Jeff Bryant in The Progressive: Bad Leadership Is Plunging Public Schools Into a Crisis | Ed Politics

Jeff Bryant in The Progressive: Bad Leadership Is Plunging Public Schools Into a Crisis | Ed Politics

JEFF BRYANT IN THE PROGRESSIVE: BAD LEADERSHIP IS PLUNGING PUBLIC SCHOOLS INTO A CRISIS

Michael Barbour, a professor at Touro University California and an expert on K-12 online learning, believes that more than half of the nation’s school superintendents “should be fired.”

His blistering criticism stems from the fact that, deep into the 2020-2021 school year, many schools are still struggling with virtual learning during the pandemic.

Stories of school districts’ online learning systems crashing are widespread. Teachers complain about not being included in decisions about online curriculum and pedagogy. Alarming numbers of students are not engaged or not showing up, especially in low-income areas and among communities of color.

The chaos is especially concerning given that 76 percent of parents say their children are attending school remotely, either full time or part time, according to a recent nationwide survey. Moreover, a majority of parents, 54 percent, think that improving online learning is more important than figuring out how to reopen schools for in-person instruction.

“Any school leader who didn’t reach out to teachers to ask what had worked well and what didn’t, and then use that  CONTINUE READING: Jeff Bryant in The Progressive: Bad Leadership Is Plunging Public Schools Into a Crisis | Ed Politics

Charter schools’ unexpected windfall: They got funds from two federal government programs; public schools only got from one - Network For Public Education

Charter schools’ unexpected windfall: They got funds from two federal government programs; public schools only got from one - Network For Public Education

Charter schools’ unexpected windfall: They got funds from two federal government programs; public schools only got from one

Kudos to the mayor, teachers and principals who worked so hard to bring New York City public school students back to school. Unfortunately, their tenacious efforts were poorly supported by the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act. New Yorkers knew there would be many extra expenses to open school safely — and the meager support Congress provided in the CARES Act didn’t help much. New York City’s public schools received $720.5 million — only about $720 a student. And even that small amount was taken away when Gov. Cuomo cut $717 million to NYC schools.

Not all NYC schools were shortchanged, however. Our investigation of the CARES Act’s funding streams revealed that the nearly 60% of charter schools in the city double-dipped, getting far more per student than public schools. Not only did charters get a share of the main CARES Act provision for schools, called the Elementary and Secondary School Stabilization Emergency Relief (ESSER) Fund. Because they are non-profit corporations, Congress also allowed them to receive forgivable loans under the Payroll Protection Plan (PPP).

Many New York City charters used their status as nonprofit corporations to apply for forgivable, low-interest PPP loans that were intended to save small businesses from closing. Why charters were eligible to get PPP funding is unclear; unlike conventional small businesses, their revenue never disappeared. They continued to get their pre-CARES Act taxpayer-funded revenue streams — plus formula-driven shares of the ESSER funding on CONTINUE READING: Charter schools’ unexpected windfall: They got funds from two federal government programs; public schools only got from one - Network For Public Education

Linda Darling-Hammond Says She Does Not Want to Be Secretary of Education | Diane Ravitch's blog

Linda Darling-Hammond Says She Does Not Want to Be Secretary of Education | Diane Ravitch's blog

Linda Darling-Hammond Says She Does Not Want to Be Secretary of Education

Linda Darling-Hammond declared that she does not want to be Biden’s Secretary of Education. She prefers to stay in California, where she is president of the State Board of Education and leads the Learning Policy Institute.

In 2008, she was Obama’s education spokesman during the campaign, and it was widely anticipated that she would be selected as Secretary of Education. But “reformers” (DFER) launched a campaign to torpedo her nomination and pushed for one-off their own: Arne Duncan. Editorials appeared miraculously in major newspapers denouncing her. And we got stuck with RTTT.

Linda Darling-Hammond Says She Does Not Want to Be Secretary of Education | Diane Ravitch's blog

Linda Darling-Hammond rejects possible consideration as Secretary of Education in Biden cabinet | EdSource - https://edsource.org/?p=643327 on @edsource

What happens when there are school data breaches?

What happens when there are school data breaches?

What happens when private student information leaks

Congressional watchdog report counts breaches of Social Security numbers and health records at schools

ow vulnerable is student data at U.S. public schools? That’s a critical question now that many, if not most, of the nation’s 51 million students are learning online at least some of the time.

Congressional watchdogs recently attempted to get a handle on the cyber security problem in schools. In a report publicly released in October 2020, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) counted 99 school data breaches over the past four years, from July 2016 to May 2020, that compromised the personal information of thousands of students in kindergarten through high school.

Attacks by cyber criminals were rare, the GAO found. More common were unintentional leaks in which private information, such as health records and telephone numbers, were accidentally made public. Students were responsible for more than a quarter of the breaches; their most frequent motive was changing grades.

The GAO relied on a private database of cyber attacks and leaks collected by Doug Levin of EdTech Strategies, a consulting firm. That’s because there’s no federal requirement for school districts to report data breaches. Most states have data breach notification laws but they vary a lot and there’s no obligation for state agencies to disclose them publicly. So the GAO turned to Levin’s K-12 Cybersecurity Resource Center, which has been collecting press clips about school data breaches from around the country and monitoring the states that do publicly report, such as Texas.

However, Levin’s own analysis of the data he shared with the GAO arrived at different totals. He counted 458 data breaches in school districts; 315 involved the unauthorized release of student data. That’s more than four times greater. Levin documented that more than a million student records CONTINUE READING: What happens when there are school data breaches?

Equity Politics: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness – radical eyes for equity

Equity Politics: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness – radical eyes for equity

Equity Politics: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness

The U.S. has elected Joe Biden president, ending the presidency of Donald Trump.

This is a return to the standard failure of the democratic process in a country that is primarily committed to the free market, rugged individualism, and guns.

Biden is the normal but truly awful presidential candidate, replacing the uniquely horrible election of Trump.

As many people have noted, changing presidents typically means only small differences in the daily lives of people. Those with some affluence and privilege continue to have really good lives, lives that allow them to focus on trivial matters that seem huge because of that affluence or privilege.

People in poverty, working class people, and the many different categories of people living in what we have euphemized as “diverse” identities, however, will mostly continue to live barely in the margins of the American dream—even when these people also attain some level of wealth or privilege in their accomplishments.

The American democracy is a failed and failing experiment because it has allowed inequity to flourish, and those living with the most privilege, white CONTINUE READING: Equity Politics: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness – radical eyes for equity

With DeVos out, Biden plans reversals on education - The Washington Post

With DeVos out, Biden plans reversals on education - The Washington Post

With DeVos out, Biden plans series of reversals on education

 

President Trump tried to bully schools into opening their buildings, a hard-edge pandemic tactic that succeeded in places and backfired elsewhere. President-elect Joe Biden is hoping to pry them open with money for increased coronavirus expenses and clear guidance on how in-person schooling can resume safely, a shift that signals a new era for education policy in the United States.

Follow the latest on Election 2020

Under Trump, the Education Department has been led by Secretary Betsy DeVos, who alienated many by casting public schools as failures and promoting alternatives to them. Through executive action and negotiations with Congress, Biden wants to bolster public schools.

He has promised hundreds of billions of dollars in new education spending, for preschool through college. He has proposed college debt forgiveness. And he wants to overturn a controversial regulation on sexual harassment and assault that universities and others strongly opposed.

He has also promised to appoint an educator as education secretary and likes to tell people that a teacher will join him in the White House. Jill Biden, an English professor at a community college in Northern Virginia, has said she plans to continue teaching as first lady.

“Teaching isn’t just what she does — it’s who she is,” Joe Biden said Saturday in a victory speech after being declared the winner of the presidential race. “For America’s educators, this is a great day: You’re going to have one of your own in the White House.”

‘Jill is always grading papers,’ Michelle Obama told People magazine

With the election results clear, transition teams for every federal agency are beginning the work of assessing the state of each department, cataloguing Biden’s promises, determining what can be done by executive action and what needs congressional action, and setting priorities.

Next secretary

For the Education Department, the transition committee is being led by Linda Darling-Hammond, president of the California State Board of Education, several people said. Darling-Hammond, who was considered for education secretary by President Barack Obama in 2008, is under consideration again, people familiar with the process said. Also under consideration are two teachers-union leaders: Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, and Lily Eskelsen García, former president of the National Education Association CONTINUE READING: With DeVos out, Biden plans reversals on education - The Washington Post

Teacher Tom: Our Covid Dilemma

Teacher Tom: Our Covid Dilemma

Our Covid Dilemma

An article in The Atlantic is entitled, "Schools Aren't Super-Spreaders." A more recent article in The New York Times announces, "Schoolchildren Seem Unlikely to Fuel Coronavirus Surges." As an educator, these kinds of headlines are encouraging. Not that all the data is in, of course. There is still a lot we don't know about Covid, but the data so far seems to indicate that young children coming together in school settings aren't contributing significantly to our current surge in cases. This news isn't likely to stop educators from worrying about the health of the children we teach, the health of their families, and that of ourselves and our colleagues, but it is a bright spot as the pandemic continues to rage here in the US and around the world.

Yes, children still get sick, sometimes severely so, but it appears that like some other virus-caused illnesses like chicken pox, measles, fifth disease, and mumps, the severity of symptoms and the incidence of complications is higher in adults than kids. Indeed, children are more likely to be completely asymptomatic. That said, we also know that children can spread viral illnesses to those who are more vulnerable like their teachers and parents, but this is apparently not happening in a meaningful way with Covid, at least within the context of schools. 

The question is, why? Is there something about the immune systems of young children that makes them naturally resistant? Could it simply be that they are low to the ground CONTINUE READING: Teacher Tom: Our Covid Dilemma

Standing Against New York’s Covid Vaccine Mandate And Fourth Industrial Revolution Tech-No-Logic – Wrench in the Gears

Standing Against New York’s Covid Vaccine Mandate And Fourth Industrial Revolution Tech-No-Logic – Wrench in the Gears

Standing Against New York’s Covid Vaccine Mandate And Fourth Industrial Revolution Tech-No-Logic

This weekend I was invited to take part in a rally to protest the proposed Covid vaccine mandate outside the office of the New York Bar Association and Governor Cuomo’s mansion in Albany, New York. Below is a video of the speech I gave. I realize I spoke pretty quickly, and it may be hard to hear the audio, so I am providing the transcript below. Please feel free to share it however you feel is useful – online, written, or spoken. It seems that the vaccine mandates are advancing, and it’s imperative that we get the word out that it’s not just about Big Pharma profits and vaccine injury, but the normalization of biometric health passports and the unlocking of human capital bond markets for the stakeholder capitalists of Davos – in other words a future of digital chattel slavery for the masses. We do not consent!

I’d like to start with a moment of gratitude for the efforts of those who brought us together, to the creator for putting this work on our hearts, and to the Kanien’keha:ka on whose lands we have gathered today. John Trudell, a leader of the American Indian Movement and prophetic voice for this time, said that it is our responsibility to use the intelligence given to us by the creator to be thinkers willing to put our minds and bodies against the machine of tech-no-logic now epitomized by the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

We are called to act or face a future of digital chattel slavery, our freedoms stolen by automation, artificial CONTINUE READING: Standing Against New York’s Covid Vaccine Mandate And Fourth Industrial Revolution Tech-No-Logic – Wrench in the Gears

Shawgi Tell: Next U.S. Secretary of Education Will Continue to Promote Charter Schools | Dissident Voice

Next U.S. Secretary of Education Will Continue to Promote Charter Schools | Dissident Voice

Next U.S. Secretary of Education Will Continue to Promote Charter Schools

There is a 100% chance that the next U.S. Secretary of Education will, like many previous secretaries of education, continue to promote privately-operated non-profit and for-profit charter schools and keep undermining the right to education.¹  Both Democrats and Republicans have long supported segregated charter schools—in Congress and at the state and local levels. The rich and their entourage are not going to take any actions that undercut their own narrow private interests to use the state to funnel more public funds into their pockets. Charter schools have been effective pay-the-rich schemes for decades and they are not about to be abandoned by the rich and their representatives. This is especially true in the context of a continually failing economy—an economy that cannot meet the needs of the people and is in need of a new aim and direction.

No doubt many will once again experience amnesia and harbor illusions about “change for the better” and “picking a ‘good’ secretary of education this time.” “Just maybe this time we can get the ‘right’ person in there, maybe even a teacher,” is what many are wishing. While bidding farewell to billionaire Betsy DeVos may bring much-needed relief to many, it won’t fundamentally change anything. Some of this is partially reminiscent of “Obama-mania,” which CONTINUE READING: Next U.S. Secretary of Education Will Continue to Promote Charter Schools | Dissident Voice

Mitchell Robinson: So, Now What? Let's Focus on Public Education and Internet Access | Eclectablog

So, Now What? Let's Focus on Public Education and Internet Access | Eclectablog

So, Now What? Let’s Focus on Public Education and Internet Access

In the aftermath of the most consequential election in our lifetimes, I thought I’d take this opportunity to offer some free advice for state Democratic parties interested in attracting even more new voters and turning more red state legislatures blue:

Let’s put a lot more focus on two issues that are critically important to building a stronger, more informed voter base, and have the potential to excite and unite both rural and urban communities…

1. Better, more affordable access to broadband internet service

In a digital age, access to fast, secure internet service is not only a basic human need–akin to utilities like electricity, water, and gas/oil–but it’s a requirement for candidates building a digital campaign infrastructure. Not being able to reliably connect to persons in remote areas of your state, or to those who live in urban areas plagued by internet deserts, severely hampers the ability to convey a candidate’s or party’s message, policy beliefs, or positions on issues. It also leaves persons without reliable internet access to the mercies of our information sources like Fox News or the Detroit News–meaning that they are less informed than someone with no media access at all.

2. Improve support for public education, including community colleges and state universities

One of the single largest predictors of voting patterns is the level of education among a group of potential voters. In general, the more educated a person is, the more likely that person is to vote, and to vote for Democratic candidates. Areas and states with a lower percentage of college-educated voters tend to vote Republican, and more educated areas tend to vote for Democrats. It CONTINUE READING: So, Now What? Let's Focus on Public Education and Internet Access | Eclectablog

Carol Burris and I: What We Hope Biden’s Secretary of Education Will Do | Diane Ravitch's blog

Carol Burris and I: What We Hope Biden’s Secretary of Education Will Do | Diane Ravitch's blog

Carol Burris and I: What We Hope Biden’s Secretary of Education Will Do

Carol Burris and I wrote about our hopes for President-Elect Joe Biden’s Secretary of Education. She or he will have to do a lot of work to clear away the mess that Betsy DeVos made in her mad rush to direct public money to private, religious, and charter schools. It’s comparable to cleaning out the Augean stables, where the mythical king Elis kept 3,000 oxen for thirty years without ever cleaning them. It’s a Herculean task!

We began:

Betsy DeVos just got her pink slip. Throughout her four-year tenure, she did everything she could to undermine public education. Instead, she promoted the idea that schooling should be a competitive free-for-all in which parents shop for schools with tax dollars and then hope it all works out. Now it is time to end that war against public schools as she walks out the door. It is time to chart a course away from the failed reforms that began with George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind (NCLB), accelerated with Barack Obama’s Race to the Top and brought us to the place we are today.


Although education has not been a major focus of this campaign, President-elect Joe Biden, unlike Obama, talked less about “reform” and more about increased support and funding for public schools — an CONTINUE READING: Carol Burris and I: What We Hope Biden’s Secretary of Education Will Do | Diane Ravitch's blog

President Elect Joe Biden’s Education Plan Is Designed to Expand the Opportunity to Learn | janresseger

President Elect Joe Biden’s Education Plan Is Designed to Expand the Opportunity to Learn | janresseger

President Elect Joe Biden’s Education Plan Is Designed to Expand the Opportunity to Learn

The education plan President Elect Joe Biden announced during his campaign for President reflects a public school, “opportunity to learn” agenda—a radical renunciation of the private school, radically individualistic policies of our current President, Donald Trump and his Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos. The plan Biden has promoted also differs significantly from the technocratic neoliberalism embodied in education policy during the Obama administration, when Biden served as Vice President.

Through the Clinton, Bush, and Obama administrations, public education policy rested on threatening public schools with sanctions if they were unable promptly to raise aggregate standardized test scores and close what were called achievement gaps. The No Child Left Behind/Race to the Top strategy punitively demanded ever-rising outcomes.  President Elect Biden instead emphasizes investing in inputs to expand public schools’ capacity to close opportunity gaps. Biden’s plan reflects his understanding that government is responsible for investing in programs and services necessary to ensure that all students can thrive.

Biden’s pledge to expand the opportunity to learn reflects an understanding of school achievement documented last year by Sean Reardon, a Stanford University education sociologist in Is Separate Still Unequal? New Evidence on School Segregation and Racial Academic Achievement Gaps. Here Reardon addresses specifically what has been called the black-white achievement gap: “We examine racial test score gaps because they reflect racial differences in access to educational opportunities. By ‘educational opportunities,’ we mean all experiences in a child’s life, from birth onward, that provide opportunities for her to learn, including experiences in children’s homes, child care settings, neighborhoods, peer groups, and their schools. This implies that test score gaps may result from unequal opportunities either in or out of school; they are not necessarily the result of differences in school quality, resources, or experience. Moreover, in saying that test score gaps reflect differences in opportunities, we also mean that they are not the result of innate group differences in CONTINUE READING: President Elect Joe Biden’s Education Plan Is Designed to Expand the Opportunity to Learn | janresseger

What a Lovely Day | JD2718

What a Lovely Day | JD2718

What a Lovely Day

The sun is shining. People are in good moods, for obvious reason. The leaves are still on the trees, but in an array of greens, yellows, oranges, reds…

When we go to school tomorrow (many of us) the windows will be open, allowing the lovely New York City air to fill our rooms, replacing the air we exhale…

If someone is spreading the virus, it gets into the air, attached to droplets and aerosols and all those technical things that really just mean “floating bits of virus.” Now, just because it is present, that doesn’t mean you get sick. That depends, at least partly, on how much is present, and how long it hangs around.

That’s where the lovely weather comes in. Open your windows, and a small difference between pressure inside and outside will move the air. The more times each hour you get a fresh batch of outside air replacing the air you and your students have exhaled, the safer you are.

You are also on the safer side if the number of people in the room with you is low. I hear that only a quarter of NYC students are physically attending school – the majority are learning on-line. And even those quarter – they don’t come every day. They might come every other, or every third, or less. That puts our schools daily somewhere under 10% of capacity – which is pretty good for limiting the spread of the virus.

You can also filter the air. Not really “you” – the school can. But the filters would need to be HEPA or CONTINUE READING: What a Lovely Day | JD2718

Five Reasons to be Cautiously Optimistic About the Biden Presidency | gadflyonthewallblog

Five Reasons to be Cautiously Optimistic About the Biden Presidency | gadflyonthewallblog

Five Reasons to be Cautiously Optimistic About the Biden Presidency

President-elect Joe Biden.

Go ahead and say that aloud once.

“President-elect Joe Biden.”

How does it feel?

If you’re like me, it feels pretty good.

And to be honest I never expected that it would.

Sure, I voted for Joe. I gave money to the campaign. I volunteered.

But Biden was far from my first choice. In fact, looking over the field of Democrats seeking the party’s nomination, he might have been my last pick.

I was a Bernie Sanders guy and probably will be until the day I die.

But damn if it doesn’t feel good to say “President-elect Joe Biden!” CONTINUE READING: Five Reasons to be Cautiously Optimistic About the Biden Presidency | gadflyonthewallblog

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/2020/11/this-week-in-education-larry-ferlazzos.html

“10 Favorite Online Teaching Tools Used by Educators This Year”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 11h

10 Favorite Online Teaching Tools Used by Educators This Year is the headline of my latest Education Week Teacher column. Three other teachers and I share our favorite online tools to use during this unusual year, including sites for educational games and others for collaborative work. Here are some excerpts:

New Resources On Race & Racism

by Larry Ferlazzo / 12h

I’m adding these new resources to various “Best” lists. You can find links to all of those many lists that relate to race and racism at “Best” Lists Of The Week: Resources For Teaching & Learning About Race & Racism: Systemic racism, not $200 Air Jordans, suppresses Black wealth is from The Washington Post. I’m adding it to THE BEST RESOURCES DEMONSTRATING THE WEALTH GAP BETWEEN AFRICAN-AMERICANS

Pins Of The Week

by Larry Ferlazzo / 12h

I’m fairly active on Pinterest and, in fact, have curated 22,000 resources there that I haven’t shared on this blog. I thought readers might find it useful if I began sharing a handful of my most recent “pins” each week (I’m not sure if you can see them through an RSS Reader – you might have to click through to the original post). You might also be interested in MY MOST POPULAR PINS OF 2020 – PAR

Everything You Wanted To Know About Wars In History But Were Afraid To Ask

by Larry Ferlazzo / 12h

PublicDomainPictures / 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 Wa

Monday’s Must-Read Articles About School Reopening

by Larry Ferlazzo / 12h

geralt / Pixabay Here are new additions to THE BEST POSTS PREDICTING WHAT SCHOOLS WILL LOOK LIKE IN THE FALL : Success Academy, NYC’s largest charter network, to stay remote through March 2021 is from Chalkbeat. Are We Losing a Generation of Children to Remote Learning? is from The NY Times. Leading school superintendents ask Gov. Newsom to impose a ‘common standard’ for reopening schools in Cali

How Will Probable Biden/Harris Administration Immigration Policies Affect The Number Of ELLs in Schools?

25by Larry Ferlazzo / 18h

I’ve previously published several posts about our Presidential election, including: WHAT CAN EDUCATION POLICIES CAN WE EXPECT FROM THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION? JOE BIDEN GIVES EDUCATORS A 

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