“What was difficultwas the travel, which,on arrival, is forgotten.”―
Friday, October 9, 2020
A TALE OF TWO RE-OPENINGS – Dad Gone Wild
Teachers, Stop Spanking Your Students! - Philly's 7th Ward
AFT Leaders Announce Innovation Fund COVID-19 Response Grants | Black Star News
How US schools punish Black kids - Vox
NANCY BAILEY: A Reply to an 8th Grader: 11 Reasons Related to Schools Why Citizens Argue
Enrollment Is Dropping In Public Schools Around the Country | 89.3 KPCC
Enrollment Is Dropping In Public Schools Around the Country | 89.3 KPCC
Enrollment Is Dropping In Public Schools Around the Country
Orange County, Fla., has 18,000 missing students. The Miami-Dade County public schools have 16,000 fewer than last year. Los Angeles Unified — the nation's second-largest school system — is down nearly 11,000. Charlotte-Mecklenburg in North Carolina has 5,000 missing. Utah, Virginia, and Washington are reporting declines statewide.
Comprehensive national data aren't available yet, but reporting by NPR and our member stations, along with media reports from around the country, shows enrollment declines in dozens of school districts across 20 states. Large and small, rich and poor, urban and rural — in most of these districts the decline is a departure from recent trends. Over the past 15 years, data from the U.S. Education Department show that small and steady annual increases in public school enrollment have been the rule.
Six months after schools around the country shut their doors amid coronavirus lockdowns, these fall enrollment declines come as schools have been scrambling to improve remote learning offerings, and to adopt safety procedures to allow buildings to open for in-person classes, sometimes just a few days a week. In many parts of the country the start of the year has been marked by multiple changes in plans, widespread confusion among teachers and families, deep concerns about safety, and worries about unequal access to technology.
"We are not alone in this," Chris Reykdal, Washington State's Superintendent of CONTINUE READING: Enrollment Is Dropping In Public Schools Around the Country | 89.3 KPCC
What Does It Mean When Hardly Anybody Stands Up for the Basic Needs of Children and Public Schools? | janresseger
What Does It Mean When Hardly Anybody Stands Up for the Basic Needs of Children and Public Schools?
Why has this blog kept on covering the Trump administration’s and U.S. Senate Republicans’ lack of willingness to negotiate a second COVID-19 stimulus bill including federal assistance to help public schools make accommodations to open safely this fall and to shore up the state budgets which provide an average of 40 percent of K-12 public school funding across the United States?
The answer is simple and for me it is very sad. I do not remember a time when the wellbeing of children has been so totally forgotten by the leaders of the political party in power in the White House and the Congress. This fall, school district leaders have been left on their own as they try to serve and educate children while the COVID-19 pandemic continues raging across the states. School leaders are trying to hold it all together this fall at the same time their state budgets in some places have already been cut.
In Ohio, the COVID-19 recession is only exacerbating a public school fiscal crisis driven by a long history of inequitable school funding and the expansion of school privatization. On November 3, the school district where I live has been forced to put a local operating levy on the ballot simply to avert catastrophe. EdChoice vouchers, funded by a “local school district deduction” extract $6,000 for each high school voucher student and $4,650 for each K-8 voucher student right out of our school district’s budget. Although these students attend private and religious schools, the state counts voucher students as part of our per-pupil enrollment, which means that the state pays the district some of the cost of the voucher. In a normal year, there is a net loss because the vouchers are worth more than our district’s state basic aid, but this year the loss is even worse: In he current state budget, the Legislature froze the state’s contribution to the state’s school districts at the FY 2019 level. This means that the state is not allocating any additional funding to our school district to cover the new vouchers CONTINUE READING: What Does It Mean When Hardly Anybody Stands Up for the Basic Needs of Children and Public Schools? | janresseger
A Failure to Disrupt: Why Technology Alone Can’t Transform Education (Justin Reich) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice -
A Failure to Disrupt: Why Technology Alone Can’t Transform Education (Justin Reich)
Justin Reich is a Professor at MIT and director of the MIT Teaching Systems Lab. He is the author of the Failure to Disrupt: Why Technology Alone Can’t Transform Education (Harvard University Press, 2020). This article appeared in Teaching Times, August 20, 2020.
Over the last ten years, education technology evangelists have made remarkable claims about how new technologies will transform educational systems. In 2009, Clay Christensen of the Harvard Business School predicted that half of all secondary school courses in the US would be online by 2019, and that they’d cost 1/3 of a traditional course and provide better outcomes. Sal Khan of Khan Academy proposed in a TED talk that he could use short videos to reinvent education.
Sebastian Thrun of Udacity said that in 50 years we’d have only 10 institutions of higher education in the world after massive open online courses colonized the field. As the winner of the TED Prize, Sugata Mitra claimed that students didn’t even need schools or teachers, and that groups of children with access to the internet could teach themselves anything.
A disaster
And then in 2020, the world was blighted by a terrible pandemic. Schools serving over 1.6 billion learners shut down. It was a moment that technologists had promised for years could be transformative, but for most learners and families, remote online learning has been a disaster.
As educators face the challenge of spooling up new online and hybrid schools to CONTINUE READING: A Failure to Disrupt: Why Technology Alone Can’t Transform Education (Justin Reich) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice
Teacher Tom: The Freedom to Be That Change
Teacher Tom: The Freedom to Be That Change
The Freedom to Be That Change
Advisory Commission on Special Education (ACSE) meeting ACSE Agenda October 21, 2020 - Administration & Support (CA Dept of Education)
Advisory Commission on Special Education (ACSE) meeting
Advisory Commission on Special Education (ACSE) meeting
ACSE Agenda October 21, 2020
Please note, the October 2020 Advisory Commission on Special Education (ACSE) meeting will be held as a teleconference; Room 1101 (board room) will be closed to the public. See ACSE Meeting Logistics section below for options to view and participate in the meeting.
Advisory Commission on Special Education Members
-
David M. Toston, Chair
Havaughnia Hayes-White, Vice Chair
Michele Andrus
Dawn Hamilton
Somer Harding
Sara Jocham
April Lopez
Christina Mills
Christine Oyakawa
Gina Plate
Kimberly Salomonson
Jeannine Topalian
Steven Winlock
Student Member
- Mike Infante
Legislative Members
- Honorable Richard Pan, Senate
- Honorable Jim Frazier, Assembly
State Board of Education Liaison
- Ilene Straus, State Board Member
Executive Secretary
-
Heather Calomese, Director, Special Education Division
California Department of Education
All times are approximate and are provided for convenience only. Items may be re-ordered to be heard on any day of the noticed meeting or on a subsequent agenda. The order of business may be changed without notice. Every effort will be made to webcast this meeting in its entirety, but some portions may not be webcast due to logistical constraints.
Reasonable Accommodation for Any Individual with a Disability
Pursuant to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, any individual with a disability who requires reasonable accommodation to attend or participate in a meeting or function of the ACSE, may request assistance by contacting the California Department of Education (CDE) Special Education Division (SED), 1430 N Street, Suite 2401, Sacramento, CA 95814; telephone: 916-445-4602; fax: 916-327-3706.
Advisory Commission on Special Education
Meeting Schedule | Meeting Location |
---|---|
Wednesday, October 21, 2020 10 a.m.–4:30 p.m. Pacific Time ± | California Department of Education 1430 N Street, Room 1101, Sacramento, CA Phone: 916-445-4602 |
ACSE Meeting Logistics
On March 17, 2020, Governor Gavin Newsom issued Executive Order N-29-20 related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Executive Order allows state bodies covered by the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act (Act) to hold public meetings covered by the Act via web and/or audio teleconferencing. As such, the June ACSE meeting will be held as an audio/video teleconference and will have a live webcast; Room 1101 (board room) in the California Department of Education will be closed to the public. Please see the Public Comment Guidelines section below for options to view and participate in the meeting.
Public Comment Guidelines
Public comment may be via email or phone, as specified below.
The public is highly encouraged to submit written comment to the ACSE members in advance for prior consideration. In order to help ensure that commissioners have time to review the comments, please submit comments by noon on Friday, October 16, 2020. However, comments received after that time will be forwarded to Commission members until the day of the meeting. Comments should be submitted to the ACSE mailbox at: ACSE@cde.ca.gov. The following information should be included in the body of the email: (1) commenter’s first and last name, (2) organization affiliation, (3) agenda item number or general public comment.
Phone
Public comment may also be provided by dialing the phone number and participant access code that will be provided on October 21, 2020, and then following the operator’s prompts. Upon dialing in, callers will be added to a caller queue. The operator will notify callers when it is their turn to provide public comment. Public comment will be limited to one minute for each agenda item unless otherwise specified by the ACSE. Members of the public wishing to dial in for public comment should view the live-stream of the meeting. The number and access code will be provided at the start of public comment for each item.
Prior to making public comment, speakers who are watching the meeting via live webcast should make sure the volume on their computer is muted to avoid echoing or feedback sounds during the call.
Agenda Item Materials
Agenda item materials, including presentation materials, are available by sending a request for copies to ACSE@cde.ca.gov.
Advisory Commission on Special Education Operations and Planning Committee
Wednesday, October 21, 2020, 9–9:45 a.m. Pacific Time
California Department of Education
Sacramento, California
Members of the ACSE Operations and Planning Committee will meet prior to the start of the ACSE meeting to discuss the operations of the ACSE for fiscal year 2020–21 and a timeline for the yearly ACSE activities.
- Grazer Outstanding Achievement in Learning (GOAL) award
- Election Committee
Advisory Commission on Special Education
Wednesday, October 21, 2020 10 a.m. Pacific Time
California Department of Education
1430 N Street, Room 1101
Sacramento, California
10–10:15 a.m. Pacific Time ±
- Call to Order–Roll Call
- Salute to the Flag
- Welcome New Members
- Communications and Announcements
- Review of Agenda
- Review of How to Provide Public Comment
10:15–10:45 a.m.
Item 1–State Performance Plan/Annual Performance Report: Staff from the CDE, Special Education Division (SED), will provide an update on the State Performance Plan and the Annual Performance Report. Presenter: Shiyloh Becerril, Interim Associate Director, CDE, SED. (Item type: Information, discussion)
10:45–11:45 a.m.
Item 2–An Update on the California System of Support: California Center for Educator Excellence (CCEE) and Special Education Local Plan Area (SELPA) leads will update the commission on the activities of the California System of Support, how they are currently supporting California school districts and their plans for the 2020–21 school year. Presenters: Karla Estrada, Deputy Executive Director, Systems Improvement and Innovation, CCEE; Ann England, Marin County SELPA; Dr. Deborah Montoya, Imperial County SELPA; Jill King, Placer County SELPA; Patricia L. Schetter, University of California, Davis. (Item type: Information, discussion)
11:45 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
Item 3–Inclusive Practices in Distance Learning: Kristin Brooks and Kevin Schaefer from Supporting Inclusive Practices will highlight model inclusive practices during the pandemic as well as the opportunities to address long term barriers to inclusion. Presenters: Kristin Brooks, Executive Director, Supporting Inclusive Practices, Riverside County Office of Education; Kevin Schaefer, Director of Equity and Inclusive Practices, Supporting Inclusive Practices, El Dorado County SELPA/Charter SELPA. (Item type: Information, discussion)
12:30–1 p.m. Lunch
1–1:45 p.m.
Item 4–State Literacy Plan: Staff from the CDE, Educator Excellence and Equity Division (EEED), will review the proposed State Literacy Plan that is to be presented to the State Board of Education in November. Presenters: Aileen Allison-Zarea, Education Administrator 1, CDE, EEED; Erika St. Andre, Education Programs Consultant, CDE, EEED. (Item type: Information, discussion, action)
Background Materials are available on the CDE Comprehensive Literacy State Development Grant web page
1:45–2:30 p.m.
Item 5–State Special Schools: The Director from the CDE, State Special Schools (SSS), will update the commission on the SSS, and how they are approaching instruction due to COVID 19. Presenter: Robin L. Zane, Director, SSS, CDE. (Item type: Information, discussion)
2:30–2:45 p.m. Break
2:45–3 p.m.
Item 6–Commissioner Updates and Liaison Reports: Updates from ACSE Commissioners and Reports from ACSE Liaisons will be provided. (Item type: Information, discussion)
3–3:30 p.m.
Item 7–California Special Education Funding Report: Jason Willis and Sara Menlove Doutre from WestEd, will review the information and findings in the recently released report on the California special education funding system. Presenters: Jason Willis, WestEd; Sara Menlove Doutre, WestEd. (Item type: Information, discussion, action)
Background materials are available at the WestEd website
3:30–3:45 p.m.
Item 8–State Special Education Director’s Report: The Director from the CDE, SED will provide an update on the activities of the Division. Presenter: Heather Calomese, Director, CDE, SED. (Item type: Information, discussion)
3:45–4 p.m.
Item 9–Commissioner Recognition: The Commission will recognize the work of the previous Chair, Somer Harding. (Item type: Information, discussion)
4–4:15 p.m.
Item 10–Agenda Building for ACSE Meetings: Commissioners will recommend items to be included on future ACSE meeting agendas. (Item type: Information, discussion)
4:15–4:30 p.m.
Item 11–General Public Comment: General public comment is invited on any matter, including items not on the agenda. The ACSE is precluded from discussing matters not on the agenda; however, questions may be asked by Commissioners for clarification purposes. Issues raised by the public may be referred to a future meeting agenda. Chair reserves the right to establish time limits on presentations. (Item type: Information)
4:30 p.m. ADJOURNMENT
Adjournment of meeting.
A VERY BUSY DAY Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... The latest news and resources in education since 2007
Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007
Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007