Sunday, December 13, 2020

CATCH UP WITH CURMUDGUCATION + ICYMI: Still Shopping Edition (12/13)

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: Still Shopping Edition (12/13)




 Still Shopping Edition

Trying desperately to shop at small local stores, and it's a real challenge right now. And what has to be ordered comes with the special When Will It Actually Arrive suspense. Happy holidays, one and all. In the meantime, some reading....

San Joaquin Valley in the DPE Crosshairs  

Thomas Ultican peels back the layers on yet another assault on public education, this one out in California. Interesting to see how several groups' interests converge on one goal--dismantling public education.

The next education secretary must know about much more than education

I know I've been heavy on the need to get public education expertise in the department of education under Biden, but at Hechinger, Andre Perry makes a good case for other skill sets that the next secretary will need. 

The canary in the coal mine

Reuters takes a look at teacher layoffs in Schenectady, NY, and asks if this is not an ominous sign for what's ahead for public schools. 

The 10 most significant education studies of 2020  

This piece at Edutopia leaves lots of room for debate--are the reading wars over, and is handwriting a key part of learning, and did Fordham really release a study that contradicts some of the ideas behind its beloved Common Core? But it's an interesting conversation piece of a list.

McKinsey and Company use falling behind talk to ramp up school toughness   

Nancy Bailey takes a look at what McKinsey, the 800-pound gorilla of consulting, has to say about the children "falling behind," and what policies they're using the big fear to push.

Visa Ban on Foreign Workers Has Left School With Teacher Shortages

Hey, remember how some school systems were using foreign teachers to fill the spots they couldn't convince US citizens to take? And remember how Trump has been slowly choking off the stream of even legal immigration? Turns out those two things ran into each other. From the Intercept.

Norms, ethics and civility. Plus education.

Nancy Flanagan has an exceptional gift for connecting her own personal experience to larger ideas, and that's on display here. Do we need calls for civility right now--or is something else needed to move past these Trump years?



These Five Issues Are At The Heart Of All K-12 Education Policy Debates - https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2020/12/09/these-five-issues-are-at-the-heart-of-all-k-12-education-policy-debates/?sh=27d5c28360d8 by @palan57 on @forbes

Survey: During Pandemic, Teachers Are Working More And Enjoying It Less - https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2020/12/08/survey-during-pandemic-teachers-are-working-more-and-enjoying-it-less/?sh=7a25cbf45f8e by @palan57 on @forbes


Schools Are Still Not Like Ubers
by Peter Greene / 1d
Betsy DeVos (who will soon not be a humble servant in the education secretary's office, but will instead be a very rich lady who wants to dismantle public education) likes to compare her vision of education to the same kind of disruption offered by outfits like Uber, a comparison that many folks like to make . I've written before about what a lousy comparison that is , focusing on problems like a
Mrs. Gates Still Doesn't Get It, Still.
100+by Peter Greene / 2d
Last week the New York Times decided to offer one more glowing portrait of Melinda Gates , unintentionally underlining the work of rich folk critic Anand Giridharadas and explaining, again, that she doesn't get the problem of Gates riches in education. She opens with an Emerson quote from her valedictory high school graduation speech about success being the knowledge that one person has breathed
OH: Ed Disruptors Want Their Big Test
by Peter Greene / 2d
Aaron Churchill, the Fordham Institution's Ohio research director, popped up in the Columbus Dispatch today as a "guest columnist." It's worth noting that his job is "aimed at strengthening education policy in Ohio," which is of course not the same thing as improving education and certainly not the same thing as supporting public education. Churchill's previous job was program manager at Junior A
More Important Than Biden's Ed Secretary Pick
by Peter Greene / 4d
There are plenty of reasons to focus attention and concern on President-elect Joe Biden’s choice for Secretary of Education. After all, VP Biden was part of the administration that gave us Arne Duncan as secretary, a choice universally panned by teachers. Public education advocates are hoping that Biden will give us a career educator with the leadership chops to manage a federal department that h
Distance Learning and Compliance Culture
45by Peter Greene / 6d
Compliance culture in the classroom has always, always been a problem. This is the teacher who demands compliance, in fact, grades on compliance. Most folks have a story about That Teacher--the one who wouldn't accept a paper because it was ten minutes late, or who took off a letter grade because the paper had the "wrong" heading on it. For some people, compliance is practically the whole point.
Donors Choose Monday: Mice
by Peter Greene / 6d
I donate locally when I can identify a need, and for a few weeks I've also been donating to teachers across the country on Donors Choose, because it makes me feel slightly less helpless in these crazy days. I've been blogging about it here to encourage you--if you can--to offer some help to someone. Maybe you know of worthy causes or programs local to you. But if you're just not sure where you can
ICYMI: So It's Really December Edition (12/6)
by Peter Greene / 7d
Still trying to take care of all the places the cold gets into our house, because apparently the season is serious about things. Still counting down to the magical day when I can go many days at a time without asking, "Well, what has the President done today?" But there are still some good things to read from this week, so here's your list. How DeVos May Have Started a Counter-Revolution in Educa
The Jingle Bells Effect And The Canon
by Peter Greene / 7d
So, if you need a little something to jumpkick you into the season, here's a playlist challenge for you. Yes, that's roughly 76 minutes of various versions of "Jingle Bells," carefully selected, curated and ordered for your listening pleasure. "Jingle Bells" is a curious song to become a Christmas standard, mostly because it has nothing to do with Christmas but is instead the mid-19th century anc
Does Your School Suffer From Advanced Testivitis
100+by Peter Greene / 9d
In some quarters we seem to have cycled back around to the old argument that the Big Standardized Test provides an assortment of necessary data with no actual downside, so let's trot those puppies out here for this already-
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Which COVID numbers do you check? | JD2718

Which COVID numbers do you check? | JD2718
Which COVID numbers do you check?




Before Thanksgiving NYS Governor Andrew Cuomo held a press conference where he talked about how low New York State’s COVID numbers were, and how bad the numbers were in other places. North Dakota. Wyoming. He said Wyoming again and again, each time slowly, carefully forming each syllable like he was doing physical therapy for his jaw and tongue. “Wyoming.” He made it sound strange, foreign. I’ve learned that we do not make fun of names. Andrew needs that lesson.

Before Thanksgiving Wyoming had a case rate of about 130 out of every 100,000 residents. New York State had a rate of 25 out of every 100,000. As of yesterday those numbers were 73 and  51.

At Thanksgiving my neighborhood was middle of the pack in the Bronx as far as test positivity – around 3-4%. Today the middle of the pack in the Bronx is over 6%. My neighborhood is at 8.6%.  Brooklyn’s at 5.5% Manhattan’s at 3.0%. Queens at 6.0%. And Staten Island at 8.9%. (actually, these are moving averages from 4 – 10 days ago. To find out today’s rate, I’ll need to check in 4-5 days).

There were 4000 COVID positives in New York City yesterday. Before I go further, a joke:

The Lord Chancellor frantically alerts the English King (English so that I don’t have to translate the story) – “sire, the French are invading!” The King asks “How many knights do I have in my kingdom?” “Three thousand nine hundred and eighty-five sire” “Round them up!” “Four thousand, sire”

Yesterday there were 3985 COVID positives in New York City.

Where I am pulling numbers from?

Indirectly much of this comes from the COVID-19 Dashboard by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University which clearly is doing a great job. But I have trouble figuring CONTINUE READING: Which COVID numbers do you check? | JD2718

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