The Lesson Kids Are Learning from Reckless School Reopenings: YOU DON’T MATTER | gadflyonthewallblog

The Lesson Kids Are Learning from Reckless School Reopenings: YOU DON’T MATTER | gadflyonthewallblog

The Lesson Kids Are Learning from Reckless School Reopenings: YOU DON’T MATTER

Let’s say you’re an American school child.

It’s the first day of school.

Your parents dress you in your best new outfit – maybe a nice pink jumper with a unicorn on it.

They help you tie your new sneakers – that’s right, two loops and a knot.

Then they put a surgical mask snugly over your mouth and nose, adhere a clear plastic face shield from your forehead down and snap some latex gloves on your hands.

“Off to school, Honey!”

“Don’t forget your antibacterial soap and Clorox wipes!”

What do you suppose would be going through your mind?

Would you feel safe? Would you feel loved? Would you feel valued?

I don’t think so.

I mean sure your parents care enough to dress you like an extra from “Outbreak,” but they don’t care enough to CONTINUE READING: The Lesson Kids Are Learning from Reckless School Reopenings: YOU DON’T MATTER | gadflyonthewallblog

US schools revamp curricula in response to Black Lives Matter | Daily Mail Online

US schools revamp curricula in response to Black Lives Matter | Daily Mail Online

US schools are changing their curriculum in response to Black Lives Matter as survey finds 81% of teachers support the movement

BLM AT SCHOOL

https://www.blacklivesmatteratschool.com/

• US schools are altering their curricula to include more focus on black history and experiences
• It comes as a direct response to the Black Lives Matter protests this summer
• There were increased demands for teaching materials and practices that help black students better understand their place in the country 
• A survey found 81% of US teachers support BLM   

Schools around the United States are modifying their curriculum in response to the Black Lives Matter movement as students return following a summer of protest. 

The weeks of unrest sparked by the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor has jumpstarted the response from educators. 

It has also led to increased demands for teaching materials and practices that help black students better understand their history and place in the country. 

A June survey by the EdWeek Research Center, which is affiliated with the prominent trade publication Education Week, found that 81 percent of US teachers support Black Lives Matter.

'We can't control what happens with the police, but we can control what happens in our school systems,' said Michael McFarland, head of the National Alliance of Black School Educators and a superintendent of the Crowley Independent School District in Texas. 

After a summer of teacher workshops focused on updating curricula, millions of students will return to U.S. classrooms in coming weeks - virtually or in person - that focus more on black history and experiences, according to interviews with teachers, officials, publishers and others.

John Marshall keeps a picture of Breonna Taylor in his office at the headquarters of CONTINUE READING: US schools revamp curricula in response to Black Lives Matter | Daily Mail Online

Big Education Ape: Making Black Lives Matter in School | Diane Ravitch's blog - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2020/07/making-black-lives-matter-in-school.html

‘Broken Windows’ Approach To Teaching Is Breaking Our Schools - PopularResistance.Org

‘Broken Windows’ Approach To Teaching Is Breaking Our Schools - PopularResistance.Org

‘BROKEN WINDOWS’ APPROACH TO TEACHING IS BREAKING OUR SCHOOLS

Students Of Color Are Harmed The Most.

Students of color received instrumental interactions geared at conditioning them to become obedient at all times, to navigate white supremacy without challenging it.

In the fight for racial justice, teachers have a heavy job, for schools are both microcosms of, and preparation for, society. Because teachers serve as significant adult figures in children’s lives, their interactions with students can shape students’ sense of self and the world around them, as well as their engagement in school, personal efficacy, and academic achievement. Complex and difficult racial dynamics impact these relationships, and as calls for justice grow, it’s time to recognize this.

Systemic racism is sometimes blatant in our schools. For example, it is hard to deny that segregation persists, and that schools serving students of color receive less funding than mostly white schools. In my home state of Arizona, for example, schools serving mostly white students receive an average of $7,600 more per pupil than schools serving students of color, a discrepancy that increases to nearly $11,000 when controlling for neighborhood income. Research also repeatedly reveals that Black students in particular are more likely to be subjected to disciplinary action, much of which removes them from classrooms and schools. Sometimes this even leads students directly into interactions with law enforcement, hence the moniker school-to-prison pipeline. But there is a subtler form of racism at play in many classrooms, one CONTINUE READING: ‘Broken Windows’ Approach To Teaching Is Breaking Our Schools - PopularResistance.Org

John Thompson: Oklahoma Politicians Mumbling about the Coronavirus | Diane Ravitch's blog

John Thompson: Oklahoma Politicians Mumbling about the Coronavirus | Diane Ravitch's blog

John Thompson: Oklahoma Politicians Mumbling about the Coronavirus

John Thompson is a historian and retired teacher in Oklahoma.

He writes:

The McAlester Public Schools are in the Oklahoma county where COVID is now #1 in the state in per capita COVID infections. A week before the scheduled opening, McAlester reports five positives linked to football. But its schools will still provide in-person instruction.

This is just one of 50 schools with infections on the eve of their reopening in a state which had had a low infection rate, but that is now in the “Red Zone,” with more than 100 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people. We must finally ask why responsible leaders, such as the mayors of Oklahoma City and Tulsa, are so unwilling to challenge Trumpian true-believers who undermined science-based public health actions, even as a crisis is clearly unfolding.

https://oklahoman.com/article/5669649/mcalester-schools-to-reopen-amid-state-high-covid-19-rate?utm_source=SFMC&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=The%20Oklahoman%20breaking-news%202020-08-2021:37:08&utm_content=GTDT_OKC&utm_term=082020

https://www.kosu.org/post/here-are-oklahoma-school-districts-where-covid-19-cases-have-been-discovered-school-began

A week ago, I hoped to communicate with some of the adults in the room – who I know understand that a second burst of COVID is virtually inevitable. So, I started with a joke, borrowing from the late political Oklahoma humorist, James Boren, who used to say, “When in doubt mumble.”

Trying to persuade, I noted that medical experts and responsible political leaders must always wrestle with CONTINUE READING: John Thompson: Oklahoma Politicians Mumbling about the Coronavirus | Diane Ravitch's blog

NYC Educator: Profiles in Stupid--Remote Teachers Without Accommodation to Work from Buildings

NYC Educator: Profiles in Stupid--Remote Teachers Without Accommodation to Work from Buildings

Profiles in Stupid--Remote Teachers Without Accommodation to Work from Buildings

No, there's no school calendar. The Tweedies are occupied with Very Important Stuff and can't be bothered with frivlities like telling us when we have to work.  This week, Mayor de Blasio and Chancellor Carranza, with two weeks to go before schools are supposed to open, have finally decided to check the ventilation in schools so they could blindly open in a pandemic. This, of course, came right on the heels of telling principals to submit outdoor learning plans by tomorrow. Good luck with that. 

As if that's not enough, they make believe that their plan, to let everyone plod into school and test for COVID only if they feel like it, is the bestest thing ever. 

Here's something, though, that you probably haven't heard before. Some people have accommodations and will be working from home. However, there will be quite a bit of remote learning going on. I read somewhere that 70% of all learning would be remote.

Furthermore, it won't be only teachers with accommodations offering remote learning. Some schools have half or more of their students requesting remote learning. Ask yourself this--if Mayor de Blasio's plan is so foolproof, so goshdarn safe that everyone should jump up and do a jig because it's so fabulous, why aren't New Yorkers banging down the doors to get into those school buildings?

Well, it could be because they're filthy. I haven't seen a custodial employee replaced in my building for years. Fewer employees? Too bad. Do the same work and figure it out. I'm trying to remember just how many months it was last year that the heat and AC in my trailer didn't work. My best guess is all of them. I don't trust the DOE for a New York minute to clean buildings or fix airflow, let alone sanitize them.

And the dysfunction has become more palpable than ever over these last few weeks. Let's take a look at those remote teachers without accommodations. I've now had multiple reports that the DOE is insisting those remote teachers do their work from school buildings. I'm not sure exactly how the DOE came to this conclusion, but it's among the worst decisions I've ever seen them make, and that's saying something.

There is absolutely no advantage in making teachers without accommodations enter school buildings, However, the CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: Profiles in Stupid--Remote Teachers Without Accommodation to Work from Buildings

Teacher Tom: Man, I Was Not Ready for This Pandemic

Teacher Tom: Man, I Was Not Ready for This Pandemic

Man, I Was Not Ready for This Pandemic

Man, I was not ready for this pandemic. Not at all. Up until March, my life revolved around being in the physical presence of other people, usually packed together in classrooms, airports and airplanes, hotels, conference rooms, restaurants, concerts, and dance floors. Indeed, I could not have been less well prepared for staying home, isolating, and distancing.

I mean, the adjustment has been brutal. I've lost income. I've fallen into bouts of anger and despair. I've struggled with waiting in well-spaced lines, dodging people on the sidewalks, carrying on day-to-day life via the computer, and wearing a mask. The mask has been particularly tough because, let's face it, my smile is my "money maker." I've had to learn to smile with my eyes, for crying out loud. 

If only I'd practiced these things. If only I had pre-restricted my social and professional life. That would have been the thing to do, right? I should have anticipated this pandemic by hunkering down more, keeping to myself, and perfecting my indoor hobbies. I mean, it's not like people weren't warning us that "the big one" was coming, but I guess I was cocky, you know. I'd survived the HIV/AIDS pandemic as well as SARS, MERS, Ebola, and several versions of flu without really changing a thing. But I see now how maybe I should have gone into training in order to be ready for this. Then the CONTINUE READING: Teacher Tom: Man, I Was Not Ready for This Pandemic

Center for Reinventing Public Education the Billionaires’ Advocate | tultican

Center for Reinventing Public Education the Billionaires’ Advocate | tultican

Center for Reinventing Public Education the Billionaires’ Advocate

By Thomas Ultican 8/26/2020

In 1993, Political Science Professor Paul T. Hill established the Center for Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) at the Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs on the University of Washington campus. The research group Hill founded is steeped in public school failure ideology. On their web site Hill lets it be known “The Center has a definite point of view.” Among the points listed are:

“The ineffectiveness of big city public schools clouds the futures of millions of children.”

“Incremental efforts to improve urban public education without disturbing the school boards, unions, and central office administrators have failed, largely because roles, missions, and interests of those organizations are incompatible with effective schooling.”

“There are now far too few good public schools in big cities, in part because the entire structure of city school systems, from regulation and funding to teacher selection and professional development, is hostile to school quality.”

“To create good schools in urban areas where academic failure is the norm, we need an entirely different way of creating and operating schools.”

The CRPE 1999 “about” statement states,

“The Center pursues a national program of research and development on such proposals as charter schools, school contracting, choice, and school system decentralization, via alliances with the Brookings Institution, The RAND Corporation, Vanderbilt University, and the University of Chicago.”

Professor Hill, a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institute, was a CONTINUE READING: Center for Reinventing Public Education the Billionaires’ Advocate | tultican

Education Matters: DCPS hates politics except when they don't.

Education Matters: DCPS hates politics except when they don't.

DCPS hates politics except when they don't

I am completely in favor of the special referendum for our schools that voters will vote on this fall. I hope you are too, it is long overdue, however, I also hope you know that one of the reasons the district has chosen to risk lives is because of the referendum. I would bet dollars to doughnuts that Greene was scared it might not pass if we didn't open back up. Protecting staff isn't so much a priority when you can get a new roof for a middle school.

Today the district put out guidelines for the staff about the referendum. In my circles, I am not sure how necessary it was because not a lot of people are out there schilling for it.  How about in yous? Though I am sure the district would like us all to be and that's why they put them out. The district gave us talking points for goodness sake. They know exactly what they were doing just like when they put out their not so subtle threats about teacher social media.

I bet the district has an algorithm that tells them exactly how many votes they gain by opening schools and CONTINUE READING: Education Matters: DCPS hates politics except when they don't.

CURMUDGUCATION: Education Law Center: States Are Using Fed Grants To Cut Education Spending

CURMUDGUCATION: Education Law Center: States Are Using Fed Grants To Cut Education Spending

Education Law Center: States Are Using Fed Grants To Cut Education Spending

According to the folks at the Education Law Center, states are repeating the sins of a decade ago. Let me explain.

Pity Tom Corbett. He became one of the few Pennsylvania one term governors, and he lost in no small part because he was accused of cutting education spending by a billion dollars. And he sort of did, but he was also sort of set up by the previous governor, Ed Rendell, who collected some Great Recession relief and used it to replace state tax money rather than adding to it. When that short term federal grant ended, there was suddenly a big hole in PA education spending (which Corbett tried to hide by deciding to start counting pension costs as "educational spending"). Here's the graph:

You may recall that as the Great Recession ended, many states found themselves spending less for education than they had pre-2008. There were many reason for that, but using federal funds to replace state funds and then doing nothing as the federal money ended was in many cases a contributing factor.

And now ELC says some states are doing it again.

ELC cites New York, Texas and Michigan as three states that are following "a playbook from the 2009 Great Recession by cutting over $1 billion in states aid."New York calls this a "pandemic adjustment."

That 209 playbook looks like this:

In the Great Recession, states responded to revenue declines by making significant, recurring cuts in state school aid. Then they offset those cuts with non-recurring federal stimulus relief. This CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Education Law Center: States Are Using Fed Grants To Cut Education Spending

How should we talk to people who are afraid? | JD2718

How should we talk to people who are afraid? | JD2718

How should we talk to people who are afraid?

UFT members have begun to talk about job actions, especially after Michael Mulgrew mentioned them on tv.

There are people who are excited – I don’t get that. Job actions are last resorts. They mean that all other means have broken down, and that something is very wrong. And yes, today something is very wrong.

There are people who are expressing reluctant support for what is necessary. Put me in that camp. In fact, subdivide that camp into those who will do whatever Mulgrew recommends (not me), and those who are pro-union, but have a healthy distrust of the leadership. Here’s something I put on social media:

Many of you know I take issue with the UFT leadership, strategies, priorities, how the union is run. I talk about those things to push the union to be better. But if we take action, we all take action. This is not anonymous. The pledge has to be open. If we go out, we all go out together.

But then there are people who are scared. People who are expressing doubts. Even people openly contemplating not following the union’s lead if there is a job action.

I have seen people called names for this, called scabs. Accused of putting the rest of us at risk. And that CONTINUE READING: How should we talk to people who are afraid? | JD2718

Anti-masking: The Subtext of White Privilege and Addictive Thinking – educationalchemy

Anti-masking: The Subtext of White Privilege and Addictive Thinking – educationalchemy

Anti-masking: The Subtext of White Privilege and Addictive Thinking

Whiteness and Anti-masking

It’s not surprising that the population who refuse to accept the full scope of Covid19, the anti-masker group, intersect with the same population who own and deny their White Privilege. It’s not emanating from communities of color. It’s not emanating from non-Western countries. It’s as white [1] and “Ameruh-can” as Apple Pie. That is because to accept either, to concede the reality of this pandemic or one’s own privilege, is to then require that person to act, to require a change in their behavior, or to moderate their own “rights” (or freedoms) for increased responsibility for others. When we wear a mask, we are saying “I acknowledge the effects my body and behavior have on others, and I take responsibility for that effect. I am willing to change myself to help those around me.” Most of us do share community obligations everyday … but it’s by choice of group affiliations and institutional memberships. Yet, Covid19 has demanded we accept that fate in relationship to people with whom we might not have ever cared or considered before now. It forces us to widen the scope of who or what must matter to us. I concur with Indi Samarajiva who argued, “It’s largely white people that won’t wear masks, for reasons of whiteness. If that’s not you then congratulations, welcome to the human race. Be whatever equal identity you want, but white power is out.” The lottery (“will I or wont I get sick?”) of Covid19 that preys CONTINUE READING: Anti-masking: The Subtext of White Privilege and Addictive Thinking – educationalchemy

Current news from the California Department of Education (CDE)

California Department of Education

Current news  from the California Department of Education (CDE) 

Support for Schools Amid Wildfires and Emergencies

14h

Letter to County and District Superintendents and Charter School Administrators regarding support for schools impacted by wildfires and emergencies.

SBE August 2020 Information Memoranda

14h

Background information and updates on issues of interest to the State Board Members.

RFA-20: Culturally Linguistically Teaching

16h

Request for Applications for the 2020-21 and 2021-22 Migrant Education Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Teaching Professional Development

SSPI Affirms Support for Schools Amid Wildfires

17h

State Superintendent Tony Thurmond Affects Support for Schools Impacted by Wildfires and Offer Guidance on Distance Learning

COVID-19 Food Safety: Three-Part Webinar Series

17h

The Office of Food Safety and Institute of Child Nutrition (ICN) recently completed a three-part webinar series on COVID-19 Food Safety.

FFVP Operations SY 2020-21: Questions and Answers

20h

On August 21, 2020, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) released Policy Memorandum SP 23-2020 Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program (FFVP) Operations for School Year (SY) 2020–21 during Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19).

Coronavirus Response and School Reopening Guidance
Information and resources regarding CDE's COVID-19 response efforts, including the guidance document for safely reopening schools for the 20-21 school year.

2020 Census Information and Resources for Schools
Census Day is April 1, 2020! The federal census happens once each decade. We all must do our part to ensure a complete and accurate count in our state, to benefit all California students and families. Individuals will have until July 30 to complete the census questionnaire form.

California School Dashboard
California's new Accountability and Continuous Improvement System helps educators and the public to see how districts and schools are performing on test scores, graduation rates, and other measures of student success.

Academic Standards and Frameworks
California has upgraded all core academic subjects — English Language Arts, mathematics, science, history/social science and English Language Development to give students the critical thinking and communication skills they need to succeed in 21st century college and careers.

California's Testing Program
Students in California are now taking online tests in English and math, which provide more accurate and timely measures of student progress toward career and college readiness, helping to improve teaching and learning.

Local Control and Accountability Plan
The Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) is a three-year plan that describes the goals, actions, services, and expenditures to support positive student outcomes that address state and local priorities.

California School Directory
Information about California public schools, private schools, nonpublic nonsectarian schools, school districts, and county offices of education.

California Department of Education