TOP POSTS THIS WEEK&nbsp; 3/6/21

TEACHER TOM THIS WEEK IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION

TENNESSEE EDUCATION REPORT EDUCATION POLITICS AND POLICY IN THE VOLUNTEER STATE Tylor Talks Teaching 26 by Andy Spears / 3d Nashville school board member Abigail Tylor talks about the crisis facing public education when it comes to recruiting and retaining teachers in a recent Twitter thread. Here are her thoughts: These are all extremely important points. When we apply them specifically to TN,

SSPI TONY THURMOND: STUFF THIS WEEK FROM THE CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

Teacher Tom Creating Pictograms for Instagram 200+ 23h Despite My Utter Lack of "Teaching" 500+ 2d Talking to Ourselves 100+ 2d The Strongest Kids in the World 100+ 4d "What Is It?" 1K 4d I'll Try Not to Yuck Your Yum if You Try Not to Yuck Mine 86 7d The Concept of "Learning Loss" is Complete BS 11K 8d Teacher Tom

THIS WEEK WITH NEWBLACKMAN (IN EXILE) #BLM #BLACKLIVESMATTER

California Department of Education SSPI TONY THURMOND STUFF THIS WEEK FROM THE CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION SBE Agenda for March 2021 13h Agenda for the California State Board of Education (SBE) meeting on March 16-18, 2021. Model Continuation High Schools for 2021 Announced 1d State Superintendent Tony Thurmond announces Model Continuation High Schools for 2021. Response to Legislative Dea

THIS WEEK Education Research Report

NewBlackMan (in Exile) THIS WEEK WITH NEWBLACKMAN (IN EXILE) Women’s History Month Is the Right Time to Raise the Minimum Wage by Mark Anthony Neal / 15h by Ben Jealous | @BenJealous | NewBlackMan (in Exile) It is time for a maximum push for a new minimum wage. The federal minimum wage has not budged for more than a decade. But the cost of living keeps rising. So, low-income people fall further a

THIS WEEK IN EDUCATION Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... The latest news and resources in education since 2007

Education Research Report Parents' school reviews correlated with test scores and demographics, not school effectiveness by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 2d Parent reviews reflected racial and income disparities in public K-12 schools AMERICAN EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH ASSOCIATION A first-of-its-kind analysis of parents' reviews of U.S. public K-12 schools, posted primarily from 2009 to 2019 on the popular s

KEEP UP/ CATCH UP WITH DIANE RAVITCH'S BLOG A site to discuss better education for all #REDFORED #tbats #REOPENSCHOOLSSAFELY #openonlywhensafe

Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007 Daylight Saving Time Begins On March 14th – Here Are Teaching & Learning Resources by Larry Ferlazzo / 4min congerdesign / Pixabay Daylight Saving Time begins on March 14th. You might be interested in The Best Sites For Learning About Daylight Saving Time . YESTERDAY Saturday’s Must-Read Articles On S

THE TOP BANANA: TODAY'S EDUCATION HEADLINES Friday, March 5, 2021 #REDFORED #tbats #REOPENSCHOOLSSAFELY #openonlywhensafe

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all KEEP UP/ CATCH UP WITH DIANE RAVITCH'S BLOG A site to discuss better education for all Rhode Island: Dark Money Backs “Parent Group” for More Charter Schools by dianeravitch / 30min Maurice Cunningham specializes in digging up the facts about Dark Money (political contributions where the donors’ names are hidden). His expose of Dar

YESTERDAY

Big Education Ape / 22h

Big Education Ape THE TOP BANANA TODAY'S EDUCATION HEADLINES Parents Worried Amid Chicago Schools' Attempts To Transition To In-Person Learning https://www.npr.org/2021/03/05/973929535/parents-worried-amid-chicago-schools-attempts-to-transition-to-in-person-learnin Parents Of Color Still Have Reservations About Returning Kids To Classrooms https://www.capradio.org/articles/2021/03/04/parents-of-c

Racial Equity and Justice in Education are "Drastically Underfunded," Research Finds | Schott Foundation for Public Education

Big Education Ape / 22h

Racial Equity and Justice in Education are "Drastically Underfunded," Research Finds Just 0.8% of education philanthropy dollars were directed to racial justice from 2017 to 2019, according to research recently released by the Schott Foundation for Public Education and Candid. In an op-ed summarizing the results, the Schott Foundation’s Leah Austin and Edgar Villanueva calculated that “the phila

The Dark Secrets of the Privatization Movement: An Interview with Charles Siler | Diane Ravitch's blog

Big Education Ape / 22h

The Dark Secrets of the Privatization Movement: An Interview with Charles Siler Jennifer Berkshire and I interviewed Charles Siler about his inside knowledge of the privatization movement. Jennifer is co-author of the important new book (with Jack Schneider) called A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door. As you will learn in the interview, Charles was brought up in a conservative environment. He studied

Correcting Course on Correctness in English/ELA – radical eyes for equity

Big Education Ape / 22h

Correcting Course on Correctness in English/ELA My granddaughter is six, in the first grade, and currently in the throes of learning to read—as commanded by formal schooling. Recently, she has shown some of those typical bursts of improvement I have witnessed in learning by young children; those moments give meaning to the word “marvelous.” In an effort to inject some joy into my granddaughter’s

Teacher Tom: Creating Pictograms for Instagram

Big Education Ape / 22h

Creating Pictograms for Instagram The dog had walked me to Seattle Center and there at the base of the Space Needle a pair of teenaged girls were posing while a friend framed the shots. They pressed their cheeks together, lips forming matching buds. Their bodies assumed mirrored poses, with thrust hips and bent knees. Picture taken, they straightened up, spoke a few earnest words to one another,

CURMUDGUCATION: Update: Chester Upland's Mysterious Missing Money

Big Education Ape / 22h

Update: Chester Upland's Mysterious Missing Money The Chester Upland School District frequently gets the adjective "embattled" in front of its name, and it has earned that name by suffering every hardship ever inflicted on a school district. Most recently, it has been the target of a plan to chop the district up and sell the parts off to various charter school operators. But suddenly, this week,

NewBlackMan (in Exile) TODAY #BLM #BLACKLIVESMATTER

Big Education Ape / 22h

NewBlackMan (in Exile) NewBlackMan (in Exile) TODAY Big Education Ape: THIS WEEK WITH NEWBLACKMAN (IN EXILE) - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2021/02/this-week-with-newblackman-in-exile-blm_27.html Coming 2 America: The Princess Remix by Stephane Dunn by Mark Anthony Neal / 2h | @DrStephaneDunn | NewBlackMan (in Exile) So, here’s the thing, movie magic can strike twice, but it’s rare. If an

A VERY BUSY DAY Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... The latest news and resources in education since 2007 #REOPENSCHOOLSSAFELY #openonlywhensafe

Big Education Ape / 22h

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 Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... The latest news and resources in education since 2007 - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2021/02/this-week-in-education-larry-ferlazzos_27.html My Lat

CURMUDGUCATION: Arizona Mounts Further Assault On Public School Teachers

Who Signed the Pro-Testing Appeals? | Diane Ravitch's blog

Arizona Mounts Further Assault On Public School Teachers Arizona has lost its damn mind, this week passing some of the stupidest, most aggressively anti-public ed laws anywhere, including an absolutely insane law requiring teachers to file lesson plans a year in advance. Arizona has always been a strong contender for most anti-public education state in the county. They've had trouble convincing

Audio: NPR/Ipsos Poll: Nearly One Third Of Parents May Stick With Remote Learning | 89.3 KPCC

Who Signed the Pro-Testing Appeals? Education Trust, led by former Secretary of Education John King, sent two letters to the Biden administration, urging the administration not to allow states to receive waivers from the mandated federal testing. The signers of the letters were not the same. As State Commissioner in New York, King was a fierce advocate for Common Core and standardized testing. L

NYC Educator: To Open or Not to Open? Depends What "Open" Means

NPR/Ipsos Poll: Nearly One Third Of Parents May Stick With Remote Learning One year after the coronavirus pandemic shuttered classrooms around the country and the world, U.S. parents are guardedly optimistic about the academic and social development of their children, an NPR/Ipsos poll finds. But 62% of parents say their child's education has been disrupted. And, more than 4 out of 5 would like

Diane Ravitch Offers Pithy Prescription to Help Secretary of Education Cardona Remedy Education Policy | janresseger

To Open or Not to Open? Depends What "Open" Means Every day, and everywhere, you read and hear about opening the schools. Biden made it a priority, and to his credit, has managed to push out a whole lot of vaccine. He now envisions having a sufficient supply for all adult Americans by May. I spend many fun hours trying to get the vaccine, refreshing and revisiting various sites, and still feel i

Standardized Testing During a Pandemic is Stupid. And Cruel. | gadflyonthewallblog

Diane Ravitch Offers Pithy Prescription to Help Secretary of Education Cardona Remedy Education Policy By 2010, there were a lot of people who had grown very concerned about the No Child Left Behind Act and the use of annual high-stakes testing to identify so-called “failing” schools. It was a federal education scheme that imposed punishments on public schools serving America’s poorest students

Whatever Happened to Monitorial Schools? | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Standardized Testing During a Pandemic is Stupid. And Cruel When the Biden administration announced that schools across the nation would have to give standardized tests during the global Coronavirus pandemic this year, America’s teachers let out a collective sigh of disgust. If it had to be put into words, it might be this: “I can’t even.” Imagine a marine biologist being told she had to determi

Model Continuation High Schools for 2021 Announced - Year 2021 (CA Dept of Education)

Whatever Happened to Monitorial Schools? When, where, and why did these schools appear? Deep concern for the untended and mostly poor English children of factory workers and others flocking to cities for jobs led Joseph Lancaster to found schools that would gather and help the unschooled. Lancaster opened his Royal Free School in London during the 1790s. The dearth of teachers for these students

NYC Public School Parents: NYC DOE releases unreliable class size data three months late; please take our survey today!!

State Superintendent Tony Thurmond Announces Model Continuation High Schools for 2021 SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond announced today that 27 schools throughout the state were recognized as Model Continuation High Schools (MCHS) for 2021. “Student attendance and engagement in distance learning during the school closures has been difficult—especially for studen

Cancelling State Tests Could Cause a Recession | The Merrow Report

NYC DOE releases unreliable class size data three months late; please take our survey today!! NYC parents, teachers and administrators please take our five-minute class size survey here . I'll explain why: By law, the DOE is supposed to report on class sizes twice a year, the first time on Nov. 15 and then again on Feb. 15. We had heard from parents of egregiously large classes sizes this fall f

Parents: Two ways to ask about your students’ data. | Parent Coalition for Student Privacy

Cancelling State Tests Could Cause a Recession Many on the left are raising a stink about the US Department of Education’s insistence on having states give their annual tests. Critics say it’s unfair because most students haven’t been in physical schools for about a year. These critics maintain that it’s unnecessarily stressful to test students now. However, their hysterical objections only serv

NYC DOE releases Class Size Data three months late & it appears highly inaccurate | Class Size Matters

PARENTS: TWO WAYS TO ASK ABOUT YOUR STUDENTS’ DATA. Parents, help fill in this FERPA Project Map for the folks at The Student Data Privacy Project . https://www.studentdataprivacyproject.com/ferpa-project-map 1. This FERPA Map project is sponsored by our friends at the The Student Data Privacy Project . Their goal is to highlight the shortcomings of FERPA with regard to protecting student privac

Standardized Testing During a Pandemic is Stupid. And Cruel.

| A clearinghouse for information on class size & the proven benefits of smaller classes NYC DOE releases Class Size Data three months late & it appears highly inaccurate By law, the DOE is supposed to report on class sizes twice a year, the first time on Nov. 15 and then again on Feb. 15. We had heard from parents of egregiously large classes sizes this fall for many students engaged in remote

1Kgadflyonthewallblog / 1d

When the Biden administration announced that schools across the nation would have to give standardized tests during the global Coronavirus pandemic this year, America’s teachers let out a collective sigh of disgust. If it had to be put into words, it might be this: “I can’t even.” Imagine a marine biologist being told she had to determine if the water in the dolphin tank is wet. That’s kind of wh

MAR 04

THE TOP BANANA: TODAY'S EDUCATION HEADLINES Thursday, March 4, 2021 #REDFORED #tbats #REOPENSCHOOLSSAFELY #openonlywhensafe

Understanding the “Science of Reading” Movement and Its Consequences: A Reader – radical eyes for equity

Big Education Ape THE TOP BANANA TODAY'S EDUCATION HEADLINES Coronavirus Testing Just Might Keep Schools Pandemic Safe - The Atlantic - https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2021/03/coronavirus-testing-just-might-keep-schools-pandemic-safe/618197/ Texas school boards don’t have to require masks, education officials announce https://www.texastribune.org/2021/03/03/texas-schools-mask-mandate/?

Black Love Affirmations – Parenting for Liberation

Understanding the “Science of Reading” Movement and Its Consequences: A Reader MacPhee, D., Handsfield, L.J., & Paugh, P. (2021). Conflict or conversation? Media portrayals of the science of reading. Reading Research Quarterly , TBD. https://doi.org/10.1002/rrq.384 Abstract In this article, we contend that in media stories on the science or reading, journalists have relied on strategic metaphori

Don't Talk About The Need For More Diverse Teachers. Show Us What You're Gonna Do About It - Philly's 7th Ward

Black Love Affirmations Celebrating 𝗕𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗟𝗼𝘃𝗲 with Affirmations for our Children and our Inner Child. We invite you to speak these words aloud and speak life in your children and to the parts of yourself that needed to hear these words as a child. Healing our inner child is tied to raising liberated children. You are loved! Affirmations were written by Black parents during our last boo

Flast v. Cohen (1968) - Part One: Stand in the Place Where You Sue (Think About Jurisdiction Wonder If You're Injured Now) | Blue Cereal Education

DON’T TALK ABOUT THE NEED FOR MORE DIVERSE TEACHERS. SHOW US WHAT YOU’RE GONNA DO ABOUT IT We all know that a teacher’s instructional skills matter for students. But a growing body of research shows that their background and life experience matter, too. This is especially important for students of color: while all kids are more likely to thrive with diverse teachers, students of color with teach

CURMUDGUCATION: Free Charters Are Not Free

Flast v. Cohen (1968) - Part One: Stand in the Place Where You Sue (Think About Jurisdiction Wonder If You're Injured Now) Three Big Things: 1. To bring a case before any court, one must first establish “standing.” Typically this means proving specific individual harm resulting from the actions of another and demonstrating that the offending party has the power to change whatever’s causing the h

Group accuses Times of bias in LAUSD coverage - Los Angeles Times

Free Charters Are Not Free The Heritage Charter Academy of Cape Coral, Florida plugs itself as a "free public charter school," but that turns out to be not entirely true. As reported earlier this week, the charter schools of Cape Coral are in deep financial trouble. The charters run by Oasis Charter Schools can't afford their lease. So they are facing some serious deficit spending issues, as des

A VERY BUSY DAY Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... The latest news and resources in education since 2007 #REOPENSCHOOLSSAFELY #openonlywhensafe

Group affiliated with teachers union accuses Times of bias in L.A. Unified reopening coverage A coalition of teachers, parents and community activists on Wednesday accused The Times of giving disproportionate coverage to those who want to quickly reopen Los Angeles Unified School District campuses, and short shrift to those in minority communities who urge a more deliberate approach during the c

New Hampshire: Bitter Fight Over Voucher Bill: Join the Fight to Save Public Schools! | Diane Ravitch's blog

Teacher Tom: Despite My Utter Lack of "Teaching"

New Hampshire: Bitter Fight Over Voucher Bill | Diane Ravitch's blog New Hampshire: Bitter Fight Over Voucher Bill Parents and educators overwhelmingly oppose the New Hampshire voucher proposal, which would be the most expansive in the country. In terms of turnout, voucher opponents outnumber proponents by 6-1. Proponents claim that it is only educators who oppose vouchers, but many parents turne

CURMUDGUCATION: Breaking: FBI Investigating Chester Upland District Finances

Despite My Utter Lack of "Teaching" I never pretend to know what kids will learn on any given day and, honestly, any teacher who does is either deluded or blowing smoke. No one can possibly know what another person is going to learn. You can hope. You can plan. You can lecture yourself blue. You can even, if you're especially clever, trick someone into learning something, but the idea that one p

HOW ABOUT A LITTLE CLARITY? – Dad Gone Wild

Breaking: FBI Investigating Chester Upland District Finances Chester Upland School District has been through the wringer, suffering through just about every problem a school district could face in the last century. Most recently they have been facing a state receivership and an administration that seems anxious to convert them to charter schools, the first district in Pennsylvania to be official

THE TOP BANANA: TODAY'S EDUCATION HEADLINES Wednesday, March 3, 2021 #REDFORED #tbats #REOPENSCHOOLSSAFELY #openonlywhensafe

HOW ABOUT A LITTLE CLARITY? “Hey, if it’s up to you about TNReady, vote “no”, because this year there are no snacks, longer recesses, or parades. Those are the only reasons I was in before. None of those happening, and I’m out” – Peter Weber, 10, student commenting on the debate over TCAP Remember those halcyon days of yore, when we were extending grace to each other, reminding ourselves daily t

MAR 03

Is the Dr. Seuss controversy a tempest in a teapot? Hell no. – Fred Klonsky

Big Education Ape THE TOP BANANA TODAY'S EDUCATION HEADLINES COVID in schools: How Education Secretary Cardona would get kids back - https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2021/03/02/covid-19-back-to-school-plan-education-secretary-miguel-cardona/6885515002/#new_tab via @usatoday Education Research Report: 'Explicit instruction' provides dramatic benefits in learning to read - http://educationres

#COVIDTestingNotStandardizedTesting: Schools Need #VaccinationsNotExaminations – I AM AN EDUCATOR

IS THE DR. SEUSS CONTROVERSY A TEMPEST IN A TEAPOT? HELL NO. You’ve may have heard all you want to hear about poor Dr. Seuss and Cancel Culture. The publishers of Theodore Geisel’s books have decided that six of them won’t be published anymore because they are explicitly racist in the way Geisel drew some of his characters. They are absolutely right. The right wing went all cancel culture. But t

Ed Notes Online: Fred Smith/Robin Jacobowitz: Why Biden Admin Support for Testing in Pandemic is Wrong

#COVIDTestingNot StandardizedTesting: Schools Need #VaccinationsNotExaminations – I AM AN EDUCATOR #COVIDTestingNotStandardizedTesting: Schools Need #VaccinationsNotExaminations An earlier version of this article was published by The Progressive by Jesse Hagopian Last year, the United States learned a great lesson from its public schools: The onslaught of federally mandated standardized tests cou

From Sec. Cardona: A Letter to Parents & Students - ED.gov Blog

Fred Smith/Robin Jacobowitz: Why Biden Admin Support for Testing in Pandemic is Wrong Fred is back to our pages with a co-authored screed on the increasingly sellout Ed Dept no matter who is installed at the top - below are ed deform snakes. Appointees at Ed Dept planning strikes at pubed Here's our reaction to USDE's push to resume testing this spring. Please feel free to share with your reader

Teacher Tom: Talking to Ourselves

From Sec. Cardona: A Letter to Parents & Students Click here for a copy of this letter in Spanish To our Nation’s Parents and Students: I write first, as your new Secretary of Education, to acknowledge the extraordinarily challenging year you’ve endured. Between the health crisis, economic hardship, staunch national division, and the struggle to make progress in learning while apart from teacher

Only 4% Of U.S. Kids Live In Counties Where Schools Should Be Open

Talking to Ourselves I'm as eager for the plague to end as anyone, but one thing I'll miss is the freedom to talk to myself in public. Of course, I've always had that freedom, but when you're wearing a mask, no one can tell. For whatever reason, I don't mind admitting that my inner dialog sometimes escapes into the wild, but it would be embarrassing to have strangers actually hear me muttering t

Biden administration's push for standardized tests irks teachers unions, state leaders - POLITICO

Only 4% Of U.S. Kids Live In Counties Where Schools Should Be Fully Open A New York Times analysis of the CDC’s guidelines for reopening elementary schools posits that very few U.S. counties even meet the CDC’s thresholds for in-person learning In the last few weeks, the CDC, along with many states that previously barred in-person classroom learning, have been making a concerted effort to get ki

Naima Coster’s “What’s Mine and Yours” Complicates the School Segregation Story | Bitch Media

Biden administration's push for standardized tests irks teachers unions, state leaders The Education Department is resuming standardized testing requirements after a one-year pause. President Joe Biden came into office with millions of kids learning remotely, teachers afraid of getting sick and parents balancing too much at home. Now, they also have to worry about standardized tests. Biden’s adm

Give Thanks to Our Teachers for Braving the Pandemic! | Diane Ravitch's blog

“What’s Mine and Yours” Complicates the School Segregation Story It has been more than 60 years since Brown v. Board of Education legally desegregated U.S. schools, but schools are as segregated now as they’ve ever been. In 2014, Nikole Hannah-Jones, then a reporter for ProPublica , opened many people’s eyes when she chronicled how the segregation embedded in Ferguson, Missouri’s school system c

Beware: Here Is How to Wreck Your State’s Public Schools | janresseger

Give Thanks to Our Teachers for Braving the Pandemic! I am breaking my recent promise not to post articles that were previously published, but this is one of those rare exceptions to the rule, because it would not get the national audience it deserves without reposting it here. This article by Sandra Vohs, president of the Fort Wayne Education Association, appeared originally in the Fort Wayne J

Education Matters: Superintendent Greene says she supports staff, but her actions often speak louder than her words. + How teachers elected DeSantis and may do so again

Beware: Here Is How to Wreck Your State’s Public Schools Many state legislatures are currently considering new private school tuition vouchers or planning to expand long running voucher programs, tuition tax credit vouchers, and education savings account vouchers. Ohio provides a stark warning about the potential damage of rapidly growing school privatization at public expense. In a column in Su

Mike Klonsky's Blog: Capitalism 2.0. Is the lion really lying down with the lamb?

Education Matters: Superintendent Greene says she supports staff, but her actions often speak louder than her words. Superintendent Greene says she supports staff, but her actions often speak louder than her words. Superintendent Green recently sent me a note. She was replying to something I had sent to the school board about the frustration so many teachers are experiencing. Thank you for sharin

Don’t Punish the Students! | Live Long and Prosper

Capitalism 2.0. Is the lion really lying down with the lamb? What's going on here? Corporate America, Hollywood, and NFL owners all rebranding and advertising Black Lives Matter themes, doling out billions in philanthropic grants to left and progressive organizations, and even heaping faint praise on socialists. From watching the TV ads, one would think that the Fortune 500 corporations had all

NewBlackMan (in Exile) TODAY #BLM #BLACKLIVESMATTER

Don’t Punish the Students! TESTING, TESTING, TESTING Anyone who has been paying attention to education news knows that the Biden administration has, at least at the time of this writing (Mar 2, 2021), refused to cancel the required federal testing for this school year despite the pandemic and despite Candidate Biden’s promises to the contrary. In her blog, Diane Ravitch reminded us… The Biden ad

A VERY BUSY DAY Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... The latest news and resources in education since 2007 #REOPENSCHOOLSSAFELY #openonlywhensafe

NewBlackMan (in Exile) NewBlackMan (in Exile) TODAY Big Education Ape: THIS WEEK WITH NEWBLACKMAN (IN EXILE) - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2021/02/this-week-with-newblackman-in-exile-blm_27.html La Brega: An Encyclopedia of Betrayal by Mark Anthony Neal / 13h " Photographer Chris Gregory-Rivera examines the legacy of the surveillance files known in Puerto Rico as las carpetas — produced f

AFT President Randi Weingarten Welcomes Biden Administration’s Plan to Prioritize Educators for Vaccinations | American Federation of Teachers

THE TOP BANANA: TODAY'S EDUCATION HEADLINES Tuesday, March 2, 2021 #REDFORED #tbats #REOPENSCHOOLSSAFELY #openonlywhensafe

AFT President Randi Weingarten Welcomes Biden Administration’s Plan to Prioritize Educators for Vaccinations WASHINGTON— American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten issued the following statement in response to the announcement that the Biden administration will challenge every state to prioritize vaccinating educators and school staff, and will authorize the use of the Federal Re

MAR 02

SHOW ME THE MONEY – Dad Gone Wild

Big Education Ape THE TOP BANANA TODAY'S EDUCATION HEADLINES ‘These buildings are not all created equal’: Philadelphia district plans to reopen 53 schools March 8 - Chalkbeat Philadelphia - https://philadelphia.chalkbeat.org/2021/3/1/22307531/these-buildings-are-not-all-created-equal-philadelphia-district-plans-to-reopen-53-schools-march-8 on chalkbeat NYC Educator: UFT Executive Board March 1, 2

LA teachers union slams California schools plan as 'propagating structural racism' - POLITICO

SHOW ME THE MONEY “If I had a message to my contemporaries it is surely this: Be anything you like, be madmen, drunks, and bastards of every shape and form, but at all costs avoid one thing: success . . . If you are too obsessed with success, you will forget to live. If you have learned only how to be a success, your life has probably been wasted.” ― Thomas Merton, Love, and Living Back in the e

Lifelong Educator, Miguel Cardona, Confirmed As Education Secretary | 89.3 KPCC

LA teachers union slams California schools plan as 'propagating structural racism' LA teachers union slams California schools plan as 'propagating structural racism' SACRAMENTO — California's largest local teachers union on Monday slammed the state's new school reopening plan as "a recipe for propagating structural racism" hours after Gov. Gavin Newsom and Democratic lawmakers unveiled their comp

American Federation of Teachers president reacts to changes in educational assessment requirements for 2020-21 school year - The Highland County Press

Lifelong Educator, Miguel Cardona, Confirmed As Education Secretary The U.S. Department of Education will have a new leader. Late Monday, in a 64 to 33 vote, the U.S. Senate confirmed Miguel Cardona to be the next Secretary of Education. Before being nominated by President Biden, Cardona served as Connecticut's education commissioner for the past year and a half, arguing forcefully that schools

Voucher Vultures Continue to Lose in Court + Tylor Talks Teaching – Tennessee Education Report

American Federation of Teachers president reacts to changes in educational assessment requirements for 2020-21 school year American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten issued the following statement in response to the Biden administration’s announcement of changes to assessment and accountability requirements for the 2020-2021 school year: “Nothing is ideal during a pandemic, espec

Resilient Public Schools: Bright and Dark Sides (Part 4) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Voucher Vultures Continue to Lose in Court – Tennessee Education Report VOUCHER VULTURES CONTINUE TO LOSE IN COURT Parent advocacy group Public Funds for Public Schools notes that the Tennessee Supreme Court denied a motion by school privatization advocates to allow implementation of Gov. Lee’s voucher scheme while the issue of the constitutionality of the program is sorted out. Here’s more from

Six Dr. Seuss books to stop being published over ‘hurtful and wrong’ racial portrayals - Raw Story - Celebrating 16 Years of Independent Journalism

Resilient Public Schools: Bright and Dark Sides (Part 4) Why have U.S. public schools rebounded from natural disasters like Covid-19? Answer: Americans’ social beliefs both in the importance of schooling, what a “real” school looks like, and the long-term efficiency of the age-graded school organization with its “grammar of schooling” explain why public schools gradually reopened its doors. Amer

Sherman Dorn: What Ed Policy Wonks Might Want to Know About the CDC School Advice, February 2021 | National Education Policy Center

Six Dr. Seuss books to stop being published over ‘hurtful and wrong’ racial portrayals Six Dr. Seuss books are being retired after decades of criticism over racist imagery in the illustrated children’s stories. Dr. Seuss Enterprises, the organization that carries on the author’s legacy, announced Tuesday that it will stop publishing and licensing “And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street,”

Grassroots Education Network- February 2021 Newsletter - Network For Public Education

Sherman Dorn: What Ed Policy Wonks Might Want to Know About the CDC School Advice, February 2021 Three and a half weeks into the new administration, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released a new set of guidelines for K-12 schools . The general features of the guidelines have been well-covered in the press (with some minor mistakes–it’s complicated!), and some

The Talk – radical eyes for equity

Grassroots Education Network- February 2021 Newsletter The NPE Grassroots Education Network is a network of over 160 grassroots organizations nationwide who have joined together to preserve, promote, improve, and strengthen our public schools. If you know of a group that would like to join this powerful network, please go here to sign on. If you have any questions about the NPE Grassroots Educat

Urgent: Tell President Biden to Stop the Tests - Network For Public Education

The Talk Yesterday I had The Talk with two of my classes—my first-year writing seminar and my upper-level writing/research course. Doing so proved to me once again that you can’t have The Talk too often with young people. Students were under-informed, misinformed, and worst of all, filled with fear. The Talk, of course, for these classes was about plagiarism. Two students in separate classes sha

Diane Ravitch: Twenty Years of Failing the Schools - Progressive.org

Urgent: Tell President Biden to Stop the Tests In December of 2019, candidate Joe Biden promised that if elected, he would stop standardized testing. Yet the U.S. Department of Education has announced that states must test students in the midst of the pandemic. That is a wrongheaded policy that puts data first and children last. Write Joe Biden. Tell him to step in and cancel the tests. 1. Pleas

A VERY BUSY DAY Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... The latest news and resources in education since 2007 #REOPENSCHOOLSSAFELY #openonlywhensafe

Twenty Years of Failing the Schools - Progressive.org Twenty Years of Failing the Schools To fix education, Biden must not only undo Trump’s legacy but reverse two decades of a disastrous ‘reform’ movement P resident Joe Biden will have his work cut out in repairing the damage done to U.S. education caused by Donald Trump and his one-time Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos. But Biden and his Sec

NYC Public School Parents: Council Members Dromm and Treyger urge Congress to make sure while funding schools, NYS and NYC can't pull back their support at the same time

CURMUDGUCATION: I've Got A New Blogging Job

Council Members Dromm and Treyger urge Congress to make sure while funding schools, NYS and NYC can't pull back their support at the same time See the letter below, sent late last week from Council Members Danny Dromm and Mark Treyger, chairs of the Council Finance and Education Committees to New York Senators and our Congressional delegation, urging them to provide the additional funding our sc

Bill Gates Invites You to Learn About “The State of Education” | Diane Ravitch's blog

I've Got A New Blogging Job For many years, Diane Ravitch has taken on the task of maintaining a sort of town square for folks who care about the health and future of public education. Most of us who are part of this blogosphere owe her a heap of thanks for helping us find our audiences and for amplifying our voices. But right now, Diane is scaling back (so, only 50 posts a week instead of 600)

Teacher Tom: The Strongest Kids in the World

Bill Gates Invites You to Learn About “The State of Education” Let’s just say it upfront. If you wanted to know more about “The State of Education,” and how to “rebuild a more equitable system,” the last person you would ask is a billionaire. Right? Specifically Bill Gates, who has spent billions over the past 20 years promoting high-stakes testing, charter schools, merit pay, value-added measur

Response to Legislative Deal on School Reopening - Year 2021 (CA Dept of Education)

The Strongest Kids in the World We were talking about how strong we are, children taking turns sharing feats of strength they had or could perform. It had started with a boy boasting that he was the strongest kid in the world. Others had challenged his assertion, offering as proof stories of other kids they knew who were very strong, the superior strength of big kids, the unbelievable strength o

THE TOP BANANA: TODAY'S EDUCATION HEADLINES Monday, March 1, 2021 #REDFORED #tbats #REOPENSCHOOLSSAFELY #openonlywhensafe

Response to Legislative Deal on School Reopening SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond today issued the following statement in response to a legislative deal announced by Governor Gavin Newsom and lawmakers that is designed to help more schools open classrooms for in-person learning: “There is no question that students learn best when they are together with their pe

MAR 01

Fordham Institute Attempts to Mislead the Public Regarding the Impact of Charter Schools on Public School Districts - Network For Public Education

Big Education Ape THE TOP BANANA TODAY'S EDUCATION HEADLINES For Some Black Students, Remote Learning Has Offered A Chance To Thrive https://www.scpr.org/news/2021/03/01/96842/for-some-black-students-remote-learning-has-offere/ via @kpcc Education Research Report: School Spending Impacts - http://educationresearchreport.blogspot.com/ How Inequity Gets Built Into America’s Vaccination System http:

Shawgi Tell: Charter Schools’ Obsession With Test Scores Deliberately Misses the Point | Dissident Voice

Fordham Institute Attempts to Mislead the Public Regarding the Impact of Charter Schools on Public School Districts A recent study published by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, entitled Robbers or Victims: Charter Schools and District Finances ,was rolled out with fanfare and sent to policymakers across the country. When the Fordham Institute sent out its mass email, trumpeting its report, its s

Russ on Reading: Read Aloud Treasures: The Wit and Wisdom of William Steig

Charter Schools’ Obsession With Test Scores Deliberately Misses the Point | Dissident Voice Charter Schools’ Obsession With Test Scores Deliberately Misses the Point Putting aside the endless problems with punitive high-stakes standardized tests produced by a handful of large for-profit corporations, charter school advocates have never stopped making a fetish out of students’ scores on these poli

Teacher Tom: "What Is It?"

Read Aloud Treasures: The Wit and Wisdom of William Steig Most children these days are well versed in the adventures of Shrek! from the Dreamworks movie franchise and the Broadway musical, but Shrek!, of course, first lived in the very fertile, active, and definitely quirky mind of children's book author and illustrator, William Steig. Steig is a fascinating character himself. He did not write h

Bayard Rustin: A Remembrance | Diane Ravitch's blog

"What Is It?" I heard her mother saying, "What is it?" Her daughter, a two-year-old, was scribbling on a piece of paper with a marker creating a spiky purple tangle made from the kind of thick lines that indicate she was exerting excessive pressure. The girl paused briefly in response to the question, then resumed her work. Her mother said, "It looks like a butterfly. Is it a butterfly?" I would

Dr. Carter G. Woodson, Black Educator Hall of Fame - Philly's 7th Ward #BLM #BLACKLIVESMATTER #BLACKHISTORYMONTH

Bayard Rustin: A Remembrance My youngest grandson is in second grade. His class was studying Black History, and each student was asked to make a project. He chose to create a poster about civil rights leader Bayard Rustin. I was thrilled to see his finished project, because it was not only well done, but because I knew Bayard Rustin and I started thinking about him. He was a good friend of my th

Newsom strikes school reopening deal with California lawmakers - POLITICO

Dr. Carter G. Woodson, Black Educator Hall of Fame - Philly's 7th Ward DR. CARTER G. WOODSON, BLACK EDUCATOR HALL OF FAME E’ry day this month, the Center for Black Educator Development , in partnership with Phillys7thWard.org , will highlight a Black Educator Hall of Famer . But, don’t forget, e’ry month is Black History Month … February is just the Blackest . Today, our featured Black Educator i

More teachers plan to quit as Covid stress overwhelms educators - CNBC

Newsom strikes school reopening deal with California lawmakers Newsom strikes school reopening deal with California lawmakers SACRAMENTO — California Gov. Gavin Newsom and state lawmakers struck a deal Sunday that would push school districts to open classrooms to the youngest students by the end of March while stopping short of new requirements regarding vaccines and collective bargaining. The de

A New Direction for This Blog | Diane Ravitch's blog

More teachers plan to quit as Covid stress overwhelms educators More teachers plan to quit as Covid stress overwhelms educators KEY POINTS After nearly a year of struggling to meet the demands of teaching during the coronavirus crisis, many educators say they are ready to switch careers or retire. But in order for schools to fully reopen, the U.S. needs more teachers, not fewer. The challenges of

Is President Biden a Supporter of Standardized Testing After All? | janresseger

A New Direction for This Blog I started this blog in April 2012, because I had a lot of things I wanted to say, more than I could put into a tweet. Since that time, I have posted commentaries more than 26,000 times. Most of the posts have been about testing and privatization because they are, in my view, destroying public education and real education. But I have also posted humor, political comm

Using Big Data, Artificial Intelligence and Algorithms to Guide Education Choice - Network For Public Education

Is President Biden a Supporter of Standardized Testing After All? A week ago a newly appointed Assistant Secretary in the Department of Education’s Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, Ian Rosenblum announced that this spring, the Department will require the annual standardized testing mandated first by No Child Left Behind, and now by its successor, the Every Student Succeeds Act. Last

CURMUDGUCATION: FL: College Is For Meat Widgets, Not That Learnin' Stuff

Using Big Data, Artificial Intelligence and Algorithms to Guide Education Choice The writing team at Accountabaloney has kept a watchful eye on Florida’s ongoing shenanigans, and their newest post is alarming. Florida’s legislature is considering SB48, a bill that would turn all of Florida’s voucher programs into Education Savings Accounts. ESAs are like super-vouchers, a grant of taxpayer money

Resilient Public Schools: Bright and Dark Sides (Part 3) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

FL: College Is For Meat Widgets, Not That Learnin' Stuff Oh, Florida. GOP State Senator Dennis Baxley wants only some students to have Bright Futures . Under his bill SB 86 , the scholarship program would be targeted only for those students who are pursuing majors that lead "directly to employment." Baxley offers a folksy justification for this, saying his own sociology degree was very nice and

A VERY BUSY DAY Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... The latest news and resources in education since 2007 #REOPENSCHOOLSSAFELY #openonlywhensafe

Resilient Public Schools: Bright and Dark Sides (Part 3) In part 3 of this series, I describe and analyze the growth and spread of computer devices over the past four decades as incremental, not fundamental changes in classroom instruction. *In 1981, 18 percent of schools had computers; in 1991, 98 percent had them. *In 1981, 16 percent of schools used computers for instructional purposes. By 19

CATCH UP WITH CURMUDGUCATION + ICYMI: Unsurprised But Disappointed Edition Sunday, February 28, 2021

FEB 28

THE TOP BANANA: TODAY'S EDUCATION HEADLINES Sunday, February 28, 2021 #REDFORED #tbats #BLM #BLACKLIVESMATTER #BLACKHISTORYMONTH #openonlywhensafe

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: Unsurprised But Disappointed Edition (2/28) Unsurprised But Disappointed Edition Well, it didn't take long for Biden to return to his corporate ed reform roots. Not a surprise, but even when hope is a very tiny thing with very small feathers, it's a bummer when a big cat chomps it up. Time to move on. Here's some reading from the week. America prefers teachers who offer the

EdAction in Congress February 28, 2021 - Education Votes

Big Education Ape THE TOP BANANA TODAY'S EDUCATION HEADLINES Reopening high schools gets ugly, divisive in Bay Area district where rich and poor mix http://feeds.latimes.com/~r/lanowblog/~3/I2dunc9kKPU/san-mateo-county-reopening-high-schools-divides-rich-poor-parents-teachers Two High School Students Discuss Returning To School After A Year Of Virtual Learning https://www.npr.org/2021/02/28/97221

Marva Collins, Black Educator Hall of Fame - Philly's 7th Ward #BLM #BLACKLIVESMATTER #BLACKHISTORYMONTH #openonlywhensafe

EdAction in Congress February 28, 2021 COVID-19 package passes House; now it’s up to the Senate By a vote of 219-212, the House passed the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan proposed by President Biden. The bill provides $170 billion in dedicated education funding to advance the process of safely returning to in-person instruction at K-12 school buildings and provide institutional and student su

California: Charter Operators Will Repay the State at Least $215 Million | Diane Ravitch's blog

Marva Collins, Black Educator Hall of Fame - Philly's 7th Ward MARVA COLLINS, BLACK EDUCATOR HALL OF FAME E’ry day this month, the Center for Black Educator Development , in partnership with Phillys7thWard.org , will highlight a Black Educator Hall of Famer . But, don’t forget, e’ry month is Black History Month … February is just the Blackest . Today, our featured Black educator is Marva Collins

Poll: A majority of Americans think teachers should be vaccinated before reopening schools - Vox #openonlywhensafe

California: Charter Operators Will Repay the State at Least $215 Million Will Huntsberry of Voice of San Diego writes here about one of the biggest scams in the history of charter schools (the biggest was probably the ECOT–Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow–scandal in Ohio, which cost the state about $500 million). The two ringleaders of an online charter school scam that raked in hundreds of mill

Attacks against teacher unions uncovers anti-educator nature of Bloomberg and Republicans – North Texas Daily

Poll: A majority of Americans think teachers should be vaccinated before reopening schools - Vox Poll: A majority of Americans think teachers should be vaccinated before reopening schools The poll shows Americans have nuanced opinions about when — and how — to reopen schools. Many schools have been closed since the earliest days of the pandemic, resorting to remote learning in an effort to reduce

Education Matters: DCPS try's to trick parents into sending their kids back into school... during a pandemic.

Attacks against teacher unions uncovers anti-educator nature of Bloomberg and Republicans The recent controversy surrounding the reopening of U.S. schools during the COVID-19 pandemic has placed former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Republicans on the same team against teacher unions. Bloomberg and Republicans have spewed rhetoric that exposes the anti-educator beliefs inherent to the

NANCY BAILEY: Why Teachers Might Still Not Believe It’s Safe to Return to In-Person School #tbats #REOPENSCHOOLSSAFELY #openonlywhensafe

DCPS try's to trick parents into sending their kids back into school... during a pandemic. DCPS is like an onion. On the outside, it may look normal, but as you peel back the layers, it makes you want to cry. Recently the district has been sending letters to parents whose children are doing just fine with DHR, implying they are failing and must return to school. This is beyond the pale. A teache

Denisha Jones: The Day Joe Biden Lied to Me About Standardized Testing | Diane Ravitch's blog

Why Teachers Might Still Not Believe It’s Safe to Return to In-Person School Why Teachers Might Still Not Believe It’s Safe to Return to In-Person School Anger about schools not reopening is directed at teachers and their unions. Sometimes it’s made to sound like they’re the problem and not Covid-19! Many public schools have opened their buildings, and teachers never quit working during the pande

A VERY BUSY DAY Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... The latest news and resources in education since 2007 #BLM #BLACKLIVESMATTER #BLACKHISTORYMONTH

Denisha Jones: The Day Joe Biden Lied to Me About Standardized Testing Denisha Jones explains here what happened at a televised event in Pittsburgh when she asked candidate Joe Biden if he would eliminate standardized testing. Denisha is a highly accomplished woman and a champion for children. Biden’s Broken Promise: Time to Opt Out! On December 14, 2019, I asked President Biden a question about