean to live in an augmented reality gamified police state. Capitalism isn’t dying. It has, in fact, jumped into the virtual world. A predatory digital infrastructure of surveillance and value extrac
Schools Say They Have To Do Better For Students With Disabilities This Fall For Sarah McLaren, who lives in a suburb of Minneapolis, talking about the spring is painful. Her daughter, a rising fourth-grader, struggles with auditory processing and receives special education services. But McLaren says her daughter had trouble keeping up with teachers on an iPad because the instruction was almost a
De Blasio's Circus I've got an inbox full of worry, and I'm as worried as anyone. Full disclosure--I've asked for and received an accommodation to teach from home. I've encouraged everyone I know to do the same. If you have applied and been denied, or ignored, here's a form you can fill out to get help from the UFT. Meanwhile, we're facing de Blasio's plan, which relies heavily on teachers who d
How to Assess Digital Literacy for Students (and Educators!) For years, educators have been buzzing about the importance of “digital literacy.” But what do those words really mean? According to the American Library Association, digital literacy is “the ability to use information and communication technologies to find, evaluate, create, and communicate information, requiring both cognitive and te
How America’s Broken Education System Perpetuates Social Injustice Any conditions that compel the teacher to take note of failures rather than of healthy growth give false standards and result in distortion and perversion. — John Dewey, 1 Academic Fredrik deBoer has written a book, The Cult of Smart: How Our Broken Education System Perpetuates Social Injustice (All Points Books, 2020), that ques
Carol Burris: For-Profit Charter Aims to Take Control of Entire District in Pennsylvania Carol Burris writes in Valerie Strauss’s “Answer Sheet” blog about a for-profit charter corporation that about to take over the entire Chester-Upland school district in Pennsylvania. This district is one of the poorest in the state. Burris writes: Chester Community Charter School (CCCS) first opened its door
Restorative circles, online wellness rooms and grief training: How schools are preparing for the Covid mental health crisis More students are experiencing anxiety and depression, forcing schools to prioritize mental health needs over academic work The calls started at 6 a.m., and Patrick McCauley was ready, having retreated to the privacy of his garage where he sat waiting for Angelenos to share
“Confessions of a School Reformer” (Part 3) Continuing story of my teaching history at Glenville High School in Cleveland (OH), 1956-1963 Then I got married in 1958. Evenings which I had used for grading homework and preparing lessons and weekends for completing graduate papers were no longer as available as when I was single. Fatigue and the growing awareness that I could have a life outside of
Democrats Recognize Essential Role of Public Schools, Whose Needs Trump and DeVos Don’t Bother to Notice In a refreshing development this week, as Democrats held their convention to nominate Joe Biden as the Democratic candidate for President and Kamala Harris for Vice President, public education was made visible again as an institution of vital importance to American life. For President Donald
Joe Biden: The Right Man for the Moment Joe Biden gave a wonderful speech last night. He was sharp, hopeful, eloquent, compassionate, determined, visionary. If you missed it, watch it now. He was superb. He laid out a vision of a renewed America, united to conquer the virus, rebuild our infrastructure, bring people together, and heal the deep wounds inflicted on us during the past four years. Af
Why We Need to Call for “All-Remote” Now Mulgrew sounded militant Wednesday. Talked about a strike. Made demands about safety. But the message was wrong. By continuing to fight to open schools safely (which might seem reasonable) the UFT leadership is diverting us. We should be leaning, as hard as we can, on de Blasio to open remotely. Everyone, including de Blasio, notices that the UFT has not
Setting America’s Schools Up To Fail - PopularResistance.Org SETTING AMERICA’S SCHOOLS UP TO FAIL Seventeen years ago, against the advice of my parents, I decided to become a public school teacher. Once I did, both my mother and father, educators themselves, warned me that choosing to teach was to invite attacks from those who viewed the profession with derision and contempt. They advised me to s
Why Bother Testing in 2021? At a recent Education Writers Association seminar, Jim Blew, an assistant to Betsy DeVos at the Department of Education, opined that the Department is inclined not to grant waivers to states seeking exemptions from the federally mandated annual standardized achievement testing. States like Michigan, Georgia, and South Carolina were seeking a one year moratorium. Blew
Special Ed Students at Risk Pieces in a ParentsTogether’s art installation in August at the U.S. Capitol, which showed the anxieties and hopes of children during the pandemic. The picture on the right was created by Ellery, 7, from Cincinnati, while the other was drawn by 6-year-old Coredae Schmidt of Kansas. Images courtesy of ParentsTogether Special Education Students Still Waiting for Help as
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 Grassroots Arkansas: An Open Letter to Superintendent Mike Poore of Little Rock by dianeravitch / 12min Grassroots Arkansas is a coalition of parents and civil rights activists. When reading anything about Arkansas, bear in mind that in the backgrou
Bail Out Parents A child allowance is the Easy button for pandemic solutions. If parenting were an industry, America’s moms and dads would all be filing for bankruptcy. First came the closures of schools and child-care programs in the spring, followed by many summer camps and pools never opening, and now a fall during which huge swaths of the country will have all-virtual schooling. Many parents
Contract Talk: New Research on Teachers Unions Teachers unions are the biggest impediments to fixing schools and improving student achievement . That mantra has been at the heart of school reform efforts for more than a decade – but is it true? Education researchers Adam Kirk Edgerton and Mimi Lyon both started their teaching careers at a time of peak hostility to unions (remember Waiting for Su
Hack Education: Building Anti-Surveillance Ed-Tech | National Education Policy Center Hack Education: Building Anti-Surveillance Ed-Tech These are the slides and transcript from my conversation this morning with Paul Prinsloo — a webinar sponsored by Contact North Pardon me if I just rant a little. Pardon my language. Pardon my anger and my grief. Or don’t. Let us sit with our anger and our grief
Tweed Says Safety First--for Tweedies Anyway That's the Deputy Chancellor. He has three air conditioners and an exhaust system in his office. After all, it's Tweed and they do Very Important Stuff in there. I look at this photo and I think about the VIP pigs in Animal Farm who needed to eat the apples because they had to do brain work. They needed to fill in ledgers very, very carefully so they
My New Video Series — Essential Math For Kids (And Parents) Even though most people who read this blog know me as a critic of ed reform, the thing that I spend most of my time thinking about, actually, is how students learn math and what the best ways to teach it is. Depending on how you count it, I’ve been teaching math for at least 23 years. My first year as a professional teacher was in 1991,
NewBlackMan (in Exile) People of Color Have Been Systemically Excluded from National Parks by Mark Anthony Neal / 13h 'Segregation and other forms of systemic racism have had a lasting effect on who visits these national parks today. According to a 2018 study, less than two percent of National park visitors were Black. James Edward Mills , a freelance journalist and the author of The Adventure G
Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007 “Blended Learning in the Age of COVID-19” by Larry Ferlazzo / 12h Blended Learning in the Age of COVID-19 is the headline of my latest Education Week Teacher column. Three educators share how they are adapting the principles of “blended learning” to the COVID-19 environment, including through involvin
CHANGE IS AFOOT WHETHER WE LIKE IT OR NOT “We have more to fear from the opinions of our friends than the bayonets of our enemies.” Politician turned Union General Nathaniel Banks, in plea he couldn’t abandon an untenable position.” ― Shelby Foote, The Civil War, Vol. 1: Fort Sumter to Perryville “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” ― James
How Viral Learning Works A parent asked me if we could use medical feeding bags, the kind used in hospitals for patients who can't feed themselves. I knew what she was talking about, but had never given them much thought, let alone wanted one for the preschool. My rule of thumb, however, is that if anyone wants to contribute 20 or more of anything we'll take them. She had 30 so I had no choice b
MI: Teacher Fired Over Political Tweet. If Only There Was A Way Protect Against Such Injustice. Be careful what you wish for. Conservative media made a small summer meal out of the story of Justin Kucera , a 28-year-old social studies teacher/coach at Walled Lake Western High School. The known facts of the story appear to be this: On July 6, Kucera retweeted the Trump classic, "SCHOOLS MUST OPEN
Texas school district's dreadlocks ban discriminatory, federal court rules The decision comes a month after the Barbers Hill Independent School District board of trustees voted to keep the dress code policy, which advocates have deemed racist. A federal judge has prevented a Houston-area school district from enforcing a dress code policy that states that male students must keep their hair ear-le
Florida education chief tells districts: Don’t rush to close schools when covid-19 cases appear Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and his administration are doubling (or tripling?) down on opening schools during the coronavirus pandemic and keeping them open even when cases of the disease are diagnosed. On a phone call with school district superintendents late last week, Education Commissioner Richa
Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007 Labor Day Is On September 7th – Here Are Teaching & Learning Resources by Larry Ferlazzo / 4h mohamed_hassan / Pixabay September 7th is Labor Day in The United States. You might be interested in The Best Websites For Learning About Labor Day . A Good Reminder Of “The Progress Principle’s” Value During
Los Angeles: Vote for Scott Schmerelson and Patricia Castellanos for LAUSD School Board Control of the Los Angeles Unified School District is up for grabs in the 2020 election. You can be sure that the LAUSD prioritizes public schools by voting for incumbent Scott Schmerelson and newcomer Patricia Castellanos. The issue now is the same issue that has drawn a sharp divide on the school board for
South Carolina: The Hoax of School Choice Jen Gibson, who lives in Charleston, writes about how school choice will drain resources from underfunded public schools while not providing access to better schools or better education: Normally this time of year, my son and I are on the hunt for new shoes and the perfect pencil pouch. This year, we are struggling with masks and stocking up on hand sani
Kamala Harris Has Strongly Supported Public Schools and Cracked Down on Unscrupulous For-Profit Charter Management Companies and For-Profit Colleges | janresseger Kamala Harris Has Strongly Supported Public Schools and Cracked Down on Unscrupulous For-Profit Charter Management Companies and For-Profit Colleges Senator Kamala Harris, Joe Biden’s choice as the Democratic candidate for vice presiden
For Teachers, This Is All Unfortunately Familiar It didn’t have to be this way. I’m not the first person to make that observation, and I won’t be the last. But it bears repeating. Because, for many regular citizens this school reopening-during-a-pandemic business may seem like a brand new adventure, but for educators, this is a new arrangement of a song they’ve heard many times before. In some a
Building a Learning Machine A five-year-old boy once accused me of being a "bad teacher." He wasn't mad at me. It wasn't intended as an insult. He was grinning as he said it, but he offered it more as a statement of fact than a joke. I've had children tell me that I'm "supposed to be a boy," "you smell stinky," and "you're a big, fat guy." Learning the unvarnished, unblinking "truth" about yours
Teachers Pay for PPE So U.S. Schools Can Reopen - BNN Bloomberg Teachers Pay for PPE So U.S. Schools Can Reopen Cleaning supplies and textbooks sit inside an empty classroom at a High School in San Diego, California. Photographer: Bing Guan/Bloomberg , Bloomberg (Bloomberg) -- America’s schools have nowhere near the money they need to reopen safely in the pandemic. To bail themselves out, distric
Jill Biden is finally ready to be first lady. Can she help her husband beat Trump? On the chaotic day that Joe Biden called Sen. Kamala D. Harris to ask whether she’d be his running mate, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti’s phone rang. As one of four co-chairs on Biden’s vice-presidential selection committee, Garcetti was one of a handful of people on the planet privy to that extensive and secreti
Virtual Schools Better Than Death Traps - LA Progressive Virtual Schools Better Than Death Traps Educators Demand Virtual Schools as ‘Least Bad’ but Safe Option A s the coronavirus continues to spread, teachers and school employees are being handed reopening plans that require them to be in their classrooms at the bell—and they are resisting. The Detroit Federation of Teachers has scheduled a vot
Schools, Americans and Covid: A Love Letter - LA Progressive Schools, Americans and Covid: A Love Letter Hey, American Peeps! It’s me! Coronavirus! Technically, the name’s Covid-19, but with you guys, we can cut the formality. I mean after all, once I latched my spiky surface proteins to your nana’s lungs , we were basically family! “YAK! COUGH!” Your classrooms are splattered, your hallways, inf
Remote Learning Is a Bad Joke My kid can’t handle a virtual education, and neither can I. One exciting thing about being alive at this pivotal moment in history is that I’m constantly learning about strong opinions I didn’t previously know I had. Before mid-March 2020, if you’d asked me how I felt about videoconferencing, I’d have shrugged. It’s fine? Now I would have to amend that opinion sligh
Today's DOE: Don't Let Your Right Hand Know What Your Left Hand Do These are extraordinary times, and they're rendered more so by the incredible lack of communication from Mayor de Blasio and Chancellor Carranza. The chancellor sends us preposterous flowery emails telling us how much he cares, while callously tossing us into a program that neither he nor the mayor has remotely thought out (no pu
Maurice Cunningham: Koch $$ for “National Parents Union” Maurice Cunningham is a dogged researcher into Dark Money and its role in the pursuit of privatizing public education. Cunningham is a political science professor at the University of Massachusetts. Open the link and read in full. In his latest post , he reports that Koch money as well as Walton money, Zuckerberg money, Gates money, and De
“Confessions of a School Reformer” (Part 2) Glenville High School, 1956-1963 My memory of teaching over a half-century ago is filled with holes. In thinking back to the time when I began teaching at Glenville High School in Cleveland (OH), I can remember some events, some students, some teachers, and my first principal but there is much I cannot recall. Slivers of memory remind me of what I did
Welcome to School Year 2020–21 - Nutrition (CA Dept of Education) Welcome to School Year 2020–21 Dear Superintendent, Chief Business Official, and Food Service Director: Welcome Back to School On behalf of the entire California Department of Education (CDE) Nutrition Services Division (NSD) team, I am sending my sincere appreciation and gratitude to each of you as you wrap up your summer meal ser
Charter School Experiment FAILURE Documented Again By Thomas Ultican 8/17/2020 Marketing and lack of oversight have obscured the failure of the charter school industry. The latest research reported by Carol Burris and her team at the Network for Public Education (NPE) documents the atrocious closure rate among charter schools. The United States Education Department (USED) has invested more than
Richard Corcoran thinks he is king of education First, Corcoran issues an executive order that flies in the face of the state constitution bullying districts with the threat of losing my money, and now he has told districts before you close a class or a school give him a call so he can decide if it is okay to do so, even giving out his personal number. I want to remind everyone Corcoran is neith
CURMUDGUCATION: Silicon Valley and the Surveillance State Peter Schwartz is an American futurist, innovator, author, and co-founder of the Global Business Network , a corporate strategy firm. He's done sexy things like consult for futury movies, including WarGames (ew), Minority Report, and Sneakers (an under-appreciated gem). He's written an assortment of books; he also wrote the 2004 climate c
ROUND 3 IS NOW UNDERWAY “I sometimes think we must be all mad and that we shall wake to sanity in strait-waistcoats.” ― Bram Stoker, Dracula “If we judge ourselves only by our aspirations and everyone else only their conduct we shall soon reach a very false conclusion.” ― Calvin Coolidge Two months ago, when the decision to offer a virtual option was made, MNPS signed a 5 million dollar contract
Phonics, Fluency, and Flexibility If you have ever read one of Peggy Parrish's delightful Amelia Bedelia books to young children, your efforts were no doubt greeted by howls of laughter. Children delight in the word play involved when Amelia "dresses the turkey" in coat and pants, or when she "pitches a tent" by throwing it poles and all, into the bushes. The children's delight comes, of course,
Michael Bloomberg & Bill Gates Doku: Willkommen in unserer techno-faschistischen Zukunft – Wrench in the Gears Michael Bloomberg & Bill Gates Doku: Willkommen in unserer techno-faschistischen Zukunft The Brothers Grim: Bill and Mike’s Pandemic Panopticon Many thanks to Rudiger Flach for providing the following German translation of The Brothers Grimm: Bill and Mike’s Pandemic Panopticon . English
The Coronavirus Thanks You for Reopening Schools: “I Couldn’t Have Done it Better, Myself!” Hey, American Peeps! It’s me! Coronavirus! Technically, the name’s Covid-19, but with you guys, we can cut the formality. I mean after all, once I latched my spiky surface proteins to your nana’s lungs , we were basically family! “YAK! COUGH!” Music to my ears. So it’s back to school time, and – let me te
Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007 Perfect Example Of Current Event “Argument From Ignorance” Fallacy To Use In TOK Classes by Larry Ferlazzo / 9min White House Chief-of-Staff Mark Meadows gave all teachers a great, though sad, example of the “ argument from ignorance ” fallacy this weekend: You can learn more about this fallacy here .
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 Arkansas: Mock Funeral for Students, Teachers, and Schools Today at 6 PM by dianeravitch / 1h Media Advisory August 17, 2020 For more information, contact: Chris Danforth (501)912-0168 Arkansas Public School Communities Funeral, Sponsored By: Grassr
Can Los Angeles Schools Test 700,000 Students and 75,000 Employees? That’s the Plan Classes will start remotely. But the nation’s second-largest school district has perhaps the most ambitious plan to test students and employees for the coronavirus. Amid public alarm over the inadequacy of coronavirus testing across the nation, Los Angeles schools on Monday will begin a sweeping program to test h
Online School Doesn’t Work When You Can’t Get Online Why millions of American kids don’t have internet At 8 a.m. Pacific time last Wednesday, I joined David Anderson’s 12th-grade government class at Live Oak High by clicking on a Zoom link. Because California suffered a surge in coronavirus cases this summer, students in Live Oak, a town about 50 miles north of Sacramento, will be learning virtu
Sitting, Facing Forward, While Muted As most American schools gear up to start their school year engaged in what is being called "remote learning," educators and parents have been sharing schedules on social media that involve putting elementary school aged children in front of computers for upwards of four hours a day. That's a lot of screen time. That's a lot of sitting. That's a lot of facing
Anette Carlisle: Mike Morath’s Plan to Abandon Local Control and Public Schools in Texas Anette Carlisle, public education advocate in Texas, describes how State Commissioner Mike Morath, a non-educator, bought into the anti-democratic strategy of killing local school boards and privatizing public schools. He swallowed whole the disruption program of the Center for Reinventing Public Education,
The Problems with “Show Me the Research” in Teaching Reading I was born in 1961 and entered first grade in 1967, already able to read independently and play sophisticated card and board games. My mother had taped index cards with words identifying objects all around our house. She had attended one year of junior college, but had no training in how to teach. None the less, from the first day of s
Public funds should support public schools, right? Trump and DeVos say ‘no.’ This is a guest post by Sharon Krengel, Policy and Outreach Director of Education Law Center. See below for more on the Public Funds Public Schools campaign. You’ve got to hand it to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. Even during a pandemic that’s hitting the U.S. hard and caused every state to physically close schools, s
I’m a Teacher and I’m Horrified at Schools Reopening During COVID Educators took one look at the photos that recently emerged from the crowded, nearly mask-less hallways of a high school in Georgia, and gasped for air. I keep thinking about a moment in my career in education , when I taught at a small Catholic school for girls in Queens, New York. On one otherwise unmemorable morning, a student
Trump Brags About Racist Housing and Education Policies and Urges Americans to “Enjoy!” In desperation, as polls predict he is likely to lose in the November election, President Donald Trump has not only threatened to defund the post office for the purpose of ensuring that a lot of votes won’t be counted, but he has also, shockingly, been appealing to racism. He tweeted : “I am happy to inform a
IT IS Exactly like Florida is trying to get people killed In the last week, Florida made three announcements that both don't make sense and will undoubtedly lead to sickness and perhaps deaths. In one district quarantined teachers are being required to go back into buildings to teach and yes read that again, the FSHAA has ignored the recommendations of their doctors and said HS sports can start
GOD’S PLAN (A REQUIEM FOR WENDY MENARD) On November 29, 2016, we had a Single Session workshop for the entire Math for America community entitled “A Continuing Conversation: Race, Equity, and STEM Education.” A few weeks prior, you witnessed the country that once felt so full of promise reject its stated values in favor of a man and an administration that outwardly espouses white supremacy and a
Hey, American Peeps! It’s me! Coronavirus! Technically, the name’s Covid-19, but with you guys, we can cut the formality. I mean after all, once I latched my spiky surface proteins to your nana’s lungs , we were basically family! “YAK! COUGH!” Music to my ears. So it’s back to school time, and – let me tell you – am I ready to return to the classroom! Actually, I’m just bursting to pop onto campu
Are We Staring at Teacher Layoffs? Or, Worse? Is “Black Tuesday” (Tuesday, October 29, 1929) hovering? Are we a few weeks or months away from the economic cliff? The “roaring twenties,” seemingly endless increases in stock prices, three consecutive Republican presidents (Harding, Coolidge and Hoover), the flu pandemic was gone, a farm depression was concerning; however, the nation appeared to be
$1.1 million court settlement by Success Academy charters for violating children's rights Gary Rubinstein broke the story on his blog today that Success Academy had agreed to pay $1.1M and reasonable attorneys’ fees to five families, whose children had their rights repeatedly violated and were pushed out of the Success Academy Fort Greene charter school, the home of the infamous “Got to go” list
Country Club Pod School So you run a string of private tony country clubs, offering "unique access to sports, fitness, luxury hospitality and family-friendly amenities across multiple clubs," and the pandemic has not been very helpful for your business. But you've got all this space. What can you do to get the money stream flowing again? Open a school, of course. Let me introduce you to the Bay
Bloggaversary Edition (9/16) Back on this date in 2014, I put up my first post on this blog. I took me a month or two to figure out what I was doing, but here we are, a few years, about 3750 posts, and over 9 million hits later, still plugging away. Traditional anniversary gifts are either candy or iron, so I will eat some chocolate today in honor of the occasion. In the meantime, here are some
SOME DAYS YOU FEEL NOSTALGIC AND SAD It was a honor to serve on the Board of the The NEA Foundation . I’m sad and disappointed to term out. We had our final meeting this week via Zoom and honestly I didn’t want to hang up as the board bantered at the end of the call— it was quite emotional for me after serving 7 years on the Board. It became real for me today when the departing board member “goo
Betsy DeVos’s Plot to Transfer Public Funds to Private Schools During the Pandemic Katherine Stewart, a scholar of rightwing evangelicals, writes in The New Republic about Betsy DeVos’s brazen transfer of public funds to private schools during the pandemic. Stewart is the author of The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism. Stewart surveys the generous distributio
EdAction in Congress August 16, 2020 Administration’s response to COVID-19 threatens Social Security and Medicare “Impasse,” said Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) when asked about the status of negotiations over legislation to address the damage from COVID-19. It is unclear when—or if—negotiations will resume. Meanwhile, students and educators are suffering because of the administration’s
Job Posting: ELA Teacher Who Is Also Nurse, COVID-19 and Anti-Racism Specialist, and More Samuel Jayne Tanner and Ben Stasny write a satirical posting for a middle-school English language arts teacher that appeared in McSweeny’s. Area School District is looking for a Language Arts Teacher/ Cheerleading Coach/ Custodian/ Nurse to help lead our COVID-19 and anti-racism instruction during this unpr
CDC says child COVID cases are ‘steadily increasing’ — despite Trump claiming kids are ‘almost immune’ The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is out with guidance “to reflect new evidence about COVID-19 in children.” “The number and rate of cases in children in the United States have been steadily increasing from March to July 2020. The true incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in children
RI: Foxes In The Governor's Mansion I haven't paid much attention to Rhode Island (motto: That State Nobody Pays Much Attention To), but we should all take a look, because Rhode Island has become yet another example of the many ways that privatizers and profiteers get their hands into the cookie jar. These frickin' people We start with Gina Raimondo , a venture capitalist who decided to get into
Trump Announces Plan to Dispatch CDC Teams to Schools; CDC in the Dark According to CNN, the Centers got Disease Control was ”blindsided” when Trump announced today that he was dispatching teams fron the CDC to help schools reopen safely. He didn’t mention sending money to equip schools to reopen safely. CDC blindsided by Trump’s statement it could deploy teams to schools this fall Leaders at th
Take Action to Save the USPS and the Election The following information and letter is from the Schools Matter blog by Jim Horn (not to be confused with the School Matters blog by Steve Hinnefeld). I have made some changes to correct typos and errors. Please feel free to personalize and edit the letter below. Let’s make sure that all members of Congress, Democrats, Republicans, and Independents w
Success Academy Quietly Settles Discrimination Lawsuit And Pays Families $1.1 Million Plus Lawyer’s Fees Success Academy is the largest and most controversial charter chain in New York. By one measure — state test scores — it is the most successful. But over the years they have been embroiled in several significant scandals. The two most prominent was the ‘rip and redo’ incident , where a teache
How High Is the Infection Rate of COVID-19 in Kids? Open the Schools to Find Out. Sending children back to school in person is truly an experiment in the spread of COVID-19. According to this August 14, 2020, Center for Disease Control (CDC) update: While children comprise 22% of the US population, recent data show that 7.3% of all cases of COVID-19 in the United States reported to CDC were amon
How Trump Politicized Schools Reopening, Regardless of Safety | Portside How Trump Politicized Schools Reopening, Regardless of Safety If the Trump administration is willing to spend trillions to bail out corporations, banks, and airlines, why is it not willing to put up the $400-500 billion necessary to ensure the safety of our nation’s schools, children, and educators? One of the most difficult
How To Assure Representation In A Public-Private Partnership? In California’s primary on March, 2020 Angelenos voted for delegates to our County “Central” political “Committee”. Democrats selected from among a total field of 309 candidates, for seven individuals per assembly district whose role would be to represent us, the electorate. We have a reasonable expectation to be represented faithfull
Big Education Ape TOP POSTS THIS WEEK 8/15/20 TOP POSTS THIS WEEK 8/8/20 #REDFORED #tbats #COVID-19 #REOPENSCHOOLS #BIDEN2020 #BidenHarris2020 ‘Slaying Goliath’: Diane Ravitch argues in
