Wednesday, May 6, 2020

NANCY BAILEY: “Reimagining” Teacher Appreciation in 2020: Pushback on the Takeover of America’s Schools

“Reimagining” Teacher Appreciation in 2020: Pushback on the Takeover of America’s Schools

“Reimagining” Teacher Appreciation in 2020: Pushback on the Takeover of America’s Schools

Teacher Appreciation has taken on new meaning in 2020. This week is supposed to be a time to celebrate teachers with 20% off coupons, candy bars, notes, and thank you trinkets. A scrawled homemade card, laboriously designed by a student with learning difficulties, these are the keepers that bring teachers joy.

There’s more gratitude for teachers than ever this 2020 Springtime. The relationship between student, parent, and teacher has strengthened. Most parents will never look at teachers the same way again.

“Rethinking, reimagining, or revolution,” some of us have played with these words, thinking of what could be changed to make schools better when they reopen.

For school reformers these words are code for replacement of brick-and-mortar schools with online learning. They’re not looking at technology as a temporary fix during this crisis. They see this time as the way to push forward the all-tech agenda they’ve always promoted.

There’s nothing personalized about this, no research to show children learn best this way. There’s no discussion with the public. It’s a dangerous experiment. Dangerous to CONTINUE READING: “Reimagining” Teacher Appreciation in 2020: Pushback on the Takeover of America’s Schools

Punching Down on Veteran Teachers | Teacher in a strange land

Punching Down on Veteran Teachers | Teacher in a strange land

Punching Down on Veteran Teachers

It is the ultimate irony, in this #TeacherAppreciationWeek2020, on the very day that America’s teachers, persisting through the worst educational and global crisis in their careers, are supposed to be honored—that a piece like this would be posted.

Titled How to Make the Coming Teacher Layoffs Hurt Schools and Students Less, with the equally cheery subhead School district leaders may be able to protect their most effective classroom teachers, the piece, in essence, says this: Layoffs are coming. The law now lets your skip over seniority and job protection agreements. So take this opportunity to dump off ‘less-effective’ (and also more expensive) veteran teachers and keep the ones who raise test scores.

But wait! There’s more.

Most states have given up on evaluating teachers in the 2019-2020 school year, either just skipping over this year, because there’s no ‘data’–or using last year’s evaluation. Built into that assumption is that the only true evaluation of teacher efficacy is the test score, but it’s worth the evaluator’s time to ‘pop into’ a virtual classroom. (If there is one, of course.) Where they just might see a veteran teacher, struggling.

On Monday, Larry Ferlazzo pointed out, in an excellent blog, that the American Enterprise Institute’s brand new white paper is suggesting that teachers 55 and older be offered retirement or on-line teaching only, as students return to school. Larry deftly pointed out that 29% of teachers are 50 or older, meaning some 800,000 of us might be put out to pasture. For our own good.

Larry also noted that keeping older teachers in the classroom might become a liability issue for health insurance corporations, who can’t be in the greatest financial shape CONTINUE READING: Punching Down on Veteran Teachers | Teacher in a strange land

Covid-19 response offers profound civics lesson - The Washington Post

Covid-19 response offers profound civics lesson - The Washington Post

The profound civics lesson kids are getting from the U.S. government’s response to the covid-19 pandemic

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos last month decried student test scores from National Assessment of Educational Progress exams given in 2018 to eighth-graders in civics, U.S. geography and education.

Students from around the country didn’t score well, and DeVos called the results “stark and inexcusable."

“In the real world,” she said, "this means students don’t know what the Lincoln-Douglas debates were about, nor can they discuss the significance of the Bill of Rights, or point out basic locations on a map.”

(This was before President Trump did a virtual town hall at the Lincoln Memorial this week and declared he had been treated worse than Lincoln himself, reflecting his own unique view of U.S. history.)

Meanwhile, an annual survey conducted by the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania consistently shows 75 percent of the American public cannot name the three branches of government.

The authors of this post argue that civics and U.S. history are often taught as isolated facts that don’t really address what young people need to know to participate in the challenged American democratic experiment. They are Nicole Mirra, an assistant professor of urban teacher education at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey; and Antero Garcia, assistant professor in the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University.

Sign up for our Coronavirus Updates newsletter to track the outbreak. All stories linked in the newsletter are free to access.

Betsy DeVos calls low history and civics marks ‘stark and inexcusable,’ but are NAEP scores worth fretting?

By Nicole Mirra and Antero Garcia

It’s that time again when flares are being set off across U.S. media outlets alerting the public to a crisis in civics and history education. These sirens blare at semiregular intervals whenever the country faces moments of reckoning about young people’s social and political knowledge. The most recent cause for alarm occurred with the recent release of scores from the 2018 administration of the National CONTINUE READING: Covid-19 response offers profound civics lesson - The Washington Post

#PublicSchoolGrad Scholarship - Enter Today! | Schott Foundation for Public Education

#PublicSchoolGrad Scholarship - Enter Today! | Schott Foundation for Public Education

#PublicSchoolGrad Scholarship - Enter Today!

Enter to win a $1,000 scholarship!
Deadline for all submissions: June 15, 2020

As a member of the Class of 2020 you are facing extraordinary challenges of school closings, trying to complete courses via distance learning, without in-person support from teachers and the connection to friends—and possibly without the graduation ceremony you and your family have been looking forward to for years.

You’re tackling these challenges—as you have overcome other hurdles throughout your school years—and the Schott Foundation celebrates your determination, your resilience. Needed now more than ever.

The scholarship is our way to help one Proud #PublicSchoolGrad take the next step in continuing their education.

The scholarship entry form is simple—and you can fill it out online.

What you’ll need to enter:

Information about you: (name, city, name of the school you’re graduating from, how to contact you)
A photo of you holding this Proud #PublicSchoolGrad sign – or you can make your own with the same text
A few sentences describing a teacher and others in your community who helped you achieve this important milestone in your life
If you’re under 18, permission from your parents

The Schott Foundation will review all entries and pick a winner for the $1,000 scholarship—to be announced in July.

Enter today! >#PublicSchoolGrad Scholarship - Enter Today! | Schott Foundation for Public Education

Update on Panel meeting, Mulgrew on my radio show tomorrow, Cuomo and Bill Gates, and more | Class Size Matters

Update on Panel meeting, Mulgrew on my radio show tomorrow, Cuomo and Bill Gates, and more | Class Size Matters | A clearinghouse for information on class size & the proven benefits of smaller classes

Update on Panel meeting, Mulgrew on my radio show tomorrow, Cuomo and Bill Gates, and more

Dear Friends — A quick note to update you on a few issues:

1- In my previous email, I had the wrong date for this week’s meeting of the Panel for Educational Policy when a bunch of highly questionable, potentially wasteful contracts will be voted upon – it is Thursday May 7 at 6 PM. DOE’s instructions on how to join the meeting and provide comment will be available here, hopefully by tomorrow when you click on that date.

2- Tomorrow morning Wed. May 6 at 10 AM I will be interviewing Michael Mulgrew, President of the UFT, on my weekly radio show “Talk out of School” at 99.5 FM or at www.wbai.org, about how he envisions schools should be restructured next fall to allow for health, safety and maximum academic and emotional support. Please listen in!

3- At his daily press conference today, Gov. Cuomo said he would be partnering with the Gates Foundation to “reimagine” education and expand the use of online learning in our schools next year. This decision by the Governor is hard for many of us to imagine, given Gates’ deplorable record of damage to our schools, including pushing the Common Core, teacher evaluation linked to test scores, and inBloom Inc., designed to collect and share our children’s personal data without parental consent. Check out the letter we sent to him today, warning him against this, signed by Class Size Matters, NY State Allies for Public Education, and the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy. Our letter was quoted by the AP, in US News and World Report, and in Gothamist. Let’s hope the Governor doesn’t send our schools down that dangerous path again.

4- Finally, today is Giving Tuesday. Thanks so much to those of you who contributed to Class Size Matters last week on my birthday; for those who didn’t, please consider donating today. Given our uncertain funding future, we could really use the help.

Hoping you and your family stay safe and healthy, Leonie

Are Governor Cuomo and the Gates Foundation Making Education Policy for New York State? Has the Board of Regents Been Replaced? (I Hope Not!) | Ed In The Apple

Are Governor Cuomo and the Gates Foundation Making Education Policy for New York State? Has the Board of Regents Been Replaced? (I Hope Not!) | Ed In The Apple

Are Governor Cuomo and the Gates Foundation Making Education Policy for New York State? Has the Board of Regents Been Replaced? (I Hope Not!)

The seventeen members of the NYS Board of Regents are unpaid and unstaffed, trek to Albany (well, until now) once a month for an intense day and a half meeting. For the last decade I have also trekked to Albany to attend the meetings. I’ve come to know a number of the members, they are incredibly dedicated. The Board selects a chancellor, a leader from among their own ranks and the Board hires a commissioner who manages P-16 education in the state as well as the professions.

The role of the Board is to establish policy. New regulations or changes in regulations must be sent out for pubic comment; the Board frequently selects work groups from among the many stakeholder organizations to participate in policy considerations. The board members are retired educators, superintendents, teachers, lawyers, a nurse, a doctor, a parent advocate, a judge: their e-mail boxes are always overflowing, they meet with group after group in their region; their diversity represents the diversity across our state

The structure of the meeting are long established, a full board, live-streamed, with a current relevant topic, followed by committee meeting: P-12, higher education, the professions, cultural education, etc., with a hundred or so in the audience. Although the members are “elected” for five year terms by a joint meeting of the state legislatures party politics never enters the discussions.

Monday’s meeting was “zoomed” from the homes of the board members. Among CONTINUE READING: Are Governor Cuomo and the Gates Foundation Making Education Policy for New York State? Has the Board of Regents Been Replaced? (I Hope Not!) | Ed In The Apple

NYC Educator: Andrew Cuomo Is a Cynical Liar

NYC Educator: Andrew Cuomo Is a Cynical Liar

Andrew Cuomo Is a Cynical Liar

It doesn't take a genius to know that remote learning is a pale echo of the real thing. I've been trying to reach my kids for six weeks online. I'm getting better at it, but I'd be delusional if I were to tell you that it's a substitute for face to face in the same room. Andrew Cuomo says otherwise, and his snake oil salesmanship is right up there with Donald Trump's.

Cuomo is the man who, a few years back, mustered the audacity to label himself a student lobbyist. This, of course, was when he was pushing the evaluation system that's become the bane of teacher existence. He specifically emphasized it would be used to fire teachers, both buying and selling the stereotype of teachers sitting around doing nothing while students failed the almighty state tests.

Cuomo's evaluation system is a tremendous nuisance for both teachers and supervisors. While NYC finally has fewer observations than before, the checklists we receive, not to mention the intrusive interruptions of our practice, are not helpful to working teachers. I'd guess 25-40% of city supervisors are out of their frigging minds, failed teachers who couldn't wait to escape the classrooms. (How frequently have supervisors who couldn't teach told us whatever they heard at their last DOE meeting? You must do it like this, like that, and there's no other possible way to do it.)

Nonetheless, we're stuck with it. Of course Cuomo didn't love it, having called it "baloney" when not enough teachers were fired for his discerning taste.With Cuomo, it's all about appearances or money. In fact, the first time he ran for governor, he made a CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: Andrew Cuomo Is a Cynical Liar

When After-School Is Shut Down, Too | 89.3 KPCC

When After-School Is Shut Down, Too | 89.3 KPCC

When After-School Is Shut Down, Too

When Jessyka Bagdon set out to move her tap dancing classes online, big questions started popping up right away: What about kids who don't own their own tap shoes? How to tap dance at home without ruining the floor?

And then came the really big challenge: Online programs like Zoom are designed for meetings, not dance classes. "They're made to pick up voices," she explains, not the clickety clack of tap-dancing shoes. "So how do we make the system not filter out our tap sounds as background noise?"

So Blagdon, an instructor at 'Knock on Wood Tap Studio' in Washington, D.C., set about problem-solving. No tap shoes? Turns out Mary Jane flats work well. Saving the floor? A piece of plywood does the trick.And that muffled sound over Zoom? Blagdon says fiddling around with some computer settings can help.

In the nation's capital, like the rest of the country, kids cooped up at home for weeks now are craving both physical activity and the mental and creative challenges that extracurricular activities bring. And ballet instructors, soccer coaches and piano teachers — just to name a few — are finding the shutdown every bit as complicated as schools moving academic lessons online.

As their counterparts in schools are finding every day, it's really difficult to explain — watching on a screen — to children in a painting class exactly how to hold the brush to get the right effect. Or to align a young karate student's body just so, for a proper CONTINUE READING: When After-School Is Shut Down, Too | 89.3 KPCC

Appreciating Organized Teachers and Their Unions in Teacher Appreciation Week | janresseger

Appreciating Organized Teachers and Their Unions in Teacher Appreciation Week | janresseger

Appreciating Organized Teachers and Their Unions in Teacher Appreciation Week

For over two decades our public schools have been trapped in a wave of massive education disruption—an effort to reform education by holding schools and teachers accountable for raising students’ aggregate test scores. But it didn’t work. Overall test scores haven’t risen. When almost all U.S. public schools were on track to be declared “failing,” before the 2014 deadline when all American students were supposed to be proficient, Arne Duncan created waivers to blackmail states to agree to impose his pet policies if he would let them off the hook from No Child Left Behind’s accountability system. It is a truth universally acknowledged that No Child Left Behind left millions of America’s poorest children far behind.

In her new book, Slaying Goliath, Diane Ravitch defines recent decades as an age of education disruption: “Today’s Disrupters…. want to reinvent education, reimagine it, replace it with another approach, either through technology or a market-driven choice system in which government supplies the funds and parents send their children wherever they want. Not every Disrupter believes exactly the same thing…. Some believe that test scores are the goal of education… Others, like Betsy DeVos, believe that choice is an end in itself… The Corporate leaders of this campaign admire disruptive innovation, because high-tech businesses do it…. The concept of ‘creative destruction’ is derived from the work of Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter. Whether or not it is useful in the business world, it is not useful in the lives of children, who need stability, not disruption. Corporate Disrupters approve of schools hiring inexperienced teachers with little or no training, such as Teach for America recruits… Such teachers are paid less than experienced teachers, and few will stay long enough to expect a pension or expensive health benefits… Disrupters like to move fast and break things, including school systems, historic schools, communities, and the lives of students, families and education professionals. They take pride in disrupting established institutions and other people’s lives… Disrupters are unmoved when students and parents plead for the life of a community school slated for closure. Corporate Disrupters do not respect the teaching profession… Disrupters don’t like democratic control of education by elected local school CONTINUE READING: Appreciating Organized Teachers and Their Unions in Teacher Appreciation Week | janresseger

RIP and Thank You Chaz the Blogger - southbronxschool\

http://www.southbronxschool.com

RIP and Thank You Chaz the Blogger

Earlier today I found out my fellow blogger and friend Eric Chasinoff passed away at the age
of 69 due to COVID. Today is a sad day not only for myself, but fellow bloggers and the scores of teachers over the years that Chaz selflessly helped, supported, and sometimes (when needed) just lent an ear.

For me Chaz was always the go to guy for almost any questions I had concerning my rights as a teacher. And when someone reached out to me, when I was stumped I sent them to Chaz. In fact for years, I wouldn't give Chaz's number without checking with him first, but eventually I asked Chaz if I could give his number without asking. He didn't blink an eye and said yes.

I would say it was around 2008 when I became of Chaz and his blog. That's about the time I started mine and I enjoyed Eric's straight to the point style of writing. Chaz didn't suffer fools gladly and was always quick to call bullshit.

It was also during this time that Chaz had been exiled to the Rubber Room for a quite innocuous comment he made to a student. His high school lost a great Earth Science teacher (Read more here), the kids and the community suffered, all for something that should've been just a letter to the file.

But I am sad not just for losing a friend, but for someone who kept me from losing my mind.

Chaz (And this is not taking away from others who were there for me), kept me sane when I was in the Rubber Room for two years and going through my 3020a. I can't count the number of times I would call Chaz in a panic and he would explain things to me and calm me down. Even though he wouldn't sugar coat anything, he know how to deal with me. For three years Chaz stuck by me, didn't give up on me, and kept me focused.

I met Chaz once or twice. The first time was at a diner in Queens right off the Clearview. I bought my accordion style folder with me for my 3020a and he looked over the papers. Better yet, he go my mind away from everything, and we enjoyed a good breakfast.

My heart goes out to his family. Thank you for sharing him with all the teachers of the NYCDOE that needed Chaz. Thank you for sharing him with me. My thoughts are with the Chasinoff family tonight.

I am grateful Chaz had played a part in my life.

http://www.southbronxschool.com

Digital Divide Task Force Advocates for Students - Year 2020 (CA Dept of Education)

Digital Divide Task Force Advocates for Students - Year 2020 (CA Dept of Education)

State Superintendent Tony Thurmond and Digital Divide Task Force Continue to Advocate for Students Who Lack Access

SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond and state leaders called representatives from major technology and internet service provider companies to appear at yesterday’s Closing the Digital Divide Task Force meeting to discuss the persistent technology gaps impacting the state’s most vulnerable students. Hundreds of thousands of students in schools throughout the state are still without the necessary devices and internet access needed to participate in distance learning along with their peers.

The full video archive of the meeting can be found on the CDE Facebook web page.

The task force, co-chaired by Senator Connie Leyva (D-Chino), has asked that internet service providers offer free guest access to all California students. During Monday’s hearing, executives from AT&T, Comcast, Cox Communications, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon were asked to provide more details on their efforts to bring connectivity into the homes of students from low-income and rural communities, including providing services for free or at low cost.

The companies also were asked to serve on a subcommittee that will explore targeted strategies based on specific levels of expertise.

“We can’t assist our students at the level they need without help from all partners,” said Thurmond. “The digital inequities that this pandemic has brought to light for students who are economically challenged and students living in rural communities have to be fixed. Our students and families deserve a greater investment to ensure they have a level playing field to succeed not only during this pandemic but moving forward. We have a long way to go to ensure that all of the students in this state have the resources they need to thrive academically, but through cross-sector partnerships, we can make a difference in the lives of our students and close the digital gap.”

“As we continue our work to help close the digital divide and strengthen distance learning in California, the task force remains committed to creating solutions and ultimately helping improve internet access for students,” said Leyva. “Now that we are over a month into this new distance learning reality for students and educators alike, lack of access and connectivity for students across our state must be addressed—and soon. I appreciate the partnerships that we have already developed with internet service providers and other stakeholders but look forward to building on that cooperation to create lasting change for all California students that need and deserve reliable digital access to truly succeed.”

Under extensive questioning by the State Superintendent and task force members, internet service provider company representatives offered explanations of ways they say they are supporting households in need, including extending the length of programs that provide service for free or at a discount, offering free public Wi-Fi hotspots to non-customers in some locations, and promoting other special offers.

Task force members also heard from and recognized a variety of tech companies that have either directly pledged or financed commitments of tens of thousands of devices and hotspots. Although a small number of California companies are responding to the request for support, tremendous need persists: the number of devices estimated to be needed has increased to more than 400,000, and the need for connectivity now exceeds 300,000 since the task force’s first meeting on April 20, according to a recent review of need assessment surveys submitted by local educational agencies to the California Department of Education (CDE).

In an effort to accelerate donations, the CDE and task force members have begun writing letters to California’s largest companies to request contributions of devices or donations to purchase devices. Additionally, the CDE has partnered with the Californians Dedicated to Education Foundation (CDE Foundation), the private nonprofit partner of the CDE since 2011, to create the California Bridging the Digital Divide Fund (CBDD). The fund is a joint effort of the Governor’s Office, the State Board of Education, the CDE, and the CDE Foundation. Individual donations may be made at the CBDD Fund web page, and corporate and institutional donors may email donatetech@cde.ca.gov.

Joining State Superintendent Thurmond and Senator Leyva on the task force are Senator Mike McGuire (D-Healdsburg), Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry (D-Winters), Assemblymember Autumn Burke (D-Inglewood), Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia (D-Coachella), Assemblymember Miguel Santiago (D-Los Angeles), and Assemblymember Jim Wood (D-Santa Rosa).

# # # #

Tony Thurmond — State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Communications Division, Room 5602, 916-319-0818, Fax 916-319-0100

Digital Divide Task Force Advocates for Students - Year 2020 (CA Dept of Education)

CURMUDGUCATION: PA: The House Speaker Wants Schools Open

CURMUDGUCATION: PA: The House Speaker Wants Schools Open

PA: The House Speaker Wants Schools Open

Pennsylvania House Speaker Mike Turzai has never been a friend of public education in the Keystone State, and he has generally been pretty clear about it. But Monday he got extra Mike Turzai-ish when posting a six minute video attacking the state education head, teachers, schools, and teachers.

Just for context, let me mention two things-- Turzai is not running for re-election to the House, and he might like to run for governor of the state.

The prompt for his little videoutburst was a statement from the state education secretary Pedro Rivera that, given current info, PA schools might not open in the fall. "We're preparing for the best, but we're planning for the worst," he said. Need to put health and safety of students first, he said. This so enraged Turzai that he ~~immediately~~ a week later put up a Facebook video.

Turzai starts out by quoting the "schools might not be able to open in the fall" part and then, just twenty seconds or so in, he let's loose with a rage and disgust face and asks "Who are you, Secretary Rivera, to be the dictator of whether our kids are getting educated or not?" while his face adds "when you are clearly some sort of loathsome slug." It's an ugly moment, made even uglier because Turzai's eyes shift to the side so he can read this line. But it's also ugly because it sets a tone. Because Turzai could have said something like, "I think this is a bad idea and I disagree with it" or "I thiunk we need to take another look at this conclusion" or even "I respect Secretary Rivera's professional opinion, but I think he's wrong here." There's no reason to go full ugly on this unless, say, you believe that CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: PA: The House Speaker Wants Schools Open

Choosing Democracy: Impact of Covid on Latino Students

Choosing Democracy: Impact of Covid on Latino Students

Impact of Covid on Latino Students

Town Hall for #EdJustice:
The Impact of COVID-19 on Latino Students and Educators

Video is here:

https://www.facebook.com/lulac.national.dc/videos/269467734206191/

The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) and the National Education Association (NEA) will be hosting the #EdJustice Town Hall tomorrow with the National Immigration Law Center and the Hope Center for Wellness for a comprehensive discussion on COVID-19 and its impact on Latino students and families. The virtual town hall will be moderated by María Peña, a journalist and digital reporter at Telemundo News.

The conversation will address virtual learning, strengthening access to school safety nets, mental health resources, and supporting and advocating for our immigrant and undocumented families.

We will also address the conditions under which schools could reopen and what they may look like once students return.

Join us as we come together to discuss ways we are responding to this crisis and working to ensure that our public schools help all students pursue their dreams regardless of where they come from, what they look like, or where they live.

To RSVP click here now.

Choosing Democracy: Impact of Covid on Latino Students

Responding to the Washington Post’s Jay Mathews | tultican

Responding to the Washington Post’s Jay Mathews | tultican

Responding to the Washington Post’s Jay Mathews

By Thomas Ultican 5/5/2020

It came as a surprise when Washington Post columnist Jay Mathews reached out to me. After indicating that he was writing a book, Mathew’s said that he had just come upon my piece “A Texas Sized Destroy Public Education IDEA.” He flatteringly wrote, “… your analysis is impressive and I want to include some of it in my book.” He also sent an article and a book chapter asking for comments.

In the article about IDEA, I had written,

“In 2016, Jay Mathews of the Washington Post rated IDEA charter high school the most challenging in the nation. Mathews rates schools by what he calls “the Challenge Index,” which takes the total number of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate and Cambridge tests given at a school each year and divides by the number of seniors who graduated in May or June. Charter schools that shed students without replacing them now own all of the top spots in this index; not deeply meaningful.”

Jay’s message to me was very respectful with a genuine feeling of interest in my opinion; however, we do have very different views. I will endeavor to address those differences honestly and respectfully.

The chapter he sent me is focused on his “Challenge Index” and its rationale. The article was a piece he did for his Washington Post column in November about a high school teacher who teaches AP English Language arts. He explained how that teacher came to appreciate the value of expanding AP access.

Some Personal Background

I grew up on a ranch in rural Idaho with a cowman for a father, a sheepherder for a grandfather and a school teacher for a mom. She studied teaching at Albion Normal School in the southern Idaho Mountains. Coincidentally, it is the same CONTINUE READING: Responding to the Washington Post’s Jay Mathews | tultican

NYC Public School Parents: Letter to Gov. Cuomo: do not allow the Gates Foundation to influence education policy in our state

NYC Public School Parents: Letter to Gov. Cuomo: do not allow the Gates Foundation to influence education policy in our state

Letter to Gov. Cuomo: do not allow the Gates Foundation to influence education policy in our state

Our letter sent to Gov. Cuomo, warning him against allowing the Gates Foundation to outsource education to the ed tech industry, was quoted by the AP, in US News and World Report, NY Post and Gothamist.

May 5, 2020

To Governor Cuomo:

As educators, parents and school board members, we were appalled to hear that you will be working with the Gates Foundation on “reimagining” our schools following the Covid crisis. Bill Gates and the Gates Foundation have promoted one failed educational initiative after another, causing huge disaffection in districts throughout the state.

Whether that be the high-handed push by the Gates Foundation for the invalid Common Core standards, unreliable teacher evaluation linked to test scores, or privacy-violating data-collection via the corporation known as inBloom Inc., the education of our children has been repeatedly put at risk by their non-evidence based “solutions”, which were implemented without parent input and despite significant public opposition. As you recall, these policies also sparked a huge opt-out movement across the state, with more than twenty percent of eligible students refusing to take the state exams.

We urge you instead to listen to parents and teachers rather than allow the Gates Foundation to implement their damaging education agenda once again. Since the schools were shut down in mid-March, our understanding of the profound deficiencies of screen-based instruction has only grown. The use of education tech may have its place, but only as an ancillary to in-person learning, not as its replacement.

Along with many other parents and educators, we strongly oppose enabling the Gates Foundation to influence the direction of education in the state by expanding the use of ed tech.

Instead, we ask that you fund our schools sufficiently and equitably, to allow for the smaller classes, school counselors, and other critical services that our children will need more than ever before, given the myriad losses they have experienced this year.

Yours sincerely,

New York State Allies for Public Education

Class Size Matters

Parent Coalition for Student Privacy

Cc: Board of Regents and Acting NYSED Commissioner Shannon Tahoe