Jeff Bryant - Our Future: Amazon is Coming to a School Near You (Part 2) | National Education Policy Center

Our Future: Amazon is Coming to a School Near You (Part 2) | National Education Policy Center

Our Future: Amazon is Coming to a School Near You (Part 2)

This is the second of a two-part article by Jeff Bryant on Career and Technical Education (CTE). Click here to read part one.

The national discussion about the movement to privatize America’s public schools has mostly focused on the issues of charter schools and school voucher schemes. But a growing number of parents, teachers, and public school advocates, as well as experts in academia, are increasingly warning about another form of school privatization.

You don’t hear very much about this form of privatization in national forums and mainstream news outlets, but it’s being talked about in places like Chesterfield County, Virginia, which borders state capital Richmond.

At a public assembly in Chesterfield in September 2019, an audience gathered to view the movie “Backpack Full of Cash,” a feature-length documentary narrated by actor Matt Damon that exposes how charters and vouchers financially endanger public schools and redistribute resources and students in inequitable ways.

Yet the panel discussion that followed the film quickly veered away from talking about charters and vouchers when one of the panelists, middle school teacher Emma Clark, called the audience’s attention to “a different offshoot of the privatization movement. The privatization we’re seeing here in Chesterfield is through CTE.”

CTE, Career and Technical Education, is a rebranding of what has been traditionally called vocational CONTINUE READING: Our Future: Amazon is Coming to a School Near You (Part 2) | National Education Policy Center

Jitu Brown: Message to Presidential Candidates: "We want sustainable community schools!" | Schott Foundation for Public Education

Message to Presidential Candidates: "We want sustainable community schools!" | Schott Foundation for Public Education

Message to Presidential Candidates: "We want sustainable community schools!"

Remarks by Jitu Brown were one of the highlights of the recent Public Education Forum 2020, which featured the top Democratic presidential candidates in this year’s race. Brown, National Director of the Journey for Justice Alliance (J4J), delivered a poignant message about the state of public education, and the continued threat of public school privatization. He underlined the fact that the United States has failed to commit to fulfilling its constitutional obligation to all students by fully funding schools, especially the schools that educate students of color and low income students.

“We don’t have failing schools, the public has been failed.” This underlines the experience that so many public school students, parents, teachers and community members have had to endure: our leaders frequently failing to acknowledge the root causes of struggling schools and not investing in real equity in public education. Jitu Brown described the public school system as “a system that intentionally provides one quality of education to one group of children, but denies that justice for another group of children.” Too many of our leaders claim that we can’t afford to pay for a public education system that serves all our children. Still, these same politicians always find a way to pay for new prisons, new defense spending and tax breaks that benefit the super-wealthy. 

Brown’s remarks go to the heart of an inequitable public school system: a system that does not live up to the mandate of quality public education that it promises to all CONTINUE READING: Message to Presidential Candidates: "We want sustainable community schools!" | Schott Foundation for Public Education

Schools hamstrung over feeding students as coronavirus leads to closures - POLITICO

Schools hamstrung over feeding students as coronavirus leads to closures - POLITICO

Schools hamstrung over feeding students as coronavirus leads to closures
USDA can make some exceptions to its meals programs but most districts will have to fend for themselves on how to feed poor students.

There is no Meals on Wheels system for delivering food door-to-door to low-income students.

School officials are growing increasingly anxious over how to keep feeding the nearly 22 million students who depend on subsidized breakfasts and lunches served at schools in the event facilities shut down to curb the spread of coronavirus.

Schools in Washington state, California and New York have temporarily closed their doors amid local outbreaks, and officials warn that more are likely to follow as the governments grapple with how to contain the virus.

Districts where an especially huge swath of students live in poverty, including Los Angeles and New York City, are holding off on closing in part because of concern about how to keep kids fed. But in the interest of public safety, they may not have a choice but to shut down.

"Schools should be thinking about what they're going to do if they're going to close and how they're going to ensure that their students nutritional needs are going to be met," said Crystal FitzSimons, director of School and Out-of-School Time Programs at the Food Research and Action Center, a nonprofit organization tackling hunger issues.

States can tinker with how to keep delivering meals. Over the weekend, the Agriculture Department, which manages school nutrition programs, said CONTINUE READING: Schools hamstrung over feeding students as coronavirus leads to closures - POLITICO

Is it really a good idea to close schools to fight coronavirus? - The Washington Post

Is it really a good idea to close schools to fight coronavirus? - The Washington Post

Is it really a good idea to close schools to fight coronavirus?

Students in the Lake Washington School District in the Seattle suburbs were so nervous about the novel coronavirus they started a petition urging officials to close the schools. No one in a classroom had been diagnosed with the disease, but more than 15 people in the region had died of it, and students thought: Why take a chance?

District officials did move to minimize risk, according to the system’s website, by postponing or canceling fields trips and after-school and weekend events — but they decided not to close schools even though tens of thousands of people signed the Change.org petition.

Why not?

They were following the advice of public health officials in the region not to close schools unless someone on campus is diagnosed because, they said, there are negative consequences to closing school preemptively.

While the advice could change as more is learned about the virus, the public health department for Seattle and King County said its guidance was based on several factors. For one thing, it’s unclear how the virus affects children, who do not seem to bear the brunt of illness. Furthermore, the public health agency said, children will congregate outside school if they aren’t in class. Many parents can’t stay home with their children.

“If I had a perfect crystal ball that closing schools is the right thing to do, I would say so,” Michael T. Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said in an interview.

“I have one foot deeper into ‘don’t close schools’ right now than ‘close them’” because there is no evidence closing schools will stop the spread of coronavirus or even suppress transmission of it, he said. “And I can’t even say closing down schools to clean them will make a difference. The data isn’t there.” CONTINUE READING: Is it really a good idea to close schools to fight coronavirus? - The Washington Post

Audrey Watters: Will the Ed-Tech Industry Take Advantage of the Coronavirus Crisis? | Diane Ravitch's blog

Audrey Watters: Will the Ed-Tech Industry Take Advantage of the Coronavirus Crisis? | Diane Ravitch's blog

Audrey Watters: Will the Ed-Tech Industry Take Advantage of the Coronavirus Crisis?

Audrey Watters reminds us of Rahm Emanuel’s immortal words, “Never allow a good crisis to go to waste.”

And she see the enthusiasts of the ed-tech industry ready to pounce and take advantage of the current crisis. She lives in Seattle, possibly the epicenter of the crisis.

She writes:

Some schools in the Seattle area — both K-12 and colleges — have closed, and there has been intense pressure on administrators to shut everything down and move instruction online. (Governor Inslee has just announced the state is considering “mandatory measures” to combat the spread of the illness, so we shall see what exactly that means.) I’ve heard lots of local tech workers complain angrily that, in a region that’s home to Microsoft and Amazon, there is really no excuse for schools staying open. Digital learning, they argue, is already preferable. And now, they say, it’s necessary.

But that just strikes me as wildly uninformed — although that’s never stopped the tech industry from intervening in education before. It’s an assertion that rests on the assumption that ed-tech is good, that it can replicate at CONTINUE READING: Audrey Watters: Will the Ed-Tech Industry Take Advantage of the Coronavirus Crisis? | Diane Ravitch's blog

Coronavirus Front And Center – Los Angeles Education Examiner

Coronavirus Front And Center – Los Angeles Education Examiner

Coronavirus Front And Center

It’s hard to concentrate on mundane daily life when a novel virus is spreading inexorably through interconnected human communities across the globe. Best to muster authoritative information close:

• The CDC on handwashing, why and how.
• 
  
• Superintendent Beutner’s version of same.
• 
  
• On “preparations”, why slowing disease matters.
• 
  
• CV daily reports from California’s Public health department.
• 
  
• Latest news from LAUSD.
• 
  
• Agenda for Tuesday afternoon’s Special LAUSD Board Meeting “Declaring Emergency Conditions Exist at Los Angeles Unified School District Schools and Offices and Authorization to Take Any and All Necessary Actions to Prepare and Respond Effectively to the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19).”
• 
  
• California Department of Public Health guidance for schools and other guidance bulletins.
• 
  
• California Department of Public Health news releases.
• 
  
• Approval of CA State request to allow meal service during school closures.

Coronavirus Front And Center – Los Angeles Education Examiner

Betsy DeVos Says She Was Planning to Close All Schools Anyway | The New Yorker

Betsy DeVos Says She Was Planning to Close All Schools Anyway | The New Yorker

Betsy DeVos Says She Was Planning to Close All Schools Anyway

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—As an increasing number of schools and universities closed down because of the coronavirus outbreak, the Education Secretary, Betsy DeVos, revealed on Monday that she had been planning for years to close every school in the country anyway.

Speaking to reporters in Washington, DeVos said, “When I took over as Education Secretary, I came with a simple mission: to shut down all of the nation’s schools. It turns out that I was just ahead of my time.”

Noting that schools are where students learn math, science, and history, DeVos said, “I have long believed that schools are where all the bad things happen.”

Deciding to “wipe out the scourge of education once and for all,” DeVos said that, within days of taking office, she drew up an ambitious plan called No School Left Open.

In a reassuring message to the nation’s parents and students, DeVos said, “Amid the current crisis, many of you are wondering how we will close every American school overnight. Let me just say that this is the job Betsy DeVos was born to do.” 

Betsy DeVos Says She Was Planning to Close All Schools Anyway | The New Yorker

Why as a Black high School teacher I’m endorsing Bernie Sanders: The campaign to “fix the hole in the soul of America.” – I AM AN EDUCATOR

Why as a Black high School teacher I’m endorsing Bernie Sanders: The campaign to “fix the hole in the soul of America.” – I AM AN EDUCATOR

Why as a Black high School teacher I’m endorsing Bernie Sanders: The campaign to “fix the hole in the soul of America.”

I have spent my entire adult life as a teacher and organizer in support of educational justice, racial justice, and other movements for social justice—from building teacher’s union struggles to better fund our schools, to the antiwar movement, to Occupy Wall Street, to the struggle for marriage equality, to immigrant rights, the Black Lives Matter at School movement, and beyond.  Through participating in these struggles I have seen firsthand how the political and economic system of capitalism, which allows billionaires to horde the wealth that the rest of us create, is at the root of so many problems we face. 

Today, Bernie Sanders and his grassroots campaign calling for a “political revolution against the billionaire class” represents the next phase of a breathtaking resistance to corporate power that is at the root of the social inequities I have spent my life organizing against.  But it isn’t just Bernie’s naming unfettered capitalism as the source of our problems that excites me about his campaign.  It has also been his specific commitments to educational and racial justice—as well as his call for system change and democratic socialism—that has inspired me to embrace his candidacy for president. 

I began my teaching career in the Washington, D.C., public schools in 2001.  Everyday, I would drive past the halls of government and the White House, cross the Anacostia River, and enter into South East D.C., one of the most impoverished and segregated neighborhoods in America.

Only days after I began teaching, the terrorist attacks of 9/11 struck the CONTINUE READING: Why as a Black high School teacher I’m endorsing Bernie Sanders: The campaign to “fix the hole in the soul of America.” – I AM AN EDUCATOR

TFA Celebrates Five Baltimore ‘Turnaround’ Schools. One Is Still Ranked In The Bottom 1%. | Gary Rubinstein's Blog

TFA Celebrates Five Baltimore ‘Turnaround’ Schools. One Is Still Ranked In The Bottom 1%. | Gary Rubinstein's Blog

TFA Celebrates Five Baltimore ‘Turnaround’ Schools. One Is Still Ranked In The Bottom 1%.

As an ashamed TFA alum, I receive their quarterly alumni magazine, ‘One Day.’  In the most recent issue, which I also saw on their Twitter feed, was an article called ‘Undefeated: Inside Five Baltimore Turnaround Schools that Refuse to Fail.’

The article is about five Baltimore schools that are run by TFA alumni and were recipients of some of the Obama/Duncan $3 billion school turnaround grant.  The most aggressive turnaround strategy is to replace the majority of the staff, which is what these five schools did.  The school turnaround grants have generally been considered a failure across the country, even by staunch reformers.

But, at least at a first glance, these turnaround schools were exceptions that prove that firing all the teachers at a school and replacing them, presumably with a lot of TFA teachers, is something that can work as long as TFA leaders are involved.

The five schools are Commodore John Rogers Elementary/Middle, Academy for College and Career Exploration (ACCE), Harford Heights Elementary, James McHenry CONTINUE READING: TFA Celebrates Five Baltimore ‘Turnaround’ Schools. One Is Still Ranked In The Bottom 1%. | Gary Rubinstein's Blog

OUSD Student Portal & Parent Portal : Where To Find?

OUSD Student Portal & Parent Portal : Where To Find?

OUSD Student Portal & Parent Portal : Where To Find?

We will be discussing on how to access OUSD Student portal as well as parent portal in the easiest way.

All the portal accesses are mentioned below so don’t forget to miss it anyway. Keep reading….

OUSD ( Oakland Unified School District ) Intro

Situated in the Oakland city of the California State of the United States, Oakland Unified School District is a public education school district that runs a group of more than 100 schools.

These schools include elementary schools, middle schools, high schools and district authorized charter schools.

READ: Does Oakland Have Too Many School?

OUSD is currently serving about 49,000 students by building a strong academic foundation for them.

With a mission of building a Full Service Community District that focuses on developing high academic development of children, the first priority of OUSD is to provide Quality Community Schools for every child by eliminating any kind of injustice.

Providing each of these students with an enthusiastic environment round the year that can help them stay positive is the next important thing for them. The overall organizational wellness is the third priority for everyone at OUSD.

READ: A (Brief) History Of State Takeover Of OUSD

Why To Choose OUSD ?

Some of the facts about why they are best:

• OUSD aims to eradicate injustice and provide every child with exceptional teachers who can help them in the overall development.
• They believe to function in a way so that the students not only excel in their CONTINUE READING: OUSD Student Portal & Parent Portal : Where To Find?

Is Online Learning The Answer For The Coronavirus Closed Schools? | My Island View

Is Online Learning The Answer For The Coronavirus Closed Schools? | My Island View

Is Online Learning The Answer For The Coronavirus Closed Schools?

With the rapid spread of the Corona Virus, there has been a clarion call for schools to close and immediately shift to online learning in the interest of health and safety. With all that has been written and talked about in regard to “online learning” over the last decade, the perception is that now is a great time to put tech to work and implement this modern methodology to address our current situation and limit face-to-face exposure in order to self-quarantine a huge portion of our population. Online learning will do all of this, and kids won’t miss a beat in their education. That is a great picture of progressive ideas in education coupling with the advancing strides of evolving technologies to carry us to the next level in the evolution of education. That may get us a short way away from the flying cars that we have always been promised for generations. Of course before any of this can happen we need to address several questions to determine the viability of this wondrous solution.

Is the infrastructure in place for online learning? In order for this to work, we need the teacher to be able to connect with the student. That takes computer equipment for both, as well as some capacity for connecting them. Of course that connection would need to be made for each and every student for which each CONTINUE READING: Is Online Learning The Answer For The Coronavirus Closed Schools? | My Island View

Council Member Robert White on DC Education Matters: March 12 – Education Town Hall Forum

Council Member Robert White on DC Education Matters: March 12 – Education Town Hall Forum

COUNCIL MEMBER ROBERT WHITE ON DC EDUCATION MATTERS: MARCH 12

On Thursday March 12 on Education Town Hall, we will be joined in studio by At-Large DC Council Member Robert White, who has been on the Committee on Education since he was elected to the Council in 2016.

Listen LIVE Thursday, March 12, 11 AM EASTERN, via TuneIn or by visiting We Act Radio and clicking on arrow at upper left. Shows are archived for convenient listening shortly after broadcast.

Council Member White has pursued a number of legislative efforts regarding DC public education, including

• introducing legislation to allow students to graduate when rules for graduating were changed mid-year;
• pursuing questions of renovation and modernization funding ;
• attempting to ensure different oversight of OSSE, DC’s Office of State Superintendent of Education;
• calling for an independent investigation of all publicly funded schools in the wake of a graduation scandal.

More recently, White has introduced legislation to stop the closure of alternative high school Washington Met and to more fulsomely address the presence of lead on school playgrounds.

Now that the Committee on Education’s chair, David Grosso, is leaving the Council, the question in everyone’s mind is: Will Robert White be the next chair of that important committee, which has oversight of the nearly $2 billion spent annually on DC’s public schools?

Join us to find out more!

The Education Town Hall with Thomas Byrd broadcasts from Historic Anacostia in Washington, DC, on We Act Radio. Valerie Jablow, local education advocate and DCPS parent, co-hosts.

September 2014, L-R: V. Spatz (then Ed Town Hall feature reporter), Robert White (then City Council candidate), T. Byrd

Council Member Robert White on DC Education Matters: March 12 – Education Town Hall Forum

CURMUDGUCATION: DeVosian Priorities and Public Service

CURMUDGUCATION: DeVosian Priorities and Public Service

DeVosian Priorities and Public Service

There's nothing new to see here, but it's still worth noting what DeVos tells us about her priorities.

From a recent interview with a conservative Christian podcast-- let me just set these side by side:

"I was fortunate enough to be born into a family that raised me to make my faith my own," she said. "I had exposure from my first memories to weekly church services."

"I'm grateful to have had that foundation."

"I'm for their parents to have the kind of opportunity to make the choices that I was able to make for my kids"

Note that DeVos is not waxing nostalgic for the days when her parents made her aware of the different faiths out there, leaving her to choose the one she liked best. No, she is grateful for a foundation built in what she believes is the only correct choice.

I've made this argument before; people don't really want choice. What they want is to have what they want. DeVos is not different. If her own church had been the only church in town when her kids were growing up, I don't believe for a second that she would have fought to get other houses of worship opened up so that she could have choices.

It's extremely human (maybe even necessarily so) to think some CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: DeVosian Priorities and Public Service

Headlines: Elections, Charter Co-Locations and Coronavirus – Los Angeles Education Examiner

Headlines: Elections, Charter Co-Locations and Coronavirus – Los Angeles Education Examiner

Headlines: Elections, Charter Co-Locations and Coronavirus

And just like that, the focus switches from School Board elections and Prop. 13 [2020] (RIP!), to the Coronavirus and the District’s response. The District has been emailing and calling LAUSD parents daily and posting even more regular updates on Twitter.

While LAUSD’s response has been proactive and competent, LAUSD admits that the potential pandemic is “uncharted territory” and has plans for a potential shutdown.

Also uncharted is Superintendent Beutner’s foray into videography which is a little unfortunate for the paucity of soap, important for hygiene in breaking down cell walls. Some parents have been contacting teachers to ask whether soap or other supplies would be welcome donations to their classroom.

And perhaps not everyone in LAUSD is handling the situation flawlessly. A Chinese-American student is accusing his North Hollywood School of discrimination and retaliation after he objected to being sent to the nurse’s office for coughing.

But just because we’re all talking Coronavirus, doesn’t mean there aren’t CONTINUE READING: Headlines: Elections, Charter Co-Locations and Coronavirus – Los Angeles Education Examiner