Sunday, April 26, 2020 CATCH UP WITH CURMUDGUCATION + ICYMI:: What? May?! Really??! Edition (5/3)

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: What? May?! Really??! Edition (5/3)

What? May?! Really??! Edition 

Well, here we still are, those of us who are fortunate enough to still be here. Let's read some things!

When teaching and parenting collide
I missed this when it landed at Chalkbeat a month ago-- Matt Barnum looks at teachers who have to balance virtual teaching and at-home parenting.

Teachers, parents and principals tell their story  
Over at The Answer Sheet on the Washington Post, Carol Burris runs down some of the results of the big Network for Public Education pandemic stay-st-home education survey.

No To Race To The Top: Covid-19  
It shouldn't come as a surprise, but Neal McClusky at the libertarian Cato Institute doesn't like the DeVosian competitive grant program (you know-- the one that looks eerily like Arne Duncan could have designed it) any more than I do, even if it is for different reason.

Coronavirus capitalism is coming for public schools  
At The Progressive, Dora Taylor takes a look at the vultures circling overhead right now.

Exam Anxiety  
The Verge looks at the increasingly super-creepy world of online exam proctoring. Because there's always one more way to advance the surveillance state.

Teaching US History in Michigan
At the blog A Walk Back in Time, a reflection on the crazy-pants demonstration in Michigan this week.

Betsy DeVos sued over garnished wages
DeVos once agains is dragging her feet on a policy that lets Those People get away with owing money, and so, onc again, she is being taken to court.

Betsy DeVos is the real civics failure
DeVos had some thoughts about the low NAEP history scores; Negin Owliaei is the Inside Sources with some thoughts about DeVos.

Where Are The Teachers?  
John Ewing at Forbes.com raising the issue of how folks in authority fai to actually listen to teachers. "It’s commonplace to say, “We don’t respect teachers,” but we seldom consider what that means. Respect isn’t merely the way you treat people—respect is the way you value their expertise. "

The Wild West of Unregulated Unacountable Virtual Voucher Schools  
The big push is on for virtual schooling. Why is that a lousy idea? Let Accountabaloney count te ways.

It's Time To Fix Standardized Testing   
Testing expert Akil Bello has a blog, and right now, you can read about some ideas for fixing standardized testing. It's a little wonky, but therefor solid on details.

98 Success Academy Students Accepted to College  
The always-charter-loving NY Post made a big fuss this week about SA getting 100% of its graduating class accepted to college. Gary Rubinstein would like to provide a little context-- like noting that that doesn't count all the students who left SA before this swell milestone. And he has the numbers, going back to kindergartem.


CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: What? May?! Really??! Edition (5/3)

CATCH UP WITH CURMUDGUCATION

AND DON'T FORGET PETER GREENE ON FORBES CLICK HERE 

Another Voucher Angle: Child Safety Accounts

27by Peter Greene / 17h

It's one of the less common buttons pushed by reformsters intent on pushing school choice, and it might be one of the most backwards pitches out there. Child Safety Accounts seem to be particular baby of the Heartland Institute, a thinky tank that leans way right. Their mission: "to discover, develop and promote free-market solutions to social and economic problems." They are big advocates for the

Trump Teams Up With Catholic Church For School Vouchers

1Kby Peter Greene / 2d

The Tablet is a magazine of Catholic news and opinion; they got their hands on a recording of the April 26 conference call phone meeting between some 600 prominent American Catholics and the "best [president] in the history of the Catholic Church." According to Christopher White, reporting for The Tablet, the call included Cardinal Timothy Dolan (New York), Cardinal Sean O'Malley (Boston), Archbi

How Will The Free Market Save The Most Challenging Students

42by Peter Greene / 3d

Yesterday, Debbie Meyer put up a post at Project Forever Free that, unfortunately, does not strain the limits of credulity. It's about her journey as a parent and advocate, about the struggle to get her child the educational services that he's entitled to, and her subsequent work in helping other parents learn how to do the same. Struggles between parents of students with special needs and the pub

This Is Not What School Will Look Like

7Kby Peter Greene / 3d

Good lord-- the advice/guidance/clever thoughts about how to re-open schools, particularly if any state decides to follow Trump's latest unfiltered brain fart , seem to have been generated, once again, by people who have not been inside a school since they became adults. In some cases, the advice appears to come from people who have never met tiny humans at all. The CDC joins many folks advising t

Khan Academy:This Is Better

100+by Peter Greene / 4d

We are just going to keep seeing these kinds of headlines until this mess is behind us: Khan Academy founder: Balance between in-person, online learning could be ‘silver lining’ of crisis . Is it? Is it a silver lining that some ed tech folks are going to grab some market share over this? Khan Academy has seen a steady uptick in the use of their product, which, for those of you who somehow missed

Rethinking Accountability For Education, Post-Pandemic.

66by Peter Greene / 5d

It made sense for states to cancel the big end-of-year standardized reading and math test even before it became obvious that many students will never be back to school this spring to take the tests. In this extraordinary year, the tests were never going to supply valid data that could be compared to other years. Now that this year looks to be a “short” year for students, the same argument should

ICYMI: How Many Weeks Has It Been Now Edition (4/26)

by Peter Greene / 7d

Well, on it goes. Here's some reading from the week. Remember, your choices about which voices to amplify make a difference. COVID Stimulus Funds for Private School Vouchers The indispensable Mercedes Schneider 

CURMUDGUCATION - http://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/

Children Learn What They Live, 2020 version | Live Long and Prosper

Children Learn What They Live, 2020 version | Live Long and Prosper

Children Learn What They Live, 2020 version

Children Learn What They Live
By Dorothy Law Nolte, Ph.D.
Copyright © 1972 by Dorothy Law Nolte

OUR CHILDREN ARE WATCHING

If children live with criticism, they learn to condemn.

Aaron Rupar

✔@atrupar

 · Apr 19, 2020

Replying to @atrupar

"My wonderful place in Florida, in Miami, Doral" -- Trump works in a second plug for a property he still owns and profits from

Aaron Rupar

✔@atrupar

"You're CNN. You're fake news ... you don't have the brains you were born with" -- asked why he's playing clips of people praising him about a pandemic that has killed tens of thousands of Americans, Trump attacks a reporter

3,076

4:48 PM - Apr 19, 2020

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If children live with hostility, they learn to fight.

“The president’s attacks have done some damage,” Fox News anchor Chris Wallace said Wednesday at an event at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. He cited a Freedom Forum Institute poll this year where more than three-quarters of Americans said “fake news” is a serious threat to democracy.

“I believe President Trump is engaged in the most direct, sustained assault on freedom of the press in our history,” Wallace said.

If children live with fear, they learn to be apprehensive.

The ICE raids, carried out under the leadership of a Donald Trump- CONTINUE READING: Children Learn What They Live, 2020 version | Live Long and Prosper

School Reform Metaphors: The Pendulum and Hurricane | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

School Reform Metaphors: The Pendulum and Hurricane | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

School Reform Metaphors: The Pendulum and Hurricane

Consider that a pendulum swing returns almost to the same spot it left.

Although there is motion, there is little change. Yet anyone who remembers what the mid-1980s were like and what is currently going on with schools closed during the pandemic and re-opening in the Fall knows that both schools and society have indeed gone through serious changes in the economy, technology, demography, and pandemics. So the metaphor of a school reform pendulum masks major changes in both society and schools.

Furthermore, the pendulum metaphor implies that policymaker talk about school reform is what happens in classrooms. Yet there is a huge gap between policy talk and classroom practice when it comes to school reform.

Over the last quarter-century, researchers who have gone into classrooms have concluded that there are enduring practices that teachers use in organizing a class, maintaining order, asking questions, concentrating on basic skills, using texts, and testing students. Over many decades, even as new curricula and technologies (e.g., laptops, interactive whiteboards, smart phones) enter and exit classrooms these practices, with occasional alterations, persist.

A second research finding is that policymakers can legislate changes in teacher practices all they want but teachers, once they close their classroom door, will CONTINUE READING:  School Reform Metaphors: The Pendulum and Hurricane | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice