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

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

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 philanthropic investment in racial justice works out to less than $2 per student.”

The Schott Foundation for Public Education describes itself as “a national public fund serving as a bridge between philanthropic partners and advocates.” The foundation’s mission is to build and strengthen a diverse movement in support of “fully resourced, quality Pre-K-12 public education,” and it is both outspoken and proactive in its support for communities of color, as IP has reported. In a recent op-ed in the Chronicle of Philanthropy, Schott President and CEO John H. Jackson called on philanthropists to support a federal racial-equity stimulus. “We’re at an inflection point in history,” Jackson wrote. “With greater public awareness of the economic as well as human costs of systemic racism, now is the time for philanthropy to act boldly.”

From racial equity to racial justice

The Schott Foundation worked with Candid to determine precisely what fraction of education philanthropy goes to racial equity and to racial justice. To distinguish between the two, the foundation used the definitions offered in the influential 2019 report “Grantmaking With a Racial Justice Lens,” by the Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity (PRE). (See IP’s past coverage of the report). 

“The PRE report advances the idea that racial equity is an important starting point, but racial justice evokes a higher standard,” said Leah Austin, Schott’s director of the National Opportunity to Learn Network, in a video presentation announcing the findings. “Racial equity in K-12 grantmaking addresses the achievement gap. Racial justice in K-12 grantmaking goes further to address the underlying opportunity gap.”

To illustrate the difference, Austin cited specific examples: Grants for racial bias training for teachers, mentoring programs for CONTINUE READING: Racial Equity and Justice in Education are "Drastically Underfunded," Research Finds | Schott Foundation for Public Education

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

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

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 at George Mason University in the Koch-funded economics department (you can read about it in Nancy MacLean’s excellent book Democracy in Chains, which I reviewed in The New York Review of Books). He worked for the Goldwater Institute and lobbied for ALEC and other billionaire-funded privatization groups.

At some point, he realized he was on the wrong side, promoting ideas that would do harm, not good. He wanted to do good.

He said unequivocally that the goal of the privatizers is to destroy public education. They promote charter schools and vouchers to destroy public education.

He explains that school privatization is only one part of a much broader assault on the public sector. The end game is to privatize everything: police, firefighters, roads, parks, whatever is now public, and turn it into a for-profit CONTINUE READING: The Dark Secrets of the Privatization Movement: An Interview with Charles Siler | Diane Ravitch's blog

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

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

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 reading journey, I have given her some comic books (a medium that was central to my own journey to being a voracious reader and writer). I was concerned that the text and format of a comic book would be beyond her, but she loves to make her own books, which are heavily picture-oriented to tell stories, so I thought even if she couldn’t read comic books, they would be very appealing to her own hobby.

But what surprised me was when she picked up a graphic novel of Marvel’s Spider-Gwen, she immediately began reading quite well—until she hit very commonly used wording and words that aren’t served well by structured phonics; she stubbled as “gonna” and “wanna,” but was really thrown by “MJ” as the way characters refer to Mary Jane Watson.

Having been taught formally how to read in an environment grounded in correctness, my granddaughter stumbles over the far more prevalent language usage in the real world.

This tension is represented well by the fate of the pronoun “they” (and its forms); “they” for centuries has served in the real-world of speaking English as CONTINUE READING: Correcting Course on Correctness in English/ELA – radical eyes for equity

Teacher Tom: Creating Pictograms for Instagram

Teacher Tom: Creating Pictograms for Instagram

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, then on the count of three leapt into the air, throwing their hands over their heads like cheerleaders do, their knees bent to create the illusion of height.

I realized I'd seen those poses before on the social media pages of the young women in my life. 

I don't post a lot of "selfies," in fact I've never posted a selfie. They strike me as self-indulgent or show-offy or something, but as the father of a daughter who was a teen not too long ago I realize that this ritual has become a kind of necessity, just as posting a photo of one's restaurant meal or the obligatory shot of your holiday paradise from between outstretched legs and bare feet. They've always struck me as cliches. Couldn't they at least use their imaginations, come up with something new? 

As I passed on, the girls were positioning themselves to create the illusion that they were pricking their fingers on the top of the Space Needle, the classic tourist pose. Not far away, I came upon more young women similarly posing. I imagined their photos on my Instagram feed above and below those of the previous posers.

I've been thinking a lot lately about pictograms, ideograms, CONTINUE READING: Teacher Tom: Creating Pictograms for Instagram

CURMUDGUCATION: Update: Chester Upland's Mysterious Missing Money

CURMUDGUCATION: Update: Chester Upland's Mysterious Missing Money

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, new issues. The story was first picked up by the Delco Times, and in that version, the FBI has descended upon the southwestern PA district. Yesterday the Philadelphia Inquirer's Maddie Hanna and Vinny Valla covered the story as well, and the narrative is morphing. In their version, the FBI makes no apearance and this is just an inquiry by the county DA.

But central to all versions of the story are "millions" of missing dollars.

Juan Baughn is the state's current receiver (the district has had several at this point) who moved directly to that job from the superintendent's position in the district. His explanation is, well...

Juan Baughn, the receiver overseeing the school district, said it contacted law enforcement after it didn’t receive “millions” of dollars in a subsidy payment due last week from the Pennsylvania Department of Education.

“Our system, between us and Harrisburg, somehow was hacked,” Baughn said Thursday. “It’s a cyber issue.”

This is an extraordinary story, and it raises many questions. Can one really "intercept" a cyber- CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Update: Chester Upland's Mysterious Missing Money

CURMUDGUCATION: Arizona Mounts Further Assault On Public School Teachers

CURMUDGUCATION: Arizona Mounts Further Assault On Public School Teachers

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 teachers to work there for years (at one point they were recruiting in the Phillipines), using the one two punch of low salaries along with rock-bottom spending on classrooms (this is the state where the house GOP leader contended that teachers were just working second jobs so they could buy boats). In the meantime, they have done their best to foster charter profiteering and set up vouchers at the expense of public ed. Did I mention that Arizona is the Koch home base?

There was no reason to be surprised when Arizona's teachers rose up in revolt. Governor Ducey made noises about recognizing the problem, but he's been trying to slap teaches around ever since. Arizona legislators have come after teachers and public schools before, but this week is really something special.

This week Ducey issued an executive order requiring all schools to return o in-person learning by CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Arizona Mounts Further Assault On Public School Teachers

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

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

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.

Leonie Haimson, leader of Class Size Matters, the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy, and board member of the Network for Public Education, wrote this about the pro-testing coalition assembled by King:

I asked my assistant Michael Horwitz to figure out which organizations were on the first Ed Trust letter pushing against state testing waivers, but not the letter that just came out, advocating against allowing flexibility by using local assessments instead.  National PTA, NAN (Al Sharpton’s group), LULAC, KIPP and a few others did drop off the list. 

I then asked Leonie if she could add the amounts of funding to these organizations by the Gates Foundation and the Walton Foundation and she replied:

The largest beneficiary of their joint funding among these CONTINUE READING: Who Signed the Pro-Testing Appeals? | Diane Ravitch's blog

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

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

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 to see schools provide targeted extra services to help their kids catch up. This includes just over half of parents who support the idea of summer school.

The nation has lacked solid national data on precisely where classrooms are open to students. In our survey, half of parents said their children were learning virtually, a third were attending in person full-time, and the remainder were in person part-time. As other polls have found, Black and Hispanic parents were far more likely than white parents to say their children were all-remote — 65% for Black parents, 57% for Hispanic parents, and 38% for white parents.

In a sign of the disruptions that have become routine this school year, 43% of parents said that they had switched among virtual, in-person or hybrid since the previous fall.

It has been "a bit of a journey, to put it mildly," said Nick Ehrenberg, a father of two in Minneapolis, who was one of the parents polled. School for his children has shifted back and forth between virtual, hybrid, and virtual again due to closures and CONTINUE READING: Audio: NPR/Ipsos Poll: Nearly One Third Of Parents May Stick With Remote Learning | 89.3 KPCC

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

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

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 it's a minor miracle I managed to do so. 

So Biden wants to open the schools in 100 days, and he's got 60 or 70 left. I think he can do it, actually. After all, NYC buildings are "open." Well, elementary, D75 and middle schools are, anyway. It appears that, within a matter of weeks, high schools will be "open" as well. Of course, that does not mean that we teachers are out there doing what we do. 

The NY Times is all excited about school openings, and seems to have been on a campaign for them, and against teacher union, for months. Just open the window, they say. They then give an example in which one window is open, and show what will happen. Who knows what happens if you choose a different window, or what happens when the temperature is freezing, stifling, or perhaps both, given the caprices of school temperature regulation? And hey, look at how that COVID sweeps around the teacher standing like a statue in front of the class. (The Times seems not to notice that.)

Of course, the class is socially distanced. You have only a handful of students there. So the Times, if you ignore CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: To Open or Not to Open? Depends What "Open" Means

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

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

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 instead of providing help. The movement to condemn No Child Left Behind didn’t crystalize, however, until Diane Ravitch, the education historian and former school reformer, published a book about why she had been wrong.

Here is how she confessed her sins on the first page of the first chapter of that book:  “In the fall of 2007, I reluctantly decided to have my office repainted… At the very time that I was packing up my books and belongings, I was going through an intellectual crisis. I was aware that I had undergone a wrenching transformation in my perspective on school reform. Where once I had been hopeful, even enthusiastic, about the potential benefits of testing, accountability, choice, and markets, I now found myself experiencing profound doubts about these same ideas. I was trying to sort through the evidence about what was working and what was not. I was trying to understand why I was increasingly skeptical about these reforms, reforms that I had supported enthusiastically. I was trying to see my way through the blinding assumptions of ideology and politics, including my own. I kept asking myself why I was losing confidence in these reforms… Why did I now doubt ideas I once had advocated? The short answer is that my views changed as I saw how these ideas were working out in reality.” (The Death and Life of the Great American School System, pp. 1-2)

Ravitch was not the first person to notice that something had gone terribly wrong, but she provided the first coherent analysis of the mass of factors and  ideas that had shaped a new CONTINUE READING: Diane Ravitch Offers Pithy Prescription to Help Secretary of Education Cardona Remedy Education Policy | janresseger

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

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

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 determine if the water in the dolphin tank is wet.

That’s kind of what the demand to test is like.

Determine if the water is wet and THEN you can feed the dolphin.

Imagine a person on fire being told to measure the temperature of the flames before you could put them out.

Imagine a person staving in the desert being required to take a blood test to CONTINUE READING: Standardized Testing During a Pandemic is Stupid. And Cruel. | gadflyonthewallblog

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

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

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 pushed Lancaster to design schools that accommodated large numbers of children in huge rooms under the guidance of one paid teacher who would then supervise older students–“monitors” as they were called–who actually taught younger children. Often called “charity schools,” these early Lancastrian schools, as they became known, spread throughout England and crossed the Atlantic to the U.S, often sponsored by the Society of Friends or Quakers–social reformers of the day both in England and America.

When Lancaster visited the U.S. in 1818, there were many “monitorial schools.” Historian Dell Upton found that “Lancasterianism was adopted up and down the Atlantic seaboard as the official pedagogy of emerging public schools in New York City (1805), Albany (1810), Georgetown (1811), Washington, D.C. (1812), Philadelphia (1817), Boston (1824), and Baltimore (1829)….”

These “monitorial schools,” then, were reform-driven public schools aimed at CONTINUE READING: Whatever Happened to Monitorial Schools? | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

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

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

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 students who struggled with attendance issues before the pandemic,” said Thurmond. “These model schools have been able to keep at-risk students on track using social and emotional learning, mentorship programs, restorative justice practices, and other innovative methods. Through the work of dedicated teachers and administrators, model continuation schools provide the students they serve with new academic opportunities that can change the course of their lives in high school and beyond.”

Each of the schools honored offer various opportunities for their students to pursue academic and social success. For example:

• Delta Continuation High School in Richmond has established social/emotional learning elements, including a crisis intervention consultant and school psychologist that provide tiered-level intervention support. Students also have access to mental health group support and one-on-one counseling.
• Desert Oasis Continuation High School in El Centro maintains a community mentor program comprised of local professionals, including many members from law enforcement. The law enforcement mentors participate in activities with students that focus on team building, collaboration, and trust.
• George and Evelyn Stein Continuation High School in Tracy has a strong academic support system in place with an emphasis on creating a plan that meets a student’s individual needs and goals. Each student has an academic advisor who is with them during their entire time at the school and a teacher advisor who develops a plan for graduation and post-graduation.

There are over 400 continuation high schools serving 50,000 students throughout the state, ages sixteen through eighteen, who have not graduated from high school and who were at risk of not completing their education.
The MCHS Recognition Program is a collaborative partnership between the California Department of Education (CDE) and the California Continuation Education Association Plus (CCEA Plus). The program honors continuation high schools for the comprehensive services they provide at-risk youth through instructional strategies, flexible scheduling, guidance, and counseling. Not only does this involve operating and supporting their own exemplary program, but MCHS-recognized educators make a commitment to support and mentor their peers in other local educational agencies. The MCHS were selected based on a comprehensive application process that involved assessments and data. The process included a peer review panel and on-site visit. This year’s visits were conducted virtually due to the pandemic.

The 27 schools selected as MCHS retain their designation for three years and will be recognized at the 2021 CCEA Plus State Conference in San Diego, April 15–18, 2021. Individuals may attend the conference in person or virtually through an interactive portal with streaming and on-demand content. For more information, please visit the CDE Continuation Education web page or the CCEA Plus website.

List of 2021 Model Continuation High Schools

• Angel's Gate Continuation High School, 3607 South Gaffey Street, San Pedro, CA, 90731-6969, 310-221-4600, Paul Valanis, Principal
• Aurora High School, 1391 Kloke Road, Calexico, CA, 92231-4228, 760-768-3940, Juan Moreno, Principal
• Calico Continuation High School, 33525 Ponnay, Yermo, CA, 92327, 760-254-2715, Brice Scott, Principal
• Chaparral High School, 121 West Allen Avenue, San Dimas, CA, 91773-1437, 909-971-8240, Christine Black, Principal
• Del Puerto High School, 640 M Street, Patterson, CA, 95363-2215, 209-892-4720, Jose Sanchez, Principal
• Del Valle Continuation High School, 2253 Fifth Street, Livermore, CA, 94550-4549, 925-606-4709, Erik Taylor, Principal
• Delta High School, 4893 Bethany Lane, Santa Maria, CA, 93455-4880, 805-937-6356, Sal Reynoso, Principal
• Desert Oasis High School, 1302 South Third Street, El Centro, CA, 92243-6604, 760-336-4555, Fernando O'campo, Administrator
• Frontier High School, 9401 South Painter Avenue, Whittier, CA, 90605-2729, 562-698-8121, Margie Moriarty, Principal
• George and Evelyn Stein Continuation High School, 650 West 10th Street, Tracy, CA, 95376, 209-830-3395, Traci Mitchell, Principal
• Green Valley High School, 35948 Susan Street, Yucaipa, CA, 92399-5299, 909-790-8580, Frank Tucci, Principal
• John R. Wooden High School, 18741 Elkwood Street, Reseda, CA, 91335-1802, 818-345-0203, Laura Novak, Principal
• La Cuesta Continuation High School, 710 Santa Barbara Street, Santa Barbara, CA, 93101-2232, 805-966-0883, Lauren Berlin, Principal
• La Vista High School, 909 North State College Boulevard, Fullerton, CA, 92831-3013, 714-447-7821, Sandi Layana, Principal
• Major General Raymond Murray High School, 215 North Melrose Drive, Vista, CA, 92083-5720, 760-631-2502, Carol Barr, Principal
• Mountain View High School, 1000 Ramona Boulevard, San Jacinto, CA, 92582-2576, 951-487-7710, Kenneth Swanson, Principal
• Olympic Continuation High School, 2730 Salvio Street, Concord, CA, 94519-2599, 925-687-0363, Lynsie Castellano, Principal
• Park West High School, 1460 West Holt Avenue, Suite 100, Pomona, CA, 91767-2832, 909-397-4900, Luis Rodriguez, Principal
• Raincross Continuation High School, 6401 Lincoln Avenue, Riverside, CA, 92506-4424, 951-276-7670, Dennis Deets, Principal
• Rancho Del Mar High School, 38 Crest Road West, Rolling Hills, CA, 90274-5058, 310-378-9966, Richard Licciardello, Principal
• San Andreas High School, 3232 East Pacific Street, Highland, CA, 92346-2499, 909-388-6521, Dorie Stratton, Principal
• San Andreas High School, 599 William Avenue, Larkspur, CA, 94939-1554, 415-945-3751, David Luongo, Principal
• Sierra High School, 1040 East Gladstone Street, Azusa, CA, 91702-4837, 626-852-8300, Kent Stout, Principal
• Vail Continuation High School, 1230 South Vail Avenue, Montebello, CA, 90640-6312, 323-728-1940, Horacio Perez, Principal
• Valley View High School, 1801 East Sixth Street, Ontario, CA, 91764-1599, 909-985-0966, Julie Prestsater, Principal
• Village Oaks High School, 1900 West Swain, Stockton, CA, 95207-3439, 209-953-8740, Josef Schallberger, Principal
• Whitcomb Continuation High School, 350 West Mauna Loa Avenue, Glendora, CA, 91740-4399, 626-852-4550, Ron Letourneau, Principal

# # # #

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

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

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

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

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 for many students engaged in remote learning of sixty students or even more, either full-time or part-time. See articles in NY Post, WSJ and Gothamist about this issue. 

So we realized it would be important for the DOE to report on disaggregated class sizes, i.e. in-person, vs. full-time remote, vs. part-time remote for blended learning students. On Oct. 28, Council Member Mark Treyger, chair of the Education Committee sent a letter to DOE, urging them to make the legal deadline of Nov. 15 and provide the disaggregated data. His letter is here which a Chalkbeat article reported on. 

At a press conference on Oct. 26, Chancellor Carranza said that schools had been reporting attendance to DOE in "literally three buckets of attendance every single day": in-person classes, remote blended learning classes, and full-time remote classes. So reporting the class size data in these three separate categories should not have been difficult CONTINUE READING: NYC Public School Parents: NYC DOE releases unreliable class size data three months late; please take our survey today!!

Cancelling State Tests Could Cause a Recession | The Merrow Report

Cancelling State Tests Could Cause a Recession | The Merrow Report

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 serve to demonstrate that they fail to understand that standardized testing is one of the main drivers of the US economy.

Please consider these economic consequences of cancelling machine-scored tests.  (I am certain that Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen could enumerate others.)

1. Cancelling standardized tests will endanger the health of students and teachers.  Both test-prep and testing are natural environments for social distancing; students who are required to stay at their desks all day long are not at risk of either passing on or catching COVID.  That’s a win-win that would be a loss if tests were cancelled.
2. Not testing will unsettle students, endangering their already shaky mental health. The rhythm of test-prep and testing is well-known and familiar to students.  What could be better for students who have been trapped on Zoom for months than to have the familiar Zen-like peace-and-quiet of test prep and testing?  
3. The companies that create, administer and process these tests are a vital CONTINUE READING: Cancelling State Tests Could Cause a Recession | The Merrow Report

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

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

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 privacy. They state, “We would love to have parents in all 50 states send a letter to their District requesting their child’s data.”  You can click on their website here to request their  FERPA template  letter.  When you send your letter to your district, please copy us, info@studentprivacymatters.org  on your emails to your district. 

2. It’s time we KNOW what data these edtech apps are collecting and how they are being used. 

We at the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy launched our own App Survey in January, for Data Privacy Day 2021. We are researching which edtech apps schools are asking students to use and whether they are sufficiently protective of children’s privacy.  You can take our App Survey here.  

Please let us know what online apps and programs your district or school is using, and check to see if they have been transparent about their privacy policies.  Your name and district will be kept confidential. Thank you to the MANY parents and educators who have already completed this App Survey.  Please continue to share and we will let you know the results soon.  If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to email us at info@studentprivacymatters.org  

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