Big Education Ape THE TOP BANANA TODAY'S EDUCATION HEADLINES COVID-19 relief package doesn’t go far enough - Education Votes - https://educationvotes.nea.org/2021/01/08/covid-19-relief-package-doesnt-go-far-enough/ Delaware Governor John Carney Loses Touch With Reality As Covid Spreads Like A Wildfire In Delaware https://exceptionaldelaware.wordpress.com/2021/01/08/delaware-governor-john-carney-l
Sticking to My Guns God, I hate that phrase— stick to your guns! — because it represents everything that triggered the Capitol breach on Wednesday: Intransigence. The false glory of never yielding, even when your case is weak or based on falsehoods. Violence as means of accruing power. In the past two days, as conversations sprang up and grew heated on social media, our new town square, a friend
The week in coveducation: Timeline unclear for teacher vaccinations The state saw some big news in the education world this week with an announcement from the State Department of Education that Oklahoma public school enrollment has dropped. The timeline for getting all Oklahoma teachers vaccinated was also found to be unclear. In the coming week, the Oklahoma City Public Schools Board of Educati
Large urban districts object to Gov. Newsom’s school reopening plan | EdSource Large urban districts object to Gov. Newsom’s school reopening plan They cite funding inequities and want the state to cover the full costs of testing Superintendents of seven urban school districts, including the state’s four largest, are strongly criticizing Gov. Gavin funding plan to allow districts to reopen classr
NEA calls for immediate removal of President Trump Senators Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Mitch McConnell (R-KY), leaders of their respective caucuses, normally don’t agree on much. But they are of one mind when it comes to Donald Trump’s last-ditch attempt to stop Congress from certifying the victory of President-elect Joe Biden and the insurrection fueled by Trump’s seditious rhetoric. Totally unac
Let's talk about social distancing in DCPS Social distancing is part of the whole trinity of protecting oneself and others from the coronavirus. It's also a lie that it is happening in our schools. I know it, you know it, and Greene and the board know it too, the difference is where we might be outraged and horrified the board and super are shrugging their shoulders. Have you ever heard the phra
What Really Happened Inside the Capitol Stop what you are doing right now and watch this. THIS is what it was really like inside the Capitol on Wednesday, January 6, 2021 when traitorous thugs, egged on by the man who's supposed to be the President of the United States, stormed the building and killed a Capitol police officer. They were out for blood, they were out for vengeance, they were tryin
John Thompson: Is It Time to Apologize to Teachers and Their Unions for Their Caution? John Thompson, historian and retired teacher in Oklahoma, has a beef with “experts” and pundits who criticized teachers and teachers’ unions for refusing to reopen schools when it was not safe and uncertainty was the rule. He writes: The Guardian reports , “Los Angeles is becoming the center of America’s out-o
The Politics of Calling for No Politics: 2021 As a part of the education community, I noticed two immediate responses to the insurrection of the U.S. Capitol by domestic terrorists seeking to disrupt the confirmation of the next President of the U.S. One response anticipated that (once again) teachers would be on the front line of addressing trauma by suggesting ways that examining the riot in D
Juking the stats DCPS graduation style Superintendent Greene sent out an email blast touting the district's improvement in graduation, a stat that has steadily gone up for a decade. This is my question, can any of you point to a specific policy that she implemented that has led to our increase? I can, and that’s the district requiring teachers to promote students whether they deserve it or not.
Public Employees, Private Speech: 1st Amendment doesn't always protect government workers Public Employees, Private Speech: 1st Amendment doesn't always protect government workers High-profile controversies over police shootings, questionable promotions, racial profiling, attacks on law enforcement and race-based incidents have led to an increase in public employees being disciplined for publicly
State Superintendent Tony Thurmond Issues Statement in Response to Governor Newsom’s Proposed 2021 Education Budget SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond today issued the following statement in response to Governor Gavin Newsom’s proposed education budget for the fiscal year 2021–22: “At a time when a global pandemic has created extraordinary challenges for our stud
ARE BETTER TIMES REALLY AHEAD? “I think the world honestly would be a much healthier place if instead of trying to find rationalizations for our bad behavior we would just say, “I was an asshole. Sure, there were reasons behind it, but that doesn’t matter.” ― Colin Quinn Somebody forgot to give 2021 the memo. This year was supposed to be better. We were supposed to be better. This past week cast
CURMUDGUCATION: W atch Out: K12 Has Changed Its Name Watch Out: K12 Has Changed Its Name Back in November, when most of us were pre-occupied with a few other things, K12, Inc, the giant cyber-school company, went and gave itself a new name -- Stride, Inc. The rebranding came with some new acquisitions, but underneath it all, K12 is its same old self. K12 is a big fat for-profit cyber-edu-biz oper
Dad Gone Wild – Nobody reads it, everybody quotes it. THIS WEEK'S WILDNESS Dad Gone Wild Nobody reads it, everybody quotes it. ARE BETTER TIMES REALLY AHEAD? by TC Weber / 17h “I think the world honestly would be a much healthier place if instead of trying to find rationalizations for our bad behavior we would just say, “I was an asshole. Sure, there were reasons behind it, but that doesn’t matte
Teacher Tom Unstructured Play Outdoors Should Be the Foundation of Childhood 1K 1d "I Was a Different Person Then" 93 2d Isn't This Belittling to Children? 2K 3d We're Here on this Earth to Saunter 200+ 3d "This is a Little Princess" 200+ 5d Reflections on This First Day of 2021 93 7d Teacher Tom
California Department of Education SSPI TONY THURMOND STUFF THIS WEEK FROM THE CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Thurmond’s Statement on Governor’s Proposed Budget 17h California State Superintendent Tony Thurmond issues statement in response to Governor Newsom’s proposed 2021 education budget. 2020 National ESEA Distinguished Schools Announced 1d State Superintendent Thurmond announces Californ
NewBlackMan (in Exile) THIS WEEK WITH NEWBLACKMAN (IN EXILE) One Hundred: The Ed Gordon Podcast with Michael Eric Dyson by Mark Anthony Neal / 10h 'Host Ed Gordon talks with scholar and author Michael Eric Dyson about his new book, A Long Time Coming: Reckoning with Race in America . They also discuss the insurrection and riot that rocked the Nation’s Capitol in January and they explore the futur
Education Research Report New review says the ineffective 'learning styles' theory persists in education by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 2d A new review by Swansea University reveals there is widespread belief, around the world, in a teaching method that is not only ineffective but may actually be harmful to learners. For decades educators have been advised to match their teaching to the supposed 'lear
Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007 The Best Resources For Learning & Teaching About The Possible Second Impeachment Of President Trump by Larry Ferlazzo / 1h quinntheislander / Pixabay It appears likely that the House of Representatives is going to consider impeaching President Trump for the second time this coming week because of his
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 Josh Hawley: Bad Karma for Bad Character by dianeravitch / 55min Josh Hawley, graduate of Stanford University and Yale Law School, took the low road, aligning himself with Trumpism and trying to block the pro forma certification of Biden’s electi
Big Education Ape THE TOP BANANA TODAY'S EDUCATION HEADLINES Teachers Union Burns Betsy DeVos With 2 Memorable Words After Resignation https://www.huffpost.com/entry/betsy-devos-good-riddance_n_5ff7d626c5b66f3f795c708f DeVos Jumps Ship After Trump Foments Riot, Cites ‘Moral Obligation’ Without Any Irony | Talking Points Memo - https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/devos-jumps-ship-after-trump-foment
‘Good riddance’ and other reactions to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’s resignation Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has turned in her resignation , effective Friday, and after four years of her highly controversial tenure, the reaction is coming in thick and fast. DeVos, a Michigan billionaire who called public schools a “dead end” before she became education secretary in 2017, was a hero to co
Betsy DeVos Resigns | Eclectablog Betsy DeVos Resigns I wish I could find more satisfaction in something I’ve hoped would happen for 4 years. But as usual, Ms. DeVos did the absolute least she could do (resign), well past the time when it could have made a difference (with 13 days left in her lamest of all duck terms), and is probably only doing it to avoid doing something she doesn’t want to do
Unstructured Play Outdoors Should Be the Foundation of Childhood The central purpose of every human community that has ever existed is to care for children. As I wrote previously, the only question is "How?" Generally speaking, modern society has answered that question in a way that gives children a raw deal. While it's certainly true that we're good at keeping them alive by historic standards,
BYE, BYE BETSY Betsy DeVos Resigns I was ready to publish the rest of the articles in this post on Wednesday, but I got sidetracked by the horrible events in Washington D.C. Since then I have paused, while I figured out what I wanted to say. Then, last night, Betsy DeVos resigned… I am against nearly everything DeVos has done during her term as Secretary. She has pushed her agenda of privatizati
New Education Secretary, Dr. Miguel Cardona, Should Not Require Annual Standardized Testing in This COVID-19 School Year Last weekend, the NY Times editorialized to demand that President Elect Joe Biden’s new Secretary of Education promptly “clear the wreckage” from Betsy DeVos’s Department of Education. The newspaper is correct to criticize Betsy DeVos’s abandonment of the department’s mission
Americans’ Secular Faith in Schooling (Part 3) With Part 3, readers have now seen most of the draft Introduction to my next book. Comments welcomed. For those readers wanting citations, please contact me. Perverse outcomes of school reforms Consider the massive effort by civil rights reformers to desegregate schools between the 1960s and 1980s following the U.S. Supreme Court’s Brown decision (1
Betsy DeVos Resigns, Citing Trump’s Support for Insurrection With only a few days left in Trump’s term of office, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos resigned. She says she objected to his rhetoric in inciting the insurrection of his devoted loyalists. This is certainly an anti-climax. DeVos had to clear out anyway, but by resigning now she avoids the painful decision about forcing Trump to resig
Betsy DeVos Bails Out Well, she finally had enough. DeVos blamed Trumpian rhetoric for the riots, called it an "inflection point" for her, and became one more GOP Trump-fluffer to suddenly discover her shock and outrage for exactly the same kind of shit that he's been doing for four years. I mean, there's something deeply disingenuous about watching someone throw gasoline and matches around for
What I Told My Students About Yesterday’s Attempted Trump Coup The moment I had been dreading happened. Student names started popping up on my screen waiting to be admitted into this morning’s first Zoom meeting. What was I going to say to them? Yesterday in Washington, DC, thousands of Trump supporters charged into the Capitol Building at his urging in an attempt to stop Congress from certifyin
The Chancellor Responds to Current Events Dear Colleagues, Like so many other days in the past ten months, yesterday we experienced an alarming and frightening moment that was unprecedented in our lifetimes. And l have to tell you, I was relieved to see the breach of the U.S Capitol, I was absolutely certain that something like this would make you think about something other than my forcing you
Greene just doesn't get it Greene just doesn't get it, and please don't take my word for it. Take hers. Greene penned yet another letter to the staff, and in it, she points out how completely tone-deaf she is. Bold is my commentary. Team Duval, As we begin this new year, I am once again calling on you to be the voice of calm and the hand of stability during uncertain times. Our students are cert
Cuomo’s Dishonest Math Pitcher is getting shelled. “When you going to take him out?!?!” scream the fans. The manager says “when they have more hits than at bats” Huh? He just said he’s never taking the pitcher out. Idiot. And dishonest. Hits are never more than at bats. Why not just say what he means? Repression’s getting bad in a far off country. People ask an NGO when they are getting added to
NewBlackMan (in Exile) NewBlackMan (in Exile) TODAY Big Education Ape: THIS WEEK WITH NEWBLACKMAN (IN EXILE) - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2021/01/this-week-with-newblackman-in-exile-blm.html White Purity, Black Sexuality, and Their Roles in America’s History of Racism: A Conversation with Historians Jane Dailey and Nell Painter by Mark Anthony Neal / 16h 'In her new book, White Fright: T
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/2021/01/this-week-in-education-larry-ferlazzos.html Depressing Quote Of The Day: Teachers At The Capitol Insurrection 22 by Larr
Betsy DeVos Resigns as Education Secretary Education Secretary Betsy DeVos submitted her resignation to President Trump on Thursday night, becoming the second member of Mr. Trump's cabinet to resign since pro-Trump rioters stormed the Capitol on Wednesday. "We should be highlighting and celebrating your Administration's many accomplishments on behalf of the American people," Mrs. DeVos wrote in
Big Education Ape THE TOP BANANA TODAY'S EDUCATION HEADLINES Valerie Strauss: Growing Number of States Want Waivers from Annual Testing | Diane Ravitch's blog - https://wp.me/p2odLa-t1u via @dianeravitch Iowa Legislature to consider ‘parental choice’ in requiring in-person learning | Education News | wcfcourier.com - https://wcfcourier.com/news/local/education/iowa-legislature-to-consider-parenta
Pasi Sahlberg: Australian Education Is Declining Because It Followed the U.S. Model In the early 2000s, media mogul Rupert Murdoch brought New York City Chancellor Joel Klein to Australia to spread the word about the “New York City Miracle.” This alleged miracle was as phony as George W. Bush’s “Texas Miracle,” all hat and no cattle. Unfortunately, the Education Minister (who subsequently became
7 key California school superintendents blast governor’s new school reopening plan The superintendents of seven of California’s largest school districts on Wednesday blasted Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D) new school reopening plan, saying that it fails to address key factors keeping schools closed and does nothing to end the disproportionate impact the coronavirus pandemic is inflicting on low-income c
Disgraced ex-schools CEO Byrd-Bennett steered $10M more to ‘friends’ than previously known: CPS inspector general A company executive at one company wined and dined the ex-Chicago schools chief at the Pump Room in exchange for insider knowledge about bid specifications, the report says. Disgraced former Chicago Public Schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett landed in prison for steering $22.5 million i
Valerie Strauss: Growing Number of States Want Waivers from Annual Testing Valerie Strauss writes in her Washington Post blog called “The Answer Sheet” about the growing number of states that want waivers from the federal requirement for annual testing. DeVos granted waivers last year but said she would not do it again. But she will be gone. Now it is up to Joe Biden and Miguel Cardona to decide
Charter School Accountability Will Remain Weak in 2021 | Dissident Voice Charter School Accountability Will Remain Weak in 2021 Segregated charter schools have a high failure rate and are notorious for lacking accountability and oversight. Charter schools are also well-known for being non-transparent even though they are ostensibly “public” schools. This has been the case for nearly 30 years when
In Seattle, A Tough Back To School Choice Seattle's school board made a decision, just a few weeks ago, to re-open face-to-face school for pre-K, kindergarten, some special ed, and 1st grade students. It's a good example of the kinds of re-opening challenges that parents and teachers are facing, the kind of thing that is being pushed out as a "plan" by a major district. Parents received an e-mai
California governor pressures schools to reopen as health care system nears collapse The Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committee will be holding a national online meeting at 12 p.m. CST (1 p.m. EST) this Saturday, January 9, titled, “ Stop in-person learning until the pandemic is contained! ” We urge all educators, parents, students and workers who wish to join the struggle to close schools and
Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all CHECK IT OUT: DIANE ON A ROLL TODAY Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all Valerie Strauss: Growing Number of States Want Waivers from Annual Testing by dianeravitch / 14min Valerie Strauss writes in her Washington Post blog called “The Answer Sheet” about the growing number of states that want waivers fr
"I Was a Different Person Then" A two-year-old boy was hitting his classmates, not out of anger or frustration, but seemingly, as a matter of course. If you had a block he wanted, he would hit you, then take it. It was happening multiple times a day and the obvious tactics didn't seem to be working. I asked the child's parent for advice as well as our class' parent educator. We then had a wider
The Trump Insurrection of 2021 | Diane Ravitch's blog SPECIAL REPORT: DIANE RAVITCH ON THE TRUMP INSURRECTION OF 2021 Like everyone else, I was stunned by the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6. I followed the proceedings from the start to see what stunt Trump might pull. I watched as the mob approached and stormed the Capitol, where Electoral votes were being counted. What happened was a v
Where Is It Safe To Reopen Schools? New Research Offers Answers Since the beginning of this pandemic, experts and educators have feared that open schools would spread the coronavirus further, which is why so many classrooms remain closed. But a new, nationwide study suggests reopening schools may be safer than previously thought, at least in communities where the virus is not already spreading o
Coup? A friend grew up in another country’s capital. There was political tension. One morning the tv was buzzing. There were tanks out the window. Good, he thought, no school. He was right – there were some days off. The coup succeeded. Officials were fired. Leaders were executed. And life resumed. By the way, the coup plotters were homegrown. Locals. But they were trained by a foreign power, a
2021–22 SBP and SMP Start-up and Expansion Grants The California Department of Education (CDE) Nutrition Services Division (NSD) is pleased to announce the availability of School Year 2021–22 School Breakfast Program (SBP) and Summer Meal Programs (SMP) Start-up and Expansion Grants. Background Information The state Legislature appropriates approximately $1.017 million in the annual state budget
As the pandemic gets worse, DCPS gets more and more reckless. It’s unconscionable how reckless DCPS has gotten as Duval hits unprecedented numbers in the pandemic. Cajoling families to return their kids to school, class sizes rising, and a lack of deep cleaning is all going to lead to more people getting sick or worse. On Facebook, somebody asked, are your rooms cleaned between classes. The resp
Big Education Ape THE TOP BANANA TODAY'S EDUCATION HEADLINES 7 key California school superintendents blast governor’s new school reopening plan - The Washington Post - https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2021/01/06/7-key-california-school-superintendents-blast-governors-new-school-reopening-plan/ Most Americans Foresee Biden Improving Environment, Education - https://news.gallup.com/poll/328
Why Are Schools Opening When Covid-19 is Surging? Why Are Schools Opening When Covid-19 is Surging? It has become a cruel joke. Shut everything down! Stay home! Cancel the holidays! Close everything! But open schools! Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S. government’s top infectious diseases expert, told Americans to stay home throughout the holiday season, avoid groups, wash hands, wear masks, and stay so
State’s Poor Pandemic Response Takes Toll on Teachers – Tennessee Education Report RESPONSE TAKES TOLL ON TEACHERS The Tennessee Education Association (TEA) today released the results of a statewide survey of teachers regarding the experience of teaching during the pandemic. According to the report, 74% of teachers rated the state’s handling of the issues surrounding schools and COVID-19 as “poor
The Lives They Lived (personal edition) COVID-19 was responsible for the deaths of hundreds and hundreds of teachers in 2020 , enough alone to make the year an ‘annus horribilis,’ to borrow Queen Elizabeth II’s phrase. But the world of education also lost Ruth Bader Ginsburg, John Lewis, Sir Ken Robinson, Jim Lehrer and Les Crystal of the PBS NewsHour, the Reverend Darius L. Swann, David K. Cohe
NewBlackMan (in Exile) NewBlackMan (in Exile) TODAY Big Education Ape: THIS WEEK WITH NEWBLACKMAN (IN EXILE) - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2021/01/this-week-with-newblackman-in-exile-blm.html Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. on Season 7 of 'Finding Your Roots' by Mark Anthony Neal / 2min 'Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. joins CBS This Morning to discuss his popular PBS series, "Fin
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/2021/01/this-week-in-education-larry-ferlazzos.html This Is Probably A Good Time To Learn (& Teach) About The Work Of Stacey Abr
Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all DID YOU MISS DIANE RAVITCH'S BLOG TODAY? A site to discuss better education for all Big Education Ape: KEEP UP/ CATCH UP WITH DIANE RAVITCH'S BLOG A site to discuss better education for all - https://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2021/01/keep-up-catch-up-with-diane-ravitchs.html John Thompson: Who is Cleta Mitchell, Trump’s Latest E
Some Questions for 2021 If you are reading this, you might know me. And if you know me, you know I can ask questions that are not really questions. That’s not these. Real questions for the New Year (in the order in which I expect us to learn the answers) November – January: How will the national elections turn out? January 5 – what happens in the Georgia Senate runoffs? 2 Republicans, 2 Democrat
USING DATA AND RESEARCH TO UNLEARN CHAIT’S FALSE OPINION ABOUT CHARTER SCHOOLS In this blog I respond to Chait’s grossly unfounded opinions in the New York Magazine article entitled Unlearning an Answer with data, peer reviewed research and by highlighting the work of scholars who have conducted extensive research about charter schools. I will also recognize when the predominance of the research
What Do We Know about Our Next Education Secretary, Dr. Miguel Cardona? Today Congress will meet to certify the electoral college vote and confirm Joe Biden as our next president. Biden’s election guarantees Betsy DeVos’s exit as Secretary of Education. It looks as though, by nominating Dr. Miguel Cardona, currently Connecticut’s state Commissioner of Education, President-Elect Biden has fulfill
Thinking Beyond Bean Dad: A Reader First, Bean Dad (as he would become known) posted a Twitter thread about teaching his daughter a lesson. The thread was flippant, snarky—and about a child not knowing how to use a can opener. I was, frankly, surprised that Bean Dad took a beating on this because his approach to his child is essentially the foundational belief system in the U.S. about child rear
John Ewing: “Learning Loss” is an Absurd Concept John Ewing, president of Math for America, skewers the concept of “learning loss” in this article in Forbes. I have been a fan of Dr. Ewing ever since I read his article “Mathematical Intimidation: Driven by the Data,” in which he eviscerated the idiotic idea of rating students by the test scores of their students. If you have not read it, you sho
Isn't This Belittling to Children? There was an old hamster wheel in our classroom. Most of the children had no idea what it was, but it was nevertheless an endlessly popular plaything. Someone was forever spinning it or turning it upside down to roll on the floor or otherwise employing it in their games. Over the years, I saw it used as a part of block castles, as a bulldozer in the sensory tab
Desperation, Thy Name Is De Blasio In the face of an exploding epidemic, and in the face of a new more virulent strain, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio has decided that quarantine needs to be cut rather than extended. The mayor just decided that rather than quarantine for 14 days, as recommended by CDC, he will cut it to ten, because they said it was allowable. It's remarkable in this day and age to fi
About Teachers4OpenSchools You may have run across a shiny new group on line that is agitating for teachers to be back in the classroom-- Teachers4OpenSchools . The arguments are the usual ones, from the legitimate concern about mental health to the learning loss baloney. There's not much of anything new here, and not the kind of balance we find in a piece like this one . But I'm always curious
A TEACHER’S PREDICTIONS FOR 2021 Some of these predictions are educated guesses that I hope don’t come true, and some may be pipe dreams. Check them out, let me know which ones are off-base, and share your own! You can see the predictions I’ve made in previous years at the end of this post. *The new stimulus package will be a much-needed boost for schools. However, it won’t be sufficient to deal
Poor leadership is destroying the district I want to acknowledge that being a superintendent is undoubtedly a hard job, and the powers that be in Florida often work to undermine public education. That being said, I can’t imagine a superintendent doing worse than Greene. Her leadership is just plain bad, and don’t take my word for it, take the Times Unions. The indifference to the pandemic. Addin
Big Education Ape THE TOP BANANA TODAY'S EDUCATION HEADLINES Education Research Report: Addressing COVID-19’s Disruption of Student Assessment - http://educationresearchreport.blogspot.com/ Trump administration rejects expert advice on nutrition, maintaining guidelines for sugar & alcohol https://www.salon.com/2021/01/04/trump-administration-rejects-expert-advice-on-nutrition-maintaining-guidelin
Americans’ Secular Faith in Schooling (Part 2) It would be a grave mistake to think that American reformers only looked at schools as targets for change. Reforming individual Americans to be better persons has been in the American blood stream since the Mayflower arrived. Ditto for reforming community institutions to be better places within which to live and work. Perfecting individuals and comm
St. Louis: Privatizers and Assorted Billionaires Pick Over Bones of Public School System Tracee Miller, a member of the St. Louis Board of Education, writes that she was shocked and dismayed to discover that a proposal to raise taxes for early childhood education was actually a disguised effort to divert more public money to charter schools. The truth leaked out: Emails exposed via public record
STUDENTS SET TO RETURN TO SCHOOL AS COVID CASES SPIKE The head of the Knox County Education Association (KCEA) is calling on that district to begin school this semester in a hybrid or virtual model as COVID-19 cases spike in Knox County and across the state. WBIR has more : The Knox County Education Association called for the county’s schools to start the semester in the “red zone” with no in-pe
Delay, dismantle, resist: DeVos leaves a legacy like no other Education secretary Betsy DeVos relentlessly promoted school choice and ended many Obama-era rules. She shares few similarities with her likely successor, Connecticut state education chief Miguel Cardona. Betsy DeVos will soon step down from her perch as Education secretary, ending her four-year run as the most polarizing person to ha
We're Here on this Earth to Saunter The last item on my "to do" list yesterday involved running an errand to a place a couple miles from my home so despite the damp day I decided to make it into a leisurely afternoon walk. We live in downtown Seattle and the sidewalks have been relatively empty since March, but yesterday they were even more bereft of people than normal. Those who were out were h
Should Private and Religious Schools Receive COVID Funds Meant to Save Small Businesses? Last spring, when the pandemic began crippling the economy, Congress passed the $2.2 trillion CARES Act (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act). It was a rare moment of bipartisan action. Included in the act was the Paycheck Protection Program, which offered $660 billion to help small businesses
UFT Executive Board January 4, 2021--Vaccines, Openings, Closings and Food Banks UFT Secretary LeRoy Barr --Welcomes us. DA Next week, Jan. 13th. Karen Alford --Thanks members for toy drive donations. Says many children got toys, and over 20K in monetary donations, not to mention toys. Al Shanker scholarship deadline extended to February 1. Anthony Harmon --Food drive to help communities--partne
Testing, testing and more testing If it’s not for graduation, I would urge all parents to opt-out of whatever test the district has planned. There is a raging out of control pandemic going on, and it would be nice if our superintendent and school board acknowledged that and tried to take as much off plates as possible. Though if we are making wishes having a unicorn would be cool too. From the A
Do schools spread COVID? It depends on the community, new studies suggest - Chalkbeat Do schools spread COVID? It may depend on how bad things already are around them Opening school buildings doesn’t increase the spread of COVID-19 in places where cases or hospitalizations from the virus are rare, according to two new studies . Reopening schools in areas with higher caseloads, though, does spread
Fixing Connecticut school finance: The time is now Fixing Connecticut school finance: The time is now The COVID pandemic has laid bare the extent of inequalities across Connecticut’s cities, towns and school districts and the children and families they serve. Connecticut has long been one of our nation’s most racially and economically segregated states, while also one of the wealthiest. In the pa
EDUCATION MYTHS OF 2021 “The music we play has to be tomorrow’s, the things we say have to be today, and the reason for bothering is yesterday.” ― Pete Townshend, Who I Am 2021 is now officially underway, and unsurprisingly, it’s coming in as noisily as 2020 went out. Increasing cases of COVID-19, an increasingly unhinged president, along with fights over whether school buildings should be open
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/2021/01/this-week-in-education-larry-ferlazzos.html Are You Using Remote Teaching Strategies, Tools Or Routines That Are Working
Big Education Ape THE TOP BANANA TODAY'S EDUCATION HEADLINES Teachers start getting coronavirus vaccines — but only in some places - The Washington Post - https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2021/01/03/teachers-coronavirus-vaccines/ Texas school sports moved indoors for the winter. So did the coronavirus. https://www.texastribune.org/2021/01/04/texas-high-school-sports-coronavirus-pandemic/?
Charter Schools Have Fewer Nurses and More Inexperienced Teachers than Public Schools | Dissident Voice Charter Schools Have Fewer Nurses and More Inexperienced Teachers than Public Schools According to two recent U.S. government reports, private businesses like segregated charter schools have far fewer nurses and more inexperienced teachers than public schools: School Nurses in U.S. Public Schoo
Capitalism Is Your Daddy: “what sort of person to die as” From “you are what you eat” to “when you have sex with someone, you are having sex with all of their sexual partners,” we seem obsessed with fear-mongering in order to shape how people behave, and thus, who people become. About fifty pages into Keiichiro Hirano’s A Man , the reader experiences the first hints of what becomes one motif of
Laura Chapman: McKinsey’s Education “Expert” A few days ago, I posted Nancy Bailey’s critique of McKinsey & Company’s report claiming that it’s time for schools to get tough on students. As Bailey points out, when I worked in the Department of Education, the White House was crawling with McKinsey consultants, smart young things who knew everything about education but were seldom old enough to ha
Soon-to-be Secretary Miguel Cardona, the Time is Now for an Education Stimulus Originally published in USA Today. Congratulations on your nomination to be U.S. education secretary, Miguel Cardona. You are poised to take this position at a critical point in American history. As you know well, for generations we have lived through a system of separate and unequal education. COVID-19 has greatly ex
The Debate About School Safety Is No Longer Relevant Even in places where schools want to reopen, too many teachers are sick or quarantining for classrooms to operate, and substitutes cannot fill the void. For months, the debate about whether to open schools has centered on one question: Are schools safe? The only trouble is, this hardly matters anymore. Except in the few remaining regions with
Guarded Hope and 7 Concerns for Public Education this New Year Guarded Hope and 7 Concerns for Public Education this New Year We have a new President and a new education secretary and hope for the future of public education. Hope doesn’t come easy because schools face what appear to be insurmountable difficulties due to Covid-19. Also, wealthy individuals and groups who want school privatization
"This is a Little Princess" She had chosen a Disney princess book for me to read to her, but we were mostly just talking our way through the pages. I was pretty certain she hadn't seen the movie, but she nevertheless seemed to know a lot about the characters and the story. I turned a page and she remarked, "That's a little Snow White." "Yes, but she's bigger than the dwarfs." "They're little too
Jake Jacobs: End the Tax Breaks for Charter Schools and the Uber-Rich Jake Jacobs is a middle school art teacher in New York. He is the national co-administrator of the BadAss Teachers Association, an organization of militant activist teachers. He writes: Joe Biden’s recent nomination of Miguel Cardona as a relatively lesser-known, less controversial selection for Secretary of Education was tell
Montana’s Senator Jon Tester Says Democrats Can Win in Red States By Prioritizing Public Education In mid-December, the NY Times ‘ Jonathan Martin interviewed Montana Senator Jon Tester about his new book, Grounded: A Senator’s Lessons on Winning Back Rural America . Tester, a Democrat and U.S. Senator in his third term, represents a deep red state. Tester tells Martin: “Democrats can really do
Are Children Falling Behind? What Shall We Do About the Children After the Pandemic Teresa Thayer Snyder December 12, 2020 Diane Ravitch's BLOG I sincerely plead with my colleagues, to surrender the artificial constructs that measure achievement and greet the children where they are, not where we think they “should be.” Students line up to have their temperature checked before entering PS 179 el
Curriculum Associates, "Learning Loss," and Corporate Gain Curriculum Associates (CA) started in a garage in 1969 with four employees, and for twenty years the company marketed supplementary basic curriculum materials to K-12 school systems. In 1989, the original head of the company, Frank Ferguson, saw the testing accountability writing on the wall, and he expanded the focus of the company into
COVID AND SCHOOLS: THE DATA AND SCIENCE THEN AND NOW Early on in the pandemic the thinking was that masks were not necessary. In fact, there is a video circulating online that shows Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), saying “there’s no reason to be walking around with a mask.” Fauci’s remarks
MO: GOP Rep Tells Teachers To Take A Hike So here's a jolly exchange from Twitter on Saturday. That's Justin Hill , a Missouri GOP rep from the 108th district, showing his love and support for teachers in his state. He was a cop before running for office, so you'd think he'd know something about public service, but maybe not so much. He's had a few ideas to offer before. While the Missouri legis
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/2021/01/this-week-in-education-larry-ferlazzos.html SEL Weekly Update by Larry Ferlazzo / 13h I’ve recently begun this weekly po
CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: So I Guess This Is A New Year Edition (1/3) So I Guess This Is A New Year Edition I'm not sure I've ever felt less enamored of our habit of celebrating the passing of an arbitrary line in the sand that we drew ourselves, but it's not the most terrible human activity, either, so carry on. Also cross your fingers and say a prayer for everyone going back to school tomorrow. In
Big Education Ape THE TOP BANANA TODAY'S EDUCATION HEADLINES COVID and Schools: The Data and Science Then and Now | Cloaking Inequity - https://wp.me/p2D92I-5Ln via @ProfessorJVH Teachers start getting coronavirus vaccines -- but only in some places - The Washington Post - https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2021/01/03/teachers-coronavirus-vaccines/ Newsom offers $2 billion plan to bring bac
Americans’ Secular Faith in Schooling (Part 1) I have completed a draft of my next book called “Confessions of a School Reformer.” The first part of the Introduction to the book follows. Just see wherever we peer into the first tiny springs of the national life, how this true panacea for all of the ills of the body politic bubbles forth—education, education, education. Andrew Carnegie, 1886 [i]
When will teachers get vaccinated? Some already have — but most are nervously waiting A small number of teachers and school nurses in a few states have been vaccinated against the coronavirus, but most are still waiting amid a stumbling rollout of the vaccine across the country. Even as a new, highly contagious strain of the coronavirus has been confirmed in some U.S. states and a few thousand p
The New York Times Should Add a Former Teacher to Its Editorial Board The New York Times published an editorial correctly blasting Betsy DeVos as the worst Secretary of Education in the 40-year history of the Department of Education. Unfortunately, the balance of the editorial was a plea to administer tests to find out how far the nation’s children had fallen behind because of the pandemic. This
Treehouse teaching and laundry art: Educators find creative ways to reach kids The year 2020 was tough for everyone — and unprecedented for the U.S. educational system, which was forced to go online overnight, with innumerable glitches at the start and long-term consequences that are still becoming clear. But while school districts grappled with health metrics and decisions to open or close buil
A Warning: Who Is Paying for Your State’s Civics Courses? If you have a few minutes to do some research, you might wonder about the connections among these three links: First is from the extreme rightwing group called the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), funded by DeVos, Charles Koch, and major corporations. ALEC has 2,000 members who are state legislators. They get a free trip ever
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/2021/01/this-week-in-education-larry-ferlazzos.html ‘I No Longer Give Grades on Student Writing Assignments, and It’s the Best T
Greene and the school boards silence is deafening The pandemic is out of control as staff and students are about to return, and all we get is silence from the superintendent. Veteran teachers are about to get a pay cut and the school board a raise, and they have been silent on that as well. The district is pushing more children and staff back into schools without commenting on how both will be k
What Is De Blasio Waiting For? School buildings open tomorrow, despite an explosion of COVID in Fun City. You look at this and you have to ask yourself why exactly it's so important. There are a number of possibilities. The most obvious is that the upper middle class white community has leaned on him to keep schools open. I am, frankly, shocked at some of the people who have clamored for buildin
The New York Times Adds One Plus One And Gets Three You might have been excited yesterday if you saw a New York Times editorial board headline talking about " The Wreckage Betsy DeVos Leaves Behind " and thought that maybe, for a change, the greyest lady was going to stands up for public education. But then you read it. Sigh. There is much that they get right. They open by noting that the depart
John Thompson: What Teachers Should Do When Schools Re-Open John Thompson, historian and retired teacher in Oklahoma, followed the debate about what to do “after COVID,” and he shares his wisdom here. I’ve been wrestling with two quandaries regarding post-COVID schools. Yes, in the short-run, the tactical use of digital technology has been prioritized, but the longer term priority must be human-
Will they close school buildings in NYC in January? There are so many issues with the QUESTION! Schools are open – the question is about the buildings Notice “school buildings”? That’s because our schools have remained open, and will remain open, for remote instruction. High Schools and Middle Schools are open – but those buildings are closed and will remain closed. Also, high school and middle
Isaac Asimov, January 2, 1920 On the occasion of Isaac Asimov’s 101st birthday, I offer some quotes relevant to today’s political and cultural environment. ON IGNORANCE A Cult of Ignorance , by Isaac Asimov. Newsweek, January 21, 1980 It’s hard to quarrel with that ancient justification of the free press: “America’s right to know.” It seems almost cruel to ask, ingenuously, ”America’s right to k
Big Education Ape TOP POSTS THIS WEEK 1/2/21 ‘Slaying Goliath’: Diane Ravitch argues in new book that public education advocates have beat back efforts to privatize schools - The Washington Post The real story of New
