Latest News and Comment from Education

Tuesday, September 15, 2020

Opinion | Cynthia Nixon: The Coronavirus Has Laid Bare New York's Public School Inequities - The New York Times

Opinion | Cynthia Nixon: The Coronavirus Has Laid Bare New York's Public School Inequities - The New York Times

In Two Phone Calls, I Learned Just Who Counts in New York
My TV show is a very safe place to work. My son’s school — well, it might check air circulation with a yardstick and toilet paper.



This summer, I participated in two back-to-back phone calls about resuming some semblance of normal life in New York City — which for me means resuming work on a television show and sending my 9-year-old son, Max, back to school.
The differences in these phone calls could not have been starker, and taught me a great deal about in whom and what we invest in the era of Covid-19.
On the call related to my show, I heard about the many tours the industrial hygienist had taken of the set and about the renovation of some of our work spaces to be Covid-safe. Out of an abundance of caution, even some spaces that looked fairly healthy had been eliminated.
I also heard about how the crew and production staff would be divided into strict pods; they would be tested before they started work and then tested one to three times a week. Actors, who need to remove their masks, would be tested every day. Anyone coming to New York from out of state would need to quarantine for two weeks before being allowed on set.

Air purifiers have been purchased, filtration systems have been upgraded, and an entire department has been created solely to deal with safety protocols and testing. And Covid-upgraded vans and shuttles, along with extra parking lots, were available to ensure that everyone had safe transport to work.
The second call was a meeting of the parents association at my son’s public school. I heard that teachers and administrators could choose to be tested for Covid before the school year began, and that people entering the school could decide whether they wanted their temperature taken. CONTINUE READING: Opinion | Cynthia Nixon: The Coronavirus Has Laid Bare New York's Public School Inequities - The New York Times



The ‘logistical madness’ of hybrid school schedules — by nearly 50 frustrated teachers - The Washington Post

The ‘logistical madness’ of hybrid school schedules — by nearly 50 frustrated teachers - The Washington Post

The ‘logistical madness’ of hybrid school schedules — by nearly 50 frustrated teachers



The 2020-21 school year is set to start next week in New York City, the country’s largest school system, and the plan at the moment is for students to follow a hybrid model in which they would spend some days in classrooms and other days learning remotely at home.
The plan put forth by Mayor Bill de Blasio has been controversial, with some people saying the city has not done enough planning to ensure that there is enough staff at all schools and that necessary health measures will be taken to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
The city has a very low coronavirus infection rate now after being a pandemic hot spot in the spring, and de Blasio and others argue schools should open for students who want to attend.
On Monday, the mayor announced 55 positive coronavirus tests among New York City school employees who have been on campuses getting ready for the opening. That amounts to a 0.3 percent positivity rate among nearly 17,000 personnel tested, de Blasio said.
In this post, nearly 50 faculty members at the Metropolitan Expeditionary Learning School, a public school serving grades 6-12 in Queens, came together to write about the problems they see with the hybrid plan. They call it “logistical madness.”
By Faculty Members at the Metropolitan Expeditionary Learning School (Q167)
Candice Abreu, Aisha Ali, Jennifer Avellino, Sadhya Bailey, Katie Blouse, Cheryl Bolton, Hannah Brenman, Melissa Bright, Stacy Brown, Robin Baumgarten, Milreyly Cas, Denise Del Gaudio, Rachel Demalderis, Shoshi Doza, Sandra Drozd, Rachel Ellis, Arthur James Gary, Kathleen Glatthaar, Meghan Gosselin, Ilana Gutman, William Hendrick, Thomas Hurth, Gus Jacobson, Dawoun Jyung, Rebecca Kleinbart, Lauren Kosasa, Tejal Kothari, Keiri Lagos, Joe Masco, Allison Maxfield, Aaron Morales, Andreina Nunez, Evan O’Connell, Margaret O’Connor, Seyi Okuneye, Lucy Robins, Jonathan Rosado, Elyse Rosenberg, Kimberly Scher, Laura Shah, Eric Shieh, Michael Stern, Kimron Thomas, Kristen Tomanocy, Brooke Winter-DiGirolamo, Claire Wolff and Jenna-Lyn Zaino CONTINUE READING: The ‘logistical madness’ of hybrid school schedules — by nearly 50 frustrated teachers - The Washington Post

Pedro Noguera: ‘Put up or shut up’ — a $1 trillion investment to help American kids in poverty - The Washington Post

‘Put up or shut up’ — a $1 trillion investment to help American kids in poverty - The Washington Post

‘Put up or shut up’ — a $1 trillion investment to help kids in poverty




Pedro Noguera is dean of the Rossier School of Education at the University of Southern California and Robert Boyd is president of the School-Based Health Alliance, a nonprofit organization that works to improve the health of young people through school-based health care.
Noguera and Boyd, who have each spent decades working to advance opportunities for students of color and those from low-income families, are sick and tired of “rhetoric without commitment” they hear from politicians who talk about how important it is to help kids but don’t do anything about it.
In recent months, Congress has approved trillions of economic stimulus dollars, but in this post, Noguera and Boyd argue for a different kind of public investment they say is way overdue. Here’s their piece.
By Robert Boyd and Pedro Noguera
This is the point in America’s election cycle when political candidates love talking about the importance of giving a great education to all kids, especially children of color and children from low-income families.
A solid education, they say, will enable students to go to college and access career opportunities. Better schools, they say, will pay off in a stronger economy and healthier citizens, perhaps even increase civic participation and create more vibrant communities. A few will even talk about their commitment to social justice and fundamental human rights.
Some might even mean it.
As men of color who have dedicated our lives to advancing opportunity, we have heard variations on these statements echoed most of our six decades on this earth. Over. And over. And yet still over again. We are weary of rhetoric without commitment. We need action, action in the form of a massive public investment that actually covers what it costs for children to have quality schools and be safe and healthy.
So, with all due respect America: put up or shut up.
Our ask is simple and reasonable: a trillion-dollar investment in the education and health care of CONTINUE READING: ‘Put up or shut up’ — a $1 trillion investment to help American kids in poverty - The Washington Post

ANDRE PERRY: Black schools aren’t failing. They’ve been starved of needed resources.

Black schools aren’t failing. They’ve been starved of needed resources.

COLUMN: When poorly veiled bigotry masquerades as choice
Trump loves ‘choice’ because it’s always been a term racists can love




Credit: Twitter
President Trump regularly sows racial division and fear, invoking age-old stereotypes through his words and policy. It was clear he was promising to protect suburban whites from an incursion of Black and Brown people when he wrote in his now infamous tweet about the “Suburban Lifestyle Dream” that suburbanites would “no longer be bothered or financially hurt by having low income housing built in your neighborhood.” This isn’t dog-whistle language. We all hear and recognize the racist undertones of the policy he was pushing.
The Trump administration’s new housing rule is titled “Preserving Community and Neighborhood Choice.” It rescinds an Obama-era mandate that encouraged local municipalities that receive federal funds to address systemic bias. Trump promised housing prices will go up and crime will go down in the suburbs, once the rule, meant to make housing more equitable, was removed.
This is poorly veiled bigotry rooted in negative perceptions about poor and Black people. No, poor and Black people don’t bring housing prices down. Negative beliefs about Black people do. Similarly, Black schools aren’t failing: They’ve been starved of needed resources and hampered by prejudice and systems organized against their success.
“Choice” has always been a term a racist can love. In theory, choice means allowing people the freedom to choose the home, neighborhood and CONTINUE READING: Black schools aren’t failing. They’ve been starved of needed resources.

When Algorithms Give Real Students Imaginary Grades (Meredith Broussard) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

When Algorithms Give Real Students Imaginary Grades (Meredith Broussard) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

When Algorithms Give Real Students Imaginary Grades (Meredith Broussard)



Meredith Broussard (@merbroussard) is a data journalism professor at New York University and the author of “Artificial Unintelligence: How Computers Misunderstand the World.” She is working on a book about race and technology.” This op-ed piece appeared in the New York Times on September 9, 2020.
Isabel Castañeda’s first words were in Spanish. She spends every summer with relatives in Mexico. She speaks Spanish with her family at home. When her school, Westminster High in Colorado, closed for the pandemic in March, her Spanish literature class had just finished analyzing an entire novel in translation, Albert Camus’s “The Plague.”She got a 5 out of 5 on her Advanced Placement Spanish exam last year, following two straight years of A+ grades in Spanish class.
And yet, she failed her International Baccalaureate Spanish exam this year.
When she got her final results, Ms. Castañeda was shocked. “Everybody believed that I was going to score very high,” she told me. “Then, the scores came back and I didn’t even score a passing grade. I scored well below passing.”
How did this happen? An algorithm assigned a grade to Ms. Castañeda and 160,000 other students. The International Baccalaureate — a global program that awards a prestigious diploma to students in addition to the one they receive from their high schools — canceled its usual in-person final exams because of the pandemic. Instead, it used an algorithm to “predict” students’ grades, based on CONTINUE READING: When Algorithms Give Real Students Imaginary Grades (Meredith Broussard) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

DeVos vows to require standardized tests again: 4 questions answered

DeVos vows to require standardized tests again: 4 questions answered

DeVos vows to require standardized tests again: 4 questions answered



Education Secretary Betsy DeVos announced on Sept. 3 that the government intended to enforce federal rules that require all states to administer standardized tests at K-12 public schools during the 2020-2021 school year. Nicholas Tampio, a Fordham University political scientist who researches education policy, puts this declaration into context.

1. What did DeVos say?

Since the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, U.S. public school students have had to take federally mandated standardized tests every year.
Students got a break in the spring of 2020 when DeVos announced that states could apply for waivers due to the pandemic. “Neither students nor teachers,” she explained, “need to be focused on high-stakes tests during this difficult time.”
In September, DeVos reaffirmed her commitment to federally mandated testing. “It is now our expectation,” DeVos wrote in a letter to chief state school officers, “that states will, in the interest of students,” administer standardized tests at the end of the 2020-2021 school year.

2. How is testing data used?

As a political scientist who researches education policy, I know that money is the main lever for the federal government to influence states and local school districts. For example, the federal government sets conditions that states must accept to secure Title I funding, which supports schools where many children are being raised in poverty.
Only about 8% of the roughly US$720 billion that all levels of government spend on public schools comes from federal sources. Yet federal education money is vital because it helps state and local governments boost their budgets for the education of some of the most vulnerable students, including those with special needs.
In the spring of 2019, the DeVos team threatened to withhold $340 million in federal education funds from Arizona. Why? Because the state had not complied with the testing requirements of the Every Student Succeeds Act, which replaced CONTINUE READING: DeVos vows to require standardized tests again: 4 questions answered

Overturning Austerity 101: California’s Prop 15 Will Tax the Rich | Portside

Overturning Austerity 101: California’s Prop 15 Will Tax the Rich | Portside

Overturning Austerity 101: California’s Prop 15 Will Tax the Rich
“We’ve got to be able to pass Schools and Communities First, as one measure, and then come back with another measure, and another, so that we make the rich pay their fair share.”



California’s November ballot will feature a challenge to the notorious Proposition 13, which in 1978 helped to inaugurate the decades-long neoliberal assault on labor.
Prop 13’s anti-tax, small government campaign, with a dog-whistle racist subtext, created a national template for conservatives to simultaneously attack public sector unions, public employees, and the people they served. For the right wing, this was the lab experiment for Austerity 101.
In a time of high inflation, Prop 13 exploited fear—older homeowners on fixed incomes were afraid that rising taxes would drive them out of their homes. It rolled back assessments to 1975 rates, set property taxes at 1 percent of value, and capped increases at 2 percent per year, no matter the inflation rate or the increase in market price of the property. When it passed, grandma breathed more easily.
But grandma was not the biggest beneficiary of Prop 13. The same rules applied to commercial property—including giant corporate-owned properties like Chevron and Disney. The consequent plunge in property tax revenues to local and state government forced enormous cuts to social programs and schools, led to layoffs of public employees, and established a new normal in the Golden State, described by former California Federation of Teachers president Raoul Teilhet as “poor services for poor people.”

ANSWER TO A DISASTER

Prop 15 is the long-awaited answer to this disaster. It’s the product of a 10-year-old coalition of unions and community groups, now known as Schools and Communities First, with a couple of previous progressive tax victories under its belt. Prop 15’s passage will mean commercial property is assessed at CONTINUE READING: Overturning Austerity 101: California’s Prop 15 Will Tax the Rich | Portside

COVID-19: Nationwide Waiver to allow Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) and Seamless Summer Option (SSO) through December 2020. - Nutrition (CA Dept of Education)

COVID-19: CNP Response 47 and Q&A - Nutrition (CA Dept of Education)

COVID-19: CNP Response 47 and Q&A




The California Department of Education Nutrition Services Division is pleased to announce that on September 11, 2020, the U.S. Department of Agriculture released a new Nationwide Waiver and Questions and Answers (Q&A) related to the Nationwide Waiver to allow Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) and Seamless Summer Option (SSO) through December 2020.
  • New–COVID-19: Child Nutrition Response #57, Nationwide Waiver to Allow Reimbursement for Meals Served Prior to Notification of Approval and Provide Flexibility for Pre-Approval Visits in the SFSP. This waives the requirement that reimbursement shall not be paid for meals served at a site before the sponsor has received written notification that the site has been approved for participation in the Program. This waiver also waives the requirement for the state agency to conduct pre-approval visits of SFSP sponsors and sites.
  • Policy Memorandum SP 25-2020, CACFP 14-2020, SFSP 14-2020: Questions and Answers Relating to the Nationwide Waiver to Allow SFSP and SSO Operations through December 2020. This memorandum provides 14 questions and answers intended to clarify the operation of the National School Lunch Program, School Breakfast Program, SSO, SFSP, and Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Policy Memorandum SP 25-2020, CACFP 14-2020, SFSP 14-2020: Questions and Answers Relating to the Nationwide Waiver to Allow SFSP and SSO Operations through December 2020 resolves unanswered questions from the September 8, 2020 Town Hall including:
  • Serving weekend and holiday meals consistent with SFSP/SSO regulations.
  • Operating the At-risk Afterschool component of CACFP concurrently with any child nutrition program.
You may access this memorandum on the COVID-19 Questions and Answers for States web pageExternal link opens in new window or tab..
Contact Information
For any questions regarding these waivers, please contact your respective program’s County Specialist. The County Specialist for each program can be found in the following Form IDs in the Child Nutrition Information and Payment System Download Forms section:
  • SFSP—Form ID SFSP 01.
  • School Nutrition Programs—Form ID Caseload.
  • CACFP—Form ID CACFP 01.
Questions:   Nutrition Services Division | 800-952-5609

Education Matters: Where did all the, planning, time go.

Education Matters: Where did all the, planning, time go.

Where did all the, planning, time go.




Let me tell you my story first.

I didn't lose my planning period, I still have the 90 minutes I had last year. I did however since we are self-contained go from two preps to five. Now I have been sharing with my department and them with me, but it's still a lot more work.

I did lose my lunch however as the kids eat in the room. Now I guess technically I could go somewhere else, though I have no idea where that would be.

This morning a colleague asked me if they should reach out to the super (YES!!!!) because the thirty minutes they had been getting in elementary school was now being eaten up by serving breakfast in the class, and no you can't really plan around eating children. Mind you elementary school teachers already get the short stick when it comes to planning.

Then there is my high school and middle school friends who lost almost half of their planning when they went to a 6 period day. Now I actually like the 50-minute class, but the idea behind that is staff gets two of them off to plan.

Now you might be thinking well the classes are shorter so there is less to plan, but the thing is now they meet every day instead of every other so the reality is there is more.

Teachers in effect all across the board have more to do and a lot less time to do it. You would think the district CONTINUE READING: Education Matters: Where did all the, planning, time go.

COVID DAZE | DCGEducator: Doing The Right Thing

COVID DAZE | DCGEducator: Doing The Right Thing

COVID DAZE




“John, Wake up!” 
“Why?” I am not going to work.” “It’s just going to be another bullshit day spent with you, and the dog, and the computer screen, and the TV, and more bullshit. I am so sick of this. Leave me alone, I don’t have a Zoom call until 9 o’clock. Then they are non-stop until 6 o’clock.”
How many people start the day that way? How many people are afraid to go out to stores, to restaurants, to see friends and family for fear of either catching Covid or spreading it?
How many of us are sick of the “new normal”, and when I mean sick, I don’t mean just annoyed or tired of it. I mean psychologically ailing with what my shrink wife now has dubbed Covid Fatique. Relationships have been strained. Tensions mount. Fear rules…and this is for those who are lucky enough to still have their jobs and can work from home. 
Now add kids. Are they going to school? Who is going to work with them on their remote assignments? 
“Algebra? I don’t know no stinkin’ algebra!”  
“What if they do will they get “it” and bring it home? Will they be able to see CONTINUE READING: COVID DAZE | DCGEducator: Doing The Right Thing

CURMUDGUCATION: Time To Deal With The Substitute Shortage

CURMUDGUCATION: Time To Deal With The Substitute Shortage

Time To Deal With The Substitute Shortage




This is not the biggest issue facing schools right now-- but it's not nothing. And in some districts, it's about to become a critical issue.

The state regional education office for our area announced a special opportunity to get quick and easy training to become an emergency certified substitute teacher. And it only costs $25! And that sound you hear is me slapping my forehead hard enough to push my hairline back another inch. "We are desperate for your help, but we're going to charge you money to provider it to us."


Why didn't the regular teacher leave this guy a guide?
The substitute teacher shortage is not new, just as the teacher shortage is itself not new. It's just that right now, it's critical, as a wave of teachers decide that right now would be a good time to go sit at home and avoid catching a major disease. School districts are trying a variety of responses, from actually raising the pay of subs, to relaxing requirements so that more warm-bodied humans are eligible, to outsourcing the problem (which has a lousy track record), to "expressing concern," to just doing nothing in particular and hoping that something magical will solve the problem.

The problems are many. Substitute teaching is often a go-to area for trimming costs, so that the pay is just not great. As a retired teacher, I'm qualified to sub (I'd have to get a waiver from the pension system to do it, but that's not impossible), but I've done the math, and with two small children to take care of, I would basically be subbing for free. Also, like much of the substitute pool, I'm in a high risk age group, so that's a factor to consider as well.

There was a time when the sub pool included retirees, homemakers pulling in a little extra cash, CONTINUE READING: 
CURMUDGUCATION: Time To Deal With The Substitute Shortage

SEE YOU IN WESTERN EUROPE, I’M SURE YOU”LL FIND YOUR OWN WAY. – Dad Gone Wild

SEE YOU IN WESTERN EUROPE, I’M SURE YOU”LL FIND YOUR OWN WAY. – Dad Gone Wild

SEE YOU IN WESTERN EUROPE, I’M SURE YOU”LL FIND YOUR OWN WAY


“The radio was on and that was the first time I heard that song, the one I hate. Whenever I hear it all I can think of is that very day riding in the front seat with Lucy leaning against me and the smell of Juicy Fruit making me want to throw up. How can a song do that? Be like a net that catches a whole entire day, even a day whose guts you hate? You hear it and all of a sudden everything comes hanging back in front of you, all tangled up in that music.”
― Lynda Barry
“Believe me, the library is the temple of God. Education is the most sacred religion of all.”
― Gene Simmons
Like most Nashville residents, I have been closely following the news about schools. Yesterday Dr. Battle and MNPS released an email and a corresponding press release about the next steps for MNPS. Included in the communication was a schedule for the return to face to face instruction. What wasn’t mentioned in the release was an actual plan.
Just to be sure I wasn’t missing anything, I Googled plan, in order to secure a definition. Meriam-Webster defines a plan as follows,
2aa method for achieving an end
ban often customary method of doing something PROCEDURE
ca detailed formulation of a program of action
dGOALAIM
It appears that MNPS is adhering to D while ignoring, A, B, and C. Throughout the recent process of beginning the transition in delivery of instruction, I’ve seen ample evidence of goals and Aims – return kids to schools, provide quality education, keep everyone safe. What I haven’t seen are any concrete action steps that demonstrate how the district plans to meet those goals. In fact, the word plan is not even mentioned in yesterday’s communication, save at the very end where parent plans are referenced.
Little is offered around the means that we are going to utilize in order to bring the schedule to fruition, let along the factors that influence its advancement. The only action step provided is for community members,
“After a great deal of consultation with Board members and other stakeholders, I believe this phase-in schedule can result in a safe and CONTINUE READING: SEE YOU IN WESTERN EUROPE, I’M SURE YOU”LL FIND YOUR OWN WAY. – Dad Gone Wild

NewBlackMan (in Exile) TODAY

 NewBlackMan (in Exile)


NewBlackMan (in Exile) TODAY


Big Education Ape: THIS WEEK WITH NEWBLACKMAN (IN EXILE) - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2020/09/this-week-with-newblackman-in-exile_12.html



Cite Black Women: Race, Technology and Abolition -- A Conversation with Ruha Benjamin
'Race is coded into every aspect of our technological lives, from automatic soap dispensers to Zoom calls. In this episode, host Christen Smith sits down with Prof. Ruha Benjamin of Princeton University to her work on racial coding, how racism and technology work hand in hand, and what we can do to create abolitionist futures despite this racism.' -- Cite Black Women Cite Black Women · S2E9: Race
Jazz Elder Sonny Rollins on the Musical and Political History of Harlem After Its Renaissance
'Saxophone Colossus Sonny Rollins takes us back to his home neighborhood of Harlem, where he was born during its Renaissance; marched for W.E.B. Du Bois and the Scottsboro Boys ; and schooled by artists like Billie Holiday , Fats Waller , and Coleman Hawkins .' -- The Tight Rope
Reggie Jackson, Dave Winfield, Andre Dawson and Derek Jeter Talk Race in Major League Baseball
'Hall of Famers Reggie Jackson , Dave Winfield , Andre Dawson and Derek Jeter sit down with Harold Reynolds to discuss the black gap in baseball and where the sport goes from here.' -- The Players' Tribune
Why Many Rural Americans Still Don’t Have Reliable Internet
'As many schools around the country start the year virtually, residents in rural communities like those in West Virginia are asking why they don’t have reliable Internet service. The recent bankruptcy of Frontier Communications provides insight into how U.S. broadband policies have fallen short for many Americans.' -- Wall Street Journal
Gangster in the White House Attacks Nikole Hannah-Jones and Her Controversial 1619 Project
' Nikole Hannah-Jones , winner of the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary, shares her upbringing in Iowa, the influence of Ida B. Wells, and the roots and reaction to her controversial 1619 Project.' -- The Tight Rope
'Two Dollars And A Dream': Interview with Stanley Nelson & A'Lelia Bundles
' A discussion with director Stanley Nelson and author A'Lelia Bundles about the real story and legacy of Madam C.J. Walker , the first female self-made millionaire in America. Moderated by Tina Martin .' -- WORLD Channel
The Little Rock Nine: Civil Rights History Celebrated Through Dance
' Elizabeth Eckford was one of nine Black students to further the civil rights movement by enrolling at the historically segregated Central High in Little Rock, Arkansas. The historic images of her courageously walking through an enraged mob of White students, teachers and parents, have been burned into the collective consciousness of activists for equality around the world. The First Day , which
PSA — RESIST COVID/TAKE 6! - A Collaboration with Carrie Mae Weems & The Peace Poets
'Bro/Sis Artist in Residence Carrie Mae Weems partners with Bro/Sis and our alumni The Peace Poets to create a public health campaign - a PSA and billboards - focused on COVID.' -- The Brotherhood Sister Sol
Bettye LaVette Might Be Just What You Need Today
' Bettye LaVette just released Blackbirds , an album of reinterpretations of songs popularized by some of her favorite jazz singers.' -- World Cafe Words and Music from WXPN
Keeping Up With Amanda Jones, Score Composer On The Rise
' Amanda Jones is the first African American woman ever nominated for an Emmy for an original television score. She got her start because producer/writer Lena Waithe took a chance on her.' -- Morning Edition

 NewBlackMan (in Exile)