Closing University Education Schools: A Bad Omen The University of South Florida (USF) has announced the end of their education school due to a $36.7 million university budget cut. The change will save $6.8 million over two years. They’re using the coronavirus as the reason at a time when teachers are struggling to teach students safely. This loss is a bad omen for public schools and a professio
The week in coveducation: Epic updates, mask mandate, OKCPS teachers surveyed Next week Oklahoma City Public Schools will be welcoming back pre-K and kindergarten students to in-person classes on an A/B schedule, and the State Board of Education will hold its regular monthly meeting providing a semblance of normalcy. This past week, however, Oklahoma education news has been dominated by updates
Schott Receives $2.25M Racial Equity Grant from Nellie Mae Education Foundation The Schott Foundation has a long history of partnership with the Nellie Mae Education Foundation for capacity building for education and racial justice organizing. In this critical moment, we are honored to announce that Schott will receive a $2.25M grant as part of Nellie Mae’s significantly expanded funding to addr
Compare the town halls: How Biden and Trump will bring educators out of the pandemic By Amanda Menas On the night that was supposed to be the second presidential debate, Vice President Joe Biden and President Donald Trump appeared at separate events presenting their vastly different visions to voters. “The words of a president matter,” Biden said of Trump’s actions regarding the coronavirus pand
Indiana: ACB Served on the Board of a School That Discriminated Against Gays Steve Hinnefeld, a regular commentator on education in Indiana, regrets that Amy Coney Barrett was not asked about vouchers during her hearings . He notes that she served on the board of a Catholic school in Indiana that received state voucher funds and that openly discriminated against same-sex families. Barrett served
An Originalist Reading of Public Schools Let’s say you went to a restaurant and ordered a big ol’ meat sandwich only to find nothing but straw between two pieces of bread. “Waiter!” You say, calling over a server. “What’s wrong, Sir?” “There’s no meat in my sandwich.” “Oh, Sir?” He says smiling, examining your plate. “Here at Scalia’s Bar and Grill we adhere to a strict originalist interpretatio
Albert Shanker and Michael Mulgrew: Tough Times Need Tough Leaders Dr. Aragon : “Now this is the Central Parallel of the American Federation. This district is what you you’d probably call the Southwestern United States. That was before it was destroyed by the war.” Miles Monroe ( played by Woody Allen ): “War?” Aragon : “Yes. According to history, over 100 years ago, a man named Albert Shanker g
Today in Teacher Depreciation When you're in the work, the general noise from the chorus of teacher devaluators can become a faint background buzz. And then something happens, and you're reminded suddenly, "Oh, yeah. That's a thing." Happened twice to me on Twitter in the past 24 hours. First, there was the noise surrounding the Trump thing on the teevee last night, including this little punch f
AN UNQUENCHABLE HUBRIS “The irony of our culture is that people are constantly telling other people to go to hell, but no one tells them to go to heaven.” ― Art Buchwald, Too Soon to Say Goodbye Well, that didn’t take long – 2 half days and one full – to shut a school down due to COVID-19. Robert Churchwell ES will go virtual after 21 staff members and 1 student is forced into quarantine due to
“When you find hypocrisy in the daylight, look for power in the shadows” Senator Whitehouse laid out beautifully on Tuesday the context surrounding Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation hearings in Washington as the pushing and pulling of ‘actors inside the frame of a puppet theater.’ He argues that not only are outside forces controlling these actors in the main show but they are integral to the nar
Teacher Tom "The School of Mankind" 200+ 1d The Pygmalion Effect 100+ 2d Everybody Helping Everybody 100+ 2d The Goal Ought to Be to Stop Patronizing the Children 400+ 3d "Democracy Must Be Born Anew . . . And Education is Its Midwife" 500+ 5d "It's Not Fair" 200+ 7d The Freedom to Be That Change 300+ 8d Teaching Children to Be Incompetent 300+ 10d Teacher Tom
Dad Gone Wild – Nobody reads it, everybody quotes it. THIS WEEK'S WILDNESS Dad Gone Wild Nobody reads it, everybody quotes it. AN UNQUENCHABLE HUBRIS by TC Weber / 18h “The irony of our culture is that people are constantly telling other people to go to hell, but no one tells them to go to heaven.” ― Art Buchwald, Too Soon to Say Goodbye Well, that didn’t take long – 2 half days and one full – to
California Department of Education CDE Emergency Response Fund 1d State Superintendent Tony Thurmond announces statewide fundraising drive to support California schools impacted by wildfires. OCT 14 Legislative Update – Assembly Bill 827 2d Assembly Bill 827 updates mandatory commercial recycling (AB 341) and mandatory organics recycling (AB 1826) requirements regarding student and staff access
NewBlackMan (in Exile) Black Farmers Draw On Age-Old Ingenuity To Navigate COVID-19 by Mark Anthony Neal / 1d 'For over a century, Black farmers have faced challenges in securing federal and local funding to aid their farms in times of need and during crises. COVID-19 has been no different. From lack of access to information about coronavirus relief provisions for farmers to difficulty finding s
Education Research Report THIS WEEK Education Research Report Causes and Effects of School Segregation in Connecticut by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 1d Complete report Residential segregation in Connecticut—and the subsequent educational segregation—persists due to ongoing racial discrimination, current town zoning ordinances, and school district boundaries. This report explores the role local zoning c
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 More than 1,000 CDC officers Condemn U.S. Response to Pandemic 20 by dianeravitch / 23min [no content] YESTERDAY Watch Katharine Stewart and Me Discuss the Assault on Public Schools 44 by dianeravitch / 19h Katherine Stewart and I were invited by
Who's donating to the Oakland Unified school board elections? Charter school supporters spend big on Oakland school board races Four political committees, including two pro-charter groups, a local education policy organization, and the teachers’ union are supporting opposing slates in contentious school board races. Hundreds of thousands of dollars are being spent on advertising to support opposi
Economic Policy Institute: Teachers Pay a Penalty for Teaching I like the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., for many reasons. I like the research it produces. But I most admire the fact that it is not sustained by the usual billionaires. It follows the facts. In a recent report, EPI found that teachers pay a wage penalty for choosing teaching as their profession. They are paid about
Janitors, Bus Drivers On Returning To Schools: Damned If They Do, Damned If They Don’t Cafeteria workers and other school support staff are afraid of getting coronavirus as more students return — but many are even more afraid of losing their jobs. As many schools return to in-person classes even as coronavirus cases are mounting nationwide, school bus drivers, cafeteria workers and janitors are
“I’m Hopeful for a Better Tomorrow” (Justin Lopez-Cardoze) Lopez-Cardoze is a seventh-grade science teacher at Capital City PublicCharter School in Washinton, D.C. He has taught for nine years. This story appeared in the Washington Post’ s online article , October 6, 2020. Lopez-Cardoze is one of nine teachers the newspaper asked to report on their experiences in returning to remote and in-perso
Trump's And Biden's Plans For Education Key priorities Joe Biden Make public colleges, historically Black colleges and universities, and minority-serving institutions tuition-free for families making less than $125,000. Make two years of community college and training programs tuition-free. Cancel $10,000 of every American's student debt and revise the current loan repayment system. Establish un
Fix America by Reversing Decades of Privatization K. Sabeel Rahman, president of the think tank Demos, proposes wisely in The Atlantic that the way to fix our nation’s economy and restore equity is to reverse decades of privatization and instead invest in public infrastructure. This would not only create millions of jobs but would restore the balance between the public and private spheres, which
"The School of Mankind" I reckon it would be best if we didn't put so much energy into worrying about our children's futures. It would be best for both us and our kids if we could more often just be here in the present with them, wondering at who they are right now, appreciating the unique human they already are, helping and loving them right now. That would be best, but human parents have never
For Defining the Right to Public Education, Constitutional Originalism Doesn’t Work For a couple of weeks now, since the publication of Derek Black’s history of the constitutional basis for American public education , this blog has been reflecting on the meaning of constitutional principles in our nation’s founding documents and the 50 state constitutions for defining the role and meaning of our
The Sacramento Bee Misinforms About School Budgets Marcos Bretón today in the BEE, describes what he thinks are the facts of the SCUSD budget. Most of the data are cut and paste from prior articles he wrote. , The title is deceptive. It is not factual. SCUSD is not going broke, SCUSD has a $93 million surplus at the end of this year, And, they claim they will spend $100 million on books and supp
NY STATE STUDENT PRIVACY REGULATIONS SUMMARY AND EXCERPTS As the new school year has started this fall, schools across the country are heavily relying on virtual and blended learning to instruct children. To facilitate this remote learning, many schools are using apps and programs developed and operated by third-parties. New York State regulations create requirements and restrictions for the con
Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007 Big Education Ape: THIS WEEK IN EDUCATION Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... The latest news and resources in education since 2007 - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2020/10/this-week-in-education-larry-ferlazzos_10.html Everything You Wanted To Know About Listening & Speaking But Were Afraid
McKinsey Has Ideas For Fixing Schools (Pandemic Edition) McKinsey is the 800-pound consulting gorilla with its hairy hands in everything. That includes dabbling in education; they've consulted with Boston schools and shown how to slash and privatize the crap out of the district, they've made data based advanced analytics explanations of how to improve test scores, and they've made the argument f
Op-Ed: COVID-19 shows NJ school funding iniquities | NJ Spotlight News COVID-19 highlights racial inequities in school funding Disparities in education are nothing new for New Jersey. But the current pandemic has heightened the differences in schooling between students of different races: The latest data confirm that white students are more likely to have access to at least some in-person schooli
One Week from Today, I Will Be Speaking to Education Activists in Texas One week today, I will participate in a statewide Zoom meeting with education activists in Texas, hosted by Pastors for Texas Children. It is a fundraising event for the important work of Pastors for Texas Children, which is a great friend to the five million children who attend public schools in Texas. PTC has been a powerf
WHERE WILL YOU GET YOUR EDUCATORS OF COLOR FROM NOW? [MEDIUM] In my latest post for Medium, I explore the connections between the current pandemic, the racial uprising, and NYC’s efforts to recruit and retain educators of color: “… it’s the same educators who saw the litany of issues that encumbered their work in NYC schools that ought to serve as our schools’ best ambassadors. But the lack of r
There’s No Democracy without Public Education Have You Heard talks with legal scholar Derek Black about his new book Schoolhouse Burning: Public Education and the Assault on American Democracy . Despite the title (not to mention the charred pencil imagery) this is a deeply optimistic book. That’s because as Black immersed himself in a people’s history of the post-civil war years, he encountered
Update #1 From The Pandemic's Trailing Edge About a month ago , I told you that if it can work anywhere, it can work here. I'm in Northwest PA, a rural/small town county with a little under 50,000 people. As of a month ago, we had about 70-ish confirmed cases. Schools re-opened, almost entirely face-to-face five days a week. Well, things have changed. Our confirmed case number has doubled in abo
The Pygmalion Effect He lifts up both his hands to feel the work, and wonders if it can be ivory, because it seems to him more truly flesh. -- his mind refusing to conceive of it as ivory, he kisses it and feels his kisses are returned. And speaking love, caresses it with loving hands that seem to make an impress, on the parts they touch, so real that he fears he then may bruise her by his eager
"Neither FERPA or HIPAA prevents schools from sharing non-identifiable information with the media and the general public" “…Legal experts and government transparency advocates say schools, as a whole, have a long track record of abusing privacy laws to keep information secret and force the public to enter costly lawsuits to gain access to records. Justin Silverman, who leads the New England Firs
I'm missing live radio CORONA BLUES...I'm badly missing doing live, in-studio radio. Hitting Left With the Klonsky Brothers has been on hiatus since June and we've been out of the studio since March. Brother Fred and I did podcast two months' worth of shows from home but it wasn't the same. No Friday morning planning meetings at Bridgeport Coffee and no live connection with the studio crew at Lu
Charter Updates - Charter Schools (CA Dept of Education) Charter Updates Updates and information from the California Department of Education, Charter Schools Division to charter schools, authorizers, and stakeholders Welcome to Charter Updates This web page, launched in fall 2020, serves as a means for the California Department of Education, Charter Schools Division to provide timely and relevant
COVID Learning Loss Over-Hyped By Thomas Ultican 10/15/2020 Warnings about learning losses due to the pandemic dominate education media; especially the media created and financed by billionaires. Based on a briefing by NWEA, McKinsey & Company claims “the average K–12 student in the United States could lose $61,000 to $82,000 in lifetime earnings (in constant 2020 dollars) … solely as a result o
NewBlackMan (in Exile) Why Philanthropy Alone Can't Solve Social Inequality by Mark Anthony Neal / 14h '“The Hard Truth About Bias” features conversations about the relationship of race and privilege; racial stress; the impact of bias in the images and language in our daily news and information; and the creation of stereotypes and how they influence the way we think. Guests in this segment: Wes
Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007 Big Education Ape: THIS WEEK IN EDUCATION Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... The latest news and resources in education since 2007 - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2020/10/this-week-in-education-larry-ferlazzos_10.html The Best Online Learning Games To Play During Distance Learning – Share Y
"Talk out of School" on "integration fatigue" and what's happening in Finland's schools during the pandemic Today, on my podcast "Talk out of School," I interviewed Prof. Noliwe Rooks and author William Doyle. First, I recapped some of the latest news from NYC, including that despite last week's order from Governor Cuomo to close more than 300 public and private schools in COVID hotspots in Broo
ME: Charter Pushers Quietly Switch To New Product Maine has suffered through its own brands of education disruption. Most notably, they became the target for a bunch folks who wanted to use Maine as a proof of concept state for proficiency based learning grafted onto standards based grading. At best they showed that a poorly implemented and underfunded disruption of this sort is disastrous; at w
Clothespin Bucket I had a dream last night, the kind of dream that jumbles your past and present in ways that make sense only in the dream. The jumble in this dream was riding my recently purchased gravel bike from my former home (where I lived when I was about 10 until my early 20s) to the nearby club house of the rural golf course where that house sat, Three Pines Country Club. In this dream,
McClatchy tries nonprofit funding for education coverage - Digiday McClatchy tries nonprofit funding for education coverage In a bid to keep subscriber growth going, McClatchy is turning to issues-based reporting, aided by community nonprofits. In late September, the local news publisher announced the launch of the Education Lab, a four-person team that will cover education in the San Joaquin Val
DO WE HAVE THE CORRECT PRIORITIES? “Every story has at least a little truth in it. Every story comes from somewhere.” ― J.J. Abrams This morning I drove to Wal-mart around 7:45 to get coffee. There is a rapid COVID-19 testing site in a building at the front of the Wal-mart parking lot. At its door was a line that stretched around the building. I’m guessing it was roughly 60 people. 60 people tha
“Welcome Back, Teach” (Jessyca Mathews) Mathews is an English Teacher at Carman-Ainsworth High School in Flint, Michigan. Her story appeared in the Washington Post’ s online article , October 6, 2020. She is one of nine teachers the newspaper asked to report on their experiences in returning to remote and in-person instruction during the pandemic. The massive rumbles of thunder surprise me from
Selling Charter School Class Size as “Innovative Medical Experimentation” During Covid-19 Efforts to destroy public schooling in America have not disappeared during the pandemic. While Education Secretary Betsy DeVos displays her hatred for public education, especially with Fairfax County public school teachers, DC Charter Schools are advertising innovations during the pandemic. They’re promotin
Everybody Helping Everybody We were playing with our classroom "catapults," crude ping pong ball shooting devices that are not really catapults at all, but act like them with the help of rubber bands, which I built in my garage one summer. They are always extremely popular play items and because I'd only made six of them, they are always short in supply with occasional conflicts erupting as the
Board sets termination hearing on Epic authorization The Statewide Virtual Charter School Board approved a motion today to enter the process for terminating their charter authorization contract with Epic One-on-One Charter Schools owing to alleged violations. “As a society, it is essential that we provide a healthy mix of educational opportunities to support all types of students and all types o
Ohio: Who Pays for Vouchers? Bill Phillis, founder of the Ohio Coalition for Equity and Adequacy of School Funding explains here where the funding comes from for vouchers: public schools pay from their budgets. The cost this year is nearly $350 million, deducted from the public schools that enroll nearly 90% of the state’s children. A study funded by the conservative Thomas B. Fordham Institute
Why decades of trying to end racial segregation in gifted education haven’t worked Is it even possible to make a concept that has racist origins more equitable? Replacing gifted education with SEM schools and other models - https://hechingerreport.org/?p=61640 via @hechingerreport BUFFALO, N.Y. — On a crisp day in early March, two elementary school gifted and talented classes worked on activitie
Should we screen kids’ genes to ‘predict’ how successful they’ll be in school? Scientists feel we’re still far from that possibility, but new research could make it possible to spot the genetic patterns associated with educational performance Many factors boost a child’s chance of success in school — like having wealthy parents who can afford tutors. But recent research has raised another possib
This School Year Has Been Unlike Any Other Some examples of how the world of education has responded to the pandemic. This article is part of our latest Learning special report , which focuses on ways that remote learning will shape the future. A fall semester unlike any ever known is underway in America. The coronavirus is lurking around every corner like a ghoul in a Halloween cornfield, waiti
Public Schools: Our Democracy’s Essential Institution This blog recently discussed ( here and here ) Derek Black’s new book, Schoolhouse Burning: Public Education and the Assault on America Democracy , about the long battles to protect the right to public education under the principles embodied in the nation’s founding documents and the 50 state constitutions. Black believes that public schools
Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007 Big Education Ape: THIS WEEK IN EDUCATION Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... The latest news and resources in education since 2007 - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2020/10/this-week-in-education-larry-ferlazzos_10.html Three New Resources To Help Teach About The Presidential Election by Larr
Quarantined and Disrupted Glanced down at my phone to see who was texting. Today. Middle of the day. It was a former student. Now a teacher herself. Middle school. Why was she texting from work? She’s teaching in person. The text cleared things up. Quarantined She was unceremoniously sent home, to quarantine. One of her students is positive. Disrupted So she’s already been tested, and with some
Orphaned Education, Forgotten Children These are depressing times. Let me tell you why I'm bummed, but first, let me tell you a story. Almost a decade ago, I was the local union president during a contentious contract negotiation that became a strike. That was probably the lowest part of my teaching career. If you've taught for more than a year or two, you know, somewhere back in the back of you
The Real Learning is in the Chat Box My friend Mitchell Robinson , of Michigan State University asks: Am I the only teacher who finishes a Zoom class, during which I’m sharing a slide show, moderating class discussions, posing questions on assigned readings, and trying to respond to students’ questions in a thoughtful way, only to find out after ending the Zoom session that there was a whole oth
The first presidential debate showed our leaders are not acting that way ‘Stand by.’ ‘Shut up.’ Is this really what we want to teach our children? Our leaders must also be teachers, but they’re not acting that way Frustrated by interruptions from President Donald Trump at the first presidential debate, an exasperated former Vice President Joe Biden blurted, “Would you shut up, man?” Biden sounded
Not Politics In The Classroom Distance learning seems to have pumped new life into the debate about politics in the classroom. From parents freaking out over a Black Lives Matter poster, to simple declarations that teachers should never, ever talk politic s, to the Pesident's adoption of the call for more patriotic education, we're back to arguing about how much political content should make it
The Goal Ought to Be to Stop Patronizing the Children When Jos de Blok, founder and CEO of the successful Dutch home healthcare company Buurtzorg was asked, "How do you motivate your (10,000) employees," he replied, "I don't. Seems patronizing." This is the "leader" of an organization that has been voted Employer of the Year in the Netherlands five times. In contrast to the leading management th
The Network for Public Education Action Endorses Senate Candidates! The Network for Public Education Action is delighted to endorse the following candidates for election to the United States Senate : Mark Kelly-Arizona Jon Ossoff-Georgia Theresa Greenfield-Iowa Barbara Bollier-Kansas Amy McGrath-Kentucky Sara Gideon-Maine Steve Bullock-Montana Cal Cunningham-North Carolina Jaime Harrison-South C
The Limits of School Choice There are many reasons to be concerned about the spread of school choice via charters and vouchers. One is that it reduces the funding available for the public schools that enroll the vast majority of students. Most states are barely willing to finance their public schools, so now they divvy up the funds to support choice schools. Makes no sense. Another is that propo
Commutative? Who Studies “Commutative”? It could come in any grade. It could come up in almost any mathematics course in the United States today. But why? What is “the Commutative Property” and why do we study it? Has everyone always studied it? I may need some help from the mathematicians who read this blog. Which probably means Joel. Maybe Owen. Back in this blog’s heyday I had literally horde
Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007 Big Education Ape: THIS WEEK IN EDUCATION Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... The latest news and resources in education since 2007 - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2020/10/this-week-in-education-larry-ferlazzos_10.html Tuesday’s Must-Read Articles On School Reopening by Larry Ferlazzo / 13h
Do Not Commit the 8th Deadly Sin of Indifference I imagine that almost everyone has at least a passing acquaintance with the Seven Deadly Sins, even if their names don’t roll easily off your tongue. For the record and to jog your memory, the Seven Deadly Sins are pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth. If you’re like me, you have known most (maybe all) of them intimately, although
Celebrate George Floyd’s Birthday! Join BLM at School educators, students and parents around the country on Wed, Oct. 14th in a national webinar & an eight minuet & 46 second free write/draw to “reimagine everything” Register for this national event today! https://bit.ly/2GTQSw8 Celebrate George Floyd’s Birthday on Wednesday, Oct. 14th! Join BLM at School educators, students and parents around t
DCPS's be lucky rather than good strategy is reckless It pains me to put these words on paper but the undeniable truth is DCPS is not doing all it can to keep its staff and students safe and has gone with an “it’s better to be lucky than good” strategy. Let me tell you about my personal experience with their contract tracing. Last week a colleague went out on a Monday not feeling well thinking i
HMMMM…THAT’S A COINCIDENCE “grammar in learning is like tyranny in government – confound the bitch I’ll never be her slave.” ― John Clare I’ve been doing advocacy work for a minute or two now. Unfortunately, it’s made me a little jaded. When I first started this work, it was imparted to me to always follow the money. Want to understand the reasoning behind a politician’s actions? Follow the mone
15 Strange and Scary Goings-On Surrounding Covid-19, Schools, and Teaching How to handle a pandemic is a new territory for school officials and educators. Here are some observations of odd and downright scary practices surrounding the disease and school attendance. Adults online. Students are in-person. School board members meet online to discuss business . They’re worried about catching the vir
A Medical Scientist Speaks Out About Children and COVID A reader who is a scientist wrote to ask why I posted the views of an economist about children and COVID instead of those of a medical researcher. She sent me this interview of Angela Rasmussen that appeared in Science Friday . Rasmussen is a professor at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. In the interview, she says: ANG
, Weather & Sports Schools are 2 months into reopening under Covid-19 and no one's officially keeping track of how it's going By Annie Grayer, CNN A 6-year-old afraid to go outside. A mom scared to send her children back to school, then thrilled at how they've thrived. A teacher worried she'll be ordered back to the classroom and become... A 6-year-old afraid to go outside. A mom scared to se
Bob Shepherd: The Hoax of Standardized Testing Bob Shepherd is an editor, author, and recently retired teacher in Florida. He worked for many years as a developer of curriculum and assessments. He posted this comment here. Combating Standardized Testing Derangement Syndrome (STDs) The dirty secret of the standardized testing industry is the breathtakingly low quality of the tests themselves. I w
Haiku: A Path to Poetry for Young Writers Most young children love poetry, but when it comes to writing poetry they are often overwhelmed by the demands of rhythm and rhyme. Sense suffers as kids scramble for rhyming words. My Mom I love my mom oh so much I love her more than chocolate - Dutch! She s me all the things I need And I help her to weed. Now this poem, written by a second grader, is n
Voices : Immigrants Struggles in the Time of Covid Webinar: Immigrants’ Struggles in the Time of Covid/La lucha en los tiempos de Covid! Join us for a webinar: Immigrants’ Struggles in the Time of Covid/La lucha en los tiempos de Covid! by the Immigrants’ Rights Working Group of DSA. Hear from comrades on the front lines of the immigrants’ rights movement discussing the resistance in the concent
Behind the Ad Wars: Why You Should Ignore the Fear Mongering and Vote Yes on Proposition 15 By Jim Miller By now you’ve seen them all: the litany of ads and mailers against Proposition 15 featuring worried small business owners, angst-filled barbers, and other advocates for hire trying to scare you that Proposition 15 is aimed at small businesses. You’ve even seen a handful of craven local polit
Will Pandemic-Driven Remote Instruction* Alter Familiar Teaching Practices in American Schools? Yes and no. Sounds like a mealy-mouthed answer to the question, but stick with me for a moment. Background. Only twice in the past century has technology been the primary medium of instruction for each and every teacher and student. One was planned and the other unplanned. In the mid-1960s, the federa
John Thompson Reviews “School’s Out” About Pandemic John Thompson, historian and retired teacher in Oklahoma, reviews Alec MacGillis’ “School’s Out,” a book about the response of schools and teachers to the pandemic. My takeaway: It’s tough to write a book about a pandemic when it’s not over. When I first read Alec MacGillis’ School’s Out , I worried that he reached conclusions that were too opt
"Democracy Must Be Born Anew . . . And Education is Its Midwife" Prior to the pandemic, the parent of a former student brought my attention to a letter sent to her by the Seattle Public Schools. The opening paragraph read: This spring, your child will take the online Smarter Balanced tests in math and English language arts. Students in grade 5 will also take the online Washington Comprehensive A
Will November Election Bring an End to Betsy DeVos’s War on Public Education? In the midst of the most politically chaotic month I can remember, it seems important to imagine something worth hoping for. Consider this: If Donald Trump is defeated in the November election, after January, Betsy DeVos will no longer be the U.S. Secretary of Education. DeVos does not believe in public education: She
Illinois Has Had COVID-19 Outbreaks in 44 Schools but Won’t Say Where They’ve Occurred “More children are testing positive for COVID-19 than they were between March and mid-August, when schools shut down. As parents weigh the safety of in-person learning, Illinois has not published information about the virus’s spread in schools. “Nearly two months into the school year, Illinois public health of
The Modern-Day Monster of Racism My seniors are in the process of reading Beowulf . One assignment they recently completed was a brief written speech assignment on a “modern-day monster” that adults often face in contemporary society. One of my students, Janiya, chose racism as her “monster.” Here is her response, reproduced with her permission: In Beowulf , Beowulf fights three monsters, all of
Curry shills for charter school pac to push referendum Lenny Curry is just plain gross. I have thought this for a while, be he really cemented it in his TV spot supporting the referendum (something I support). These commercials are funded by a charter school PAC and charter schools are about to make a huge windfall, as millions will be diverted out of our schools and the community and into the p
College of Education Dean Uses New Mode of Research to Analyze Educational Equity Issues LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 12, 2020) — A unique digital media study focused on educational equity issues surrounding Teach For America has been published by University of Kentucky College of Education Dean Julian Vasquez Heilig. The study is thought to be the first in educational policy to use a new form of resear
Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007 Big Education Ape: THIS WEEK IN EDUCATION Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... The latest news and resources in education since 2007 - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2020/10/this-week-in-education-larry-ferlazzos_10.html Three Useful Resources For Teaching About Monuments by Larry Ferlazzo / 1
How Are American Teachers Doing, Really? Imagine you’ve got a business, housed in the basement of a single building. A tremendous storm sweeps in, and the basement floods—standing water, four inches deep. Some workers are asked to stay at their station, working ankle deep in water. Others are moved to the first floor, forced to use unfamiliar equipment that they must learn to use on the fly whil
CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: PA Fake Summer Edition (10/11) PA Fake Summer Edition Every Fall, in Western PA, we get a week or so of fake summer. This year it's particularly nice to get another pass at playing outside in shorts and sweatshirt weather. The board of directors has suddenly taken an interest in gardening, and the timing is perfect since there's hardly anything going on that they could kill
Wisconsin, South Carolina: Two Teachers Die of COVID-19 Yesterday, I posted an article by an economist who wrote that schools are not super spreaders, and that the rate of transmission of COVID has been very low among students and teachers. Some readers got angry at me for posting this article. Let me be clear that I am not a scientist or a doctor. I do not know whether it is safe to reopen scho
Let’s Support California’s Proposition 21 s Big Real Estate’s No on Prop 21 campaign spins and distorts, there’s one thing the real estate industry can’t change: the overwhelming support of trusted leaders and organizations for Proposition 21. From California’s housing justice movement to labor union icon Dolores Huerta (pictured above), they’re urging Californians to vote early — and vote “yes”
Fix America With Libraries (And Playgrounds and Parks and Rec Centers) Investing in public infrastructure should be at the center of a 21st-century civil-rights agenda . s the covid-19 pandemic continues into the fall, the Trump administration has ruled out any further action on a federal relief package. Meanwhile, state and local governments, lacking federal support, are considering deep cuts t
Virtual Instruction: Top 5 Pros & Top 5 Cons Teaching today is not the same as it was just a year ago. The global Coronavirus pandemic has forced schools to change the way they do almost everything. With infection rates moderate to high in most areas of the country, many schools have resorted to full virtual instruction while others have adopted a hybrid model incorporating a mix of cyber and in
Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007 Big Education Ape: THIS WEEK IN EDUCATION Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... The latest news and resources in education since 2007 - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2020/10/this-week-in-education-larry-ferlazzos_10.html Classroom Instruction Resources Of The Week by Larry Ferlazzo / 37min Eac
Lump Sums Delayed, on Average, 4 1/2 months Thursday, two days ago, Bill de blasio announced NYC would not pay UFT members the lump sum payments owed them on time. Michael Mulgrew announced that the UFT would fight – by going straight to arbitration. The arbitrator, on Friday, ordered the city to pay half the amount in two weeks (October 31 instead of October 15), and the other half July 1, 2021
Dear Secretary DeVos: Either Help Or Hush Dear Secretary Devos: Teachers in the US are facing unprecedented challenges this fall, trying to make the best out of whatever bad solution their local districts have chosen. It's a tough time, the kind of time in which we look for help and leadership from folks at the top. You have not been helpful. Last Wednesday, you took a conference call with the P
Big Education Ape TOP POSTS THIS WEEK 10/10/20 ‘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 TOP POSTS THIS
