Our First Student Tests Positive for COVID-19 We made it longer than I thought we would. Our first day with students was September 08, 2020. One month later, on October 09, 2020, my Louisiana high school had its first case of a student testing positive for coronavirus. I appreciate the way in which the situation was handled. Our administration did not leave the issue to ferment in rumors. Instea
Disaster CalFresh Outreach Materials Coronavirus (COVID-19) Main Web Page There has been a presidential disaster declaration in a number of counties across the state of California. The California Department of Education (CDE) is assisting the California Department of Social Services, (CDSS) to share information about Disaster CalFresh food benefit services. Currently, families in Lake, Monterey,
Robbery in Broad Daylight Bill de blasio walked up to NYC teachers – on a weekday this time. Think about that. Through this whole pandemic he has saved his announcements for Friday. After the work day is over. Or over the weekend. He is a coward. Schools closed? Sunday. Vacation lost. Friday. Zoom banned. Friday. Passover and Good Friday stolen? Friday. He skulks in the shadows. But not this tim
Improve Reading Achievement. Teach More Social Studies OUR STUDENTS/SCHOOLS AREN’T FAILING Using the “failing schools” trope has long been a tactic of school “reformers” to claim that privatizing education is necessary. It was called out again in an article in Hechinger Report where we were told that… Only a third of American students are reading proficiently at grade level, according to nationa
"It's Not Fair" In my early years as a teacher, I had an idea for teaching four and five-year-olds about fairness. I filled a small treasure box with a collection of plastic cut gems, the kind one often finds be-sparkling princess jewelry. I told the children it then gems were "special" and asked them to not touch as I showed the box around. I could see it appealed to the kids and many of them s
New Jersey’s Shrinking Pool of Teacher Candidates | New Jersey Policy Perspective New Jersey’s Shrinking Pool of Teacher Candidates To read a PDF version of the full report, click here . Executive Summary Maintaining a high-quality teaching workforce is critically important for the future of public education in New Jersey. Federal data, however, show cause for concern: New Jersey is producing far
Wendy Lecker: Michigan’s inadequate funding of schools a lesson for CT Michigan is the home state of U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. Before she was appointed by President Donald Trump, DeVos wielded her influence and wealth there to push and expand unregulated charters. “School choice” is one of the policies that opponents of adequate public school funding claim can improve education wi
Teacher Tom TEACHER TOM THIS WEEK IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION "It's Not Fair" 100+ 1d The Freedom to Be That Change 200+ 2d Teaching Children to Be Incompetent 300+ 3d The Proper and Moral Use of Power 400+ 4d Where Our Focus Ought to Be Right Now . . . And Always 300+ 5d Old Fashioned Lime-Vanilla Ice 87 8d What Would Mister Rogers Do? 1K 9d Teacher Tom
Dad Gone Wild – Nobody reads it, everybody quotes it. THIS WEEK'S WILDNESS Dad Gone Wild Nobody reads it, everybody quotes it. A TALE OF TWO RE-OPENINGS by TC Weber / 20h “What was difficult was the travel, which, on arrival, is forgotten.” ― Louise Gluck As fall Break for MNPS comes to a close, I can’t help but be struck by the irony of the Tennessee Titans struggling to return to the football f
California Department of Education Disaster CalFresh Outreach Materials 15h The California Department of Education (CDE) is assisting the California Department of Social Services, (CDSS) to share information about Disaster CalFresh food benefit services. Extension of COVID-19 Meal Service Waivers 15h The USDA has extended twelve nationwide COVID-19 waivers. These waivers extend existing flexibil
NewBlackMan (in Exile) Into Bun B is Standing Up by Mark Anthony Neal / 12h 'Hip hop legend Bun B has been involved in activism in the city of Houston for a long time. So when George Floyd, a longtime Houston resident, was killed by a police officer in Minneapolis, Bun stepped up. He organized a march for Floyd that drew 60,000 people, and he hasn’t let up since, attending the March on Washingto
Education Research Report THIS WEEK Education Research Report Automatic enrollment yields big dividends in children's early learning program by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 2d Duke study shows automatic enrollment, paired with option to opt-out, is highly effective at boosting parents' participation DUKE UNIVERSITY Research News SHARE PRINT E-MAIL IMAGE: AUTOMATIC ENROLLMENT, PAIRED WITH OPTION TO OPT-O
Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007 THIS WEEK IN EDUCATION Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... The latest news and resources in education since 2007 Around The Web In ESL/EFL/ELL by Larry Ferlazzo / 7h BiljaST / Pixabay Six years ago I began this regular feature where I share a few posts and resources from around the Web related to E
Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all KEEP UP/ CATCH UP WITH DIANE RAVITCH'S BLOG A site to discuss better education for all “Homecoming”: Are You Ready for This? by dianeravitch / 20h A prize-winning short video about a young man with a secret who is coming home to tell his parents. Samantha Bee Demolishes School Choice 24 by dianeravitch / 21h Some of us have spent y
A TALE OF TWO RE-OPENINGS “What was difficult was the travel, which, on arrival, is forgotten.” ― Louise Gluck As fall Break for MNPS comes to a close, I can’t help but be struck by the irony of the Tennessee Titans struggling to return to the football field due to COVID as MNPS will be simultaneously returning kids to class. If you haven’t been paying attention, it’s going on nearly two weeks s
TEACHERS, STOP SPANKING YOUR STUDENTS! Black Lives Matter, but Black Bodies Get Beaten I attended a Catholic pre-school; the teachers and the director were nuns. It was the 1980s, meaning that certain attitudes were very much normalized, like corporal punishment, albeit mildly. One of our collective pastimes in pre-school was flickering the boys’ bathroom light. The light was located outside the
AFT LEADERS ANNOUNCE INNOVATION FUND COVID-19 RESPONSE GRANTS American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten and Executive Vice President Evelyn DeJesus issued the following statement announcing the AFT Innovation Fund’s COVID-19 response grants for the 2020-21 school year. For more than a decade, the AFT Innovation Fund has made millions of dollars of grants available to AFT affilia
How US schools punish Black kids Black students get punished more harshly than white students. The president actually has a ton of power to do something about it. For the 50 million kids who attend public schools in the US, the 2020 election is personal. That’s because whoever wins the presidency also decides how American schools handle things like testing, class size, and discipline. When it co
A Reply to an 8th Grader: 11 Reasons Related to Schools Why Citizens Argue A Reply to an 8th Grader: 11 Reasons Related to Schools Why Citizens Argue During the Vice Presidential debate, an 8th grader asked why American citizens can’t get along. She said all she sees is arguing between Democrats and Republicans, citizens fighting citizens and two candidates trying to tear each other down. She ask
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. Comp
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 provi
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) J ustin 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 (Har
The Freedom to Be That Change Most of us want to raise children who are ethical and caring. Indeed, when surveyed 96 percent of us say that this is a "very important, if not essential" parenting goal . I've not seen the numbers for teachers, but I would assume that a super majority of us feel likewise. If nothing else, we want the future to be populated with adults of character and we believe it
Advisory Commission on Special Education (ACSE) meeting Advisory Commission on Special Education (ACSE) meeting ACSE Agenda October 21, 2020 Important Notice 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 par
Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007 Big Education Ape: THIS WEEK IN EDUCATION Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... The latest news and resources in education since 2007 - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2020/10/this-week-in-education-larry-ferlazzos.html Enrollment In Some Districts Is Going Down – Should We Be Worried? by Larry
The Lost Year Fallacy The first time I learned about the 1918 flu pandemic—in school, probably junior high history or civics class—I came home and asked my grandmother (who lived with us) what she remembered about the great flu pandemic. She would have been 28 in 1918, still single and working in a grocery and dry goods store. Not much, it turned out. None of her nine brothers and sisters or the
Democracy Is Not The Point Twitter is often a fine place to catch people saying the quiet parts out loud. For instance, this tweet from this morning: Mike Lee is a Senator from Utah who tilts all the way over into Libertarian rightness. He loves himself some school choice . He's also part of the crew that got Covid-19 as a parting gift at the White House Amy Barrett soiree. As a blogging master
Columbus, Ohio: School Board Member Lobbies for School Choice, Not Public Schools Maureen Reedy is an experienced teacher and advocate for Ohio’s public schools. She wrote a letter to the editor which all public school supporters should read: https://www.dispatch.com/story/opinion/letters/2020/10/05/dispatch-letter-writers-take-issue-1-dewines-tweet-and-election/5884874002/ To the Editor: Let me
Bully Politics, Eugenics, and the Last Days of American Pretense If the American character included the ability to admit that the country’s founding was deeply flawed but aspirational —life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness as goals we are still trying to achieve for all, not just some—we would not have to admit in 2020 that much of what America believes is simply lies. Instead, the America
DeVos pledges use of 'bully pulpit' to urge school reopening The comments come the same day Boston schools paused reopening plans because of a rise in coronavirus cases. SACRAMENTO — Education Secretary Betsy DeVos pledged Wednesday to use the "bully pulpit" to pressure states to reopen schools for in-person learning amid the pandemic. DeVos said on a Zoom event hosted by the Pacific Research In
Five reasons the Supreme Court matters for educators and public schools By Amanda Meanas Instead of waiting until the American people have had their say and the next president is inaugurated, President Donald Trump and the GOP-led Senate are determined to rush through Trump’s Supreme Court nominee. Those efforts led to a COVID-19 “super spreader” event at the White House. More than 20 people, in
California parents mostly disapprove of distance learning, poll finds As most public and private school students in California continue to study from home, a majority of voters say the state’s schools are not prepared to offer high-quality distance learning, although they are more positive about their own local schools, according to a poll released Thursday. Parents worry that if children are at
South Carolina: Supreme Court Strikes Down Voucher Plan! South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster thought he could use some of the state’s CARES Act money to create a voucher program. The Supreme Court of South Carolina just struck down his illegal scheme to divert money from public schools to private and religious schools. From TheState.com: Public money cannot be spent on South Carolina’s privat
Has Miami-Dade Really Found The Secret Of Cheap Excellence? From school choice to school finance, Florida is the state education disruptors love to point at, though they tend to point verrrrry carefully at very specific features of the Floridian education landscape. For instance, here's Michael Q. McShane at Education Next running a piece about how Miami-Dade schools have "bucked the staffing su
WILL BETSY DEVOS AND THE USDOE ALLOW THE SCHWINIGANS TO CONTINUE UNABATED? “Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds.” ― George Eliot, Adam Bede The hits from 2020 keep right on coming. Last week it was the legendary St. Lous Cardinals pitcher Bob Gibson. This week, it’s guitar hero Eddie Van Halen. Any of you who grew up in the ’70s and ’80s can attest to the power of Van Halen
NYC Public School Parents: Why Covid has spread in Ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods and "Cutting School" how Black schools have been a focus of experimentation and profit Today on my WBAI podcast "Talk out of School" I updated listeners on the additional school closures planned this week in NYC, first by Mayor de Blasio in nine zip codes in Brooklyn and Queens, and now in larger numbers in red and o
How online learning companies are using the pandemic to take over the classroom - Alternet.org How online learning companies are using the pandemic to take over the classroom This article was produced by Our Schools . Opening schools during a pandemic in an underfunded urban district like Providence, Rhode Island, where buildings are in miserable physical conditions , is already a huge undertakin
U.S. ranks near bottom of advanced nations in child wellness -- new report The United States ranks near the bottom of dozens of advanced nations in terms of the well-being of its children, according to a report with data from before the coronavirus epidemic. The rankings were published by the United Nations Children’s Fund, known as UNICEF, which show that of 38 advanced countries for which data
Homeless Families Struggle With Impossible Choices As School Closures Continue The closure of school buildings in response to the coronavirus has been disruptive and inconvenient for many families, but for those living in homeless shelters or hotel rooms — including roughly 1.5 million school-aged children — the shuttering of classrooms and cafeterias has been disastrous. For Rachel, a 17-year-o
If You Like the DOE, You'll Love Trump So the DOE now says that testing isn't, you know, mandatory for students, but that those who decline, "may be required to learn remotely" if they don't receive enough forms. Of course, that defeats the entire purpose of the testing program, as random samples are not self-selected. Also, that's absolutely not the agreement they made with UFT. UFT will now ha
'I'm overwhelmed': Single parents navigate virtual learning ‘I’m overwhelmed’: Single parents navigate virtual learning Succeeding in the world of virtual learning can be difficult for students. It can also be difficult for single parents who are now wearing the hat of caregiver, teacher and financial provider. Home offices have been turned into makeshift classrooms, kitchen tables are now school
Teaching Children to Be Incompetent In 1973, I was 11-years-old, living with my family in a suburb of Athens, Greece. My brother was 9 and our sister was not even four. We lived a couple of miles from the American Club, a place that ex-pats from English speaking countries congregated. We primarily frequented it to use the swimming pool, movie theater, and book store. Us boys were pretty much fre
Even New Jersey, the State with the Best Funded Schools, Needs a 2nd Federal COVID-19 Relief Bill In the midst of the COVID-19 recession, even New Jersey, the state with the nation’s best school funding system, can’t maintain its constitutional obligation without additional federal help through the relief package which was first proposed by the U.S. House of Representatives in May. U.S. Senate R
Laura Chapman: “GreatSchools” Rating System Is Funded by School Choice Billionaires Laura Chapman, intrepid researcher, writes here about the billionaire and corporate money supporting the rating system for schools called GreatSchools. It clearly exists to promote school choice, not community cohesion or civic responsibility. GreatSchools recently announced that it would use “growth scores” to m
CAP: It's the School System's Fault The Center for American Progress (CAP) is nominally a left-tilted thinky tank, but they have always been solidly on the side of reformsterism , backing charter schools and relentlessly stumping for the Common Core. They're also fans of the narrow reformster view of education as a mill for churning out meat widgets, and here they are at it again in a post from
October 16, 2020 Screening Committee Notice, SBE - State Board of Education (CA Dept of Education) 2021-22 State Board of Education Student Member Screening Committee Notice, SBE Providing Safe Physical Activity During COVID-19 - Nutrition (CA Dept of Education) - https://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/nu/provsafephyactcovid19.asp 2021 Census Bureau Data for Area Eligibility - Nutrition (CA Dept of Education)
Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007 Big Education Ape: THIS WEEK IN EDUCATION Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... The latest news and resources in education since 2007 - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2020/10/this-week-in-education-larry-ferlazzos.html Two New Automatic Citation Generators by Larry Ferlazzo / 3h Here are two ne
Voluntold to sub voluntold voluntold: The exact opposite of volunteering. Always used in reference to an unpleasant task to which you have been assigned by your boss. Teachers all across the district are being voluntold to sub for absent colleagues, give up their planning and lunches, and the system is set up so teachers cannot say no. Not if they want to keep their jobs, their teaching assignme
RQILA Recommendations For Nov20 General Election: VOTE. Now. Below please find a compilation of RQILA recommendations and thoughts on this year’s election. They are centered on AD54, Sydney Kamlager’s state assembly district stretching across LA’s westside and south-central. RQILA represents AD54 in the LA County’s Democratic Committee. The recommendations reflect a leitmotiv of education, schoo
Carol Burris: Back to School—the Good, the Bad, the Ugly Carol Burris interviewed teachers, students and administrators about their experiences returning to school. As you might expect, she encountered a range of reactions. The Network for Public Education is following 37 districts in New York, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut that reopened — either hybrid or full time. Of the 23 districts that res
Parenting during the Pandemic With the closure of U.S. schools in March of the infamous year of 2020 and the desperation-driven reform of distance learning, Moms have become teacher-in-charge. The cartoon below offers a glimpse of a traditional and familiar style of parenting. Less than a decade ago, a Yale Law professor categorized the Mom in this cartoon as exhibiting one historical patterns i
What It’s Like to Be a Teacher in 2020 America Teachers find themselves at the heart of the national crisis — responsible not just for children’s education and well-being, but also for essential child care as parents struggle to get back to work. “It seems very poor policy to pay a man 20 or 22 dollars a month for teaching children the ABC’s when a female could do the work more successfully at o
The Proper and Moral Use of Power Anthropologists tell us that our hunter-gatherer ancestors were not big fans of show-offs, nor did they take well to being bossed around. For 99 percent of our time on the planet, individuals who attempted to place themselves above others, who behaved arrogantly, who hoarded resources, or who attempted to exert control over others, were ridiculed, shamed, and if
The Tech Jaguar Catches Me My last class was the biggest disaster I've experienced in decades. It seemed like anything that could go wrong, did. I wrote a multi-day lesson based on a great video on Apple TV plus. They have a series I've just discovered called Little America , and the second episode is called The Jaguar . The story is about a young woman, undocumented but absolutely fluent in Eng
2020 Medley #22 – The Process of Science is Ongoing Science is a way of knowing The National Center for Science Education (NCSE) provides resources for science teachers. A new series of lessons deals with the scientific method — the process of science. The aim is to give students experience in using the scientific method for real-life decision making. The first lesson (see below) deals with help
Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007 Big Education Ape: THIS WEEK IN EDUCATION Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... The latest news and resources in education since 2007 - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2020/10/this-week-in-education-larry-ferlazzos.html Tuesday’s Must-Read Articles & Must-Watch Videos On School Reopening by Larr
You’re on Your Own (But You Don’t Have to Be) During the recent U.S. Senate debate in South Carolina, Jaime Harrison and Lindsey Graham seemed determined to one-up each other about their overcoming hardships in their lives. Harrison, as a Black South Carolinian, sounded quite similar, in fact, to Republican senator Tim Scott—both sending strong messages about rugged individualism that can easily
Hearings tomorrow for Success Academy charter revisions & comments from District 2 CEC members demanding more transparency Hearings on revisions to the Success Academy charter will be held by the SUNY charter committee tomorrow Tuesday Oct 6, 2020. The meeting will start at 9 AM and will be webcast here . The agenda is here and the proposed Success Academy revisions are included in a document en
September 22, 2020 Tuesday at 2 Webinar - Nutrition (CA Dept of Education) Tuesday @ 2: School Nutrition Town Hall webinar CNP Operational Guidance FAQs - Nutrition (CA Dept of Education) https://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/nu/cnpoperationalguidfaqs.asp USDA Summer Meal Claiming Flexibility - Nutrition (CA Dept of Education) https://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/nu/usdasummermealclaimflex.asp Coronavirus (COVID-19) Ma
UFT Executive Board October 5, 2020--The Fun Never Stops 5:50 Roll Call Minutes --Approved UFT Secretary LeRoy Barr --Welcomes us. UFT President Michael Mulgrew --Asks for moment of silence for Ruth Greenburg, guidance counselor and special ed. pioneer. Busy weekend--all schools opened, and now 91 schools and 18 sites going remote. Serious issue. Hoping for fewer last minute dramas. Plan says if
A NEVER ENDING STREAM OF CONFUSION “The good news for the Washington Federals is they do not have a quarterback controversy. The bad news is they do not have a quarterback.” ― Jeff Pearlman, Football for a Buck: The Crazy Rise and Crazier Demise of the USFL On Friday, after I first flipped through the recently released CREDO study focusing on learning loss, I fully intended to spend the weekend
Andrea Gabor: The Flaws in California’s Ethnic Studies Mandate Andrea Gabor, a former editor at Business Week and U.S. News & World Report, is the Bloomberg chair of business journalism at Baruch College of the City University of New York and the author of “After the Education Wars: How Smart Schools Upend the Business of Reform.” It appeared behind a paywall at Bloomberg News. After she wrote t
“Ultimatum”: A searing challenge to institutional racism by Gerald Lenoir from his new book of poetry, “United States of Struggle: Police Murder in America” ast week, my dad, Gerald Lenoir , released his brand new book of poetry, United States of Struggle: Police Murder in America . Gerald also released a video of one of the poems, “ Ultimatum ,” that will knock you off your feet (be aware that
Andy Hargreaves: Imagine a World Without Teachers! Today is World Teachers Day. It’s a day we honor teachers around the world and thank them for their dedication and hard work, building our future. Andy H argreaves poses a thought experiment: Imagine a world without teachers! He begins: Never has there been a more important time than this moment, right now, to think about and appreciate what gre
Word Recognition: To what extent is it "self-taught?" I taught myself how to decode. No, I was not some precocious early reader who intuited how words work at three and was reading before entering school. And, yes, my first grade teacher. Ms. Rickles, did a very creditable job in teaching me the alphabetic principal and the phonological awareness I needed to get myself started on the road to bei
TEACHERS, REGARDLESS OF WHAT YOUR PRESIDENT SAYS, DON’T WHITEWASH HISTORY When I was first assigned to teach U.S. history nearly a decade ago during my second year as a social studies teacher, my first stop was to a Black-owned bookstore around the corner from where I taught. A month before the school year began, I had decided that I couldn’t use the old course textbook. It was the same sort of
Trump official pressured CDC to change report on Covid and kids Amid Trump’s push to reopen schools, Michael Caputo’s science adviser asked that the health agency alter its warning about a study of pediatric coronavirus. In early September, as many school districts were still deciding whether to hold in-person classes, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention altered the title of a scienti
Where Our Focus Ought to Be Right Now . . . And Always Most of us take it for granted that human beings are smarter than other animals. After all, we have by far the largest brains compared to our body size of any other species, comprising, on average, two percent of our body weight. But when scientists in Germany used a series of thirty-eight tests designed to compare our innate intelligence wi
Texas: Public Schools Have Better Outcomes Than Charter Schools William J. Gumbert has studied the performance of charter schools in Texas and has consistently documented that they are inferior to public schools. Their promoters have sold the Legislature a Bill of goods, meaning that their results are nowhere as impressive as their promises. In this post, he shows that charter graduates are poor
No Innocence Here: How Irish, Jewish and Italian New Yorkers Benefited From Their Whiteness in Post World War 2 NYC Whenever I engage in conversations about race with Irish, Jewish or Italian New Yorkers of my generation- or those slightly younger- I am likely to confront some variety of the following argument " I am sick of all this talk about white privilege. Not only did my immigrant ancestor
Attacks on Teachers Have Been Central to Republicans’ Agenda to Reduce Government Spending Among the lingering effects of state budget reductions during the 2008 Great Recession have been widespread drops in teachers’ overall compensation. Although some states and local school districts do their part to pay their teachers fairly, and some provide the fringe benefits such professionals should exp
Millions in DOE contracts awarded for buses even if they're not running & scoring guides for tests that may never be given As Sue Edelman reports in today's NY Post , last week the PEP approved the extension of contracts with busing companies through 2025 that will guarantee them 43% of the full amount -- amounting to more than $500 million per year ---whether buses are running or not. The DOE a
OMG! Is Mayoral Control a Disaster? Is it Time to Elect School Boards in New York City? On October 1, after two delays , threats of a “safety” strike, seemingly endless criticisms from the teachers and supervisor unions, schools opened. Half the students opted for fully online instruction and the other half for two/three days a week in-person. The Department, somehow, did not see the complexity,
CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: Another Week That Lasted Ten Years Edition (10/4) Another Week That Lasted Ten Years Edition Holy crap. Let's take a moment to wax nostalgic about last weekend, those happy times when a story like the First Lady talking about how we should [expletive] Christmas would have gotten at least fifteen minutes of attention instead of being completely wiped out by a raging news cyc
Reimagining the Public High School, 2015-2020 (Part 2) The system of public high schools in America really hasn’t undergone any kind of serious transformation in 100 years,” [ Super School Project CEO, Russlyn H.] Ali said . “It was built for an economy and a system that is no more.” “ What if you’re the one who helps America rethink high school?” “This is a challenge to empower all of America t
“Free to Choose: Can School Choice Reduce Student Achievement?” For the past thirty years, school choice advocates have claimed that the best way to improve education was to give families public money to send their child to a private or religious school. The very fact of “privateness,” they said, meant better quality. This turns out not to be the case. Students never receive a voucher that is en
Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007 Big Education Ape: THIS WEEK IN EDUCATION Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... The latest news and resources in education since 2007 - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2020/10/this-week-in-education-larry-ferlazzos.html The Best Resources For Learning About The Concept Of Resilience by Larry Fer
BALTIMORE TEACHERS DEMAND ‘MASKS, TESTS AND PLEXIGLASS!’ On Sept. 30, the Baltimore Teachers Union (BTU) held a protest and die-in in front of the Baltimore City Public Schools headquarters in Baltimore City. Diana Desierto, BTU member and speech language pathologist, explained: “I am out here for the National Day of Resistance to make sure that our students, families and staff in Baltimore City
COPS IN SCHOOLS ARE DANGEROUS TO BLACK CHILDREN Earlier this year, Dr. Tamar Klaiman, member of the Abington Board of School Directors, came under fire for saying the following: We know that the Black and Brown students are much more likely to be shot by the officer, especially school resource officers, than other students, and I have serious concerns about anybody in the building having firearm
EdAction in Congress October 4, 2020 GOP refuses to let voters choose next Supreme Court justice Amy Coney Barrett, President Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court, has expressed misgivings about many vital rights and protections, including stare decisis —the rule that the Supreme Court should follow its own prior decisions, even when a justice disagrees with them. That is grave cause for concer
I Have Met the Enemy, and It Is iPhone With the advent of coronavirus-induced, hybrid instruction, I find myself not only having to learn how to teach using Google Classroom to deliver lessons but also having to learn how to combat a higher level of cheating enabled by the wedding between Google Classroom and the iPhone in my students’ hands. My lesson this week: The iPhone enables screenshots o
Trump Has COVID. What That Means For Public Schools It had to happen eventually. Donald Trump, the ultimate science denier, got bit in the butt by science. He’s got Coronavirus , and is in Walter Reed National Medical Center fighting for his life. Apparently the virus isn’t a hoax. You don’t catch it by testing for it. You don’t treat it with hydroxychloroquine . It’s a global pandemic, and the
DeVos Awards Another $131 Mill From Failed Federal Charter Fund Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos announced Friday that the department will pump yet another $131 million into the charter school industry (you may have missed the news; a few other things have happened in the last 48 hours). The grants go to 19 different organizations, primarily charter school "developers." Amounts range from a ti
Big Education Ape TOP POSTS THIS WEEK 10/3/20 ‘Slaying Goliath’: Diane Ravitch argues in new book that public education advocates have beat back efforts to privatize schools - The Washington Post The real story of New Orleans and its charter schools - The Washington Post CURMUDGUCATIO
