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Friday, January 24, 2020

CURMUDGUCATION: Impersonating A Teacher

CURMUDGUCATION: Impersonating A Teacher

Impersonating A Teacher


n a John White valedictory piece, he's called "a former English teacher in New Jersey." I have twice this week come across a reformster who says he "started out as a teacher." Regular students of ed reform have seen similar pattern over and over-- the reformy whiz who has been busy at the ed reform or ed leadership or ed consulting or even ed leadership biz for a while, but who claims to have been a teacher. Sometimes you have to dig hard, and sometimes it's just right there in the LinkedIN profile, but the answer is invariably the same.

Teach for America.

My hackles raise right up, all by themselves. If you clerked for a year before you went to work as a welder, you are not a former lawyer who's now qualified to sit as a federal judge. If you were pre-med in college and spent a summer working as a hospital orderly before you started managing a Piggly Wiggly, you are not a former doctor who's now qualified to serve as head of surgery for a major hospital. And if you spent two years in a classroom after five weeks of training and before you started law school and went into practice doing corporate acquisitions for hedge funders, you are not a former teacher who is now qualified to run an entire school district.


There are lots of complicated policy issues and intricate nuances to analyze about the last few decades of education reform. But one of the biggest problems with the modern ed reform is actually pretty simple-- ed reform has put a whole lot of unqualified amateurs in positions of responsibility that they lacked the knowledge or experience to manage well. John White, Kevin Huffman, Michelle Rhee, Joel Klein, Chris Barbic, David Coleman-- unqualified amateurs all. And that's just the national stage-- it would be a herculean task to track all the regional amateurs, guys like David Hardy, Jr., who have trashed a local district after finding themselves in leadership positions they weren't qualified for. The graduates of the Broad Academy. Most of the Chiefs for CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Impersonating A Teacher

If Teacher Education Is Failing Reading, Where Is the Blame? – radical eyes for equity

If Teacher Education Is Failing Reading, Where Is the Blame? – radical eyes for equity

If Teacher Education Is Failing Reading, Where Is the Blame?

The current “science of reading” climate surrounding public education in the U.S. has its roots, ironically, in misreading (or at least reading uncritically) A Nation at Risk, a report during the Ronald Reagan administration that was widely reported by mainstream media. The politically driven and deeply flawed report also prompted the accountability movement in the U.S.—state standards and high-stakes testing—that eventually enveloped the entire country by the 1990s.
The report established a false but compelling cultural truism that is too rarely interrogated: Public schools in the U.S. are failing. Since the early 1980s, political leadership has decided that the failure is due to a lack of accountability, but accountability of whom or what has shifted over the past 40 years.
The first blame narrative focused on students and schools, ushering in high-stakes testing at 3rd grade, 8th grade, and high school (exit exams) as well as school and district report cards. Eventually high-stakes accountability of students and schools seemed not to change the measurable outcomes that advocates had promised; there were also unintended consequences such as exit exams increasing drop-out rates.
Gradually after No Child Left Behind, the blame narrative moved to teachers, in part driven by George W. Bush’s popularizing the slogan “soft bigotry of low expectations,” the rise of charter schools embracing “no excuses,” and the CONTINUE READING: If Teacher Education Is Failing Reading, Where Is the Blame? – radical eyes for equity

Facial recognition in schools: Even supporters say it won't stop shootings - CNET

Facial recognition in schools: Even supporters say it won't stop shootings - CNET

Facial recognition in schools: Even supporters say it won't stop shootings
The facial recognition industry is starting to see that its promises offer a false sense of security.


After a school shooting in Parkland, Florida left 17 people dead, RealNetworks decided to make its facial recognition technology available for free to schools across the US and Canada. If school officials could detect strangers on their campuses, they might be able to stop shooters before they got to a classroom.
Anxious to keep children safe from gun violence, thousands of schools reached out with interest in the technology. Dozens started using SAFR, RealNetworks' facial recognition technology.
From working with schools, RealNetworks, the streaming media company, says it's learned an important lesson: Facial recognition isn't likely an effective tool for preventing shootings. 
"The vast majority of school shootings are carried out by people that you wouldn't necessarily put on a watchlist, that you wouldn't be looking out for," said Mike Vance, SAFR's senior director of product management. "You have to know who you're looking out for."
If schools don't know who a likely shooter is, the company says, its software doesn't know who to find.
As the second anniversary of the Florida shooting approaches, the surveillance industry is facing the reality that facial recognition isn't well-equipped for the challenges of preventing school shootings. AI experts and privacy advocates have long argued this point. Now, facial recognition companies are starting to understand it, too.
Facial recognition companies have flocked to schools to pitch their products, often invoking CONTINUE READING: Facial recognition in schools: Even supporters say it won't stop shootings - CNET

Announcing the 2020 Black Lives Matter at School Creative Challenge Prompt: Submit your artwork to build the movement! – Black Lives Matter At School

Announcing the 2020 Black Lives Matter at School Creative Challenge Prompt: Submit your artwork to build the movement! – Black Lives Matter At School

Announcing the 2020 Black Lives Matter at School Creative Challenge Prompt: Submit your artwork to build the movement!


During the 2019 Black Lives Matter At School Week of Action, we held the 2nd national student challenge with the prompt, “Schools show that Black Lives Matter When They…” and students were asked to use their creativity to answer.
This year, our prompt has changed:
What do the “mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors” look like when we create a world where Black Lives Matter at School?
Taking inspiration from children’s literature scholar Rudine Sims Bishop , this year we are asking students to imagine interventions into the curriculum and school practices to further a world where Black lives and Black futures are valued and sustained.
To learn more about what we mean about “mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors” as metaphors for how we see the world, please visit this linkhttps://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/10yQ3hn5VCnJgJOSDjcjh9bOiw29g7yVY
Also to allow your art work to be published in a forthcoming book about the movement please fill out this permission form.
We are so excited to see what you create!
Submit your art work here.

Ayanna Pressley skewers Betsy DeVos for comparing abortion rights to slavery: “Say this to my face" | Salon.com

Ayanna Pressley skewers Betsy DeVos for comparing abortion rights to slavery: “Say this to my face" | Salon.com

Ayanna Pressley skewers Betsy DeVos for comparing abortion rights to slavery: “Say this to my face"
The congresswoman tells Trump's secretary of education that she "would welcome the opportunity to educate you"



Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos came under heavy criticism after comparing the abortion rights debate to the battle to end slavery during a speech to Christian students Wednesday in Washington.

DeVos claimed that former Republican President Abraham Lincoln also "contended with the pro-choice arguments of his day," while speaking at a Colorado Christian University at the Museum of the Bible, according to the Colorado Times Recorder.
"They suggested that a state's choice to be slave or to be free had no moral question in it," DeVos said. "Well, President Lincoln reminded those pro-choicers that is a vast portion of the American people that do not look upon that matter as being this very little thing. They look upon it as a vast moral evil."
"Lincoln was right about the slavery 'choice' then, and he would be right about the life 'choice' today," she continued. "Because, as it's been said: Freedom is not about doing what we want. Freedom is about having the right to do what we ought."
"There are many in the pro-life movement who heroically work to make abortion unconstitutional," she added. "Tonight, let's talk about making it unthinkable." CONTINUE READING: Ayanna Pressley skewers Betsy DeVos for comparing abortion rights to slavery: “Say this to my face" | Salon.com

Ethical Schools Podcast: Jesse Hagopian on bringing Black Lives Matter into schools – I AM AN EDUCATOR

Ethical Schools Podcast: Jesse Hagopian on bringing Black Lives Matter into schools – I AM AN EDUCATOR

Ethical Schools Podcast: Jesse Hagopian on bringing Black Lives Matter into schools



Ethical Schools speaks with Jesse Hagopian, an editor for Rethinking Schools and a long-time teacher in the Seattle Public Schools. He is a co-editor of the book Teaching for Black Lives.
Jesse discusses the groundbreaking annual National Week of Action in February that makes four demands of schools: replace zero tolerance discipline with restorative justice, implement ethnic studies in all schools, hire more black teachers, and fund counselors (rather than police) in all schools.
About teachers who “don’t want to get involved” in social justice issues, Jesse quotes Howard Zinn, “You can’t be neutral on a moving train.”
Listen to the interview with Jesse Hagopian to learn more about the growing Black Lives Matter at School movement.

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Wendy Lecker on Eli Broad: The Wannabee Koch Brother | Diane Ravitch's blog

Wendy Lecker on Eli Broad: The Wannabee Koch Brother | Diane Ravitch's blog

Wendy Lecker on Eli Broad: The Wannabee Koch Brother

Wendy Lecker is a civil rights lawyer who writes frequently for the Stamford (Connecticut) Advocate and is a regular contributor to the Hearst Connecticut Media Group.
Recently she wrote about Yale’s agreement to adopt Eli Broad’s school-wrecking “Broad Institute” in return for a donation of $100 million. The Broad Institute is a vanity project by a billionaire who readily admits he knows nothing about education but enjoys disrupting school districts because he can.
Lecker writes:

Wendy Lecker: Putting a price tag on public schools

When it comes to using one’s fortune to influence American policy, billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch stand out.
The Kochs have spent a fortune pushing American politics and policy to the right. Their secretive organization, Americans for Prosperity, is a major player in anti-labor activities, such as Wisconsin’s slashing of union rights, and fighting minimum wage increases nationwide. The Kochs poured money into the American Legislative Exchange Council (“ALEC”) a stealth lobby organization that writes bills that advance Koch industries’ interests specifically and the Koch’s extreme free market ideology in general, and then gets legislators all over the country to introduce them.
They have also donated millions of dollars to establish research centers at universities to push their brand of unregulated capitalism. They impose conditions and performance obligations on the donations, interfere in hiring decisions, and make CONTINUE READING: Wendy Lecker on Eli Broad: The Wannabee Koch Brother | Diane Ravitch's blog

Betsy DeVos Compares Ending Abortion With Ending Slavery | HuffPost

Betsy DeVos Compares Ending Abortion With Ending Slavery | HuffPost

Betsy DeVos Compares Ending Abortion With Ending Slavery
The education secretary told conservatives their fight to restrict abortion access was like President Abraham Lincoln’s quest to abolish “a vast moral evil.”

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos told an audience of conservative Christians that their fight to restrict abortion was like President Abraham Lincoln’s quest to abolish slavery, and compared defenders of slavery with modern abortion rights activists.
Lincoln, “too, contended with the pro-choice arguments of his day. They suggested that a state’s choice to be slave or to be free had no moral question in it,” DeVos said Wednesday at a dinner for Colorado Christian University, held at the Museum of the Bible in Washington. “Well, President Lincoln reminded those pro-choicers that is a vast portion of the American people that do not look upon that matter as being this very little thing. They look upon it as a vast moral evil.”
She continued:
Lincoln was right about the slavery choice then, and he would be right about the life choice today. Because as it’s been said: Freedom is not about doing what we want. Freedom is about having the right to do what we ought.
The event was closed to the press, but attended by the Colorado Times Recorder, which first reported on DeVos’ comments Thursday.
DeVos told the audience she hopes to make abortion “unconstitutional” and “unthinkable.”
She also praised President Donald Trump for installing conservative judges on the nation’s courts — including the Supreme Court, where conservatives hope dismantling CONTINUE READING: Betsy DeVos Compares Ending Abortion With Ending Slavery | HuffPost

Diane Ravitch Declares the Education Reform Movement Dead - The New York Times

Diane Ravitch Declares the Education Reform Movement Dead - The New York Times

Diane Ravitch Declares the Education Reform Movement Dead




SLAYING GOLIATH
The Passionate Resistance to Privatization and the Fight to Save America’s Schools
By Diane Ravitch
She came. She saw. She conquered.
Such is the triumphant theme of “Slaying Goliath,” the latest work by the education historian turned education activist Diane Ravitch. The book exults in the failures of a reform movement that the author has spent the past decade denouncing — a movement that has often deserved her indignant critiques. In winning, however, Ravitch has also lost: Missing from these pages are the subtle insight and informed judgment for which she was once known.
Ravitch came to the education scene in the late 1960s, writing articles for education journals and then a series of well-respected books about the history of public schooling in America. In 1991, her career took the first of many turns: Ravitch was invited to join the administration of President George H. W. Bush as an assistant secretary of education. Though a lifelong Democrat, she took the job, and over the next several years she found her beliefs moving rightward. “In the decade following my stint in the federal government, I argued that certain managerial and structural changes — that is, choice, charters, merit pay and accountability — would help to reform our schools,” she later wrote. “Having been immersed in a world of true believers, I was influenced by their ideas.” Pushed forward by the advocacy of Ravitch and many others, these ideas (including the introduction of “charters,” independently operated public schools freed from many of the regulations imposed on traditional public schools) began to take root in the real world.
And then Ravitch’s thinking took another turn.
She saw, sooner than most, that the changes imposed by the federal laws known as No Child Left Behind (during the presidency of George W. Bush) and Race to the Top (under the administration of Barack Obama) were burdening students, who were being subjected to endless rounds of test-prep and test-taking, and demoralizing teachers, who were being evaluated and penalized in ways that were rigid and often unfair. In a book published in 2010, “The Death and Life of the Great American School System,” Ravitch described her transformation from enthusiastic champion to vocal critic of conservative efforts to remake education in the United States. Three years later she published “Reign of Error,” a book that condemned these efforts in even more forceful terms. CONTINUE READING: Diane Ravitch Declares the Education Reform Movement Dead - The New York Times

It's Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... A VERY BUSY DAY | The latest news and resources in education since 2007

Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007

It's Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... A VERY BUSY DAY | The latest news and resources in education since 2007


Classroom Instruction Resources Of The Week

Each week, I publish a post or two containing three or four particularly useful resources on classroom instruction, and you can see them all here. You might also be interested in THE BEST RESOURCES ON CLASSROOM INSTRUCTION IN 2019 – PART TWO. Here are this week’s picks: Accurate and Equitable Grading is by Joe Feldman. I’m adding it to The Best Resources On Grading Practices . A Strategy for Boos
Every Teacher Should Watch This Video: “How to Use Wikipedia Wisely”

geralt / Pixabay This new – and short – video from the Stanford History Education Group suggests what I think many of us have been telling students for years to do – yes, go to Wikipedia, and immediately go to the bottom and find its sources. I’m adding it to The Best Tools & Lessons For Teaching Information Literacy – Help Me Find More .
Three New Resources For Learning About Auschwitz

carlosftw / Pixabay Here are three new additions to A Beginning List Of “Best” Resources To Learn About Auschwitz – 75 Years After It Was Liberated: Holocaust Survivor Returning To Auschwitz: ‘It’s Like Going To The Family Cemetery’ is from NPR.
A Look Back: Sister Classes Around The World

I thought that new – and veteran – readers might find it interesting if I began sharing my best posts from over the years. You can see the entire collection here . In 2008, I worked with six other English teachers in different parts of the world to create simple and easy projects where our English Learner students taught each other about their respective countries. The Sacramento Bee wrote an art
How Can We Connect Current Events To What We’re Teaching In The Classroom?”

The next question-of-the-week at my Ed Week Teacher column is: What are the best ways to connect current events to what we’re teaching in the classroom? Feel free to leave your responses in the comments section…
This Is Pretty Interesting: An Online Historical Archive Of Notebooks Used By Schoolchildren Around The World

The Exercise Book Archive is an online archive of children’s notebooks from around the world. Some are actual “exercise” notebooks, with pre-printed exercises designed to help children learn, and containing their completed notes and doodles. Others were blank notebooks that were used by teacher-created exercised filled-in by students. Many are translated, as well as being transcribed. I’m adding


Pins Of The Week

I’m fairly active on Pinterest and, in fact, have curated 20,000 resources there that I haven’t shared on this blog. I thought readers might find it useful if I began sharing a handful of my most recent “pins” each week (I’m not sure if you can see them through an RSS Reader – you might have to click throug