Thursday, February 18, 2021

Anne Spencer, Black Educator Hall of Fame - Philly's 7th Ward

ANNE SPENCER, 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 Annie Bethel Scales Bannister.

Anne Spencer was born in 1882 in Virginia. At the age of 11, her mother enrolled her in the Virginia Theological Seminary and College (now Virginia University of Lynchburg). At age 17, she graduated at the top of her class. Two year later, she’d marry Edward Spencer, a fellow from school in Lynchburg who tutored her in math and science, and she tutored him in languages.

At the seminary, Anne majored in teaching at the Normal School. During the summers, she’d return to her hometown, Bramwell, WV, in the summers and teach. Spencer is also known for her literary career as a renowned poet. But, before her prolific writing career, she was a dope educator. Upon graduation, she returned to Bramwell and taught in Elkhorn and Mayberry, West Virginia. CONTINUE READING: Anne Spencer, Black Educator Hall of Fame - Philly's 7th Ward

Education Law Center: Minnesota Considers Constitutional Amendment That Threatens Student Rights | Diane Ravitch's blog

Education Law Center: Minnesota Considers Constitutional Amendment That Threatens Student Rights

Imagine a state that adopts a state constitutional amendment that ties student rights to an education to their test scores. Would anyone be so dumb as to imagine that the test scores of students of different races would change because of a constitutional amendment? Remember that Minnesota was the first state to pass a charter law, promising to close the academic gaps. That was in 1992. Thirty years later, the state’s Big Thinkers are still grasping at straws.

EDUCATION EXPERTS AND SCHOLARS: PROPOSED MINNESOTA CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT THREATENS STUDENTS’ RIGHTSFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Today, prominent experts on constitutional law and education sent a letter to Minnesota legislators voicing significant concerns that a proposal to amend the Minnesota Constitution would undermine and weaken students’ right to public education.
In January 2020, the Minneapolis Federal Reserve proposed to eliminate the current guarantee of a free public education in the Minnesota State Constitution and replace it with language to make education “a fundamental right” to “quality schools” to be “measured against uniform achievement standards set forth by the state.”

Proponents of the change contend that this new language would reduce gaps in achievement between Minnesota’s white students and students of color. A proposed bill to amend the constitution, H.F. 874, was introduced in the Minnesota House of Representatives on February 8.

In their letter, nationally known constitutional scholars and education law experts outline the negative effects the proposed amendment would have on Minnesota students’ right to public education. CONTINUE READING: Education Law Center: Minnesota Considers Constitutional Amendment That Threatens Student Rights | Diane Ravitch's blog

Open Letter Regarding Continued Hybrid Reopening Plan Failures – Parents United for Public Education

Open Letter Regarding Continued Hybrid Reopening Plan Failures

Dr. William Hite, Superintendent, School District of Philadelphia
Philadelphia Board of Education
Philadelphia City Council

2/18/2021

Dr. Hite, Board of Education members, and Council members:

We are glad to hear that the School District of Philadelphia has pushed back the date for return to school buildings. Like the majority of parents across the district, we were never excited about sending our children back into toxic, poorly ventilated buildings without a solid plan in place. We are very concerned about putting staff members who have not had the opportunity to get fully vaccinated at risk of illness and death, as well as the potential for children to get sick themselves and/or to spread the virus to their own family members at home.

We believe that delaying the reopening of buildings to ensure safety is the right choice, however we are disturbed with the district’s leadership’s insistence in saying that the delay is due to the ongoing mediation with the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers.

In seeking to unfairly shift the blame to teachers via the union, the district continues to minimize the role and the voice of parents and caregivers across the district who have said “no” to this reopening plan. District leadership has also refused to take any responsibility for their failures in planning, collaboration, and CONTINUE READING: Open Letter Regarding Continued Hybrid Reopening Plan Failures – Parents United for Public Education

Give Me a Poke | Teacher in a strange land

Give Me a Poke

Sign-of-the-times screen on my kitchen Alexa: Alexa, give me mental health tips. Indeed.

So, it’s the end of January and I am finally getting a haircut, double-masked and trying out a new stylist because my regular haircutter has three children at home, due to the pandemic, and hasn’t worked for six months. You know, just another disrupted-life story, one of millions.

I already know what my regular haircutter thinks about politics, but New Stylist—a talker—is rambling on about Our Governor and how she’s destroying businesses, yada yada. Keeping in mind that the woman is holding scissors, I gently mention the declining rates of infection, hospitalization and, you know, death in Michigan, a direct result of the gov’s policies.

There’s a pause and then she notes that Governor Whitmer was in D.C. for the Inaugural—not surprising, as she is Vice-Chair of the Democratic National Party—after she told ordinary people in the state not to travel over the holidays. Do as I say, not as I CONTINUE READING: Give Me a Poke | Teacher in a strange land

Teacher Tom: A "Big, Big Poop" and Speaking the Names of the Gods

A "Big, Big Poop" and Speaking the Names of the Gods

Preschoolers tell stories long before they read or write them. I often grab a stack of paper and a pen and serve as a transcriber of their words, striving, often through cramping fingers, to keep up and honor, not my interpretation of their intent, but the exact words they evoke.

She said:
"Once upon a time there was a
big monster who pooped
everywhere. And he was
called POOP MONSTER!
But he just kept on
pooping. Poop, poop, poop
Poop, poop, poop, poop
Poop, poop, poop, poop.
Poop.
Poop.
Poop."

And that is exactly what I wrote. But, of course, the act of converting her spoken words into the phonetic alphabet is not an exact translation. She was performing this story orally, evoking words, and particularly one word, more in the manner of an incantation than literature.

"Poop," she said, over and over. She knew from experience that the destiny of this story was to be read in front of her CONTINUE READING: Teacher Tom: A "Big, Big Poop" and Speaking the Names of the Gods

2021 Medley #3 – that Pesky State Constitution | Live Long and Prosper

2021 Medley #3 – that Pesky State Constitution

HB 1005, Publicly Funded Discrimination

The Indiana House of Representatives passed HB 1005 which calls for increases in funding for voucher accepting parochial and private schools. Public schools get the leftovers.

THE INDIANA CONSTITUTIONAL MANDATE FOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Article 8 Section 1

Public schools are a Constitutional mandate in Indiana. Sending tax money to private schools is not, even if the money is laundered through the parents (parents designate a school and the state sends the school the money). The Indiana Constitution says…

Knowledge and learning, generally diffused throughout a community, being essential to the preservation of a free government; it shall be the duty of the General Assembly to encourage, by all suitable means, moral, intellectual, scientific, and agricultural improvement; and to provide, by law, for a general and uniform system of Common Schools, wherein tuition shall be without charge, and equally open to all.

2021 VOUCHER EXPANSION PASSES THE HOUSE CONTINUE READING : 2021 Medley #3 – that Pesky State Constitution | Live Long and Prosper

Arizona: Legislature Passes Huge Voucher Expansion, Despite Will of Voters | Diane Ravitch's blog

Arizona: Legislature Passes Huge Voucher Expansion, Despite Will of Voters

Two years ago, the voters of Arizona overwhelmingly rejected an expansion of vouchers, by 65% to 35%. The pro-voucher side was funded by Charles Koch, Betsy DeVos, and other enemies of public schools. The voters said a resounding NO to voucher expansion!

Yet, this week the Arizona Legislature passed legislation to expand vouchers, approving what the voters rejected. Apparently, the word “democracy” is not in the Republican legislators’ dictionary. The voters expressed their will in no uncertain terms. The legislators ignored them.

The Arizona Senate approved a massive expansion of Arizona’s school voucher program Monday, just two years after voters decisively repealed a similar expansion of school vouchers to all students.

The Senate passed the bill on a 16-14 party-line vote, with all 16 Republicans voting for the measure. It will now be sent to the House of Representatives.

Empowerment Scholarship Accounts allow parents eligible to take funds from public schools and CONTINUE READING: Arizona: Legislature Passes Huge Voucher Expansion, Despite Will of Voters | Diane Ravitch's blog

Karen Lewis Taught Me | The Jose Vilson

KAREN LEWIS TAUGHT ME

“José Luis, I’m writing your foreword.”

That’s how it went. My publisher and I were brainstorming names for who would best introduce my first solo project This Is Not A Test: A New Narrative on Race, Class, and Education to the world. For what it’s worth, Haymarket Books let me have my vision for the book, but they nudged me in ways I didn’t know I needed. As we approached the editing phase of the book, the publisher saw how the book needed to meet the moment. So one thing lead to another and President Lewis and “Coach” John Lewis sat in [an undisclosed location] with my family (Luz and Alejandro). We made the usual introductions between family, then she stated matter-of-factly that she would have the first word in my book. I looked at Luz, then Alejandro, then Coach, then back to Karen.

I must have giggled a bit and said “Sounds like a done deal.”

By then, I had gotten used to her directness, the warm demander so lauded by Black women education scholars past and present. There I was, an up-and-coming national voice in the movement against the corporatization of public schools facing the local legend turned national hero. Our main order of business took about 30 seconds without much fanfare. Because she said so.

Of course, she also pushed me to do the work of making the book meet her expectations for greatness. I didn’t have plans to let her down even before her provocation, but now I felt the duty not just of the movement at the time, but of ancestors from centuries CONTINUE READING: Karen Lewis Taught Me | The Jose Vilson

Thoughts on Teaching | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Thoughts on Teaching

In 2001, I retired from fulltime teaching and research at Stanford. The Dean invited me to give a talk to the graduates and their families that June. Here is an abridged version of what I said.

“I have thought a lot about the past 46 years I have spent in education. I have taught in urban high schools and Stanford for many years [in addition to being an administrator]. It is teaching–not administration or scholarship [however]–that has defined me as an adult….

Teaching has permitted me to be a lover of ideas, a performer, a lifelong learner, a historian, a writer, and a friend to former students and colleagues. For these reasons and because at this moment in our nation’s history teachers have moved to the top of the nation’s school reform agenda, I want to comment today on both the exhilarating and troubling aspects of teaching….

Two basic reasons are behind this strong push for higher quality in teachers: Policy makers and teacher educators believe that when teachers understand deeply their subjects and possess a full repertoire of teaching skills students will learn more, do better on tests, and eventually get good jobs. And, second, higher teacher standards will move the occupation much closer to professional status.

And, of course, who could argue against teachers acquiring more expertise in the subject and displaying polished skills to help children learn more? Who would argue against teaching becoming a full-fledged profession? Certainly, I don’t. Yet, in all honesty, what troubles me is the cramped image of teaching that has CONTINUE READING: Thoughts on Teaching | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Education Matters: Greene just can't be honest about the pandemic.

Greene just can't be honest about the pandemic.

In a community meeting, Greene said cases of COVID exploded in January because we had just returned from Winter Break. She showed a graph backing this up too. The thing is cases exploded because the district changed the way it revealed cases. Basically, up to that point, we had been lowballing the numbers, and it was a Christmas miracle that they finally decided to be more honest.

From the Times Union,

Wednesday evening, when Duval Schools families refreshed the district’s COVID-19 dashboard, they saw a massive spike in cases. But the district says it’s because of the new, more proactive way they're reporting things, not a school-specific case surge.

Instead of waiting for confirmation from the local Department of Health, Duval County Public Schools announced Wednesday that it will start reporting potential COVID-19 cases into its system as soon as officials become aware of a case.

The change took effect Wednesday night, with 170 new cases populating for one day.

The district said in a post to its website that this will help families and the community make informed decisions CONTINUE READING: Education Matters: Greene just can't be honest about the pandemic.

Education Matters: If Greene and the board will not stick up for staff and students during a pandemic, when will they? - https://jaxkidsmatter.blogspot.com/2021/02/if-greene-and-board-will-not-stick-up.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+blogspot/iYxgC+(Education+Matters)

IT IS NOT THE WORDS, IT IS HOW YOU SAY THEM – Dad Gone Wild

IT IS NOT THE WORDS, IT IS HOW YOU SAY THEM

“Sex and excretion are reminders that anyone’s claim to round-the-clock dignity is tenuous. The so-called rational animal has a desperate drive to pair up and moan and writhe.”
― Steven Pinker

I’ve just returned from taking the dog on her morning walk. Every morning about this time, we traverse through the neighborhood out to the main road and back. This morning, as expected, was another treacherous trek. The roads remain ice and snow-covered, and temperatures remain low. the forecast calls for more snow this afternoon, continuing into tomorrow. It’s pretty clear, most of us aren’t going anywhere until the weekend.

Meanwhile, MNPS teachers remain at home looking for guidance. Tomorrow was supposed to be the reopening of school buildings for 5th and 9th graders. Just to refresh your memory, here’s what the proposed re-entry schedule looked like,

Tuesday, February 9: Grades Pre-K-4 and students with exceptional needs
Thursday, February 18: Grades 5 and 9, transition grades for Middle and High
Thursday, February 25: Grades 6, 7, and 8
Wednesday, March 3: Grades 10, 11 and 12

Since tomorrow is obviously unlikely to happen – teachers need a day at least to prepare classrooms – what’s the plan? This may not seem like a big deal to those of you who view the opening of school buildings as a simple turn-key operation but trust me, it’s a big deal. CONTINUE READING: IT IS NOT THE WORDS, IT IS HOW YOU SAY THEM – Dad Gone Wild

A Vision of Being Human: “Am I normal?” – radical eyes for equity

A Vision of Being Human: “Am I normal?”

“Am I normal?” Vin asks his sister Viv as they lift off the ground to leave school for home. Vin and Viv are the synthezoid teenagers of Virginia and Vision, the superhero associated with Marvel’s Avengers. This question comes after Vin is confronted during class in the first issue of Vision:

Vision: The Complete Collection (9781302920555): Walta, Gabriel Hernandez, King, Tom: Books - https://www.amazon.com/dp/1302920553/

This rendition of Vision (vol. 2, 2016), award-winning and critically acclaimed, sits behind the Disney+ series WandaVision by providing important and substantial backstories for Wanda and Vision but also because the Disney+ series and the twelve-issue comic book series share a framing: The normal American Family.

While WandaVision expands the stereotypical nuclear family trope through pastiche, Tom King (writer) and artists Gabriel Hernandez Walta (issues 1-6, 8-12) and Michael Walsh (issue 7) ground the philosophical questions running through the narrative around Vision’s synthezoid family living in Arlington, VA with the children attending Alexander Hamilton High in Fairfax, VA in the traditional family trope.

Visions entire family, not just Vin, are obsessed to the point of existential dread with their goal of being a normal family (see also Normality in Sayaka Murata). King repeats motifs and phrases around normalcy and the condition CONTINUE READING: A Vision of Being Human: “Am I normal?” – radical eyes for equity

WHAT'S NEW AT THE CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION - California Department of Education

California Department of Education

WHAT'S NEW AT THE CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

Mandatory SFSP Training Coming in March

16h

California Department of Education Nutrition Services Division (NSD) Community Nutrition Programs Unit (CNPU) is pleased to announce that the 2021 Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) annual online Mandatory Training will be available in March 2021.

CNP Monitoring Waiver Approved

16h

The U.S. Department of Agriculture approved the California Department of Education (CDE) Child Nutrition Program (CNP) monitoring waiver for School Nutrition Program (SNP) and Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) administrative reviews (AR).

DataQuest Update Issue #8

16h

DataQuest is an online data reporting resource that provides access to a wide variety of data reports and downloadable data files.

2021 U.S. Senate Youth Program Students Announced

66 1d

State Superintendent Tony Thurmond announces California high school students for the 2021 U.S. Senate Youth Program.

SBE Agenda for February 24, 2021

Agenda for the California State Board of Education (SBE) meeting on February 24, 2021.

Online Training on Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program: How to Apply

The CDE NSD announces the new voluntary online training course: FFVP: How to Apply, Course Number 460, to all SNP sponsors and perspective FFVP applicants. This optional course provides an overview of the FFVP and the FFVP grant application process.

Northern California Recycling Association: Recycling and Composting Webinar

Northern California Recycling Association's Schools Committee is hosting a free webinar on February 11, 2021, for food service professionals to learn about state recycling and composting laws that affect schools.

LCSSP Cohort 5 RFA.

Learning Communities for School Success Program Cohort 5.