Big Education Ape: Aug 14, 2020

Friday, August 14, 2020

The Fight For Police-Free Schools: Lessons from the Past, New Directions for the Future | Schott Foundation for Public Education

The Fight For Police-Free Schools: Lessons from the Past, New Directions for the Future

Leading organizers in the educational justice movement discuss how the last ten years of parent and youth organizing helped lay the foundation for the emergence of mass protests and the campaign for police free schools and where the movement is going.

Panelists:

Jonathan Stith, Alliance for Educational Justice and National Campaign for Police Free Schools
Elsa Bañuelos, Padres & Jóvenes Unidos, Denver, one of first city schools to defund police
Mónica García, LAUSD board member and sponsor of the motion to defund school police in LA
Veronica Rodriguez, youth organizer
Tania Trejo, youth organizer

Moderated by:

Mark R. Warren, UMass Boston and lead author, Lift Us Up, Don’t Push Us Out!

Many of the panelists have also written about their experiences on the front lines of the battle for educational justice in America in "Lift Us Up, Don't Push Us Out!": Voices from the Front Lines of the Educational Justice Movement. The webinar was sponsored by Beacon Press.

The Fight For Police-Free Schools: Lessons from the Past, New Directions for the Future | Schott Foundation for Public Education

With A Brooklyn Accent: Teaching in an Age of Corona

Teaching in an Age of Corona

During the Spring Semester of 2020, I was teaching two of my favorite classes- From Rock and Roll to Hip Hop, which had nearly 40 students, and my research seminar in African American and Urban Studies, where I was supervising 10 students writing their Senior theses. When the Pandemic hit, classes moved online, and everyone had to leave campus, my students and I were fearful and in some cases traumatized by the COVID-19's impact on their families and their futures, A few had family members who were essential workers and feared catching the virus; some faced sudden impoverishment because their parents lost jobs; many mourned the loss of an opportunity to experience a live graduation, and two students, both Bronx residents, had parents who had caught the virus and were deathly ill. Given the emotional distress my students were in, I decided that my primary goal was to lift my student's spirits and give them an opportunity to express how they felt.about what was happening to them, I did this in several ways; first I tried to cheer them up with humorous short rap videos I made for them, secondly I changed course requirements so all exams were take home and students had ample time to complete their work, third, I gave my thesis students the opportunity of writing Coronavirus diaries if it was impossible to complete the research they had initially

CONTINUE READING: With A Brooklyn Accent: Teaching in an Age of Corona

How schools reopening use AI and other tech for surveillance - Vox

The dystopian tech that companies are selling to help schools reopen sooner

This fall, AI could be watching students social distance and checking their masks

Thousands of schools nationwide will not be reopening this fall. But in Las Vegas, the private K-12 Meadows School plans to use an artificial intelligence-powered thermal screening system to keep students safe as they return to classes.

The system will scan for signs that students have elevated temperatures — an indication they might have Covid-19 — as they enter buildings for their classes. If they’re flagged, the students will be asked to wait separately for about 10 minutes, and then get their temperature taken again. If the result is within a normal range, they’re cleared to start their day. If not, they’ll be sent home.

“Things are strange enough. Kids are going to be coming to school with masks. They’re going to be meeting friends with masks,” Jeremy Gregersen, the head of school at Meadows, told Recode. “They’re going to be meeting their teachers for the first time in person in strange new ways, and what we want is for kids to feel welcome and to normalize their arrival at school as early as possible.”

Supplying the technology is an artificial intelligence company called Remark Holdings. The company, which also sells facial recognition systems, has been providing a thermal scanning system — which also takes attendance — to more than 100 schools in China for over a year and is now repurposing its tech to assist semi-public places reopening amid the pandemic.

Remark Holdings is not the only company doing so. A slew of firms, many of which already sold surveillance products, are adjusting their technology to the pandemic. The suite of CONTINUE READING: How schools reopening use AI and other tech for surveillance - Vox

NYC Educator: DOE Death Panels

DOE Death Panels

I'm getting a lot of email about reasonable accommodations this week. The DOE is finally responding to requests they got a month ago, and what people are really surprised about is that they're getting answers out before school starts.

There's so little reason in the world to begin with. Just for starters, I see young women everywhere wearing thinks that say PINK in big letters. Almost none of them are pink. I'm befuddled, of course. And it's not only young women. My principal, for example, is not a young woman at all, and he's always wearing a hat that says BROWN on it. The hat is black, though.

With that sort of thing going on in the world, it's hard to expect the DOE to be reasonable. It's not, after all, what they're known for. How many times have you gone to Court St. only to find your transcripts are on the fourth floor, not the sixth, and you therefore have to resubmit them?

Reasonable at the DOE? Mayor de Blasio is jumping up and down, after having wasted April through July, and saying he's got a whole month to figure out how to open the schools safely. I'd argue, especially lately. that the DOE is known for precisely the opposite of being reasonable. I mean, who thinks it's a good idea for students to eat lunch together in a classroom during a pandemic when even talking is restricted? Not me. Not you. But DOE thinks it's the bestest thing ever.

Then we come to the concept of reasonable accommodations. This is the notion that, if you have certain conditions, you may not wish to get sick and die from COVID. Over 65? Don't get it. Type 2 diabetes? Smoking? High blood pressure? Don't get COVID. Asthma? Also a bad idea, but I hear it depends upon how bad your asthma really is. The genius doctors at DOE, or whoever they have deciding these things, will say, oh, your asthma only comes up to HERE, but her asthma goes up to THERE. YOU smoke one CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: DOE Death Panels

Fact Checking the “Science of Reading”: A Quick Guide for Teachers – radical eyes for equity

Fact Checking the “Science of Reading”: A Quick Guide for Teachers

Fact Checking the “Science of Reading”: A Quick Guide for Teachers – radical eyes for equity

David Berliner and Gene Glass: Why Bother Testing in 2021? | Diane Ravitch's blog

David Berliner and Gene Glass: Why Bother Testing in 2021?

David Berliner and Gene Glass are leaders of the American education research community. Their books are required reading in the field. They shared with me their thoughts about the value of annual testing in 2021. I would add only one point: if Trump is voted out in November, Jim Blew and Betsy DeVos will have no role in deciding whether to demand or require the annual standardized testing regime in the spring of 2021. New people who are, hopefully, wiser and more attuned to the failure of standardized testing over 20 years, will take their place.

Glass and Berliner write:

Why Bother Testing in 2021?

Gene V Glass
David C. Berliner

At a recent Education Writers Association seminar, Jim Blew, an assistant to Betsy DeVos at the Department of Education, opined that the Department is inclined not to grant waivers to states seeking exemptions from the federally mandated annual standardized achievement testing. States like Michigan, Georgia, and South Carolina were seeking a one year moratorium. Blew insisted that “even during a pandemic [tests] serve as an CONTINUE READING: David Berliner and Gene Glass: Why Bother Testing in 2021? | Diane Ravitch's blog

Safety Concerns Driving Some Educators Out the Profession - NEA Today

Safety Concerns Over COVID-19 Driving Some Educators Out the Profession

When school starts in Rutherford County, Tennessee, this month, and hundreds of teachers return to their physical classrooms, armed with surgical face coverings, Plexiglas shields, and stores of sanitizing supplies, AP English teacher Cassie Piggott will not be among them.

Forced to choose between the career she loves and the health of the child she loves even more, Piggott resigned. She hopes to teach again in the district, after the pandemic ends. For now, she says, she just can’t risk the life of her 9-year-old son, who five years ago received a bone marrow transplant because of a rare immune disorder he still has.

And Piggott isn’t the only one. Across the U.S., in school districts where educators and students are required to return to their physical classrooms, hundreds of educators are reluctantly opting out. When eligible, they’re taking early retirements, or using new options for extended leaves that some local NEA-affiliated unions have negotiated for their members. Others are simply walking away.

In a nationwide poll of educators, NEA found that 28 percent said the COVID-19 pandemic has made them more likely to retire early or leave the profession, a rate that could far worsen the U.S.’s shortage of qualified teachers. That number includes a significant number of new or young teachers—one in five teachers with less than 10 years’ experience. It also includes 40 percent of teachers with 21 to 30 years’ experience, who are presumably leaders and mentors on their school campuses, and 55 percent of those with more than 30 years.

Cassie Piggott (left) hopes to teach again, after the pandemic ends. Until then, the risk of returning to in-person school is too great a risk to her and her family. (photo courtesy Cassie Piggott)

Even more significantly, as the U.S. continues to struggle to diversify its teaching workforce for the benefit of all students, 43 percent of Black teachers say they’re now more likely to retire to leave early. Since the pandemic began, Black and Hispanic people have died at disproportionate rates of COVID-19.

This is why NEA leaders have been pushing—since the beginning of the pandemic—to reopen schools and

CONTINUE READING: Safety Concerns Driving Some Educators Out the Profession - NEA Today

Congress Neglects Children: No Relief for Public Schools or State Budgets | janresseger

Congress Neglects Children: No Relief for Public Schools or State Budgets

Public schools are the linchpin holding together our society’s supports for 50 million children. Public schools are where our children practice learning, computing, critical thinking, imagining; where they develop skills in writing, reading, musicianship, art, and all kinds of sports; and where they learn to respect one another. For children whose economic needs are greatest, public schools provide breakfast and lunch. Many wraparound schools now serve as sites for health and dental care, house after-school and childcare programs, and connect parents with broader social service providers.

After a wait of over two months following the U.S. House of Representatives’ May 15, passage of a second COVID-19 relief HEROES Act—which included money to help public schools make safety adjustments to classrooms, buses, and ventilation systems before the fall term and money to shore up the state budgets which provide 47 percent of K-12 public school funding—the Senate refused to compromise. Last week Congress gave up without agreeing on a relief package including needed help for public education. And during the negotiations, President Donald Trump tried to make assistance for public schools contingent upon their immediate reopening despite the explosive spread of COVID-19 across many communities. Trump and members of his administration claim there is plenty of funding unspent from the first COVID-19 relief bill, the CARES Act, if public schools need more money to help them prepare for safely reopening. In fact, however, states have already committed 75 percent of the CARES Act’s Coronavirus Relief Fund. The money available for public schools has been spent or has been promised for costs school districts have already planned.

Much of the discussion during the recent negotiations did center on an issue of importance toCONTINUE READING: Congress Neglects Children: No Relief for Public Schools or State Budgets | janresseger

Mr. G for District 3: Chris Guerrieri's Education Matters: Why is it so hard for DCPS just to do the right thing. (draft)

Why is it so hard for DCPS just to do the right thing. (draft)

I tried to come up with something where I talked about the Premack principle and how if you are in a hole stop digging, but I couldn't because the bottom line is DCPS is making a conscious choice to treat it's employees poorly. Every time they are given an opportunity to do something right, they choose wrong.

First, the district has had it backward from day one. They should have put everyone in Duval homeroom, and people should have opted into danger. Those 12 percent of teachers who want to be back could have gone in. Who wants to bet things would have run a lot smoother and schools would be a lot emptier and thus safer?

We didn't, and the district told teachers to sign up for Duval Homeroom but, at the same time, announced that those teachers would still have to come in. Why? No good reason was given. Friends that is just mean and petty, but it gets even worse.

So the school board passes a work from home resolution, to get as many people out of the building as possible, and for weeks the district ignores it. Then when staff asks about it, district supervisors don't seem to know what they are talking about.

How does that happen without a wink and a nod from Greene? I am not saying she ignored the school board, wink, nod, but that seems to be what has happened.

Okay, let's get back to Duval Homeroom, people spent weeks trying to figure it out. Will you lose your CONTINUE READING: Mr. G for District 3: Chris Guerrieri's Education Matters: Why is it so hard for DCPS just to do the right thing. (draft)

SSPI Thurmond ANNOUNCE: Recommendations Proposed for Ethnic Studies - Year 2020 (CA Dept of Education)

Recommendations Proposed for Ethnic Studies - Year 2020 (CA Dept of Education)

State Superintendent Tony Thurmond and Civil Rights Leaders Propose Recommendations to Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum

Student, lawmakers, and ethnic studies leader call for model that promotes racial justice

SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond presented Thursday—alongside a coalition of civil rights icons, lawmakers, and student and ethnic studies leaders—the California Department of Education’s (CDE) recommendations to the draft Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum, a guide that will give educators the tools they need to advance racial and social justice in the classroom and beyond.

Thursday’s presentation before the Instructional Quality Commission (IQC) was the first in a series of opportunities for public input on the CDE’s recommendations before final adoption next year.

“Ethnic studies has the power to provide a path to healing and justice in a state and nation reeling from racial unrest. Today we are proud to put forward recommendations that our educators and our students say they need in order to move us closer to a more just society,” said Thurmond. “We believe these recommendations lift up the voices of those whose contributions have for too long been overshadowed in education. We look forward to continued dialogue as we collaborate to finish this critical resource at this critical time.”

The CDE recommends that the model curriculum remain rooted in four foundational disciplines of ethnic studies—African American Studies, Asian American Studies, Chicano Latino Studies, and Native American Studies. The CDE also recommends the draft include educator resources for engaging in expanded, critical conversations that can be customized to reflect a school community’s diversity and engage in broader social justice issues.

The CDE’s recommendations and proposed edits were informed after reviewing tens of thousands of public comments, learning from ethnic studies subject matter experts and thought leaders, listening to educators, and engaging with students across the state.

Based on stakeholder feedback, the CDE has recommended removing all language or content that can be perceived as anti-Semitic—a commitment the State Superintendent said should not be broken as recommendations continue to be revised.

Based on continued and robust dialogue with ethnic studies experts, advocates and other stakeholders, the State Superintendent also announced the CDE’s intent to provide additional recommendations for consideration in November, including:

Adding a sample lesson on the Pacific Islander experience
Developing a sample lesson on Arab American Studies that focuses on the Arab American experience in the United States.

Both recommendations fall under the Asian American Studies discipline within ethnic studies. CDE announced its intent to add these sample lessons to its recommendations in an effort to provide frequent, transparent, and real-time updates to all stakeholders. Thurmond said the CDE will need more time to work with ethnic studies experts and instructors to finalize a sample Arab American Studies lesson before it can be submitted for public review.

Joining State Superintendent Thurmond who spoke in support of CDE’s recommendations Thursday were:

Former Assemblymember Luis Alejo, a former high school ethnic studies teacher who authored the bill to establish a model curriculum
Dr. Shawn Ginwright, a professor of Africana Studies at San Francisco State University, where the ethnic studies movement launched decades ago
Dolores Huerta, the labor leader and civil rights activist who, along with Cesar Chavez, co-founded the National Farmworkers Association
Dr. Karen Korematsu, daughter of the late civil rights activist Fred Korematsu, whose fight against imprisonment during World War II would in part lead to the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 which included a formal apology as well as reparations to Japanese Americans imprisoned during the war
Assemblymember James C. Ramos, co-founder of the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians’ Cultural Awareness Program and director of the California Indian Cultural Awareness Conference at California State University, San Bernardino
Student Alvin Lee, a member of Thurmond’s Youth Advisory Commission who participated in the State Superintendent’s virtual classroom series on ethnic studies last month

California is required by law to develop a model curriculum in ethnic studies to be utilized as a guide and outline for schools as they consider implementing ethnic studies courses. This guide will help districts and schools as they begin to develop their own ethnic studies curriculum reflecting their student demographics and community.

More information on the CDE recommendations and the draft Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum can be found on the IQC Agenda for August 13. CDE’s recommendations to the draft Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum are in alignment with state law and the State Board of Education-adopted (SBE) guidelines, which can be found on the CDE Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum Guidelines web page.

The IQC is currently reviewing the CDE recommendations at its August 13 meeting and will take action to post a revised draft of the model curriculum for a 30-day period of public review prior to taking action later this year to recommend the model curriculum to the SBE. State law requires the SBE to take final action on the model curriculum by March 31, 2021.

More information on the Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum can be found on the CDE Model Curriculum Projects web page. Individuals and groups will have the opportunity to submit public comment on the draft Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum during the 30-day review period. The IQC will review and consider those public comments at its November meeting. Comments can also be submitted at any time to ethnicstudies@cde.ca.gov.

# # # #

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

Recommendations Proposed for Ethnic Studies - Year 2020 (CA Dept of Education)

At War with Myself – radical eyes for equity

At War with Myself

There is a refrain I say to myself, something I likely have never admitted to anyone: “I hate my body.”

I say this to myself quite often and without the gravity the word “hate” should imply because this simply is a fact of my existence.

A good friend texted recently, sharing very dark morning thoughts and ending with #upliftingthoughts. I wasn’t being flippant but empathetic when I replied: “Well … uh … yep … done that, do that … it is called existentialism.”

Discovering and working through existential philosophy and literature throughout my undergraduate years and into the first decade or so of my career as a teacher was incredibly important for me.

Liberating.

As I followed up with my friend, I explained that existentialism, in my opinion, gets a bad rap as a negative philosophy—confused with nihilism (in the same way “communism” is conflated with “totalitarianism” in the U.S.). My reading of existentialism, I explained, was that humans had to acknowledge that our passions are our sufferings in order to move past that fact of human CONTINUE READING: At War with Myself – radical eyes for equity

Principals and Teachers Demand a Delayed Reopening, a Phasing in of the Hybrid Model: Are We Heading Towards a Confrontation? Principals/Teachers versus the Mayor/Chancellor? | Ed In The Apple

Principals and Teachers Demand a Delayed Reopening, a Phasing in of the Hybrid Model: Are We Heading Towards a Confrontation? Principals/Teachers versus the Mayor/Chancellor?

“In order for schools to reopen and stay open, the percentage of positive tests in New York City must be less than 3% using a 7-day rolling average. Schools will need to close if the percentage of positive tests in New York City are equal to or more than 3% using a 7-day rolling average. It is important to note that the above threshold is just one trigger for closing schools, but may not be the only trigger. For example, a decision to close schools would be made where there were recurrent, uncontrolled outbreaks of COVI D-19 in schools, even if the overall case rates across New York City were to remain low.”

(From the New York City Department of Education’s School Reopening Plan Submission to the New York State Department of Education (Read entire plan here)

What does “recurrent, uncontrolled outbreaks of COVID-19 in schools” mean? How many “outbreaks” in a single school? One? Two? In how many schools?

A scenario:

A few days after school opens a student tells a teacher that an uncle who lives with her family is sick, the teacher tells her principal, who reports to the superintendent, who reports to the executive superintendent who reports to the CONTINUE READING: Principals and Teachers Demand a Delayed Reopening, a Phasing in of the Hybrid Model: Are We Heading Towards a Confrontation? Principals/Teachers versus the Mayor/Chancellor? | Ed In The Apple

Shanker Blog: State Budget Cuts and School Districts with Pre-Existing Conditions | National Education Policy Center

Shanker Blog: State Budget Cuts and School Districts with Pre-Existing Conditions

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has published projections of state budget shortfalls due to the pandemic. The total estimated shortfall for fiscal years 2020-2022 is $555 billion. This includes $290 billion in FY2021 alone, a deficit over 25 percent larger than that in the worst year of the Great Recession (2009).

Compared with the sickness and death caused by Covid-19, state budget shortfalls are just collateral damage (though remember that states spend a lot on healthcare). But it could be a lot of damage. Unlike the federal government, virtually all states are required to balance their budgets every year. They cannot spend more than they raise in revenue, which means any deficits must be balanced out by cuts. Suppose we take these CBPP projections at face value, and subtract from them existing federal aid forthcoming and total state budget reserves. That, according to CBPP, still leaves states about $400 billion short for this past fiscal year and the next two (and there could easily be shortfalls in subsequent years).

Virtually all public school districts will feel this pain, but it will not be felt equally. Higher poverty districts are more dependent on state revenue, since more affluent districts generate more revenue from local sources (mostly property taxes). But the situation is even worse: higher poverty districts are already spending far less than they need to be. In a sense, the pandemic is going to be particularly harsh on districts with pre-existing conditions.

The graph below presents estimates of spending adequacy for the U.S. as a whole, by poverty quintile, with adequacy defined as the amount that would be required to achieve national average test scores. This measure is part of the School Finance Indicators Database, and you can CONTINUE READING: Shanker Blog: State Budget Cuts and School Districts with Pre-Existing Conditions | National Education Policy Center

NewBlackMan (in Exile) TODAY

NewBlackMan (in Exile)

NewBlackMan (in Exile) TODAY

On Evictions, Police Brutality and the Violence of Class War in South Africa.

by Mark Anthony Neal / 15h

'Writer William Shoki examines the cyclical, class nature of evictions and police brutality against poor and working class South Africans - as the nation's political economy operates for domestic and global capital, the social relations of apartheid and colonialism persist long after their apparent, historical demise. Shoki wrote the articles " The existing order of things " and " The class chara

The Black Women Behind the Ongoing Fight for Suffrage

by Mark Anthony Neal / 15h

'The 19th Amendment which was ratified on August 18th, 1920 and then certified eight days later. The 19th Amendment inked women’s suffrage into American history, a culminating moment in an effort to win political power. But the ordained heroes of women’s suffrage – like Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and later Alice Paul – often tossed out the leadership and movement-building of Black

Black Women in Resistance: Two Poems by Lamont Lilly

by Mark Anthony Neal / 15h

assata: general shakur they would like us to forget the likes of her sacrifices one dark woman well-dressed in plaid shadows called afro-freedom fighting yelling teaching staying alive on the frontline imprisoned exiled wounded still living loving her people from the outer edges etched within our hearts tucked safely within our minds one dark woman well-dressed in plaid shadows called afro-freed

Tef Poe x Rebel Diaz: "Ghetto Pueblo"

by Mark Anthony Neal / 15h

Lyric video for "Ghetto Pueblo" from MULTIPLY, Vol. 1. featuring Tef Poe and Rebel Diaz.

Singer-Songwriter Candice Hoyes Brings Black History Into The Present

by Mark Anthony Neal / 15h

(Photo by Carolyne Loreé Teston) 'Candice Hoyes is a singer, producer and songwriter with a mission to empower young girls and bring to light to forgotten Black histories. She joins Here & Now 's Tonya Mosley to talk about her new single "Zora's Moon" and the role of artists in this current moment of racial reckoning.'

Bob Kendrick, President of the Negro League Baseball Museum

by Mark Anthony Neal / 1d

' Andrew "Rube" Foster . Josh Gibson . Cool Papa Bell . Those names are synonymous with the heroes of the Negro Leagues. Baseball players of legendary status whose extraordinary talents were ignored by the mainstream and barred from joining Major League baseball during their primes due to racial discrimination. Despite that, these remarkable athletes were at the heart of a thriving league that br

#Slaveryarchive Book Club Vincent Brown's Tacky's Revolt

by Mark Anthony Neal / 1d

'First session of the #Slaveryarchive Book Club with historian Vincent Brown (Harvard University) who presented his book Tacky's Revolt: A Story of An Atlantic War .'

Black Power Scholar Peniel Joseph Illustrates How MLK And Malcolm X Influenced Each Other

by Mark Anthony Neal / 1d

'"I've always been fascinated by Malcolm X and Dr. King ... and dissatisfied in how they're usually portrayed — both in books and in popular culture," Peniel Joseph says. In his book, The Sword and the Shield: The Revolutionary Lives of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr., Joseph braids together the lives of the two civil rights leaders. He says that King and Malcolm X had "convergent visions" f

Activist Brittany Packnett Cunningham on Building a Lasting Movement

by Mark Anthony Neal / 1d

'It feels like change is in the air. But we’ve been here before: Eric Garner was killed by police in New York City in July 2014, followed weeks later by Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, igniting outrage and protest. Activists then

NewBlackMan (in Exile)