Monday, July 20, 2020

Russ on Reading: The First Question to Ask of a Vulnerable Reader

The First Question to Ask of a Vulnerable Reader

When I was six years old, I was given my very first "big boy" two wheel bicycle for Christamas. I loved it. I can still see it all shiny and red and huge by the Christmas tree. As soon as my Dad would let me, I took it out the side door into the driveway, leapt aboard (it was too big for my six-year-old legs) aimed it down the steep drive, and rode it directly into the telephone pole in front of the house. I was banged up a little, the bike was fine and I quickly scrambled back on the bike and rode it, a bit unsteadily, up and down the sidewalk until I was comfortable and able to keep my balance without too much wobbling. I really wanted to master riding that bike. I rode it everyday after that until I was 16.

When my student, Ryan, was six years old, he came to me for reading instruction. Ryan had been identified by his kindergarten teacher as a possible candidate for Reading Recovery instruction. His first grade teacher confirmed the recommendation after doing an initial assessment of Ryan's literacy ability during the first weeks of school. I administered an observational survey, which confirmed the recommendations of the teachers, and so Ryan joined me for one-on-one Reading Recovery instruction.

Ryan and I met daily for 20 weeks. During that time, Ryan made some progress towards being a reader, but the progress was not what I would have hoped and certainly did not help Ryan achieve the goal of being a self- CONTINUE READING: Russ on Reading: The First Question to Ask of a Vulnerable Reader

NANCY BAILEY: Poor Air Quality in Schools: During Covid-19 and Before!

Poor Air Quality in Schools: During Covid-19 and Before!

Poor Air Quality in Schools: During Covid-19 and Before!

For years this country has ignored school infrastructure due to attempts to privatize public education. This includes indoor air quality (IAQ). It has been a part of the overall disinvestment in America’s public schools.

We’re told by the CDC, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), and others, that schools should ensure clean air during Covid-19. There’s a disconnect between those who talk about coronavirus safety who work outside of schools and those who work in schools. Those writing these recommendations, no matter how well-meaning, don’t understand the reality school officials and teachers face.

They don’t seem to remember that bad air quality leading to asthma and allergies has been a longtime problem for children in school. It has been the source of learning difficulties. It’s hard to learn to read when you don’t feel well.

Why didn’t the leaders of the richest nation in the world improve the air quality in public schools before the coronavirus?

Remember when Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said not to invest in buildings?

She said:

If we really want to help students, then we need to focus everything about education CONTINUE READING: Poor Air Quality in Schools: During Covid-19 and Before!

No-Excuses Charter Chain Fires Principal for Caring About Children and Teachers | Diane Ravitch's blog

No-Excuses Charter Chain Fires Principal for Caring About Children and Teachers

Emily Hoefling was principal of Leadership Prep Canarsie in Brooklyn, which is part of the Uncommon Schools charter chain. She was fired because she dared to express views that ran counter to the authoritarian culture of the chain.

Yes, she writes, it is an authoritarian regime, and it always was.

When she led a professional development session, she encouraged teachers to express their views. That was her first mistake. Their views conflicted with the company line, and she did not correct them. She was marched away, lectured, yelled at, and fired.

She writes:

Make no mistake about it, Uncommon Schools is an authoritarian organization from top to bottom. And dissent is dangerous for everyone — no matter your age and no matter your position.

As an Uncommon principal, I developed a reputation for being ‘unaligned to the mission’ of Uncommon Schools. CONTINUE READING: No-Excuses Charter Chain Fires Principal for Caring About Children and Teachers | Diane Ravitch's blog

Waiting For a Teaching Assignment This Year is Like Anticipating a Death Sentence | gadflyonthewallblog

Waiting For a Teaching Assignment This Year is Like Anticipating a Death Sentence

Going to the mailbox each time, my heart flutters.

I open the lid and see a stack of letters. My heart sinks.

Is today the day?

Has my teaching assignment finally arrived?

It’s not that I’m so anxious to find out what grade I’ll be teaching this year or whether I have lunch duty or have to monitor in-school suspension.

It’s whether I get to live or die.

And that’s no hyperbole.

As the summer whittles down, my district has yet to release its reopening plan. Meanwhile, no communication from administrators or school directors, no public CONTINUE READING: Waiting For a Teaching Assignment This Year is Like Anticipating a Death Sentence | gadflyonthewallblog

Introduction To My Next Book (Part 4) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Introduction To My Next Book (Part 4)

This is the final part of my draft Introduction to “Confessions of a School Reformer.”

The research literature on children’s academic performance has shown time and again that anywhere from over half to two-thirds of minority and white students’ test scores—lower, middle, and upper class–can be attributed to family’s socioeconomic background.

Yet many educators in public traditional and charter schools in poor neighborhoods either ignore or dispute those research findings. These educators see such research as an incentive to prove scholars wrong. Such educators continue to operate on the principle that engaged and committed staff unaccepting of “excuses” (e.g., low-income family, all minority enrollment, neighborhood crime) could lift students out of poverty through helping students become academic achievers, entering college, and securing well-paid jobs. And the evidence of such positive outcomes is both available and rich.

The issue, then, of the degree to which family background and ethnic/racial school demography affect student achievement rubs against not only this body of evidence that there are schools graduating low-income minority students who enter higher education but also a discomforting and inescapable fact: Formal schooling occupies only a small portion of a child’s day. Consider that children and youth attend public schools about 1100 hours a year for 13 years (or just under 15,000 hours. That time represents less than 20 percent of a child’s and teenagers waking time for all of those years in school. Hence, most of student’s CONTINUE READING: Introduction To My Next Book (Part 4) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Mitchell Robinson: Betsy DeVos Isn't Serious About Reopening Schools: Here's How We Know | Eclectablog

Betsy DeVos Isn't Serious About Reopening Schools: Here's How We Know | Eclectablog

Betsy DeVos Isn’t Serious About Reopening Schools: Here’s How We Know

You know how I know that the corporate education reformers, and their leader, Betsy DeVos, were never serious about actually improving public education?

Because now, in the midst of a global pandemic, and a complete lack of national education policy guidance beyond “SCHOOLS MUST OPEN IN THE FALL!!!“, none of these education policy “experts” have come up with any “out of the box” advice for how schools can reopen without endangering the lives of millions of children and thousands of teachers.

Nothing.

Nada.

Zip.

What these “experts” have suggested are punishments, like threatening to withhold the 8% of funding for schools provided by the federal government to schools that open virtually–as if that will help anything.

And who would cutting that 8% in federal funding hurt most? Poor kids, minority kids, kids with disabilities–the children who can least afford yet another round of cuts to their educational opportunities.

So, want to open schools and looking for some advice on how to do so?

• Increase funding for public schools–the most conservative estimates are that schools will need an additional $245 billion to even begin to reopen safely. The Cares Act has provided $13.5 billion. Betsy DeVos has authorized $180 million in Dept. of Ed funding–for private and religious school vouchers. More than $2 trillion was spent on bailing out small businesses, like restaurants and CONTINUE READING: Betsy DeVos Isn't Serious About Reopening Schools: Here's How We Know | Eclectablog

John Thompson: Why it keeps getting harder to reopen schools safely

Why it keeps getting harder to reopen schools safely

Why it keeps getting harder to reopen schools safely

he Oklahoma City Public Schools’ “Roadmap to Readiness” is a good blueprint for reopening schools. It is consistent with the leaked 69-page Center for Disease Control analysis that the Trump administration refused to release, which also described school reopenings as the “highest risk” for coronavirus spread.

However, President Donald Trump pushes forward, saying, “We’re very much going to put pressure on governors and everybody else to open the schools.”

That’s one of three reasons why OKCPS’ “Roadmap to Readiness” should be subtitled, “Minimizing the Harm This Year.” As Oklahoma’s largest school district creeps toward a potential return to the classroom this fall, governmental policies will determine whether schools can limit the inevitable damage.

Looking at all models, ‘none of them are great’

To understand what it would take to safely reopen schools, we should recall the third week of May. After studying published CDC recommendations, OKCPS Superintendent Sean McDaniel addressed the balancing of in-school instruction and virtual learning.

“We looked and talked about all the models,” McDaniel said. “None of them are great, and every one of them is going to cause a level of alarm.”

Two months ago, such honesty wasn’t the only thing the OKCPS had going for it. Oklahoma City was doing an excellent job combating COVID-19, following the CONTINUE READING: Why it keeps getting harder to reopen schools safely

We need time & faith & funds to reopen schools safely - SF PUBLIC SCHOOL MOM

We need time & faith & funds to reopen schools safely

As a rule, whenever you see something Trump is doing, do the opposite,

That may seem like a no-brainer, but right now, with all the conversation going on about whether schools should, or shouldn’t open, I think it bears remembering. Lately, in many of the “pod” conversations sprouting up on social media, I’m noticing that parents and caregivers, in venting about their anxiety and frustration, are focusing their anger not only on the education system itself but teachers specifically.

Honestly, I understand this frustration as both a parent AND an educator. Nonetheless, it feels a little like the analogy of the boss yelling at her employee, who yells at the spouse who yells at the kid who finally kicks the dog. Based on the tweets I’m seeing, many teachers are starting to feel like they are the dog in this analogy…

With permission, I’m sharing a post I saw from a teacher in a Facebook group dedicated to supporting educators during this crisis.

With that in mind (and with permission) I’m sharing a post I recently read by a fellow SFUSD educator Amy Clark (Amy, thank you so much for your service to our students and families! 🙏🏽)

Time, Faith, and Funds

A request from an SFUSD elementary teacher

by Amy Clark,

“I have been teaching in public schools for 21 years. It’s a hard job on a good day, but the work is unique and interesting and inspiring. I’m proud of my profession and care about my students and families.

Teaching is a highly specialized profession, and it’s complicated. It’s not just a matter of materials or delivering content. It’s about relationships, CONTINUE READING: We need time & faith & funds to reopen schools safely - SF PUBLIC SCHOOL MOM

New Study: Children As Young As 10 Can Spread the Virus | Diane Ravitch's blog

New Study: Children As Young As 10 Can Spread the Virus

The New York Times reports on a new study from South Korea that finds that children as young as 10 can spread the coronavirus. Will the American Academy of Pediatrics and the CDC revise their guidelines based on this new information?

A large new study from South Korea offers an answer: Children younger than 10 transmit to others much less often than adults do, but the risk is not zero. And those between the ages of 10 and 19 can spread the virus at least as well as adults do.

The findings suggest that as schools reopen, communities will see clusters of infection take root that include children of all ages, several experts cautioned.

“I fear that there has been this sense that kids just won’t get infected or don’t get infected in the same way as adults and that, therefore, they’re almost like a bubbled population,” said Michael Osterholm, an infectious diseases expert at the University of Minnesota.

“There will be transmission,” Dr. Osterholm said. “What we have to do is accept that now and include that in our CONTINUE READING: New Study: Children As Young As 10 Can Spread the Virus | Diane Ravitch's blog

Trump vs. Biden on reopening schools - The Washington Post

Trump vs. Biden on reopening schools

There are, not unexpectedly, big differences between the approaches that President Trump and former vice president Joe Biden are taking about whether and how to reopen schools during the coronavirus pandemic.

Trump has been repeatedly saying that all schools should open fully — even in areas where coronavirus infection rates are spiking — and that he wants to withhold federal funding from districts that don’t. Although he can’t unilaterally withhold money Congress has already spent, he is working with Senate Republicans to attach conditions or incentives to billions of dollars in new emergency aid for schools.

Trump administration, congressional Republicans eye tying school aid to reopening in next funding bill

In contrast, Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate, released a new plan of his own on Friday (see video below) for reopening schools that stressed the importance of keeping people safe — a point that is not part of Trump’s threatening call to reopen.

Biden, joined by his educator wife, Jill Biden, said in a video recorded in his basement that school districts should make decisions about reopening based on local conditions.

“Forcing educators and students back into classrooms in areas where infection rates are going up or remaining too high is just plain dangerous,” he said.

Biden called on Congress to provide billions of dollars in emergency funding for school districts, which say they cannot openly safely without federal assistance to make the changes necessary and purchase enough protective equipment.

“If we do this wrong, we will put lives at risk and set our economy and our country back,” Biden said in the video.

Jill Biden added, CONTINUE READING: Trump vs. Biden on reopening schools - The Washington Post

Disappointing but Not Surprising: Trump and DeVos Ignore Equity and Abandon Safety In Demands to Reopen Schools | janresseger

Disappointing but Not Surprising: Trump and DeVos Ignore Equity and Abandon Safety In Demands to Reopen Schools

There is lots of penetrating writing about the collapse of our society’s ideals in these months since mid-March, when we suddenly realized the coronavirus was among us. As the weeks wore on last spring, and children were thrust into online lessons provided by their schools, a vast invisible digital chasm between wealthy and poor families was immediately exposed. People vowed that the COVID-19 pandemic would be an inflection point. America would address growing inequity between the extremely privileged and working families living paycheck to paycheck.

But all summer the Trump administration and Congress have ignored the problems set to emerge when school districts’ released plans for resuming school this fall. The Senate has put off even considering the amount of relief dollars necessary to ensure basic staffing and safety. This week, as the Trump administration falters, the press has been paying attention. I urge you to read carefully the articles briefly excerpted here to explore what needs to happen in the next month.

The Nation‘s Ellie Mystal most vividly depicts today’s dismaying and confusing realities for families as the Trump administration and Congress have shown not the least concern for the public institution that serves our nation’s children on behalf of our society: “After the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, President Barack Obama delivered what I have always believed to be the best speech of his presidency. He talked about what it’s like to be a parent, and the critical realization, experienced by most parents, that you can’t keep your children safe or teach them well without the help of your friends and neighbors. Then he expanded that idea to include the whole of society. He said, ‘This is our first task—caring for our children. It’s our first job. If we don’t get that right, we don’t get anything right. That’s how, as a society, we will be judged.'”

Mystal continues: “We have not gotten anything right when it comes to caring for our CONTINUE READING: Disappointing but Not Surprising: Trump and DeVos Ignore Equity and Abandon Safety In Demands to Reopen Schools | janresseger

Mr. G for District 3: Chris Guerrieri's Education Matters: Daycare for working families is a city and state problem not a school problem.

Daycare for working families is a city and state problem not a school problem.

Let me say everyone wants to be back in school, and my heart breaks for those working families put in impossible positions, but that being said, teachers and school staff members shouldn't have to risk their lives because the cities and state won't do their #$%@ing jobs.

You hear it all the time, schools need to open so people can go back to work. This reduces education to little more than daycare.

Ron DeSantis governor of Florida, President Trump, and others have echoed this sentiment over and over again. They say the economy must get going, not realizing how shortsighted this is. Apparently, they don't understand or care that when teachers start to get sick, schools will close, and now children and their parents will be forced to quarantine; the economy may open up again for a few days or few weeks, but it will inevitably grind to a stop.

Instead of forcing schools to open, they should be working to provide some way to help our parents, be it with tax credits or direct payments. Maybe they should put a bunch of smart people in a room, i.e., not them, and CONTINUE READING: Mr. G for District 3: Chris Guerrieri's Education Matters: Daycare for working families is a city and state problem not a school problem.