Big Education Ape: Jun 26, 2020

Friday, June 26, 2020

Jersey Jazzman: What an Actual School Reopening Plan Looks Like

What an Actual School Reopening Plan Looks Like

Several states, particularly in the Northeast, have begun releasing their plans to reopen K-12 schools. Connecticut, for example, just released a plan yesterday; New Jersey is scheduled to release one today.

I'm going to hold off commenting on any individual state's plans for now. Instead, I'm going to sketch out what I think a statewide plan for reopening schools should look like. I won't pretend this is comprehensive, and I'm happy to accept any comments or criticisms. But I do think we need to set some standards for what states need to do to help school districts get ready for reopening in the fall.

And so, here are the features at a minimum that I believe a real statewide school reopening plan must have:

- Minimal requirements for staff and student personal protective equipment (PPE), as provided by school districts (as a matter of equity, no plan should require staff and students to supply their own PPE).

- Clear guidelines and minimal standards for implementing social distancing, mask wearing, and other actions to mitigate Covid-19 spread. In other words, if there is social distancing in the plan, there has to be a minimal distance that must be maintained at all times. If masks are required, the plan should spell out the type of mask (N95, surgical, cloth, etc.).

- A separate set of guidelines and standards for students with disabilities, including medically fragile students and students with profound cognitive impairments. Obviously CONTINUE READING: Jersey Jazzman: What an Actual School Reopening Plan Looks Like

2020 Medley #13 — Scientific Ignorance and American Anti-Intellectualism | Live Long and Prosper

2020 Medley #13 — Scientific Ignorance and American Anti-Intellectualism

A VACCINE FOR CONSPIRACY THEORIES

Conspiracy Theories

The internet has opened the door for Americans to gain wide-ranging expanded knowledge…but, as Isaac Asimov wrote, “The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.”

With that expanded knowledge comes expanded falsehood…conspiracy theories. Teachers are tasked with teaching students how to read critically…to sift through massive amounts of information and learn how to tell truth from falsehood. The state of the nation today would indicate that we have failed. Conspiracy theories abound.

Take the current worldwide health crisis. According to conspiracy theories…

the virus is spread by 5G towers,

masks will starve your body of oxygen,

Bill Gates is going to use the coronavirus vaccine to inject us with microchips,

coronavirus is a Chinese bio-weapon

[For debunking information see Debunking COVID-19 Conspiracy Theories]

The National Center for Science Education a way to combat conspiracy theories with critical thinking…with the help of an acronym CONSPIR.

John Cook, a frequent NCSE collaborator who focuses on combating misconceptions, recently co-authored The Conspiracy Theory Handbook. During a recent conversation with Cook, he noted: “While we do not have a vaccine for COVID-19 at this time, we do have a vaccine for misinformation CONTINUE READING: 2020 Medley #13 — Scientific Ignorance and American Anti-Intellectualism | Live Long and Prosper

The Struggle for No Police in the Los Angeles Schools - LA Progressive

The Struggle for No Police in the Los Angeles Schools

A great leap forward and victory is in sight

On Tuesday, June 23, in Los Angeles, the decade’s long struggle for No Police in the Schools had a major breakthrough. Los Angeles School Board member Monica Garcia introduced the most structural and hopeful motion to make “defund the police” a reality. Her motion, expressing gratitude to the national Black uprising, called for cutting the $70 million budget of the Los Angeles School Police Department—with 350 armed officers—by 50% in 2021, 75% in 2022, and 90% in 2023—essentially phasing out the entire department. We think “50%, 75%, 90%” is a model for the “Defund the Police” movement nationally. Any movement that gets to 100% first wins. Her Civil Rights motion did not pass but neither did any of the toxic compromises. That “50/75/90%” motion is still the centerpiece of our movement going forward and we have every intention of bringing it into reality.

Outside the LAUSD building it was the Black-led movement that was the driving force in history. There were more than 3,000 of us encircling the entire block. There was a great sound truck led by Black Lives Matter Los Angeles and Students Deserve—a Black led student organization in the LAUSD schools. The program was a celebration of rage, creativity, rap, music, and the spoken word. Dr. Melina Abdullah, co-chair of Black Lives Matter L.A. spoke of how all three of her children suffered police abuse in the schools while her son’s first incident of anti-Black police brutality was at the age of six. She described in painful detail how every aspect of a Black child’s life is criminalized and why the demand for No Police in the Schools was a life and death issue for the Black community.

Niyah Henry from Westchester High School Students Deserve brought the crowd to their feet and me to tears when she read her poem that made it clear that for Black students, going to a school filled with police is not just a blow to student achievement, it makes you not want to go to school at all.

Channing Martinez of the Strategy Center said that when he went to Crenshaw High School 15 CONTINUE READING: The Struggle for No Police in the Los Angeles Schools - LA Progressive

Memphis: Two KIPP Charters Close Suddenly, Stranding Students | Diane Ravitch's blog

Memphis: Two KIPP Charters Close Suddenly, Stranding Students | Diane Ravitch's blog

Memphis: Two KIPP Charters Close Suddenly, Stranding Students

David Pettiette is a CPA who volunteered at a KIPP elementary school in Memphis. He was shocked when two KIPP schools suddenly closed their doors and left their families scrambling for a new school.

He wrote:

In April, it was announced that KIPP Memphis Preparatory Elementary and KIPP Memphis Preparatory Middle on Corry Road would be permanently closing without notice. Between the two schools, over 650 students have been displaced without so much as a plan or opportunity to rebut the decision.

The decision to close a school in an underserved community is not uncommon. It is however a decision that is typically given six months to a year’s notice, not April of the current school year. The Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) is the largest network of public charter schools in the nation, with several schools in Memphis. With that size apparently comes unprecedented autonomy considering the schools’ primary funding is local and state money.

In an effort to limit bad press, KIPP offered a Q&A conference call to address the school closures so that the community’s voices could be heard. However, this CONTINUE READING: Memphis: Two KIPP Charters Close Suddenly, Stranding Students | Diane Ravitch's blog

Steven Singer: Standardized Testing Increase School Segregation - LA Progressive

Standardized Testing Increase School Segregation - LA Progressive

Standardized Testing Increase School Segregation

Let’s say your community has two schools.

One serves mostly white students and the other serves mostly black students.

How do you eliminate such open segregation?

After all, in 1954 the U.S. Supreme Court struck down school segregation in Brown vs. Board of Education as essentially separate and unequal.

It’s been nearly 70 years. We must have a recourse to such things these days. Mustn’t we?

Well, the highest court in the land laid down a series of decisions, starting with Milliken vs. Bradley in 1974, that effectively made school integration voluntary especially within district lines. So much so, in fact, that according to a report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office, from 2000 to 2014, school segregation more than doubled nationwide.

But let’s say you did find some right-minded individuals who cared enough to make the effort to fix the problem.

What could they do?

The most obvious solution would be to build a single new school to serve both populations.

So if you could find the will and the money, you could give it a try.

Unfortunately, that alone wouldn’t solve the problem.

Why?

Standardized tests.

Even when students from different racial or ethnic groups aren’t physically separated by district CONTINUE READING: Standardized Testing Increase School Segregation - LA Progressive

What’s The Alternative To Police In Schools? - PopularResistance.Org

WHAT’S THE ALTERNATIVE TO POLICE IN SCHOOLS?

Restorative Justice.

Restorative justice programs have already proven effective at Chicago Public Schools, but lack the level of funding budgeted for the district’s contract with the Chicago Police Department.

Thousands of Chicagoans have rallied in the past couple weeks behind the demand that Chicago Public Schools end its relationship with the police department.

But a small group of advocates have been working on this issue for years, and they’ve won significant progress in recent months. We don’t know the impact of those changes yet — though we do know that alternatives to police in schools need much greater support.

A new Chicago Police Department policy implemented last August removed so-called school resource officers from involvement in day-to-day disciplinary matters. It requires screening of potential officers, including consideration of their disciplinary records and involvement with youth, and selection in consultation with school principals. It mandates training in youth development, de-escalation, restorative justice, crisis intervention and disability issues.

Those changes were spelled out in a memorandum of agreement between CPS and CPD last December — a move greeted as a “victory” that was “long fought for” by POWER-PAC IL, an organization of parents in low-income communities that has worked for school discipline reform for many years. The new policy and the MOA reflect recommendations by the city’s inspector general and by civil rights advocates, as well as requirements under the federal consent CONTINUE READING: What’s The Alternative To Police In Schools? - PopularResistance.Org

Pandemic Parenting Was Already Relentless. Then Came Summer. - The New York Times

Pandemic Parenting Was Already Relentless. Then Came Summer. - The New York Times

Pandemic Parenting Was Already Relentless. Then Came Summer.
A survey shows that parents feel increasing pressure to make up for children’s lost educational and enrichment time.

American parents spend more time and money on their children than ever — and that was before the pandemic. Now, with remote school ending for the summer and a far-from-normal fall expected, parenting is becoming only more demanding.

It’s not just that children need more supervision, with their usual activities closed. Unlike previous generations of parents, today’s feel pressured to use time with their children for active engagement and continual teaching. Now that pressure is compounded by fears about missing months of education, and about widening gaps between children whose parents can provide significant at-home enrichment and those whose parents cannot.

Three-quarters of parents of children under 12, and 64 percent of parents of teenagers, said it was more important to do parent-led educational activities with their children this summer than in previous summers, found a new survey by Morning Consult for The New York Times. Sixty-four percent of parents of children under 12 said they felt pressure to do this, an increase from 58 percent earlier in the pandemic. Just 17 percent said they did not feel this pressure.

These days, Madeleine Senger, 13, sets her alarm for 6:30 a.m. and begins the day reading, then practicing piano. Some days she has virtual classes from her home in Denver — online camps, book club and cooking class, in addition to online tutors for math, Spanish, piano and writing. Her parents hired a Spanish tutor based in Guatemala as well as several teachers from her school to do individual or small-group classes. Madeleine also joined a start-up children’s newspaper, the Corona Courier.

“We want her to be happy and at the same time learn and avoid the summer slump, and the slump from the end of last year and what we expect in the coming year,” said Madeleine’s father, Joel Senger, a school librarian.

Madeleine already excels at school, said her mother, Alexis Senger, a consultant and lecturer on higher education budgeting policy. But, she said: “We want to prepare her and keep her active and engaged. College is going to be the only way to survive in this future where none of us know what will exist.”

Social scientists call this intensive parenting. They have found it has become the expectation of most parents, across race and class divides (although richer parents are more able to carry it out). Unlike helicopter parenting, which was more about keeping children physically safe, intensive parenting is about enriching them with one-on-one attention and extracurricular activities.

Intensive parenting grew in part from discoveries about how much children’s early experiences shape their outcomes. It’s also fueled by financial anxiety, with more pressure to get a degree from a good college and land on the right side of the economic divide amid rising inequality — a competition the economists Valerie and Garey Ramey termed “the rug rat race.” CONTINUE READING: Pandemic Parenting Was Already Relentless. Then Came Summer. - The New York Times

Budgeting for the Public Good | janresseger

Budgeting for the Public Good

Public schools—publicly funded, universally available, and accountable to the public, while imperfect, are essential for ensuring that all children are served. Public schools are the optimal way to balance the needs of each particular child and family with the need to create a system that secures the rights and addresses the needs of all children. Our society has improved justice in our system of public education over the generations because the U.S. Constitution, the constitutions of the 50 states, and laws passed by Congress and the state legislatures protect the rights of all children including previously marginalized—African American, Native American, disabled, immigrant, and LGBTQ—children. Public schools will always need to be improved to do a better job, and public oversight under law is embedded into the very design of public education. If a student is poorly served, the family has the right to redress under the law.

Private schools, which accept publicly funded tuition vouchers, are neither required to protect the rights of disabled children by providing the necessary and appropriate programming, nor to provide services for undocumented children, nor to accept children of every religion. And while charter schools that contract with the government are charged with protecting students’ rights, many find ways to push out the students they don’t want or employ zero tolerance disciplinary practices that violate children’s civil rights. Oversight is supposed to be provided by state laws in the more than 40 states which have set up charter schools, but in many cases the laws are weak and enforcement is lax.

Private schools accepting publicly funded tuition vouchers and charter schools, which are paid tax dollars under government contracts, extract public funds from the public school system, which serves 90 percent of our society’s children and adolescents, roughly 50 million young people. While recently President Donald Trump, has been trashing “government” schools,” he and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos both support privatized alternatives which are, ironically, paid for by government. School choice creates a marketplace of privatized services, but the costs are absorbed by government at the expense of the public schools that serve most of our children. These publicly funded but privatized educational institutions pay CONTINUE READING: Budgeting for the Public Good | janresseger

Audio: Education Dept. Rule Limits How Schools Can Spend Vital Aid Money | 89.3 KPCC

Education Dept. Rule Limits How Schools Can Spend Vital Aid Money

In a new rule announced Thursday, U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos signaled she is standing firm on her intention to reroute millions of dollars in coronavirus aid money to K-12 private school students. The CARES Act rescue package included more than $13 billion to help public schools cover pandemic-related costs.

The move comes nearly two months after the Education Department issued controversial guidance, suggesting that private schools should benefit from a representative share of the emergency aid. Lawmakers from both parties countered that the aid was intended to be distributed based on how many vulnerable, low-income students a district serves.

While that guidance was nonbinding, Thursday's rule is enforceable by law.

"The CARES Act is a special, pandemic-related appropriation to benefit all American students, teachers, and families impacted by coronavirus," DeVos said in a statement. "There is nothing in the law Congress passed that would allow districts to discriminate against children and teachers based on private school attendance and employment."

The new rule gives school districts two choices about how to spend their aid money CONTINUE READING: Audio: Education Dept. Rule Limits How Schools Can Spend Vital Aid Money | 89.3 KPCC

SSPI to Explore Data on School Police PLUS 2020 Model SARB Winners Announced - Year 2020 (CA Dept of Education)

SSPI to Explore Data on School Police - Year 2020 (CA Dept of Education)

State Superintendent Tony Thurmond Outlines Efforts to Explore Data on School Police, Expand Understanding of Ethnic Studies

SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond on Wednesday outlined two upcoming efforts the California Department of Education (CDE) will lead in the coming weeks as schools tackle questions surrounding educational equity and racial justice.

The first effort will accelerate research into the impacts of the presence of law enforcement on school campuses, the findings of which will inform specific policy recommendations.

The second will be the launch of a series of Ethnic Studies webinars for students, families, and educators to familiarize themselves with the histories and contributions of oppressed populations.

“As our state and nation confronts difficult conversations about racial justice, it’s evident that schools are uniquely positioned to tackle some of these issues head-on,” said Thurmond. “Like our communities, our schools are also reckoning with the best ways to navigate police reform and an honest accounting with our nation’s complex history.”

An archived broadcast of the full media check-in can be viewed on the CDE’s Facebook page

Here is a brief recap of the State Superintendent’s announcements:

School Safety and Equity: Superintendent Thurmond will hold a public hearing Tuesday, June 30 at 10 a.m., which will be streamed live on Facebook, that will examine the data and research that exists regarding the impacts of police programs on school campuses. This will be designed as a discussion between researchers, police organizations, advocacy groups, and legislators. CDE will utilize an existing partnership with nonprofit education organization WestEd to compile and review existing research on school police programs to inform future policy recommendations.

Groups and individuals that study issues of school policing are also invited to submit their research to reimaginesafeschools@cde.ca.gov .

Ethnic Studies Webinars: As the CDE prepares to submit a revised Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum for public review, the State Superintendent announced he will be launching a series of virtual webinars and lessons for students, educators, and families. These lessons will feature Ethnic Studies professors in the following areas: Africana Studies; Asian American Studies; Chicano Latino Studies; and Native American Studies. More details will be announced this week.

# # # #

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

SSPI to Explore Data on School Police - Year 2020 (CA Dept of Education)

USDA Child Nutrition Responses 33 through 37 - Nutrition (CA Dept of Education) - https://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/nu/cnpresponse33-37.asp

2020 Model SARB Winners Announced - Year 2020 (CA Dept of Education) - https://www.cde.ca.gov/nr/ne/yr20/yr20rel49.asp

“Parents Need to Go to Work” Does Not Stop COVID at the School Door. | deutsch29

“Parents Need to Go to Work” Does Not Stop COVID at the School Door.

When I hear discussions about schools reopening in the fall, I already know what two chief reasons will be offered.

One is that students need to be educated. Of course they do, and as a career teacher, I desire to educate. I have dedicated my professional life to educating generations of children, and I miss being at school, in my classroom, with my students.

The second reason, which seems to follow quickly on the heels of the first, is that “parents need to get back to work”– the implication being that schools need to open so that parents once again have the built-in child care that the K12 school day (and its auxiliary programs) offers.

That “parents need to get back to work” reason never seems to include the reality that in this time of international health crisis, expecting schools to offer uninterrupted, on-site education defies reality.

Schools and school systems nationwide (indeed, worldwide) are trying to navigate providing education to students despite the COVID pandemic.

That navigation almost certainly includes a remote learning component.

Thus, not only might students be receiving instruction at home, but also, parents, guardians, and/or other caregivers will need to be available to both care for children during the school day and to assist them with their remote learning.

In other words, it is completely unrealistic to expect schools to open and to stay CONTINUE READING: “Parents Need to Go to Work” Does Not Stop COVID at the School Door. | deutsch29

A VERY BUSY DAY Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the 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

A VERY BUSY DAY

Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

Video: Stephen Colbert’s Show Last Night – “Dr. Ibram X. Kendi: Creating A More Equitable Society Is In White Americans’ Self Interest”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 5h

I’m adding this new video from last night’s Stephen Colbert’s show to New & Revised: Resources To Help Us Predominantly White Teachers To Reflect On How Race Influences Our Work :

“High-Interest Books & Giving Students Time to Read & Talk About Them in School”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 5h

High-Interest Books & Giving Students Time to Read & Talk About Them in School is the headline at my latest Education Week Teacher column. Three teachers offer their recommendations of high-interest books for students to read, including for English-learners. Here are some excerpts:

A Look Back: Studies Find That Teachers Analyzing Data Is No Help To Students If It Doesn’t Result In Different Instructional Practices

by Larry Ferlazzo / 12h

I thought that new – and veteran – readers might find it interesting if I began sharing my best posts from the first half of this year. You can see the entire collection of best posts from the past thirteen years here . 200degrees / Pixabay I shared the information in this post earlier this week at my weekly Classroom Instruction Resources Of The Week post . Today, though, I shared it with my col

This Is The Best One-Minute Video I’ve Seen For A Long Time: “Jason Reynolds on what it means to be antiracist”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 12h

viarami / Pixabay I’m adding this new video to New & Revised: Resources To Help Us Predominantly White Teachers To Reflect On How Race Influences Our Work :

Micro-Versions of Folktales – Galore!

by Larry Ferlazzo / 12h

I’ve previously written about Laura Gibbs’ great work in “Drabbles” Are Cool Writing Assignments – Here Are A Ton Of Models . One of the assignments she gives to her students is to write microfiction “drabbles” (no more than 100 words) from folktales. At that previous post you can see the actual assignment she gives students. She’s actually begun putting the versions that she writes into eBook fo

Video: Could Creating “Friction” Help Us White Teachers Combat Our Implicit Biases?

by Larry Ferlazzo / 23h

Last week, I posted Implicit Bias Training Doesn’t Seem To Work – So What Should Teachers & Others Do, Instead? It examined the ineffectiveness of implicit bias trainings, and explored some possible alternatives. This TED-Talk just came out “How racial bias works — and how to disrupt it | Jennifer L. Eberhardt” and offers another idea (you can find the transcript at that link). She talks about cr

New TED-Ed Video & Lesson: “First person vs. Second person vs. Third person”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 23h

OpenClipart-Vectors / Pixabay This new TED-Ed video and lesson is a decent tool to use with students when teaching the difference between first, second and third person: