Teacher Tom: Seeking Not Truth, But Complete Truth

Teacher Tom: Seeking Not Truth, But Complete Truth

Seeking Not Truth, But Complete Truth

I grew up in a household with magazine subscriptions. We always had the latest edition of Time and Sports Illustrated on the coffee table, and for a long time we took National Geographic as well. I'm pretty sure mom read Women's Day, and there were others. As I got older, when I had my own magazine budget to spend, I chose comic books. Magazines were a habit I took with me into the world. As a young man I subscribed to all kinds of magazines, periodicals I considered more sophisticated than the ones my parents read, like Harpers, The Atlantic, and The New Yorker. Later I began to receive a number of literary journals like The Paris Review, The Sun, and other less well known publications, looking vainly for a place to that might be open to publishing my own strange (and, I know now, immature) fiction. 

At one point, in the late 80's, I cancelled all my subscriptions because I wasn't reading them. The internet had arrived. Today, perhaps out of nostalgia, at any moment I'm subscribed to at least one magazine. Currently it's a quarterly publication called The New Philosopher, published in Australia. Honestly, I await its arrival every four months with great anticipation, and like when I was a boy, I read it cover to cover.

I see now that magazines, in a way, were what we had CONTINUE READING: Teacher Tom: Seeking Not Truth, But Complete Truth

CURMUDGUCATION: Khan Academy Expanding To Littles

CURMUDGUCATION: Khan Academy Expanding To Littles

Khan Academy Expanding To Littles

The pandemic has been very, very good to Sal Khan, and he's ready to grab the big sticky ball and run with it. He recently did an interview with Emily Tate for EdSurge, and it's all just as discouraging as you would expect.

Khan opens with a few thought about pandemic life in the Bay Area:

“Obviously, some aspects have been suboptimal for everybody,” he says, acknowledging that his family has been extremely fortunate. “Every now and then, it's been hard to do a call while the kids are screaming or something like that, but between meetings, to see them or have lunch with them or go on a walk with them, that part has been actually quite nice.”

Then, just a few paragraphs later, Tate asks "How did you adapt to meet the needs of students during the pandemic?" Spoiler alert: his answer does not have anything to do with having lunch in person or taking walks together. But it did introduce me to another data-tastic term.

In normal times, we see about 30 million learning minutes per day on Khan Academy. When the pandemic and the closures started, we saw that go up to 90 million learning minutes per day by the end of that week.

I'm going to assume that "learning minutes" is a clever rebranding of "screen hours." If not, I'm dying CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Khan Academy Expanding To Littles

JEFF BRYANT: A Florida School Improved Reading and Math Scores With Streetlights—And Joe Biden Is All For It | Ed Politics

A Florida School Improved Reading and Math Scores With Streetlights—And Joe Biden Is All For It | Ed Politics

A FLORIDA SCHOOL IMPROVED READING AND MATH SCORES WITH STREETLIGHTS—AND JOE BIDEN IS ALL FOR IT

“What I’m working on—like making sure students have access to food, clean clothing, and streetlights—may not look like what I’m working on,” Catherine Gilmore told me over a phone call. Gilmore has worked as an educator in Hillsborough County, Florida, for 13 years, and has spent the last six years at Gibsonton Elementary School where she was in the classroom for four years prior to spending the last two years as the community schools coordinator there. During our phone call, she explained to me how her school has addressed its low scores on the state’s school performance report card. And it seems to be working.

In the 2017-2018 school year, Gibsonton received a grade of “D” on the state’s annual report card that assesses elementary schools on the basis of their scores on standardized achievement tests. In 2018-2019, Gibsonton raised its grade to a “C.”

While Gilmore welcomed the progress, she warned against overemphasizing these assessments, calling them “lagging indicators.”

“State standardized testing mostly just identifies student demographics,” she told me, an observation that is validated by research. “Sure, we use data, including test scores. But we use data to drive for the right things rather than letting data get in the way.”

The “right things,” in her view, are the factors—what she spends her time on—that she believes tend to correlate with test scores but are often ignored by school improvement approaches that tend to blame educators when test scores are low.

Often, what can lead to low test scores may have nothing to do with academics. For instance, making sure students are well-CONTINUE READING: A Florida School Improved Reading and Math Scores With Streetlights—And Joe Biden Is All For It | Ed Politics

The Problem of Student Engagement in Writing Workshop – radical eyes for equity

The Problem of Student Engagement in Writing Workshop – radical eyes for equity

The Problem of Student Engagement in Writing Workshop

Imagine you are a teacher who says to students, “You can revise your work as often as you want to learn as much as you can and achieve the grade you want.”

Imagine you are student who replies, “No thanks.”

As a critical teacher and teacher educator, I have spent about 40 years not swimming against the stream but floating, isolated, in an entirely different body of water.

I have not graded assignments or given tests for about 30 of those years, and for nearly all of my teaching career, my students have experienced a workshop format for learning. Distinct from writer’s workshop in creative writing, the workshop I implement is grounded in concepts often associated with Nancie Atwell, who popularized workshop as designing instruction/learning around time, ownership, and response.

The instructional workshop model I practice allows students large blocks of CONTINUE READING: The Problem of Student Engagement in Writing Workshop – radical eyes for equity

NYC Educator: The School Calendar and Losing 15 Minutes of Fame

NYC Educator: The School Calendar and Losing 15 Minutes of Fame

The School Calendar and Losing 15 Minutes of Fame

During the apocalypse I've gotten repeated calls to appear on the news and give opinions about various situations. It was easy to talk about the botched and delayed school openings, as well as the tone-deaf responses of de Blasio and the Mariachi Chancellor. Lick their fingers, place them in the air, and hope their responses would prove popular. Given their actions were more or less the opposite of leadership, that tended not to work out very well. 

Mostly I've been interviewed speaking of the ridiculous nature of these decisions, along with the fact that they tended not to make sense. I'd been an early admirer of Chancellor Carranza. His calls to end the racism inherent and obvious in the SHSAT were long overdue. He seemed to stand with teachers, coming to meet and speak with us, and literally marching with us during a Puerto Rican Day Parade.

Then, of course, blithering de Blasio demanded all hands on deck for his meandering and inconsistent school plans, and Carranza rejected a petition signed by over 100,000 of us demanding buildings be closed during a raging pandemic. Carranza said we needed 100,000 epidemilogists' signatures in order to receive his consideration. 

Ridiculous. 

Yesterday I got a call from a journalist to interview me for television. We had a Zoom meeting. The school CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: The School Calendar and Losing 15 Minutes of Fame

Biden’s Proposed American Families Plan Would Revolutionize Life for Poor Children | janresseger

Biden’s Proposed American Families Plan Would Revolutionize Life for Poor Children | janresseger

Biden’s Proposed American Families Plan Would Revolutionize Life for Poor Children

When public policy has been entirely inadequate and misguided for decades, it is difficult to grasp the full implications of the beginning steps for reform. Such is the case with President Joe Biden’s proposal last week to respond to our society’s outrageous level of child poverty. The development of coherent, efficient policy to ameliorate the overwhelming and complicated problems of America’s poorest families will take a long time, even if Democrats continue to occupy the White House and sustain Congressional majorities.

But on April 28, President Biden introduced a plan to begin the journey to remedy fiscal austerity when it comes to our society’s poorest families and children. We can turn to some experts to put the significance of President Biden’s proposed American Families Plan in perspective.

California’s EdSource quotes Deborah Stipek, a professor in the Stanford University Graduate School of Education: “Biden’s proposals, so far, will go further toward supporting children—especially those living in poverty—than anyone in the White House in my lifetime… Right now, children from low-income families are beginning kindergarten substantially behind their middle-class peers. Most of the achievement gap is well in place when children begin school. One reason is lower participation in preschool and lower quality preschool for low-income children. Anything that broadens access and ensures quality is worth doing, and the child care and extension of the tax credit initiatives are very exciting.”

First Focus on Children’s Bruce Lesley also believes Biden’s American Families Plan is revolutionary: “There are moments in time when historic or transformational changes are made by our nation’s leaders to really make a difference for children and families in this CONTINUE READING: Biden’s Proposed American Families Plan Would Revolutionize Life for Poor Children | janresseger

NANCY BAILEY: The Covid-19 Tech v. Teacher Tug of War and Teacher Appreciation

The Covid-19 Tech v. Teacher Tug of War and Teacher Appreciation

The Covid-19 Tech v. Teacher Tug of War and Teacher Appreciation

It’s Teacher Appreciation Week, time to thank a teacher before there are no teachers to thank. Not only did teachers have Covid-19 fears to contend with this past year, keeping their students and themselves safe, but they’ve also gone through a tug of war since the start of the pandemic.

A year ago, teachers were forced to quickly embrace remote learning, to rely on the technology many want to see replace them. What must it be like to know that the machine you’ve been forced to depend on for safety could have your job in the future?

Teachers chose to focus on protecting their students, themselves, and their families from the virus.

But those who have been watching and researching public school “disruption,” who’ve understood for years that elites want the future of education to be online only, reducing teachers to facilitators, were alarmed to see this abrupt reliance on screens due to Covid-19.

They feared the pandemic would lead to nothing but online learning in public schools CONTINUE READING: The Covid-19 Tech v. Teacher Tug of War and Teacher Appreciation

Texas: SPEDx Whistleblower Laurie Kash Was Right, and She’s Been Paying for It Ever Since. | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

Texas: SPEDx Whistleblower Laurie Kash Was Right, and She’s Been Paying for It Ever Since. | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

Texas: SPEDx Whistleblower Laurie Kash Was Right, and She’s Been Paying for It Ever Since

In August 2017, Laurie Kash was hired by the Texas Education Agency (TEA) as its director of special education.

Her immediate supervisor was Justin Porter, who was then the executive director of special populations. (One year later, in August 2018, Porter assumed Kash’s job, which sat vacant for nine months following Kash’s firing in November 2017).

On the day after Kash filed a complaint with the US Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) against TEA, Kash was fired (date of complaint: November 21, 2017; Kash’s firing: November 22, 2017).

Kash’s OIG complaint11-21-17Download

Kash’s complaint (see above) concerned a no-bid contract for special education services by a then-newly-created vendor, SPEDx, whose founder, Richard Nyankori, had a personal connection to Porter’s immediate supervisor, Penny Schwinn, TEA’s chief deputy commissioner of academics.

So, right off the bat, this situation became dicey for Kash, for she was concerned about impropriety related to her supervisor’s supervisor. Kash alerted Porter of her concerns, and she spoke about those concerns with a Texas parent group, Texans for Special Education reform (TxSER). Porter did not like this, and Schwinn found out and approached Porter about Kash’s verbalizing her concerns.

On November 03, 2017, Porter formally reprimanded Kash for not reporting her concerns “through appropriate channels,” and Schwinn verbally reprimanded CONTINUE READING: Texas: SPEDx Whistleblower Laurie Kash Was Right, and She’s Been Paying for It Ever Since. | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

Seattle Schools Community Forum: The New Way in Seattle Schools

Seattle Schools Community Forum: The New Way in Seattle Schools

The New Way in Seattle Schools

What the “New Way?” Encompassing the entire district, we see changes aplenty with near zero explanation. I’ll start but do chime in with yours.

- Minutes of committee meetings. Man, these are starting to look like charter school board meeting minutes. Which is to say, sparse and just the facts (and maybe not even all the facts). 

Example: the scribe appears to have been told to not flesh out any discussion with back-and-forth. So you see this: “Questions were asked and answers were given.” Seriously, that’s what is written. Clearly, of little use to any parent, teacher, administrator, student or taxpayer. 

I do have my suspicions that there are TWO sets of minutes. I say that because if someone internal to JSCEE needed info on what happened at a particular meeting and all they see is, “People were here and talked,” it just might make their job harder.

Another example of this is when Keisha Scarlett leveled her accusations about racism at Chandra Hampson and Zachary DeWolf, her complaint named a specific committee meeting. Let’s go to the minutes and....nothing. I wouldn’t expect the scribe to make judgements about what was said but there is nothing wrong with “a lively discussion ensued.” I did find someone who was at the meeting who confirmed Scarlett’s account and said it was very uncomfortable. 

- Work Session documentation. To review, a citizen has to make a request to the Board office for documentation attached to a committee meeting. The reasoning here is that staff may change something at the last minute.  So for CONTINUE READING: Seattle Schools Community Forum: The New Way in Seattle Schools

Choosing Democracy: Sacramento City USD Fails English Learners

Choosing Democracy: Sacramento City USD Fails English Learners

Sacramento City USD Fails English Learners

The Education Committee of LULAC/Sacramento has recommended for over 4 years that the funds allocated to Sacramento City Unified School District specifically to improve the educational achievement of English Learners be used specifically for that purpose.

( see example below of 2018 submission).  Supplemental funds carried over from one year to the next should not be used for projects other than serving English Language Learners.

 

We note with interest the presentation to the Special Board meeting of 3.11.21 on LCAP draft materials.

The district is now preparing its LCAP plan ( Local  Control Accountability Plan) and it is time for us to again make recommendations.  Our recommendations for prior years have been ignored. We request that our proposals for this year be included in the report to the board scheduled for May 5, 2021, and that our requests be included in the documents sent to Sacramento County Office of Education for their assigned task of monitoring the development of LCAP proposals on matters of accountability. 

 

We  note the requirements of LCAP to include community participation in development of the district plan.  We assert the reflections of the district advisory committees are important but inadequate to the requirements of community participation required for the development of LCAP. 

 

The next presentation will be at the SCUSD Board of Education meeting on May 6, 2021. You can participate on line. 

Education Committee.

League of United Latin American Citizens, / Sacramento 

 

 

Legislative summary.  LCFF

 

Existing law establishes a public school financing system that requires state funding for county superintendents of schools, school districts, and charter schools to be calculated pursuant to a local control funding formula, as specified. Existing law requires funding pursuant to the local control funding formula to include, in addition to a base grant, supplemental and concentration grant add-ons that are based on the percentage of pupils who are English learners, foster youth, or eligible for free or reduced-price meals, as specified, served by the county superintendent of schools, school district, or charter school. Existing law requires the State Board of Education to adopt regulations that govern the expenditure of funds apportioned pursuant to the supplemental and concentration grant add-ons.

 

AB 533 Proposal.

 

This bill would require the State Department of Education to develop, on or before January 1, 2022, a tracking mechanism for school districts, county offices of CONTINUE READING: Choosing Democracy: Sacramento City USD Fails English Learners

NewBlackMan (in Exile) TODAY #BLM #BLACKLIVESMATTER

 NewBlackMan (in Exile)

NewBlackMan (in Exile) TODAY

Big Education Ape: THIS WEEK WITH NEWBLACKMAN (IN EXILE) -

https://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2021/05/this-week-with-newblackman-in-exile-blm.html

Reclaiming Their Roots: CBS News Producer Rodney Hawkins Discovers Ancestor in Slavery Archive

by Mark Anthony Neal / 6min

' CBS News producer Rodney Hawkins digs deep into his family's past with the help of the Lone Star Slavery Project at Stephen F. Austin State University.'

The Making of Adrian Younge's "The American Negro"

by Mark Anthony Neal / 6min

Behind the scenes of the making of Adrian Younge 's latest project, The American Negro , which is described as "an unapologetic critique, detailing the systemic and malevolent psychology that afflicts people of color. This project dissects the chemistry behind blind racism, using music as the medium to restore dignity and self-worth."

"The 4% Problem": Breaking Down the Lack of Black Representation in Corporate and University Leadership Ranks

by Mark Anthony Neal / 13min

'CBS News political contributor Jamal Simmons joins CBS This Morning to discuss his new article called "The 4 Percent Problem," regarding race within the leadership ranks of corporations and universities.'

Joshie Jo Armstead on Ashford & Simpson

by Mark Anthony Neal / 1d

On this episode of Unscripted: Conversations w/ Christian John Wikane, songwriter Joshie Jo Armstead discusses her partnership with Nick Ashford and Valerie Simpson , which produced hits like Aretha Franklin's "Cry Like a Baby" and Ray Charles' "Let's Go Get Stoned".

Art As Activism: Groundbreaking FX Show 'Pose' Serves As 'Antithesis' To Anti-Trans Rhetoric

by Mark Anthony Neal / 1d

' Steven Canals , Janet Mock and Ryan Murphy join Here & Now to discuss the final season of Pose . The award-winning series has gained critical acclaim by taking viewers back to the golden age of NYC's underground ballroom subculture.'

Brené Brown and Tarana Burke on their Anthology 'You Are Your Best Thing'

by Mark Anthony Neal / 2d

'Author, speaker and life coach Brené Brown and #MeToo co-founder Tarana Burke join us to share their experiences working together as editors of You Are Your Best Thing: An Anthology of Vulnerability, Shame, Resilience and the Black Experience. '

W. Kamau Bell Is A 'Wall-Tearer-Downer' In 'United Shades Of America'

by Mark Anthony Neal / 2d

'Since 2016, comedian W. Kamau Bell has been traveling the country for his TV show United Shades of America . He asks serious questions, but always with a bit of humor thrown in. " United Shades of America is just Sesame Street for grown-ups," he tells All Things Considered 's Michel Martin . The goal of the show is to explore the unique challenges of communities around the United States.'

With 'Trojan Horse' Animation, 'Yasuke' Creators Honor True Story Of Black Samurai

by Mark Anthony Neal / 2d

'A new anime series on Netflix brings a little-known figure from Japanese feudal history to the small screen: Yasuke . A Black samurai portrayed as an aging, stoic loner reflecting on his past.' -- All Things Considered

John Legend: "Bring your own unique gifts to the table to engage in the real, tangible bettering of your community."

23by Mark Anthony Neal / 2d

“We see [zero-sum thinking] in efforts to hoard economic opportunity, too. Today, the 26 wealthiest people on the planet own as much as the 3.5 billion poorest. And powerful people are spending lots of money lobbying to keep it

 NewBlackMan (in Exile)