CURMUDGUCATION: To Everyone Who Was Never A Classroom Teacher, Re Pandemic School Openings

CURMUDGUCATION: To Everyone Who Was Never A Classroom Teacher, Re Pandemic School Openings

To Everyone Who Was Never A Classroom Teacher, Re Pandemic School Openings

To everyone who was never a classroom teacher but who has some ideas about how school should be reopened in the fall:

Hush.

Just hush.

There are some special categories of life experiences. Divorce. Parenthood. Deafness. Living as a Black person in the US. Classroom teacher. They are very different experiences, but they all have on thing in common.

You can read about these things. But if you haven't lived it, you don't know. You can study up, read up, talk to people. And in some rare cases that brings you close enough to knowing that your insights might actually be useful.

But mostly, you are a Dunning-Krueger case study just waiting to be written up.

The last thirty-seven-ish years of education have been marked by one major feature-- a whole lot of people who just don't know, throwing their weight around and trying to set the conditions under which the people who actually do the work will have to try to actually do the work. Policy wonks, privateers, Teach for America pass-throughs, guys who wanted to run for President, folks walking by on the street who happen to be filthy rich, amateurs who believe their ignorance is a qualification-- everyone has stuck their oar in to try to reshape US education. And in ordinary times, as much as I argue against these folks, I would not wave my magic wand to silence them, because 1) educators are just as susceptible as anyone to becoming too insular and entrenched and convinced of their CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: To Everyone Who Was Never A Classroom Teacher, Re Pandemic School Openings

'This is hell': Parents and kids hate online classes. Back to school likely to include online class. How can we improve it?

Back to school likely to include online class. How can we improve it?

'This is hell': Parents and kids hate online classes. Going back to school likely will include more of it.

In his suburban New Jersey home-turned-classroom this spring, parent Don Seaman quickly found himself in the role of household vice principal.

While his wife holed up in the bedroom to work each day, Seaman, a media and marketing professional, worked from the family room where he could supervise his children's virtual learning. A similar scene played out in millions of American homes after schools shuttered and moved classes online to contain the coronavirus.

Now that the year's over, Seaman has strong feelings about the experience: Despite the best efforts of teachers, virtual learning didn't work. At least not uniformly, if his three children in elementary, middle and high school are any indication.

"The older kids were saying, 'This is hell,'" Seaman said. "My kids feel isolated, and they can't keep up, and they're struggling with it."

But like it or not, remote instruction and virtual learning are likely to continue for millions of children this fall. That's because most districts can't observe physical distancing with all students attending class together in-person.

Many reopening plans rely on hybrid learning schedules, where students attend school on alternating days or weeks and learn from home on the other days, on a computer where feasible.  

Yet America’s educators know little about how to improve the online learning experience – and many districts CONTINUE READING: Back to school likely to include online class. How can we improve it?

Barbara Veltri: TFA Is Still Feeding at the Trough | Diane Ravitch's blog

Barbara Veltri: TFA Is Still Feeding at the Trough | Diane Ravitch's blog

Barbara Veltri: TFA Is Still Feeding at the Trough 

Barbara Veltri is a teacher educator at Arizona State University. She has mentored TFA corps members, and she wrote a book about TFA.

In this essay, she notes that Doug Ducey, Republican Governor of Arizona and a favorite of Charles Joch, is an avid supporter of Trump, school choice, and TFA.

She writes:

Tara Kini, wrote, “We’re hearing a lot of conflicting scenarios and projections related to the teacher workforce come fall. On the one hand, there is a fear of massive layoffs precipitated by the Cov-19 recession and state budget cuts. On the other, there are projections of staffing shortages and state budget cuts. (June 25, 2020).

We have been here before

In 2012, The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found that in fiscal year 2013, 35 states were spending less than they did during the recession. Since 2009, more than 200,000 teacher jobs vanished and in spite of CONTINUE READING: Barbara Veltri: TFA Is Still Feeding at the Trough | Diane Ravitch's blog

NEA to Host Virtual Representative Assembly July 2-3 - NEA Today

NEA to Host Virtual Representative Assembly July 2-3 - NEA Today

NEA to Host Virtual Representative Assembly July 2-3

For the first time in its more than 160-year history, the National Education Association (NEA) will host a virtual Representative Assembly, a necessary and prudent safeguard for its delegates during a global pandemic.

“NEA’s Board of Directors has decided to convert the 2020 NEA RA into a virtual meeting, which is our safest option,” said NEA President Lily Eskelsen García. “We cannot take the risk of educators becoming infected and spreading the virus to students, their families and colleagues, or their communities. We look forward to the 2021 RA, where we can hopefully once again come together to set policy and chart the direction of NEA business.”

Nearly 8,000 educator delegates from every state will come together virtually during NEA’s 99th Representative Assembly (RA) on July 2-3, 2020, with a streamlined agenda, packed with major speakers who will address the many crises public education faces during one of the most trying times in our history.

2020 Human and Civil Rights Awards

Kicking off this year’s RA will be the first-ever virtual 2020 NEA Human and Civil Rights Awards: We Rise Together on Wednesday, July 1, at 8 p.m. ET. Stacey Abrams and the Philando Castile Relief Foundation are among the distinguished honorees. To complement its first-ever virtual ceremony, NEA unveiled a new, permanent website that is home to all of the content related to the HCR Awards: bios of recipients, acceptance videos of honorees, keynotes, and other information at neahcrawards.org.

NEA President Lily Eskelsen García Farewell Keynote July 2

The 2020 RA will also be the last for Lily Eskelsen García as president. In her keynote address on July 2, she will speak about her six years at the helm of the 3-million member NEA and about the organization’s work for equity and racial justice that reached a pinnacle this year in the wake of George Floyd’s murder and national protests. “This is education work. This is union work. This is justice work. This is our work,” she says.

Also speaking on July 2 will be voting rights activist, author, Georgia House Minority Leader, and winner of NEA’s 2020 Presidential Award, Stacey Abrams.

The last agenda item for the day will be delegate debate on the 2020-2022 NEA Strategic Plan and Budget.

Conversation with Vice President Joe Biden July 3

On the second day of the RA, Friday July 3, Presidential candidate Joe Biden will take part in a live, virtual townhall conversation with NEA members. He will address the delegates and answer questions from educators and NEA President Lily Eskelsen García.

In March, NEA recommended Joe Biden in the Democratic Primary. Vice President Biden has been a champion for public education throughout this campaign and his career. Educators know that as President, Biden will boost opportunities for America’s students, build an economy that works for all Americans, work to dismantle systemic racism, and strengthen the voice of working Americans.

Other highlights of the RA on July 3 will include remarks from NEA Executive Director Kim Anderson, an address from Tabatha Rosproy, 2020 Teacher of the Year, Andrea Beeman, 2020 Education Support Professional of the Year, and Elizabeth Davenport, 2020 Higher Educator of the Year.

The 2020 Friend of Education will be presented to climate activist Greta Thunberg on July 3 for her work in engaging American students and young people worldwide in the fight to protect the planet and create a sustainable future.

Mail-In Voting

Because of the virtual setting, all votes related to business before the RA will be conducted by mail to ensure equity in participation and the security and integrity of the democratic process. Voting results will be made available later in the summer when all votes have been counted.

For more information on NEA’s RA, visit nea.org/ra.

NEA to Host Virtual Representative Assembly July 2-3 - NEA Today

Doctors Call For Reopening Schools Despite Coronavirus Crisis : Coronavirus Live Updates : NPR

Doctors Call For Reopening Schools Despite Coronavirus Crisis : Coronavirus Live Updates : NPR

U.S. Pediatricians Call For In-Person School This Fall

The nation's pediatricians have come out with a strong statement in favor of bringing children back to the classroom this fall, wherever and whenever they can do so safely. The American Academy of Pediatrics' guidance "strongly advocates that all policy considerations for the coming school year should start with a goal of having students physically present in school."

The guidance says "schools are fundamental to child and adolescent development and well-being."

The AAP cites "mounting evidence" that transmission of coronavirus by young children is uncommon, partly because they are less likely to contract it in the first place.

On the other hand, the AAP argues that based on the nation's experience this spring, remote learning is likely to result in severe learning loss and increased social isolation. Social isolation, in turn, can breed serious social, emotional and health issues: "child and adolescent physical or sexual abuse, substance use, depression, and suicidal ideation." Furthermore, these impacts will be visited more severely on Black and brown children, as well as low-income children and those with learning disabilities. CONTINUE READING: Doctors Call For Reopening Schools Despite Coronavirus Crisis : Coronavirus Live Updates : NPR

Will Two Cities Defund School Police? - LA Progressive

Will Two Cities Defund School Police? - LA Progressive

Will Two Cities Defund School Police?

In Oakland, an Emphatic Yes; In L.A., Not So Fast

Amid ongoing protests against police brutality and racial injustice, two of California’s largest school districts  this week joined other education leaders across the country pressured to rethink their policing of students.

In Oakland and Los Angeles, thousands of protesters of all races and ethnicities spent days in the streets calling for an end to the school district-funded police forces that unfairly criminalize students of color.

After weeks of public protest and a 12-hour school board meeting Tuesday, the deeply divided Los Angeles Unified School District turned aside plans to defund its school police department in favor of further study, rejecting impassioned pleas to disband the force of 471 officers patrolling 1,386 schools across the city.

But the board of the Oakland Unified School District, meeting the next day, took a different approach, unanimously deciding to eliminate its school Police Department ahead of the next school year. The George Floyd Resolution to Eliminate the Oakland Schools Police Department could redirect up to $2.5 million in funding from the Police Department to students. That is believed to be the first time that an education system of Oakland’s size – with 50,000 students – has abolished its school police department entirely.

“This is a way to reimagine how we educate children without harming them with constant contact with the police,” school board director Roseann Torres said at Wednesday’s meeting.

In Oakland and Los Angeles, thousands of protesters of all races and ethnicities spent days in the streets calling for an end to the school district-funded police forces that unfairly criminalize students of color.

The day of the Los Angeles school board meeting Tuesday, protesters organized by Students CONTINUE READING: Will Two Cities Defund School Police? - LA Progressive

Get police out of schools — including university campuses | Salon.com

Get police out of schools — including university campuses | Salon.com

Get police out of schools — including university campuses

Municipal police departments' racist policing practices do not stop when policing university campuses

The brutal police killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Tony McDade, among many others, and the wave of national Black-led protests against racist police brutality that followed, have permanently altered the realm of the possible. Once deemed fringe or too radical, calls to defund and abolish the police are not only within view of the mainstream, but are suddenly on the table. Such demands have fueled new and already existing movements to dismantle and defund police on college campuses. In particular, the University of Minnesota's (UM's) move to cut some ties with the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) in response to Floyd's murder, as called for by student activists, has further shifted the paradigm, demonstrating that universities can absolutely act to remove law enforcement from their campuses.

Specifically, UM stated that it would no longer contract with the MPD to provide additional police for football games, concerts or other major events, or for specialized services (such as support for explosives detection). To be sure, the decision does not necessarily represent a firm commitment from UM to police abolition or even divestment from partnering with other forms of external law enforcement — it is merely a proclamation that the university will not partner with MPD. Still, the decision has served as inspiration for countless student activists and groups across the country, who have released public statements urging their universities to end university-police relationships and to abolish campus policing altogether. Citing numerous instances of the unlawful search, harassment, racial profiling, assault, arrest, coercion, incarceration, police beatings, and in some instances, the killing of primarily Black students or residents, these statements reveal an undeniable pattern of anti-Black racist policing practices and violence. CONTINUE READING: Get police out of schools — including university campuses | Salon.com

Confronting DiAngelo’s “White Fragility” in the Time of #BlackLivesMatter – radical eyes for equity

Confronting DiAngelo’s “White Fragility” in the Time of #BlackLivesMatter – radical eyes for equity

Confronting DiAngelo’s “White Fragility” in the Time of #BlackLivesMatter

For a book on racism written by an academic, Robin DiAngelo’s White Fragility has experienced a level of popularity over the last two years that is interesting, if not surprising.

With the #BlackLivesMatter movement re-ignited after the killing of George Floyd by a police officer, DiAngelo’s book has also experienced another significant boost in readership, primarily by white Americans seemingly having a long-overdue come-to-Jesus moment with their whiteness and complicity in systemic racism.

On social media, however, blog posts and Twitter threads have warned “don’t read White Fragility” and “don’t worship DiAngelo.” These warnings come from Black scholars and advocates for anti-racism activism, creating a powerful and important tension in that fight to eradicate white privilege and racism in the U.S.

There is also an insidious challenge to DiAngelo and White Fragility that comes from and speaks to white denial and white nationalism; this denial is grounded in a dishonest use of “science” calling into question DiAngelo’s statistics, methods, and scholarship.

This rebuttal is ironic proof of the existence and resilience of white denial and CONTINUE READING: Confronting DiAngelo’s “White Fragility” in the Time of #BlackLivesMatter – radical eyes for equity

A decade of research on education inequality in America

A decade of research on education inequality in America

A decade of research on the rich-poor divide in education
Many studies show large and growing inequities

Americans like to believe that education can be a great equalizer, allowing even the poorest child who studies hard to enter the middle class. But when I looked at what academic researchers and federal data reports have said about the great educational divide between the rich and poor in our country, that belief turns out to be a myth. Basic education, from kindergarten through high school, only expands the disparities.

In 2015, during the Obama administration, the federal education department issued a report that showed how the funding gap between rich and poor schools grew 44 percent over a decade between 2001-2 and 2011-12. That meant that the richest 25 percent of school districts spent $1,500 more per student, on average, than the poorest 25 percent of school districts. 

I wish I could have continued to track this data between rich and poor schools to see if school spending had grown more fair. But the Trump administration crunched the numbers differently. When it issued a report in 2018, covering the 2014-15 school year, it found that the wealthiest 25 percent of districts spent $450 more per student than the poorest 25 CONTINUE READING: A decade of research on education inequality in America

Online or in the classroom, teachers and students must show up every day, new rules say - Los Angeles Times

What are the California school rules for online learning? - Los Angeles Times

Online or in the classroom, teachers and students must show up every day, new rules say

When it comes to education, the new state budget goes beyond providing $70.5 billion in funding for K-12 schools — it sets fundamental accountability rules for a new era of distance learning in California by requiring teachers to take online attendance and document student learning.

The budget bill, which Gov. Gavin Newsom is expected to sign, anticipates that schools will continue to rely heavily on online instruction when campuses reopen in the fall. It also implicitly acknowledges the deep learning losses of the last semester, especially among students from low-income families, when school systems struggled to get all students online.

The new directives establish minimum teaching parameters for distance learning while protecting teachers against immediate layoffs.

“Educators and teacher unions have won fairly steady funding from Sacramento to reopen schools this fall,” said UC Berkeley education professor Bruce Fuller. “Now the imperative is to deliver a rich blend of online and face-to-face instruction.”

Fuller said the emphasis on documentation reflects concern by state leaders that “tens of thousands of kids simply unplugged in the spring, then fell further behind.”

Whether schooling is online or in person, the rules reimpose the state’s minimum daily instructional minutes requirement of 180 for kindergarten, 230 minutes for grades 1 through 3, and 240 minutes for grades 4 through 12. Distance learning can be documented with student work as well as time online.

Schools also must develop procedures for reengaging students absent from distance learning for more than three school days in a school week. Schools are allowed to develop alternate plans, with input from parents, for achieving these mandates when necessary.

When the pandemic forced campuses to close in March for the remainder of the school year, the state told educators to continue teaching by any form necessary and possible — and schools statewide scrambled to distribute computers, internet hot spots and hastily assembled paper packets.

Recognizing this burden, state officials set aside fundamental and familiar rules such as taking attendance and providing a requisite number of minutes of teaching each day. School district leaders and charter school operators frequently followed suit — emphasizing compassion over rigor and recognizing that schooling could not simply be switched instantly and seamlessly from a face-to-face classroom experience to face time over a screen. CONTINUE READING: What are the California school rules for online learning? - Los Angeles Times

Children and the Pandemic - LA Progressive

Children and the Pandemic - LA Progressive

Children and the Pandemic

The Pandemic Shows the Importance of Funding Early Childcare and Education Infrastructure

The COVID-19 pandemic that shut down the economy in March has led to sharp declines in employment and output. In December, women made up more than half the workforce; now, for the first time, women have lost jobs at a more rapid rate than men. They need to be able to return to employment in large numbers if the economy is to recover and get onto a strong growth path.

The importance of the childcare ecosystem to the effective functioning of families and the economy has come into sharp focus. Childcare workers are widely recognized as essential to the nation’s post-pandemic economic success. Getting the economy moving again will require a policy response and spending on early care and education (ECE) commensurate with its economic and social importance.

So it’s disappointing that the Democrats’ $1.5 trillion infrastructure proposal, the Moving Forward Act that the House will vote on before July 4, includes just $10 billion targeted on rehabilitating childcare facilities. The funds are earmarked for renovations to meet immediate COVID-19 related health and safety needs of children. The remaining 99.3 percent of the funding in the bill provides $400 billion for highways, bridges, and public transportation plus funding to fix other deficiencies in physical infrastructure. There is no funding for social infrastructure to expand quality, affordable CONTINUE READING: Children and the Pandemic - LA Progressive

A system designed only to benefit born-billionaire Betsy DeVos – with special guest columnist Helaine Olen | Eclectablog

A system designed only to benefit born-billionaire Betsy DeVos – with special guest columnist Helaine Olen | Eclectablog

A system designed only to benefit born-billionaire Betsy DeVos – with special guest columnist Helaine Olen

Helaine Olen on Twitter: @HelaineOlen

Buy Helaine’s book

Pound Foolish: Exposing the Dark Side of the Personal Finance Industry HERE.

Helaine Olen’s work at The Washington Post is HERE.

Helaine Olen at The Washington Post: Betsy DeVos is an abysmal failure and our nation’s schoolchildren are paying the price

Helaine Olen at The Washington Post: We’re in a pandemic. Why have we stopped talking about Medicare-for-all?

Helaine Olen at The Washington Post: Retirement in America is already uncertain. Republicans want to make it worse.

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A system designed only to benefit born-billionaire Betsy DeVos – with special guest columnist Helaine Olen | Eclectablog

Final CARES Act Disribution Rule Still Favors Private Schools Over Public Schools | janresseger

Final CARES Act Disribution Rule Still Favors Private Schools Over Public Schools | janresseger

Final CARES Act Disribution Rule Still Favors Private Schools Over Public Schools

Betsy DeVos just released binding final guidance for states to distribute $13.2 billion from the CARES Act to public school districts and private schools. States and public school districts have been pushing back against DeVos’s preliminary non-binding guidance, which favors funding for private and religious schools.  Now in her final guidance DeVos has struck a compromise of sorts, but many think her new plan is unworkable.

In the language of the CARES Act, Congress distributed $13.2 billion in relief funds to school districts  to reflect the distribution plan in the Title I formula, which sends federal money to school districts according to the number and concentration of impoverished students enrolled in the district’s public schools. Title I also requires school districts to provide Title I services for students who live below 185 percent of the federal poverty level and are enrolled in private schools located within district boundaries. In April, in her preliminary (non-binding) guidance for distribution of CARES Act dollars, however, DeVos prescribed that CARES Act dollars would be distributed to private and religious schools based on their total enrollment, not just for the number of impoverished students they enroll.

Education Week‘s Andrew Ujifusa explains how Betsy DeVos’s new final rule revises her previous non-binding guidance for the distribution of CARES Act dollars to public and private schools:

• “A district can decide to distribute the CARES money only to schools that received Title I for the 2019-20 school year—essentially, those schools with a minimum share of CONTINUE READING: Final CARES Act Disribution Rule Still Favors Private Schools Over Public Schools | janresseger

Mr G. for District 3 ----------------- Chris Guerrieri's Education Matters: DCPS looking to spend millions on plastic shields, masks still optional. (draft)

Mr G. for District 3 ----------------- Chris Guerrieri's Education Matters: DCPS looking to spend millions on plastic shields, masks still optional. (draft)

DCPS looking to spend millions on plastic shields, masks still optional. (draft)

You know for years I have been advocating for later start times for high schools. The science is pretty clear that high school kids should start later in the day.

https://www.cdc.gov/features/school-start-times/index.

The district always replies we can't afford it because of magnet school busing. Buses rum multiple routes for multiple schools and we would need a lot more buses and that would cost a lot more money.

Well friends I believe we can throw that excuse out the window and I think I have figured out where we can get the money.

Grumpy Educator has shared and invoice of the districts plan to buy Plexiglas shields and friends they going to run the district in the millions to buy.

https://duvalcosb.civicclerk.com/Web/GenFile.aspx?ad=18202&fbclid=IwAR3jhAlliACq-Ec4TQDlA8tTUHZg4FFp0RK9KlDKYJh4C35SrXR2_GmPQtE

Listen I am torn on this. I don't think the Plexiglas shields would hurt and I think they would help with slowing the spread of the disease. That being said it's millions for something if we are lucky we won't need much past Christmas or beyond this year.

Then think about this, the district is willing to spend millions on screens but shrugs their shoulders at masks. This despite the CDC and the Florida health department practically begging us to make them mandatory.

This is what I think we need to do and for those of you that disagree with me, cool, share your ideas, I  would CONTINUE READING: Mr G. for District 3 ----------------- Chris Guerrieri's Education Matters: DCPS looking to spend millions on plastic shields, masks still optional. (draft)