Defenders of US Public Schools Call on Biden to Ditch Trump's Disastrous Education Policies—and Obama's Too | Common Dreams News

Defenders of US Public Schools Call on Biden to Ditch Trump's Disastrous Education Policies—and Obama's Too | Common Dreams News

Defenders of US Public Schools Call on Biden to Ditch Trump's Disastrous Education Policies—and Obama's Too

"50.8 million children who attend real public schools need a secretary of education who will be their advocate, not an advocate for privatization."

Demanding an end to the failed policies that have dominated the United States for more than two decades, a coalition of public education advocates has put forth what they consider to be the top five guiding principles the incoming Biden administration should adopt if the president-elect wants to fulfill his "promised commitment to our nation's public schools."

"We need a public education champion who rejects efforts to privatize public schools, whether those efforts be via private school vouchers or charter schools."
—Network for Public Education

"50.8 million children who attend real public schools need a secretary of education who will be their advocate, not an advocate for privatization," tweeted Carol Burris, a retired teacher and the executive director of the Network for Public Education (NPE), which led the effort to demand pro-public leadership in Biden's Department of Education. 

In order to build a stronger and more just public education system, NPE penned a letter—which readers may sign—urging the Biden administration to pursue the following objectives:

• Rebuild our nation's public schools, which have been battered by the pandemic, two decades of failed federal policy, and years of financial neglect;
• Reject efforts to privatize public schools, whether those efforts be via vouchers or charter schools;
• End the era of high-stakes standardized testing—in both the immediate future and beyond;
• Promote diversity, desegregation (both among and within schools), and commit to eliminating institutional racism in school policy and practices; and
• Promote educational practices that are child-centered, inquiry-based, intellectually challenging, culturally responsive, and respectful of all students' innate capacities and potential to thrive.

As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and its economic consequences, state CONTINUE READING: Defenders of US Public Schools Call on Biden to Ditch Trump's Disastrous Education Policies—and Obama's Too | Common Dreams News

Teacher Tom: To Know Life Intimately and Lovingly

Teacher Tom: To Know Life Intimately and Lovingly

To Know Life Intimately and Lovingly

Author and poet Diane Ackerman writes:

"(I)t probably doesn't matter if we try too hard, are awkward sometimes, care for one another too deeply, are excessively curious about nature, are too open to experience, and enjoy nonstop expense of the senses in an effort to know life intimately and lovingly."

We live in a time of plague, and I don't mean Covid. The virus is called productivity and the disease it causes is an all-consuming sense of guilt or anxiousness whenever we take more than a few moments to remind ourselves that we're alive. Our busy, buzzing minds insist upon reminding us of the tasks undone and challenges ahead, making us perpetually feel as if we're just barely keeping up. It even visits us in our dreams, if we're ever able to go there amidst the tossing and turning. 

Some 2500 years ago, Buddha described our minds as being full of drunken monkeys and the loudest of all is fear, so it's clear that this plague isn't new. And it's a real pity because we've worked so hard over the centuries to protect ourselves from fear. It's unlikely, for instance, that anyone reading this will be eaten by a wild animal. You're probably not going to die in a war or from starvation. Present day challenges CONTINUE READING: Teacher Tom: To Know Life Intimately and Lovingly

Laura Chapman: Who Is Behind the “Read by Third Grade or Be Retained” Campaign? | Diane Ravitch's blog

Laura Chapman: Who Is Behind the “Read by Third Grade or Be Retained” Campaign? | Diane Ravitch's blog

Laura Chapman: Who Is Behind the “Read by Third Grade or Be Retained” Campaign? 

Laura Chapman recently wrote about the policy of holding third grade students back if they didn’t pass the third grade reading test. One result of this initiative is to raise fourth-grade reading scores on state tests and NAEP.

She writes:

There is a national read-by-grade three campaign. The practice of holding students back a grade is not new, but in the olden days it was never based on test scores alone and certainly not based on scores from national tests. I am no expert in reading, but I have learned to question how questionable policies proliferate.

Right now, The Annie E, Casey Foundation is a source of the national “Read by Grade 3” campaign. It is financed by about thirty other foundations and corporations. You can read about the investors here: http://gradelevelreading.net/about-us/campaign-investors

The Annie E. Casey Foundation is also the source of widely cited and dubious research about reading. For CONTINUE READING: Laura Chapman: Who Is Behind the “Read by Third Grade or Be Retained” Campaign? | Diane Ravitch's blog

Coronavirus means free school meals across the U.S. What if that stayed?

Coronavirus means free school meals across the U.S. What if that stayed?

Coronavirus means school food is free across the U.S. What if it stayed that way?

Free school meals, the gold standard for child nutrition advocates, may be one good thing to come out of the coronavirus’s effect on the future of education

YAKIMA, Wash. — Tracy Renecker has been working almost nonstop since the coronavirus pandemic set in. A kitchen manager with the 16,000-student school district serving this central Washington city,  Renecker has been ordering ingredients, packing entrees and sides, and filling grocery sacks to build the five-breakfast, five-lunch kits passed out at the drive-up distribution point outside Washington Middle School, where she works.

Renecker knows what the bags of cut vegetables, single-serve cereal boxes and heat-and-eat bowls mean to parents picking them up each week. They are a lifeline to families, including her own. The school meal program “helps to stretch our money,” said Renecker, a former nursing assistant raising a 6-year-old and a 13-year-old in Yakima.

“I was a hungry child at one point, and I would hate to see any child go hungry,” she said. “I know they can’t learn when they’re worried about when they’re going to be fed.”

Yakima, an agricultural hub surrounded by orchards amid dry hills, was hit hard by both the pandemic and the attendant economic collapse. Summer brought spikes in infections — at least three of which sent children to the hospital — and unemployment, which nearly doubled in the area.

Many Yakima families qualified for food stamps or other forms of federal assistance before the pandemic hit, and that softened the blow in one specific way: The city’s schools already offered meals to all students for free, year-round. That’s because they participate in several U.S. Department of Agriculture programs, including one allowing school CONTINUE READING: Coronavirus means free school meals across the U.S. What if that stayed?

NANCY BAILEY: 6 Critical Education Issues To Watch At Thanksgiving

6 Critical Education Issues To Watch At Thanksgiving

6 Critical Education Issues To Watch At Thanksgiving

This is a tough Thanksgiving, especially for those who are ill or have lost loved ones. I wish for everyone renewed hope and wellness and that you have family and loved ones to stay in touch with and enjoy. That even if you don’t, you’ll find love and comfort in your lives during these trying times.

The state of public schooling during Covid-19 is filled with confusion, anger, and also goodness. Here’s a summary of the issues as we go forward, marching through the holiday season into 2021.

1. The Loss of Teachers and School Staff Due to Covid-19

Covid-19 has hit teachers and school staff hard. As of November 18, 300 school employees have died of Covid-19.

Education Week shares some of their names and pictures. 

The goodness is that teachers rise above the critics who blame them when schools close, continuing to be strong, smart, compassionate, and caring. Teachers work online or in-person, in-person, then back online when their schools close.

The downside is that along with teacher deaths, those worried about returning to the classroom during a pandemic, have taken leaves or retired early. This is a huge loss for students.

If the nation wants what’s best for children, there will be an all-out effort to canvas the country to recruit teachers and bring them back to the classroom when the Covid-19 threat subsides.

2. Covid-19: Most Schools are Seeing a Surge

Covid-19 is causing problems for schools across the country. Search on Google for any state or city, “schools,” and “Covid-19” for November. Most are seeing an increase in CONTINUE READING: 6 Critical Education Issues To Watch At Thanksgiving

NYC Educator: NY Times--Worst Education Reporting Anywhere

NYC Educator: NY Times--Worst Education Reporting Anywhere

NY Times--Worst Education Reporting Anywhere

I should know not to be surprised when the NY Times runs opinion pieces posing as news stories. It's a hallowed tradition. The first time I noticed it was in the 1980s, when we got the February break that every other school statewide already had. The Times reported that this was detrimental to working parents. How would they take care of the children if school buildings closed? 

What the Times didn't know was that DOE didn't plan to open the schools that week. They were going to use the week for PD and have only UFT come in. So canceling the break wouldn't have helped these parents. Every working teacher in the city knew this, but the Times didn't.

We voted to authorize a strike sometime back in the early 90s. I remember being quite freaked out over it because I'd just gotten a mortgage and the Taylor Law would've placed me in fairly dire straits. Crossing a picket line wasn't in my DNA, so that would've been a big issue for me. I was pretty surprised to read, in the NY Times, that the strike vote was just for show and we wouldn't strike. That wasn't my feeling, and it wasn't what I was hearing from colleagues  This Times writer, evidently, had consulted a crystal ball rather than bothering to consult with those of us on the ground. And this ran, of course, in the news section.

Now, the tradition continues, I look at the Times analyzing the spot the mayor is in, and I see commentary posing as a news story. Of course de Blasio is in a tough spot, but it's not like that hasn't been the case ever since his  myopic and CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: NY Times--Worst Education Reporting Anywhere

CURMUDGUCATION: Donors Choose Belated Monday: Orff and Robots

CURMUDGUCATION: Donors Choose Belated Monday: Orff and Robots

Donors Choose Belated Monday

Orff and Robots

Okay, so I got caught up in the business of holiday stuff and pandemic surge, and I forgot to post Monday. But I am continuing with making a modest weekly contribution to some classroom somewhere in this country. As I've said before, Donors Chose shouldn't be a thing because schools should be fully funded, but in the meantime, individual teachers in individual classrooms can use a hand. This is doubly true in pandemic times, when pretty much no districts are investing the extra money needed to really pull this off.

So here's a simple way to help. I'll share with you my classroom of the week, and you can help with that one, or pick another one (last time somebody followed me onto the site and funded the entire project, which was cool). 

I'm doing two this week.

The first is from the school just right up the road where many of my friends teach. In this rural-ish area, robotics have really caught fire, but a lot of the emerging programs are operating on shoestring budgets. This particular elementary group needs some cases for transporting robots and equipment to competitions. I don't know this particular teacher, but I do know that these robot events are a huge amount of fun and have really allowed some students to find a niche that they might not otherwise have found. 

Meanwhile, out in Kansas, a teacher would like a set of Orff instruments for his K-5 elementary school. These are a great introduction to music for young students and a way for music learning to enrich their days even if they aren't destined to become future professionals.

It's a small thing, but I'm a big believer in doing small things to make the world slightly less sucky, so as always you are invited to join me in making a small contribution in a classroom somewhere.

CURMUDGUCATION: Donors Choose Belated Monday: Orff and Robots

Los Angeles: Charter School Games the System for More $$$ | Diane Ravitch's blog

Los Angeles: Charter School Games the System for More $$$ | Diane Ravitch's blog

Los Angeles Charter School Games the System for More $$$

Parent advocate Carl J. Peterson writes here about a charter school in Los Angeles that figured out to game the system for more money and space.

He writes that “Citizens of the World” collects signatures of parents who are not likely to apply for the school and uses them as expressions of intent to enroll.

A Facebook post by Jirusha Lopez, the principal of COW’s Hollywood campus, provides some insight into how this charter chain scams the system. While the estimate of attendance is supposed to be based on students who have expressed a “meaningful interest” in the program, Lopez took to social media to ask parents to sign a Prop 39 form even if they had no plans to attend the charter school. In fact, she promised that completing the form would “not impact your family’s plans for what school you would like to attend or currently attend.”

While Lopez seems to think that the collection of these signatures is a “fun game schools get to play each year”, it is actually part of a legal process. By submitting names of students who never expressed any interest in attending the school, COW committed fraud against the students of the LAUSD. The district needs to take this action seriously and hold the charter chain responsible, to whatever the greatest extent possible might be. Additionally, all data provided by COW to the LAUSD CONTINUE READING: Los Angeles: Charter School Games the System for More $$$ | Diane Ravitch's blog

CURMUDGUCATION: Internet Data Caps Are Coming

CURMUDGUCATION: Internet Data Caps Are Coming

Internet Data Caps Are Coming

If you are a Comcast customer in the Northeast US, changes are coming. 

2021 will bring caps for home internet customers in Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Vermont, West Virginia, and DC, as well as selected slices of North Carolina and Ohio.

There are reasons not to freak out. 

First, the cap is at 1.2 TB, which is a huge amount of data. Comcast says it's good for 21,600 hours of streaming music, 500 hours of streaming HD shows, 34,000 hours of online gaming, or 3,500 hours of video chatting. 

Second, for other parts of the country, this is not new. Comcast started capping accounts in other parts of the US way back in 2016. 

So, we're probably not looking at any sort of major issue right now.

However, as we contemplate the probable increased interest in internet-based schooling, it's a good time to remember that internet access is currently not free, not infinite, and not universal. 

If the Biden administration wants a goof internet policy project to tackle, let's look at pandemic schooling as a clear sign--again--that internet access should be a public utility, like water and electricity. It's way past time.

CURMUDGUCATION: Internet Data Caps Are Coming

As Louisiana Returns to Phase 2, Superintendents Want Shorter Quarantine | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

As Louisiana Returns to Phase 2, Superintendents Want Shorter Quarantine | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

As Louisiana Returns to Phase 2, Superintendents Want Shorter Quarantine

As Louisiana moves back into a modified Phase 2 due to “the aggressive third surge of COVID-19 across all regions of Louisiana,” several Louisiana school superintendents are calling for “looser quarantine rules” for students who come into contact with individuals testing positive for coronavirus.

When Louisiana moved into Phase 3 on September 09, 2020, my school system chose to delay full, in-person learning for our high schools (and retaining a “hybrid” attendance schedule) until the beginning of the second quarter, November 09, 2020. I was able to arrange my classroom so that I could maintain six feet from my students and my student desks so that at most, a student testing positive was within six feet of only two other students.

By day three, students began being called out for quarantine. The cause?

Adults deciding to rent a party bus and create an off-campus Homecoming party for students.

In the end, one in three of my seniors ended up in either a confirmed or suspected quarantine for two weeks.

So, in reality, I taught full classes for only three days and then ended up teaching a partially-quarantined, partially-in-person, “hybrid” arrangement likely brought about by some of the very adults who insist that These Kids Need to be in School.

The Louisiana district superintendents who want to reduce the quarantine period have asked the state health department to alter its guidance; however, the Louisiana Department of Health (LDH) maintained that it would continue following guidance offered by the Centers CONTINUE READING: As Louisiana Returns to Phase 2, Superintendents Want Shorter Quarantine | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

The importance of clean air in classrooms—during the pandemic and beyond - Brookings

The importance of clean air in classrooms—during the pandemic and beyond

The importance of clean air in classrooms—during the pandemic and beyond

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about an increased focus on public health, particularly in school settings. From social distancing to testing regimes, education leaders are making serious changes to ensure that schools are safe for students, staff, and teachers. As the school experience continues to be reinvented, research points to an overlooked but potentially critical factor when thinking about reopening: air quality. While we have known for some time about the negative effects of air pollution on child health, recent evidence indicates that pollution also has detrimental effects on student learning. In turn, these relationships suggest the potential for some highly cost-effective interventions to raise student performance—and keep kids safer during the pandemic.

EVIDENCE ON THE EFFECTS OF POLLUTION ON COGNITION

To date, most research has linked pollution to student learning using variation in outdoor air pollution. Researchers (see here and here) have documented significant declines in test scores when students take tests on days with high levels of particulate pollution. Another study compared students attending schools downwind relative to upwind of highways and found that increased air pollution from being downwind lowered test scores and raised behavioral incidents and absences. Similarly, in a recent working paper, a co-author and I use year-to-year variation in power production combined with wind direction to show that pollution from coal-fired power plants lower students’ test scores. CONTINUE READING: The importance of clean air in classrooms—during the pandemic and beyond

Voters Have Spoken and They Support Children | First Focus on Children

Voters Have Spoken and They Support Children | First Focus on Children

Voters Have Spoken and They Support Children

A 2020 election-eve survey of voters by Lake Research Partners reflects a divided nation on politics but finds American voters bridge that divide in their common support of a better life for children.

This vision includes ensuring that the “best interests” of children (81–13 percent support) govern decision-making involving them, an independent Children’s Commissioner is established (65–26 percent) “to protect and improve the care and well-being of children,” and that Congress and the President will work together to address issues such as cutting child poverty in half (70–20 percent) and covering all children (85–12 percent) with health insurance coverage.

While there is no doubt that our nation is deeply divided on most issues and the 2020 election results and aftermath confirm those divisions, there is uniform and tremendous “tripartisan” support for making significant progress on children’s issues with little to no demographic divide by gender, race, age, income, geography, education, marital status, or religion.

While there is no doubt that our nation is deeply divided on most issues and the 2020 election results and aftermath confirm those divisions, there is uniform and tremendous “tripartisan” support for making significant progress on children’s issues with little to no demographic divide by gender, race, age, income, geography, education, marital status, or religion.

As our nation seeks to heal and come together again on improving our “now” and our “future,” children are clearly a pathway toward finding common ground.

Unfortunately, since children do not vote, do not give campaign contributions, and do not have lobbyists or political action committees (PACs), they have often been treated as an afterthought by policymakers in the past.

At the close of 2019, Fatherly highlighted how dozens of bipartisan bills that would improve the lives of children across a variety of issue areas were left unacted upon by the U.S. Senate. It cited the Legislative Scorecard by First Focus Campaign for Children (FFCC) that could not identify a single vote throughout the entire year that was specific to the needs and well-being of children.

As Michael Freeman, author of The Moral Status of Children, writes:

All too rarely is consideration given to what policies…do to children. This is all the more the case where the immediate focus of the policy is not children. But even in children’s legislation the unintended or indirect effects of changes are not given the critical attention they demand…

But where the policy is not ‘headlined’ children…, the impact on the lives of children is all too readily glossed over.

In the past, the President and Congress have largely ignored or neglected the needs of children and the consequences are that outcomes for children are CONTINUE READING: Voters Have Spoken and They Support Children | First Focus on Children

Use of FRPM Data for Funding Purposes 2020–21 - Nutrition (CA Dept of Education)

Use of FRPM Data for Funding Purposes 2020–21 - Nutrition (CA Dept of Education)

2020–21 Requirements for Collecting Free and Reduced-Price Meal Eligibility Data Used to Determine Supplemental and Concentration Grant Funding

Tip Sheet: CACFP Meal Service During COVID-19 - Nutrition (CA Dept of Education) - https://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/nu/tipsheetcacfpmealserv.asp

Dear County and District Superintendents, Charter School Administrators:

2020–21 Requirements for Collecting Free and Reduced-Price Meal Eligibility Data Used to Determine Supplemental and Concentration Grant Funding

Due to the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19), the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) issued nationwide waivers allowing schools to operate summer meal programs through December 31, 2020. On October 9, 2020, the USDA announced the extension of these waivers to June 30, 2021. With the operation of the summer meal programs, all children receive meals at no charge and no free and reduced-price meal (FRPM) applications, which are required under the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), are collected.

In California, students who are determined to be FRPM-eligible based on an FRPM application are included in the Unduplicated Pupil Count (UPC) used to determine supplemental and concentration grant funding under the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF). Prior to the USDA announcing the summer meal programs waiver extension through June 30, 2021, the California Department of Education (CDE) had communicated to local educational agencies (LEA) that those school sites opting to operate under the waiver may continue to solicit FRPM applications for LCFF funding purposes, and in anticipation of the waiver expiring on January 1, 2021. With the USDA waiver now in place for the entire school year, all school sites within an LEA operating summer meal programs need to transition to collecting alternative household income forms to determine FRPM eligibility for the UPC. FRPM applications distributed prior to October 9 and received by December 31 are valid for LCFF and LEAs do not need to collect alternative household income forms from these families at the affected school sites.

The CDE anticipates that many school sites will opt to operate summer meal programs since all students may receive free meals and to benefit from the significantly reduced administrative burden. The purpose of this letter is to provide LEAs with specific information on ways to mitigate the FRPM application LCFF funding impact when operating the summer meal programs now that the waiver has been extended to
June 30, 2021.

Attachment A provides specific actions LEAs may take based on whether the school is operating the summer meal programs, under a Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), or Provision 2/3. In order to maximize the return of completed forms, LEAs collecting alternative household income forms may want to provide information to households regarding the importance of the information being collected and the potential benefit to their LEA.

It should also be noted that an LEA’s FRPM-Eligible count that the CDE posts on DataQuest is used for various other programs/grants beyond LCFF. These counts are derived from the same data LEAs certify for the UPC as part of the Fall 1 submission to the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System (CALPADS). Therefore, any increased count that results from the time extension and other accommodations that have been made this year to support LEA efforts to collect UPC data for LCFF, will be reflected in the FRPM-eligible count, posted on DataQuest, that LEAs rely on for other purposes.

The CDE recognizes all the challenges the LEAs are facing this year and it is unlikely that any additional COVID-19 related legislation will be considered until next year. In the meantime, please direct any questions as follows:

• For questions related to LCFF funding and the alternative household income form, please contact the Principal Apportionment Section by email at PASE@cde.ca.gov.
• For questions about NSLP, summer meal programs, CEP, or Provisions, please contact the School Nutrition Program Unit by email at SNPinfo@cde.ca.gov.
• For questions related to CALPADS, please contact the CALPADS Service Desk by email at calpads-support@cde.ca.gov.

Sincerely,


Elizabeth Dearstyne, Director
School Fiscal Services Division

Kim Frinzell, Director
Nutrition Services Division

cc: Chief Business Officers, Food Service Directors, CALPADS Administrators

Attachment

2020–21 Requirements for Collecting Free and Reduced-Price Meal Eligibility Data Used to Determine Supplemental and Concentration Grant Funding Based on Meal Program Type

Use of FRPM Data for Funding Purposes 2020–21 - Nutrition (CA Dept of Education)

NYC Public School Parents: Gov. Cuomo: please call off the SHSAT, absolutely critical especially during a pandemic.

NYC Public School Parents: Gov. Cuomo: please call off the SHSAT, absolutely critical especially during a pandemic.

Gov. Cuomo: please call off the SHSAT, absolutely critical especially during a pandemic.

The letter below was sent to Gov. Cuomo on Monday via his webform; feel free to send your own thoughts on the matter.  

November 23, 2020

Dear Governor Cuomo, 

We, the undersigned organizations and individuals, write to request the issuance of an Executive Order to suspend the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) for the specialized high schools in New York City. 

The Hecht-Calandra Act requires that admissions to the specialized high schools be solely and exclusively determined by scores on the SHSAT, which is administered by the NYC Department of Education usually in late October/ early November every year.  Nearly 30,000 students take the SHSAT for approximately 5,000 seats across 8 specialized high schools. The test is administered on campus at these schools.  Obviously this year with the pandemic and particularly now with the increasing infection rates, in-person testing is infeasible and the DOE has not announced how it plans to administer the test. 

The Mayor hinted at offering the SHSAT online at the weekly radio address last week. However, not every student has access to an adequate device or reliable internet connectivity, making the online option discriminatory. In addition to the inequitable access to the digital platform, many of our students are traumatized by the pandemic, having lost loved ones to the disease, facing a new economic reality resulting from parental job loss, or living with the anxiety of a parent who is an essential worker. These traumas disproportionately affect historically marginalized students.

Because the Mayor does not have the power to change the admissions to the specialized high schools, we call upon you to issue an Executive Order suspending the SHSAT this year and allowing the Chancellor of the NYC DOE to develop an alternative method of admissions to the specialized high schools. And given that our estimate of the costs for test administration is approximately $3 Million per year, suspending the SHSAT is also prudent in the face of the fiscal crisis.  We believe this is the only equitable path forward.  

Sincerely, 

Organizations

Alliance for Quality Education

Class Size Matters

Coalition for Asian American Children & Families (CACF)

Community Education Council District 14

Community Education Council District 16

Community Inclusion & Development Alliance

Education Council Consortium

EduColor

El Puente

Families for Real Equity in Education (FREE)

IntegrateNYC

Masa

MORE-UFT (Movement of Rank and File Educators)

NYC Kids PAC

NYC Opt Opt

S.E.E.D.S., Inc. <www.seedswork.org>

Teens Take Charge

NYC Public School Parents: Gov. Cuomo: please call off the SHSAT, absolutely critical especially during a pandemic.

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_21.html

Engaging Parents In School… | Going Beyond Parent "Involvement" - https://engagingparentsinschool.edublogs.org/

‘My Online Learning Experience as a Student This Fall Has Been Great’

by Larry Ferlazzo / 11h

is the headline of my latest Education Week Teacher column. Three students share a relatively positive picture of their full-time virtual learning experiences this year, highlighting that they think it saves time and that teachers are working hard to make it work well. Here are some excerpts:

Wednesday’s Must-Read Articles & Must-Watch Videos About School Reopenings

by Larry Ferlazzo / 12h

Memed_Nurrohmad / Pixabay Here are new additions to THE BEST POSTS PREDICTING WHAT SCHOOLS WILL LOOK LIKE IN THE FALL : Two School Districts Had Different Mask Policies. Only One Had a Teacher on a Ventilator. is from ProPublica. How de Blasio Backed Himself Into a Corner on Closing Schools is from The NY Times. As COVID-19 Soars in Many Communities, Schools Attempt To Find Ways Through the Crisi

“Verse By Verse” Is A Cool Google Tool For Introducing Students To Poetry

by Larry Ferlazzo / 12h

Thanks to Katherine Schulten , I just learned about Verse By Verse , a fun Google tool that uses Artificial Intelligence to inspire uses to write poetry. You first choose famous American poets you like, and then you’re given a choice of what kind of poetry you’d like to write. Next, you write the first line, and then Artificial Intelligence uses the works of the poets you chose to inspire you in

A Look Back: Enrollment In Some Districts Is Going Down – Should We Be Worried?

by Larry Ferlazzo / 12h

I thought that new – and veteran – readers might find it interesting if I began sharing my best posts from over the years. You can see the entire collection here . I’m starting with posts from earlier this year. NPR just published Enrollment Is Dropping In Public Schools Around the Country . According to the article, it sounds like the big drop is in kindergarten, which makes sense to me. I can’t

All Ed Week Articles Are Freely Available For The Next Two Weeks

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1d

Usually, unless you have a paid subscription to Education Week, you’re able to access a few free articles each month and then everything is behind a paywall. However, all articles are free to everyone for the next two weeks! At 

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