Latest News and Comment from Education

Wednesday, October 21, 2020

Teachers Union Urges Parents To Boycott School Reopening - PopularResistance.Org

Teachers Union Urges Parents To Boycott School Reopening - PopularResistance.Org
TEACHERS UNION URGES PARENTS TO BOYCOTT SCHOOL REOPENING



School Officials And Teachers Have Very Different Views On Whether It’s Safe For Students Hurt By Missing In-Person Classes To Safely Return To The Classroom.

When Baltimore City Schools announced last week that 25 schools will reopen next month to increase in-person instruction for high need students, officials promised it could be done safely and with transparency.

The district has received little guidance from state or federal authorities on how to reopen safely, and teachers, who will be required to return to the classroom, say they were blindsided by the announcement. They are now calling attention to problems with the recent reopening of Student Learning Centers (SLC) as an example of their concerns.

On Sept. 28, a limited number of students began attending 15 SLCs, sites open to students who are experiencing homelessness, or those who otherwise will benefit from being in a physical classroom environment to connect with their teachers, who are currently working remotely.

Everyone who enters an SLC has their temperature checked, and students are separated into “learning pods,” which limits their interaction with other groups CONTINUE READING: Teachers Union Urges Parents To Boycott School Reopening - PopularResistance.Org

Judge blasts DeVos’ sweeping denials of student loan relief claims as ‘disturbingly Kafkaesque’ - POLITICO

Judge blasts DeVos’ sweeping denials of student loan relief claims as ‘disturbingly Kafkaesque’ - POLITICO
Judge blasts DeVos’ sweeping denials of student loan relief claims as ‘disturbingly Kafkaesque’
The judge ruled that DeVos had undermined the deal by denying large swaths of the claims without sufficient explanation.



A federal judge scrapped a settlement Tuesday over the Trump administration’s slow processing of loan forgiveness for borrowers who have accused their colleges of fraud, ruling that Education Secretary Betsy DeVos undermined the deal.

U.S. District Judge William Alsup said in a sharply worded decision that DeVos undercut the settlement by denying large swaths of the claims without sufficient explanation.

The class-action settlement, which was reached earlier this year and received preliminary approval from the court, was meant to force the Education Department to move faster on final decisions for roughly 160,000 of the backlogged requests for loan forgiveness, known as “borrower defense” claims. Some of the claims have languished at the department for years.

Alsup said he is alarmed that DeVos has in recent months responded by swiftly rejecting tens of thousands of the applications through “perfunctory” denial notices. Of the applications in question in the class-action lawsuit, DeVos has denied 74,000 applications and granted 4,400 applications, which the judge noted was a denial rate of 94 percent.

Ruling justification: Alsup called the denial notices “potentially unlawful” and said he was considering blocking DeVos from issuing any further denial notices as the lawsuit proceeds.

The judge, who President Bill Clinton appointed for the Northern District of CONTINUE READING: Judge blasts DeVos’ sweeping denials of student loan relief claims as ‘disturbingly Kafkaesque’ - POLITICO

Betsy DeVos Says School Choice Is Coming, Like It Or Not | America 2020 | US News

Betsy DeVos Says School Choice Is Coming, Like It Or Not | America 2020 | US News
DeVos Says School Choice Is Coming, Like It Or Not
The education secretary echoed President Trump’s campaign speeches in warning against socialism and government involvement in education.



WITH PRESIDENT Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence heightening their calls for school choice on the campaign trail, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos delivered the fullest picture of what that might entail and predicted more choice is inevitable whether or not Trump wins his reelection bid.

WITH PRESIDENT Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence heightening their calls for school choice on the campaign trail, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos delivered the fullest picture of what that might entail and predicted more choice is inevitable whether or not Trump wins his reelection bid.

"Let me suggest we could fix education for so many children in America if we 'go Dutch,'" DeVos said. "School choice is not a matter of if, it's a matter of when."

School choice is an ambiguous, one-size-fits-all term used to characterize everything from charter schools to programs like tax credit scholarships and education savings accounts that help families afford private school tuition. The Associated Press recommends journalists not use the term because of how nondescript it is, which is one of the reasons why using it might be working to the Trump administration's advantage.

The idea of school choice has long been heralded by Republicans as a way to give children trapped in failing school systems different education opportunities and criticized in equal CONTINUE READING: 


New teachers union boss fighting Trump, school reopening battles - POLITICO

New teachers union boss fighting Trump, school reopening battles - POLITICO
New teachers union boss fighting Trump, school reopening battles
Becky Pringle steps into the role amid deep divisions nationwide about race and reopening schools.



Becky Pringle was among the many Black mothers in the mid-1990s having “that conversation” with her teenage son about getting stopped by police: what to say, where to keep his hands, how to stand up for his rights.

Pringle had seen how Black boys were disproportionately subjected to suspensions or expulsions while teaching science at Susquehanna Township Middle School in a suburb of Harrisburg, Pa. As her son prepared to get his driver’s license, she knew she had to talk to him “so that he could come home safely,” she said.

“Much of the country is just now paying attention to George Floyd and so many others,” she said during an interview. “But as a Black mother, I've always been paying attention. This is not new. This has been happening forever.”

As newly elected president of the 3 million-member National Education Association, the nation’s largest union, Pringle, 65, is now the highest-ranking Black female labor leader in the country. Only two other Black women have held the job before her, in the late 1960s and 1980s. Personal experience drives her work leading a national rebellion against President Donald Trump’s education policies and systems, which she says continue to marginalize students of color.

Pringle stepped into her role in September amid deep divisions nationwide about whether to reopen schools, pitting teachers afraid of returning to the classroom against the Trump administration and some governors and local officials calling for in-person classes. The crisis has led to budget cuts that have cost some teachers their jobs, has robbed others of their lives and has shined a CONTINUE READING: New teachers union boss fighting Trump, school reopening battles - POLITICO

What is Cleveland school levy Issue 68? | wkyc.com

What is Cleveland school levy Issue 68? | wkyc.com
National Teachers Union President joins push for Cleveland school levy support


CLEVELAND — National Teachers Union President Randi Weingarten has joined the movement to gain support for the Cleveland Metropolitan School District’s levy, which is known as Issue 68 on the upcoming November ballot.

The American Federation of Teachers and the Cleveland Teachers Union also joined CMSD CEO Eric Gordon at the Tuesday press conference “to lay out the huge stakes on Issue 68 as election day draws closer.”

"All they're asking for is to continue that levy and add a little bit more," Weingarten said. "No more than $7 a month for most households in this city to continue the progress."

The participants gathered to send the message that in the middle of the COVID crisis, we need to continue to fund Cleveland's future by improving education and opportunity for kids, organizers said.

We streamed the entire press conference, which you can watch in full below:

The levy, which is a 15-mill renewal and a 5-mill increase, will be used to cover the district’s operating budget for 10 years.

“A non-renewal of the levy would slash spending by $66 million, close 25 schools, reduce counseling, mental health and social supports and halt crucial digital supports,” organizers said in a press release. “It is being opposed by a shadowy group of GOP-linked operatives, who have refused to reveal their identity and blanketed the city with misleading anti-schools CONTINUE READING: What is Cleveland school levy Issue 68? | wkyc.com

Teacher Tom: "A Theory of Everything" and Why The Cynics Have it Wrong

Teacher Tom: "A Theory of Everything" and Why The Cynics Have it Wrong
"A Theory of Everything" and Why The Cynics Have it Wrong




Even a casual survey of human history gives us an understanding why there are always those eager to predict that these are the end times. Savagery and stupidity appear to be hallmarks of every epoch. Our fondest memories can always be ruined by taking a step back and realizing that we might have been having a good day or year or life, but we were surrounded by the unknown suffering of others. Acts of god aside, all the pain humans suffer comes at our own hands. That we, as a species, possess the capacity for evil is beyond question.

As much as I hate it, the cynic is always right. If we just wait long enough, it will all go wrong. Pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth, will always, as the cynics predict, bring even our loftiest intentions to ruin. And it seems to me that selfishness is the eighth sin that, like the ring of Mordor, rules them all. Cynicism, as author Rutger Bregman writes, is "a theory of everything." And it's true. No matter what argument one uses against their dark views of humanity, their answer of "Just wait" will prove them once again to be right.

Buddhism acknowledges this truth by conceding that "life is suffering." Other philosophies and religions lay down rules for us to follow. Advocates of specific governmental systems CONTINUE READING: Teacher Tom: "A Theory of Everything" and Why The Cynics Have it Wrong

The Reading Wars Are Over! Lucy Calkins Endorses Phonics | Diane Ravitch's blog

The Reading Wars Are Over! Lucy Calkins Endorses Phonics | Diane Ravitch's blog
The Reading Wars Are Over! Lucy Calkins Endorses Phonics



Lucy Calkins is one of the most influential reading researchers In the nation. She created the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project, whose teaching materials have been widely adopted and is a proponent of “balanced literacy.” BL prominently opposed the “phonics first” approach.

In my book Left Back: A Century of Battles Over School Reform,” I described in detail the long-standing debates about teaching reading, which dates back to the mid-nineteenth century. The phonetic approach was the conventional method until the advent of the very popular “Dick and Jane” reading books in the late 1920s. Those readers relied on the “whole word” method, in which children learned to recognize short words (“Run, Dick, run.” “See Sally run.”) and to use them in context rather than sound them out phonetically. In the 1950s, the debate came to a raging boil after publication of Rudolf Flesch’s “Why Johnny Can’t Read,” which attacked the CONTINUE READING: The Reading Wars Are Over! Lucy Calkins Endorses Phonics | Diane Ravitch's blog

An Annotated Field Guide to 2020 Presidential Voters | Eclectablog

An Annotated Field Guide to 2020 Presidential Voters | Eclectablog
An Annotated Field Guide to 2020 Presidential Voters




Democrats…

You supported Amy Klobuchar, or Pete Buttigieg, or another “more centrist” candidate in the primaries; now voting for Biden…

You consider yourself a moderate; thoughtful, empathetic, perhaps fiscally conservative yet socially liberal; you were attracted to the intelligence of Pete, or Amy’s “seriousness”, but believe that at this point, they would want you to vote for Biden, too.

 

You supported Elizabeth Warren in the primaries; now voting for Biden…

You still can’t believe that more persons didn’t see the qualities in Warren that you thought made her the best choice among the Democratic contenders. Intelligence, experience, humor, policy depth–come to think of it, the same qualities that led you to vote for Hillary Clinton in 2016. But as you put away your disappointment after Warren withdrew from the race, the decision to vote for Biden took about 5 seconds. Because, come on.

 

You supported Bernie Sanders in the primaries; now voting for Biden… CONTINUE READING: An Annotated Field Guide to 2020 Presidential Voters | Eclectablog








Are The Risks Of Reopening Schools Exaggerated? | 89.3 KPCC

Are The Risks Of Reopening Schools Exaggerated? | 89.3 KPCC
Are The Risks Of Reopening Schools Exaggerated?



Despite widespread concerns, two new international studies show no consistent relationship between in-person K-12 schooling and the spread of coronavirus. And a third study from the United States shows no elevated risk to childcare workers who stayed on the job.

Combined with anecdotal reports from a number of U.S. states where schools are open, as well as a crowdsourced dashboard of around 2000 U.S. schools, some medical experts are saying it's time to shift the discussion from the risks of opening K-12 schools to the risks of keeping them closed.

"As a pediatrician, I am really seeing the negative impacts of these school closures on children," Dr. Danielle Dooley, a medical director at Children's National Hospital in Washington, D.C., told NPR. She ticked off mental health problems, hunger, obesity due to inactivity, missing routine medical care and the risk of child abuse — on top of the loss of education. "Going to school is really vital for children. They get their meals in school, their physical activity, their health care, their education, of course."

While agreeing that emerging data is encouraging, other experts said the United States as a whole has made little progress toward practices that would allow schools CONTINUE READING: Are The Risks Of Reopening Schools Exaggerated? | 89.3 KPCC

NYC Educator: The Lingering Stench of Mike Bloomberg

NYC Educator: The Lingering Stench of Mike Bloomberg
The Lingering Stench of Mike Bloomberg



 The other day I asked a question at UFT Executive Board:

The DOE is full of Bloomberg leftovers hired from TFA refugees, cocktail parties, hopeless relatives and who knows where else. What are we going to do to get the next mayor to sweep clean, get rid of the incompetence and indifference, and sweep the stench of Bloomberg from Tweed forever?

Why, exactly, would I ask a thing like that? For one thing, it's years of dealing with DOE "legal." Ostensibly, this group exists to advise principals, but in reality, its prime directive is to impede union activity in any way possible. It will offer the most outlandish advice, and a chapter leader might repeatedly spend months grieving as a result. 

One of the reasons is that, at Step Two of grievances, the DOE generally doesn't even bother listening to UFT. Like "legal," the people repping the DOE can't be bothered with rules, evidence, or any such frivolity. They just do any damn thing they like and make you wait months again to see an arbitrator. I was once told to stand outside a door, and actually heard the rather loud hearing officer essentially say the principal had no case. Months later, I lost the Step Two hearing anyway.

For one very long year, I took the job of LAB BESIS coordinator. This job had to do with testing ELLs. I had to deal with a whole lot of records. It was good in one way, because I finally had an office to conduct union business, but I wasn't particularly fond of the actual job. It was a lot of tedious computer work, and the DOE system I had to CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: The Lingering Stench of Mike Bloomberg

“We Can Only Hope” (Terence Freeman) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

“We Can Only Hope” (Terence Freeman) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice
“We Can Only Hope” (Terence Freeman)



Freeman is an English teacher at Lawton High School in Lawton, Oklahoma. He has taught 14 years at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and 26 years at Lawton High School. This story appeared in the Washington Post’s online article, October 6, 2020. Freeman is one of nine teachers the newspaper asked to report on their experiences in returning to remote and in-person instruction during the pandemic.

Hope was on my mind in the summer months leading up to this academic year. I hoped the school had plans and funding for sanitizer, cleaning liquids, paper towels, masks, teacher testing and more; hoped that I and my students would remain healthy; hoped that I could still have the personal relationship with students that enables learning to happen.

I will remember Hands. During Week 2, I took my classes to the library, where the district fulfilled its promise to provide every student with a Chromebook. I CONTINUE READING: “We Can Only Hope” (Terence Freeman) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Who’s “Hiding in the Weeds?” Biden or Trump Voters? [A Civics Lesson] | Ed In The Apple

Who’s “Hiding in the Weeds?” Biden or Trump Voters? [A Civics Lesson] | Ed In The Apple
Who’s “Hiding in the Weeds?” Biden or Trump Voters? [A Civics Lesson]



A wisp of sunlight on the horizon, standing on a long line waiting for my polling place to open chatting with two young women, first time voters, proud to be electing the first female president. November 8th, 2016.

Nate Silver (fivethirtyeight blog) assuring us for weeks than Hillary was far ahead in the polls. We forgot the mantra of pollsters: never having to say we’re certain.

What went wrong?

We’re two weeks from Election Day in an election that will determine the fate of our nation, the future of democracy.

I looked back at a blog I posted on October 20, 2016, “Can the polls be wrong: Hillary is up 8 points, no, Trump is up by 1 point, What’s going on? Why are the polls varying so much?” I took a deep dive into the polling process, a deeply flawed process that is meant to grab headlines, glue eyes to the screen. If a poll “predicts” a winner the pollsters can pat themselves on the back, if they’re wrong it’s the fault of the public, the “sample” wasn’t being honest.

2016 wasn’t a good year for pollsters; they were wrong predicting the Brevet vote CONTINUE READING: Who’s “Hiding in the Weeds?” Biden or Trump Voters? [A Civics Lesson] | Ed In The Apple



Think your vote doesn’t matter? Uneven early voting across LAUSD Districts means it may count more than ever. – Los Angeles Education Examiner

Think your vote doesn’t matter? Uneven early voting across LAUSD Districts means it may count more than ever. – Los Angeles Education Examiner
Think your vote doesn’t matter? Uneven early voting across LAUSD Districts means it may count more than ever.



Are you wondering whether the vote is effectively all over. Whether so many early ballots have been returned there’s, say, little point still in advocating for Schools And Community First (prop 15)? For community college board members? For Schools local bond measure RR? For your LAUSD BD3 (Schmerelson Koziatek) or LAUSD BD7 (Castellanos Franklin) board member?

The TL;DR is Your vote is still needed! Your advocacy is crucial. At best 4 in 5 ballots have not yet been counted as returned. Students are needing their voters’ support.

Who’s already gotten their VBM in? Who votes in the districts electing a school board member?

Turns out, there are 2.6m registered voters in LAUSD (according to PDI as of 10/10/20). Table 1 shows which districts have the most voters. Nick Melvoin’s board district 1 serving the westside and Hollywood area all the way up to Toluca Lake and into Topanga Cyn, has the most registered CONTINUE READING: Think your vote doesn’t matter? Uneven early voting across LAUSD Districts means it may count more than ever. – Los Angeles Education Examiner


2020 Medley #23 | Live Long and Prosper

2020 Medley #23 | Live Long and Prosper


TEACHERS, EVERYTHING HAS CHANGED

Everything about teaching has changed.

We were already in the midst of a teacher shortage before the pandemic began. Now, when things are harder than ever for teachers, we’re going to lose more if we don’t take care of the teachers we have.

The current pandemic has an impact on everything we do. It impacts shopping, medical appointments, and school attendance. It affects children and their teachers…and, by extension, everyone who lives with, or interacts with, a child or a teacher. That might include infants and grandparents. It includes people with high-risk conditions like obesity, kidney disease, COPD, heart conditions, diabetes, and sickle cell disease. Just because a child doesn’t have a high-risk condition doesn’t mean they couldn’t transmit COVID-19 to someone in their family with a high-risk condition. Just because a teacher doesn’t have a high-risk condition doesn’t mean that they couldn’t transmit COVID-19 to someone in CONTINUE READING: 2020 Medley #23 | Live Long and Prosper

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


A VERY BUSY DAY
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_17.html


“Making Hybrid Teaching Work for Educators & Students”
Making Hybrid Teaching Work for Educators & Students is the headline of my latest Education Week Teacher column. Three educators offer do’s and don’ts of successful hybrid teaching, including setting boundaries and practicing self-care. Here are some excerpts:
Wednesday’s Must-Read Articles & Must-Watch Videos On School Reopening
OpenClipart-Vectors / Pixabay Here are new additions to THE BEST POSTS PREDICTING WHAT SCHOOLS WILL LOOK LIKE IN THE FALL : Hybrid school might be the worst of both worlds is from Vox. These Families Feel Forgotten as N.Y.C. Pushes to Open Schools is from The NY Times. Back to school: Many large districts are opening their doors again is from The Washington Post. A look at Orange County as first
All My Music-Related “Best” Lists
stevepb / Pixabay I have over 2,100 frequently revised and updated “Best” lists on just about every subject imaginable, and you can find them listed three different ways in three different places (see Three Accessible Ways To Search For & Find My “Best” Lists ). I’m starting to publish a series where each day I will highlight the “Best” lists in a separate category. Today, it’s on Music: The Best
2020’s Best Posts From This Blog!
Twice each year, I post my favorite posts that appeared in during the previous six months. This post is for my favorites from the first half of 2020. You can see my choices for each of the past twelve years here , including A LOOK BACK: 2020’S BEST POSTS FROM THIS BLOG – PART ONE. And you can also see a list of my My All-Time Favorite Posts! I’m adding this one to ALL END-OF-YEAR “BEST” LISTS FOR
“Peaksay” Is Likely To Become A “Go-To” Site For Language Teachers
I’ve previously posted about Fluent Key (see “FLUENT KEY” LOOKS LIKE A WONDERFUL VIDEO TOOL FOR ALL TEACHERS ). It “gamifies” watching a video and turns it into a Quizizz/Kahoot-like activity where students answer questions with a leaderboard. It’s definitely an engaging way to show a video in class. Then, last week, I posted about a new feature that Fluent Key began: Peaksay Pronunciation Game h
My Latest BAM! Radio Show Is On How Teachers Can Lead Effective Asynchronous Online Discussions
What’s the Point? Leading Compelling, Meaningful Class Discussions Online is the topic of my latest ten-minute BAM Radio Show. Taurean Branch and Theresa Capra join me in the discussion, and they’ve both also contributed written commentaries to my Education Week Teacher column. I’m adding it to All My BAM Radio Shows – Linked With Descriptions .
Horrifying Statistic Of The Day: Hundreds Of Immigrant Children Taken Away From Parents By Trump Administration Still Separated From Them
The horror of the Trump Administration’s family separation policy continues, according to this new NBC news article, Lawyers say they can’t find the parents of 545 migrant children separated by Trump administration. I’m 

Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007