Will Pandemic Changes in Schooling Be Temporary or Permanent? | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Will Pandemic Changes in Schooling Be Temporary or Permanent? | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Will Pandemic Changes in Schooling Be Temporary or Permanent?

“As Customers Move on Line, Shopping Is Forever Changed,” a New York Times article announced. For the holiday season, Macy’s department stores in a few states have closed their doors to in-person shopping and become fulfillment centers for online shoppers.

Jeff Gennette, Macy’s chief executive, said the dark stores are part of an experiment as the company responds to customers buying more online and demanding ever-faster shipping for free. But the conversion of a department store into a fulfillment center, even temporarily, reflects how retailers are succumbing to the dominance of e-commerce and scrambling to salvage increasingly irrelevant physical shopping space.

The U.S. continues in the throes of a three-decade school reform movement in which business and civic leaders have pressed schools to be more efficient in operations and more effective in raising test scores, high school graduation rates, and college admissions–the “bottom line” for tax-supported public schooling in the U.S. Will brick-and-mortar schools succumb to online instruction as the major form of schooling as Macy’s and other department stores shift to online shopping?

I don’t think so.

Let’s count the changes that have occurred in organization, curriculum, CONTINUE READING: Will Pandemic Changes in Schooling Be Temporary or Permanent? | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

The week in coveducation: Board of Education appointee backs out, Epic updates

The week in coveducation: Board of Education appointee backs out, Epic updates

The week in coveducation: Board of Education appointee backs out, Epic updates

Gov. Kevin Stitt’s controversial appointee to the State Board of Education withdrew her name from consideration this week. Meanwhile, the Epic Charter Schools board approved more corrective actions surrounding the investigative audit of Epic One-on-One and Epic Blended, as well as noncompliance found in the federal programs monitoring of Epic Blended.

There’s a lot of Oklahoma education news to catch up on this week, and we’re trying to make it easy with this collection of headlines from reporters around the state, all in one place.

Stitt’s Board of Education appointee backs out

The Tulsa World’s Andrea Eger reported that Gov. Kevin Stitt blasted Democrats and teachers unions Monday after his appointee to the Oklahoma State Board of Education backed out amid criticism, which even came from nonpartisan groups.

Stitt abruptly gave the boot to state board member Kurt Bollenbach of Kingfisher on Dec. 3 and nominated in his place Enid resident Melissa Crabtree.

Crabtree made headlines in Enid earlier this year for founding a group to oppose city mandates for face masks and some elected officials who supported them.

SVCSB makes Phyllis Shepherd, Mathew Hamrick recuse on Epic matters CONTINUE READING: The week in coveducation: Board of Education appointee backs out, Epic updates

My Suggestion for Holiday Gifts | Diane Ravitch's blog

My Suggestion for Holiday Gifts | Diane Ravitch's blog

My Suggestion for Holiday Gifts

I always have this problem in early December: What shall I give to the children in my life?

This year I did something I have wanted to do for a long time. I got a gift catalog from Heifer.com and I ordered animals that will be given to a family that needs them to have a better life. I purchased a sheep ($120) on behalf of one child and a goat on behalf of another. I could have bought shares in either animal for $10. I will buy honeybees ($20) and chicks ($20) for other children in my life. The children will have the pleasure in knowing that they helped others.

If you go online, you will see many opportunities to give meaningful gifts. For $275, you can pay for a girl to attend school in India. For the more expensive animals, like alpacas or heifers or water buffalo, you can buy a share.

These are gifts that keep on giving.

Alternatively, you can support charities in the United States that are providing food and shelter for needy children and families. It is truly shameful that millions of people are hungry and homeless in this country, one of the richest in the world. The pandemic has widened inequality, by plunging millions of people into poverty while enriching billionaires.

Here is a list of ten charities that alleviate hunger in the U.S. and the world.

My Suggestion for Holiday Gifts | Diane Ravitch's blog

NYC Educator: School Leaders Who Never Learn Believe Students Can't Either

NYC Educator: School Leaders Who Never Learn Believe Students Can't Either

School Leaders Who Never Learn Believe Students Can't Either

It's hard to overstate the lack of vision and foresight of Mayor Bill de Blasio and Chancellor Richard Carranza, but they continue to trip all over themselves day after day. The mayor just finished announcing that the one-third of students who signed up for in person learning, at least those in lower grades, might be able to attend five days a week. Evidently, that's the only way that students can catch up with Whatever It Is they need to catch up with.

Don't worry about the fact that it's likely impossible. The impossible is no barrier to Carranza or de Blasio. The important thing is to open the schools no matter what, as de Blasio tries to salvage his reputation as someone who is not simply a hapless and bumbling hack. We watched him stumble through a humiliating campaign for the Presidential nomination, one in which he won no more delegates than my dog did. (In fairness, my dog is much cuter than de Blasio will ever be.)

De Blasio spent the early part of this school year dithering with ridiculous, unworkable plans, Now that they've crashed and burned, he's finally opening slots for the virtual content specialists that will likely not be needed at all. He's reopened schools up to grade five in the face of an exploding pandemic. His principled stand to close schools when the city hit 3% positivity now lies trashed with every other principle he's abandoned. The question is no longer whether these buildings will close again, but when. I only hope it's soon.

Meanwhile, he and the chancellor have other genius ideas to tinker with. In Tweed World, no one learns anything from actual events. Take this pandemic, for example. It doesn't actually mean anything, and students will acquire CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: School Leaders Who Never Learn Believe Students Can't Either

Florida: Leader of Closed Charter School Indicted for Embezzlement | Diane Ravitch's blog

Florida: Leader of Closed Charter School Indicted for Embezzlement | Diane Ravitch's blog

Florida: Leader of Closed Charter School Indicted for Embezzlement

The leader of Paramount Charter School in Broward County, now closed, was indicted for theft of federal funds. The school opened in 2015, promising to provide an education that would meet “the highest academic and personal standards.” Didn’t happen, say parents. After compiling a terrible academic record, the school closed in 2017.

Shauta Freeman, who said she sent three children there from 2015 to 2016, said the lights cut off at times, the water wouldn’t run, and so many teachers were fired that students from various grade levels were crowded into one room. “It was a nightmare.”

Now, the former president of the school, Jimika Williams, has been federally indicted on the charge of stealing federal funds from the school and committing wire fraud.…

The indictment accuses Williams of embezzling nearly $389,000 in funds intended to go toward the school’s operating expenses. Instead, the indictment says they were used to buy a new car, pay her rent at a lavish Davie home and other expenses.

According to the indictment, Williams transferred funds from the school’s bank account to a shell account she set up to “deceive” other members of the governing board, CONTINUE READING: Florida: Leader of Closed Charter School Indicted for Embezzlement | Diane Ravitch's blog

CURMUDGUCATION: Schools Are Still Not Like Ubers

CURMUDGUCATION: Schools Are Still Not Like Ubers

Schools Are Still Not Like Ubers

Betsy DeVos (who will soon not be a humble servant in the education secretary's office, but will instead be a very rich lady who wants to dismantle public education) likes to compare her vision of education to the same kind of disruption offered by outfits like Uber, a comparison that many folks like to make. I've written before about what a lousy comparison that is, focusing on problems like a business mentality and the problems of automation.

But here's a quick piece by techno-critic Cory Doctorow to remind us that Uber is, at the end, a terrible thing for anybody to want to emulate. Instead, he says, Uber was "a company that was never, ever going to be profitable, which existed solely to launder billions for the Saudi royals."

Doctorow connects Uber to a Saudi plan to diversify and capture monopolies in other sectors as a cushion against future downturns in the oil market. Their plan for Uber was, well...

The S1 – the document that explains how the company plans to be profitable – set two conditions for Uber's profitability.

First, all the public transit in the world had to shut down and be replaced by Uber.

Next, all the drivers had to be replaced by AIs.

Uber recently unloaded its self-driving car division, which, like most self-driving car initiatives, was getting nowhere. (Doctorow reminds us one of my favorite AI auto moments, when developers determined that AI cars would work great as soon as we controlled all human behavior around them.) As he points out, the unloading was not exactly a "sale," because they "invested" $400 mill in CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Schools Are Still Not Like Ubers

Education Matters: I will be voting no on the new contract and if you are a teacher in DCPS so should you

Education Matters: I will be voting no on the new contract and if you are a teacher in DCPS so should you

I will be voting no on the new contract and if you are a teacher in DCPS so should you

You know a contract offer is bad when even people voting for it admit it. Over and over again, I have heard, yeah, it's not good, but what are we going to do. I will tell you what you should do, say no. Say no to the disrespect, say no to the shoddy offer, that robs Peter to pay Paul, say no to the threats, just say no.

First, friends, nobody should be voting on anything until after the Georgia elections. If the Democrats control the senate, help will be coming. Why the rush to lock us in now? Because it saves the district money, money they don't want to spend on staff.

I have heard over and over budget cuts are coming. Um, I have been writing about those budget cuts since April. Maybe now isn't the time to get concerned about them. Where is the super and board informing the public and rallying them against the cuts? Where is the press conference, the editorials, the town halls, and CONTINUE READING: Education Matters: I will be voting no on the new contract and if you are a teacher in DCPS so should you

2019-20 Data on Use of Restraints on Students + 2019-20 High School Graduation and Dropout Rates - Year 2020 (CA Dept of Education)

2019-20 Data on Use of Restraints on Students - Year 2020 (CA Dept of Education)

California Department of Education Releases 2019-20 Data on Use of Restraints and Seclusions on Students

2019-20 High School Graduation and Dropout Rates - Year 2020 (CA Dept of Education) - https://www.cde.ca.gov/nr/ne/yr20/yr20rel101.asp

SACRAMENTO—The California Department of Education (CDE) today released data on the number of instances in which schools used restraints and seclusions on students, the first year of data under a state law that requires schools to track and report such instances to the CDE.

The 2019–20 school year was the first that required local educational agencies (LEAs) to track and report to the CDE the use of restraints and seclusions with students receiving both general education and special education to the CDE under AB 2657. The data provides a starting point for the state to identify important trends and target support to school leaders.

“Publicly reporting this data is an important first step toward improving transparency and accountability by bringing potential issues to the surface,” Thurmond said. “Now that we have this data, the CDE can use this information as a starting point to begin having deeper, critical conversations with school system leaders.”

The legislation, which became effective January 1, 2019, only allows for schools to use restraints or seclusions “to control behavior that poses a clear and present danger of serious physical harm to the pupil or others that cannot be immediately prevented by a response that is less restrictive” and prohibits the use of restraints or seclusions for the purpose of coercion, discipline, convenience, or retaliation.”

The law uses the following definitions:

• Mechanical Restraint: Use of a device or equipment to restrict a pupil’s freedom of movement.
• Physical Restraint: A personal restriction that immobilizes or reduces the ability of a pupil to move his or her torso, arms, legs, or head freely. (This definition does not include temporary touching or holding of the hand, wrist, arm, shoulder, or back for the purpose of inducing a student who is acting out to walk to a safe location.)
• Seclusion: The involuntary confinement of a pupil alone in a room or area from which the pupil is physically prevented from leaving.

State law requires the CDE to report restraint and seclusion data at the LEA-level (county offices of education, school districts, and charter schools) and to disaggregate by race/ethnicity and gender. While not required by law, the CDE is also reporting separately for students attending non-public schools (NPS), the most restrictive placement for children with disabilities with the highest support needs. State law excludes restraints used by law enforcement.

A full breakdown of the first year of reporting this data under AB 2657 can be found below in Table 1.

Future years of reporting will provide a fuller picture of the use of restraints and seclusions in schools. Beyond the public reporting requirement in AB 2657, the CDE Special Education Division will use this data in its mandated monitoring activities to ensure that students with disabilities are receiving a Free and Appropriate Public Education in the Least Restrictive Environment.

Downloadable data files are available on the CDE Restraint and Seclusion web page.

Table 1: 2019–20 Statewide Restraint and Seclusion Data by Student Group

Ethnic/Racial Designation, Student Program Group, or Gender	Unduplicated Count of Students Mechanically Restrained	Percent of Students Mechanically Restrained	Unduplicated Count of Students Physically Restrained	Percent of Students Physically Restrained	Unduplicated Count of Students Secluded	Percent of Students Secluded
African American	33	36.3%	459	18.7%	76	21.1%
American Indian or Alaska Native	0	0.0%	20	0.8%	6	1.7%
Asian	2	2.2%	74	3.0%	10	2.8%
Filipino	0	0.0%	34	1.4%	6	1.7%
Hispanic or Latino	37	40.7%	985	40.1%	135	37.4%
Pacific Islander	1	1.1%	7	0.3%	1	0.3%
White	10	11.0%	721	29.3%	102	28.3%
Two or More Races	7	7.7%	125	5.1%	21	5.8%
Not Reported	1	1.1%	32	1.3%	4	1.1%
English Learners	13	14.3%	345	14.0%	37	10.2%
Foster Youth	10	11.0%	235	9.6%	33	9.1%
Homeless Youth	5	5.5%	137	5.6%	28	7.8%
Migrant Education	0	0.0%	13	0.5%	0	0.0%
Students with Disabilities	52	57.1%	2,041	83.1%	235	65.1%
Socioeconomically Disadvantaged	78	85.7%	1,756	71.5%	258	71.5%
504 Accommodation Plan	2	2.2%	64	2.6%	11	3.0%
Female	23	25.3%	435	17.7%	63	17.5%
Male	68	74.7%	2,022	82.3%	298	82.5%
Public Schools	87	95.6%	1,867	76.0%	297	82.3%
Non-Public Schools	4	4.4%	610	24.8%	65	18.0%
Statewide Total	91	100.0%	2,457	100.0%	361	100.0%

# # # #

Tony Thurmond — State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Communications Division, Room 5602, 916-319-0818, Fax 916-319-0100

Last Reviewed: Friday, December 11, 2020

2019-20 Data on Use of Restraints on Students - Year 2020 (CA Dept of Education)