Maurice Cunningham: Questions for the “National Parents Union” | Diane Ravitch's blog

Maurice Cunningham: Questions for the “National Parents Union” | Diane Ravitch's blog

Maurice Cunningham: Questions for the “National Parents Union”

Maurice Cunningham is a political science professor at U of Mass who specializes in following the money, especially Dark Money, where the donors are anonymous.

The Koch-Walton backed National Parents Union is experiencing turmoil at the top and severe mismanagement with two boards of directors featuring revolving directors and a disappeared co-founder.. 

The organization is holding a convening on May 15 and its members should demand some answers. 

Here are questions they should be asking the leadership. Any media member who would like to learn about who is pulling the strings at NPU, feel free. 

1. National Parents Union has two boards of directors, one board listed on the NPU webpage, and another on record with the Massachusetts Secretary of State’s Corporations Division. The website board CONTINUE READING: Maurice Cunningham: Questions for the “National Parents Union” | Diane Ravitch's blog

September 21 School Opening and Unanswered Questions: Requiring Vaccinations, Remote Instruction, Teacher Accommodations, Summer School and “Catching Up” | Ed In The Apple

September 21 School Opening and Unanswered Questions: Requiring Vaccinations, Remote Instruction, Teacher Accommodations, Summer School and “Catching Up” | Ed In The Apple

September 21 School Opening and Unanswered Questions: Requiring Vaccinations, Remote Instruction, Teacher Accommodations, Summer School and “Catching Up”

As the COVID positive rates continue to spiral downwards and the vaccination numbers increase the State is moving towards a full school opening. Broadway can reopen on September 14th, large sports venues allowing larger and larger crowds and school districts are planning full reopening: with a host of issues to be resolved.

Will school districts retain a remote instruction option?

In NYC, for a subset of medically fragile children: maybe. It is highly unlikely that individual schools will operate in-person and remote; it is too complicated and there are other options. For example, children seeking remote option can be clustered in a district-wide remote school. The Department and the Union will partner in an in-person school initiative.

Can COVID vaccinations be required for students?

The NYS Department of Health currently requires vaccinations for school enrollment. See details here. 

Across the nation many states have vaccination requirements, and, in some states there is virulent opposition by anti-vaxxer parents. Some states have religious and medical exemptions. The decision would be made at the state level and it is highly unlikely for this September; a year or so down the road when vaccinations for children are available the state may develop policies..

 Can COVID vaccinations be required for CONTINUE READING: September 21 School Opening and Unanswered Questions: Requiring Vaccinations, Remote Instruction, Teacher Accommodations, Summer School and “Catching Up” | Ed In The Apple

Experts: 3-foot rule in schools problematic in light of COVID variants | CIDRAP - Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy

Experts: 3-foot rule in schools problematic in light of COVID variants | CIDRAP

Experts: 3-foot rule in schools problematic in light of COVID variants

Halfpoint / iStock

Late last week the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued updated guidance on school reopening, saying that 3 feet, not 6 feet, of physical distancing between students was sufficient in most elementary schools—regardless of the level of community spread of COVID-19.

At the same time that CDC officials were updating school policy, they were also warning that B117, a variant strain 50% more transmissible than the wild-type virus, would likely become the dominant strain in the United States by April. In some states, such as Florida and California, the variant, which was first detected in the United Kingdom, already accounts for 25% of cases.

Now several experts are concerned that schools may be opening during an inflection point in the pandemic and are being misguided about how to do so.

CDC, states struggle with school openings

Across America almost all schools closed in March and April of 2020 as the pandemic entered its first wave and peaked in places like New York City. A barrier to reopening in the fall, especially in crowded, urban school districts, was that classrooms could not accommodate students with the CDC-recommended 6 feet of physical distancing.

The CDC said mounting evidence shows little difference in school transmission rates when students are separated by 3 or 6 feet, and it points to mounting research on student mental health, physical health, and even parental job security that shows that in-person instruction is superior for most American children and families.

"It's a balance," said Ruth Lynfield, MD, Minnesota state epidemiologist. Minnesota, along with Michigan, and North Carolina, has seen school-related B117 outbreaks spread into the community in recent weeks.

"We are in a race to vaccinate as variants spread, and currently kids and their parents are not vaccinated, so communities need to work that much harder to make in-person school happen," CONTINUE READING:  Experts: 3-foot rule in schools problematic in light of COVID variants | CIDRAP

CURMUDGUCATION: Mark Weber's Three Critical Testing Questions

CURMUDGUCATION: Mark Weber's Three Critical Testing Questions

Mark Weber's Three Critical Testing Questions

This is not the first time I've piggy-backed on a post from Mark "Jersey Jazzman" Weber, but sometimes what he posts just sets a bright blazing lightbulb off in my head. Weber is a certified PhD-carrying academic of data crunching, and he is an absolute master of rendering complicated ideas comprehensible to civilians, and that's what he's done with his post  about why "We Don't Need Standardized Testing In A Pandemic."  

I encourage you very much to go read the whole post. But sometimes saying, "This! This! This!" isn't enough for me. So. What I'm going to center on is his three-question response to anyone who says that students must take a standardized test.

1) What are you going to do with the results?

This question is hugely powerful and by far the least answered. Here's Weber:

A core concept of assessment is that tests must be shown to be valid for the purposes in which they will be used. In other words: you should make a separate argument for every proposed use of a test. A test that may be valid to use for, say, determining whether there are enough overall resources in the education system isn't necessarily valid for the purpose of determining whether a student should pass to the next grade.

Psyshometricians often speak of making a validity argument in favor of the use of a test for a particular purpose. That argument should touch upon the relevancy of the outcomes to a specific use, the consequences of making decisions based on these outcomes, the opportunity to learn the content in the test, and other factors.

This is just so key. As Weber notes, one of the huge problems with the current Big Standardized Test system is that one test is supposed to serve a variety of purposes. Evaluate schools, evaluate teachers, assess curriculum, inform parents, plus serve as a CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Mark Weber's Three Critical Testing Questions