Latest News and Comment from Education

Thursday, January 9, 2020

CURMUDGUCATION: DeVos and Department May Face Increased Fine

CURMUDGUCATION: DeVos and Department May Face Increased Fine

DeVos and Department May Face Increased Fine


Back in October, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and her department were fined $100,000 for contempt of court regarding their non-compliance with a court order to stop collecting loans from students bilked by a chain of fraudulent for-profit colleges. Turns out that price tag could get a little steeper.

In October, the department said that, oopsies, they had continued to collect from about 16,000 students and parents. The "oopsy" was a little hard to believe, given that DeVosd has been abundantly clear that she does not believe that defrauded students should have their loans forgiven. If they are making money now, then too bad about the loan. As she told the House Education Committee when they tried to rake her over some coals on this matter:

I understand that some of you here just want to have blanket forgiveness for anyone who raises their hand and files a claim, but that simply is not right.

So maybe the department made a few clerical errors. Or maybe DeVos just decided she would drag her heels as hard as possible against the injunction against collection from May 2018, as witnessed by the loans forgiven by the previous administration which she signed off "with extreme displeasure" and by her attempts rewrite the rules for loan cancellation.

Judge Sallie Kim was pretty cranky when she offered the October ruling (“I’m not sending anyone to CONTINUE READING: 
CURMUDGUCATION: DeVos and Department May Face Increased Fine


"Have To" History: United States vs. Nixon (1974) | Blue Cereal Education

"Have To" History: United States vs. Nixon (1974) | Blue Cereal Education

"Have To" History: United States vs. Nixon (1974)

NOTE: I've finally completed "Have To" History: Landmark Supreme Court Cases. At the moment, it's available on Teachers Pay Teachers and intended to be an easily affordable resource for pretty much any American History or Government teacher of whatever level – from 8th Grade Civics to APUSH. I'm not looking to make serious money or anything, but it took a long time to write and edit, so until I have time to pursue other avenues, there it is.
The following is an excerpt from this work, inspired only by my love of sharing and having nothing to do with current events. (We work very hard in history education to make sure there's as little connection as possible between what we cover in class and what's happening in the real world around us. Otherwise - phone calls!) The attached PDF includes excerpts from the Supreme Court's decision and questions over the article and written excerpts. If you find it useful, please consider purchasing the rest of the collection. Otherwise, why do you hate America?

Stuff You Don’t Really Want To Know (But For Some Reason Have To) About U.S. v. Nixon (1974) 

Three Big Things:

1. In 1972, five men working for the Nixon Administration were caught breaking into Democratic National Headquarters. Investigations revealed much wider-spread CONTINUE READING: "Have To" History: United States vs. Nixon (1974) | Blue Cereal Education

The Rural Schools Conundrum – Have You Heard

The Rural Schools Conundrum – Have You Heard

The Rural Schools Conundrum



Have You Heard heads to rural Wisconsin to investigate a puzzle. Communities in the “reddest” parts of the state keep voting to hike their own taxes to pay for schools, even as they elect and re-elect politicians who enact cuts to school funding. What gives? The answers are complicated and surprising. Full transcript available here. And Have You Heard relies on listener contributions to hit the road for episodes like this one. 


The Rural Schools Conundrum – Have You Heard

2020 Teachers’ New Year’s Resolutions: 3. Educate yourself | Live Long and Prosper

2020 Teachers’ New Year’s Resolutions: 3. Educate yourself | Live Long and Prosper

2020 Teachers’ New Year’s Resolutions: 3. Educate yourself


It’s a new year and as is our custom here in the USA, we make resolutions which, while often broken, can be redefined as goals toward which we should strive.
NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION #3
  • Educate yourself.
BUT I DON’T HAVE ENOUGH TIME
Teachers are overworked and overstressed. Often teachers go home after a difficult day at school and spend an hour or two on planning, assessing student work, or sifting through piles of mostly meaningless paperwork.
A few hours later, after a rushed meal, minimal time with family, and a night of not-enough-sleep, it starts over again.
Weekends are a bit better…time to catch up on everything.
It’s no surprise, then, that teachers feel like they don’t have time to find out what’s happening in the politics of public education. They only know that it seems like each year there are more and more restrictions on what and how they can teach, more tests for their students, fewer resources, and larger classes.
Meanwhile, the forces of DPE (Destroy Public Education) continue to move forward increasing funding for charter schools and unaccountable voucher schools by diverting public money from public schools.
THE ARGUMENT FOR EDUCATING YOURSELF
Make the time.
I know…I’m retired. I don’t have to get up and face a classroom of kids every day. It’s easy for me to say, “Make the time.” I get it. CONTINUE READING: 2020 Teachers’ New Year’s Resolutions: 3. Educate yourself | Live Long and Prosper

LGBTQ Students Need Help, and Philanthropy Needs to Step Up | Schott Foundation for Public Education

LGBTQ Students Need Help, and Philanthropy Needs to Step Up | Schott Foundation for Public Education

LGBTQ Students Need Help, and Philanthropy Needs to Step Up

Produced in partnership between Funders for LGBTQ Issues and Schott, we hope this infographic will help both those in philanthropy and LGBTQ advocates to chart a better course toward a future where all LGBTQ youth attend well-resourced, supportive and safe public schools. Schott is proud to be a longtime supporter of grassroots LGBTQ youth organizing as a crucial component of the education justice movement.

Key Findings:
  • For every $100 awarded by U.S. foundations to education, only 15 cents were devoted to funding for LGBTQ education and safe schools.
  • More than 6 in 10 LGBTQ students experience discriminatory policies or practices at school.
  • While LGBTQ youth make up 7-9 percent of youth nationwide, they account for 20 percent of all youth in juvenile justice facilities (and 85 percent of them are youth of color).
  • Funding for LGTBQ education and safe schools has fluctuated over the past five years, but has never exceeded $9 million in a given year.
  • The top ten funders of LGBTQ education and safe schools issues account for nearly three-quarters of the funding.
Clearly there is much work for us to do. The infographic identifies four key opportunities:
FUND ACROSS SILOS FOR INCREASED IMPACT
Racial justice funders and those supporting boys and girls of color, criminal justice funders concerned about the school-to-prison pipeline, and health funders seeking to address the social determinants of health disparities have reason to be concerned with school climate for LGBTQ students. There is potential for mutual learning across silos as well as for the pooling and leveraging of resources across unlikely but natural partners.
STRENGTHEN GSAs AND OTHER VEHICLES FOR YOUTH-LED ORGANIZING
GSAs [Gay Straight Alliances] are documented to have a positive effect on student outcomes and also play a key role in the pipeline of leadership development in LGBTQ communities. Other LGBTQ grassroots organizations driven and led by youth and young adults play similar essential roles in empowering young leaders and building movements.
SUPPORT FEDERAL, STATE, AND LOCAL ADVOCACY
At the federal, state, and local levels, LGBTQ and allied organizations need resources to respond to anti-LGBTQ policies and to advance progressive policies that foster a more supportive school climate for LGBTQ youth. Funders should also be mindful of the need for Both rapid response funding and general for general support and capacity-building to develop strong organizations at all levels.
SUPPORT STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS TO RAISE AWARENESS AROUND LGBTQ STUDENTS
Funders have an opportunity to foster a more positive narrative around LGBTQ students. These efforts may include collecting and sharing stories of LGBTQ students, especially trans students and LGBTQ students of color; building the communications capacity of LGBTQ education and youth organizations; and supporting research, messaging, and media campaigns to respond effectively to attacks on transgender students, students of color, and immigrant students.
 Download here (623.37 KB)

Webinar: Missing Pages and Pedagogy | Schott Foundation for Public Education - http://schottfoundation.org/node/4210
Many students of color attend schools where their histories, culture and lived experiences have been little more than footnotes in their school curriculum. A growing movement led by parents, students and educators is aiming to fix that by implementing culturally responsive education.

Culturally responsive education has been shown to increase student engagement, improve student self-perception, and increase student achievement and graduation rates: but it won’t be handed to us. We have to organize and fight for it.

Join us for an engaging webinar as we discuss culturally responsive education and what it will take to win it for all our public schools.

This webinar is part of a new series of Schott-hosted webinars that shine a spotlight on culturally responsive education efforts nationwide, focusing on curriculum, teacher diversity, and safe and supportive schools.
Our speakers included:
    Dr. Curtis Acosta, Founder, Acosta Latino Learning Partnership and Acosta Educational Partnerships
    Natasha Capers, Coordinator, NYC Coalition for Educational Justice
    Natalie Zwerger, Director, Center for Strategic Solutions
    Marianna Islam (moderator), Director of Programs & Advocacy, Schott Foundation for Public Education
CONTINUE READING AND WATCH THE WEBINAR: Webinar: Missing Pages and Pedagogy | Schott Foundation for Public Education

If the Teachers of Color at Your School Are Invisible to You, Why Would They Stay? - Philly's 7th Ward

If the Teachers of Color at Your School Are Invisible to You, Why Would They Stay? - Philly's 7th Ward

IF THE TEACHERS OF COLOR AT YOUR SCHOOL ARE INVISIBLE TO YOU, WHY WOULD THEY STAY?

I reread it slower this time, an email sent to 40+ staff members with the subject line, Congrats and Great Work, from my principal. The email was a glowing account of one of my colleagues’ recent accomplishments:  wrote a grant … new outdoor classroom … dedication … significant contributions to our school community. While I realized all those statements were true and my colleague deserved this recognition, as a teacher of color, I was also hurt and perplexed.  Why do such mass acknowledgements and effusive praise only accompany the victories of my white colleagues?  
I left that job this year.  Was it because my work was constantly being rendered invisible?  Yes, that was part of the reason.
Within the same timeframe, I had also achieved a myriad of successes: presenting at a national conference, organizing and leading an off-campus leadership experience for students, co-creating and implementing a schoolwide literacy approach, publishing an interdisciplinary literacy newsletter, leading a parent/staff diversity book club, being nominated for History Teacher of the Year.  Yet, I’d never had so much as a personal email or note in my CONTINUE READING: If the Teachers of Color at Your School Are Invisible to You, Why Would They Stay? - Philly's 7th Ward

Top Reads of 2019 | Teacher in a strange land

Top Reads of 2019 | Teacher in a strange land

Top Reads of 2019

For the past decade or so, I’ve tried to read 100 books a year. It’s been a worthy and mostly achievable goal, a nice round number, and incentive to be deliberate in choosing titles, because—hey, tick-tock.  I don’t log books that I didn’t finish (or almost finish—I included one 600-pager this year that I started skimming after diligently reading 400 mind-numbing pages).
I also don’t count children’s books, although some terrific YA titles have made the cut. I use GoodReads to archive titles, rate them one-five stars, and compose a brief review, mostly to remind myself what the book is about, especially series books. My role model is Nick Hornby, whose Ten Years in the Tub is, IMHO, the Way to Write Reviews.  That is, sloppily and non-linearly, reading multiple books at the same time, being honest about what I love and what moves me–and constantly changing my mind.
Therefore… no neatly ordered top ten titles, no bumping off a favorite because it doesn’t feel prestigious enough for an audience, always embracing good ideas and good writing while overlooking flaws.
I have 14 noteworthy books to share this year, seven fictional titles and seven nonfiction. I’ll begin with books about politics CONTINUE READING: Top Reads of 2019 | Teacher in a strange land

La. State Superintendent John White Resigns | deutsch29

La. State Superintendent John White Resigns | deutsch29

La. State Superintendent John White Resigns

On January 08, 2020, Louisiana state superintendent John White submitted his letter of resignation to the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE).
In it, White states, “I write to advise you… I will be vacating the position March 11, 2020, and to recommend that the board identify a new state superintendent.”
White’s resignation letter comes five days before the second inauguration of Louisiana governor, John Bel Edwards, who has wanted White gone since 2015.
The complication was that in Louisiana, the governor submits her/his preference for state superintendent to BESE, and the board usually votes on the governor’s preference. However, the governor does not control the ability to terminate the state school superintendent. BESE does. And since 2015, BESE has lacked a majority wishing to oust White. BESE also lacked the supermajority (8 out of 11 votes) to issue White a new contract. So, BESE did not have the votes to renew White’s contract (though 7 out of 11 BESE members apparently wanted to), and the governor could not force a termination, which left Louisiana taxpayers continuing to foot White’s $275K salary for another four years as White became a month-to-month employee.
Apparently, there has been some behind-the-scenes negotiating to send White on his way, likely contingent upon Edwards being elected to a second term, and part of that negotiation may have included White’s agreeing to formally resign prior to the seating of the next BESE board (which happens on January 13, 2020).
One reason I believe White’s exit is the result of negotiation is that the newly-elected BESE might have enough White-sympathetic votes to grant him a second contract against the governor’s will. However, White’s announcing his exit only CONTINUE READING: La. State Superintendent John White Resigns | deutsch29

Daniel Koretz: American Students Are Not Getting Smarter, and Test-Based “Reforms” Are to Blame | Diane Ravitch's blog

Daniel Koretz: American Students Are Not Getting Smarter, and Test-Based “Reforms” Are to Blame | Diane Ravitch's blog

Daniel Koretz: American Students Are Not Getting Smarter, and Test-Based “Reforms” Are to Blame

Daniel Koretz is one of the leading authorities on testing in the United States. A professor at Harvard University, he has written two important books about testing–its uses and misuses.
He wrote:
In December, we received more bad news about the achievement of American students: Our 15-year-olds made no significant progress in math and reading on PISA, the largest of the international tests. This followed on the heels of a new report from our National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), which showed no real progress in reading or math for fourth or eighth grade students for the past decade, and longer for reading.
The routine debate is underway about how bad this news is, but such arguments mostly miss a core lesson: CONTINUE READING: Daniel Koretz: American Students Are Not Getting Smarter, and Test-Based “Reforms” Are to Blame | Diane Ravitch's blog

Air filters create huge educational gains - Vox

Air filters create huge educational gains - Vox

Installing air filters in classrooms has surprisingly large educational benefits
$1,000 can raise a class’s test scores by as much as cutting class size by a third.

An emergency situation that turned out to be mostly a false alarm led a lot of schools in Los Angeles to install air filters, and something strange happened: Test scores went up. By a lot. And the gains were sustained in the subsequent year rather than fading away.
That’s what NYU’s Michael Gilraine finds in a new working paper titled “Air Filters, Pollution, and Student Achievement” that looks at the surprising consequences of the Aliso Canyon gas leak in 2015.
The impact of the air filters is strikingly large given what a simple change we’re talking about. The school district didn’t reengineer the school buildings or make dramatic education reforms; they just installed $700 commercially available filters that you could plug into any room in the country. But it’s consistent with a growing literature on the cognitive impact of air pollution, which finds that everyone from chess players to baseball umpires to workers in a pear-packing factory suffer deteriorations in performance when the air is more polluted.
If Gilraine’s result holds up to further scrutiny, he will have identified what’s probably the single most cost-effective education policy intervention — one that should have particularly large benefits for low-income children.
And while it’s too hasty to draw sweeping conclusions on the basis of one study, it would be incredibly cheap to have a few cities experiment with installing air filters in some of their CONTINUE READING: Air filters create huge educational gains - Vox

Louisiana Educator: The Legacy of Superintendent John White

Louisiana Educator: The Legacy of Superintendent John White

The Legacy of Superintendent John White
 

John White has submitted his letter of resignation from the position of Louisiana State Superintendent of education.

In his resignation letter White claims the following:
"Louisiana is better educated today than any point in its history,"




BESE Vice-President Holly Boffy, said the state made "great strides" during White's time.

This post examines the key measures that John White himself set as standards for determining success and therefore the legacy of his superintendency.

John White was appointed State Superintendent of Education for Louisiana in January 2012 for the purpose of raising achievement standards, closing the achievement gap between rich and poor students and to insure that our high school diplomas indicated real achievement and eliminated diploma mills. White was appointed at a time when Louisiana’s education performance was considered to be embarrassingly low compared to all the other states. It was expected that White would get Louisiana off the bottom of the state rankings and also take steps to close the gap between high poverty students and more privileged students.




White has claimed repeatedly that Louisiana’s students were just as CONTINUE READING: 
Louisiana Educator: The Legacy of Superintendent John White


18 years ago, Mike Pence voted against No Child Left Behind. So did Bernie Sanders. Their reasons weren’t the same. - The Washington Post

18 years ago, Mike Pence voted against No Child Left Behind. So did Bernie Sanders. Their reasons weren’t the same. - The Washington Post

18 years ago, Mike Pence voted against No Child Left Behind. So did Bernie Sanders. Their reasons weren’t the same.


On Jan. 8, 2002, President George W. Bush signed into law the K-12 No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law. It was hailed as a civil rights law that would help historically marginalized students but is better known for ushering in the high-stakes standardized testing era.
The law — a compromise version was approved by the House and Senate in December 2001 — had bipartisan support. In fact, it was crafted with the help of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, a liberal Democrat who did not often embrace Republican legislation. The votes in the House and the Senate were lopsided, with the House voting 381 to 41 and the Senate 87 to 10.

Two of the leading candidates for this year’s Democratic presidential nomination were in Congress at the time: former vice president Joe Biden, then a senator from Delaware, and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I), then a member of the House from Vermont.
Vice President Pence was a Republican House member from Indiana.
How did the three vote? Biden voted in favor of the final legislation. Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, did not. Neither did the very conservative Pence, but their reasons were far from the same.
Pence viewed the measure as a federal intrusion into education policy he believed rested with the states.
Sanders has said, including in a USA Today opinion piece published Wednesday, that he opposed it because he knew then that “so-called choice and high-stakes standardized testing would not improve our schools or enhance our children’s ability to learn.” The long-term effects of NCLB, he said, “have been disastrous.”
NCLB’s chief mechanism required all public schools to give students standardized tests in most grades every year and use the results to determine how well schools were helping students achieve. Schools were supposed to review the scores of certain groups of students, aiming to show how historically CONTINUE READING: 18 years ago, Mike Pence voted against No Child Left Behind. So did Bernie Sanders. Their reasons weren’t the same. - The Washington Post

Choosing Democracy: Public Advocates Endorses Schools & Communities First Initiative

Choosing Democracy: Public Advocates Endorses Schools & Communities First Initiative

Public Advocates Endorses Schools & Communities First Initiative

Today, Public Advocates Inc. announces its endorsement of the Schools & Communities First ballot initiative and pledges to support the effort to place it before California’s voters on the November 2020 ballot and secure its passage. Below is a statement from our President and CEO Guillermo Mayer:


Public Advocates - 

For nearly 50 years, Public Advocates has joined parents, students, teachers and community partners throughout California in working to create a public school system that serves all students. For far too long, our public schools have been woefully underfunded, leaving students of color and low-income students behind. Since the 1970s, as our public schools increasingly served more diverse students, our investment as a state in public education has plummeted, leaving us bouncing around the bottom third to, at times, near last place nationally for school funding and near dead last in school student-to-staff ratios. This year voters have an opportunity to right this wrong and turn the page on the racist underfunding of our public schools by supporting Schools & Communities First. 

Schools & Communities First is an important step towards California reclaiming its place as the Golden State when it comes to investing in young people. The initiative will close loopholes in the state’s tax system by requiring large corporations to pay their fair share of property taxes, while protecting homeowners and small businesses. This initiative would significantly boost equitable school funding through the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) while supporting local governments to expand services to the same communities where schools with high-need students – English language learners, low-income, foster youth—are located. While LCFF was a significant community victory by providing the framework for more just school funding, equity for our kids and communities cannot be realized without adequate school funding. Most importantly, this measure comes authentically from, and has the growing support of the communities most impacted by our multi-decade disinvestment in public education and local government. We wholeheartedly support this grassroots movement to build racial and economic justice in California schools and communities. 

Supporting Schools & Communities First is consistent with Public Advocates’ nearly five decades of leadership in advocacy on school funding equity in California, from our role as a lead counsel in Serrano v. Priest (equalizing school funding statewide), Williams v. CA (requiring equal access to basic educational necessities), and the Campaign for Quality Education v. CA (seeking adequate school funding statewide) as well as our central role in helping to shape and implement the Local Control Funding Formula.

The Schools & Communities First initiative is a smart and just way to begin to address the adverse effects of our inequitable tax system under Prop 13. We are honored to join in this movement, which will take us that much closer to the day when all schools will be beacons of hope and places of infinite possibility and opportunity for every public school student in California.
Choosing Democracy: Public Advocates Endorses Schools & Communities First Initiative


Schools and Communities First -