Big Education Ape

Monday, May 6, 2019

Angry teachers slap down praise from Betsy DeVos: ‘You can thank us by resigning’

Angry teachers slap down praise from Betsy DeVos: ‘You can thank us by resigning’
Angry teachers slap down praise from Betsy DeVos: ‘You can thank us by resigning’

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos marked Teacher Appreciation Week with a social media video thanking educators — who then demanded her resignation in tweet after tweet.

The education secretary urged Americans to show their appreciation by thanking a teacher, but her efforts backfired.

DeVos was met with furious anger by teachers and their supporters who believe she’s undermining public education with her policies.

avalon'slaw + PROTEST MAKES AMERICA GREAT@LaceyWilson4

Replying to @BetsyDeVosED @usedgov

If you think teachers wants less support for public schools and the end of resources for students who deal with sexual assault, discrimination and options to pay off student debt then I’ll find some teachers for you to meet who strongly disagree with that assessment. #resigndevos

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Angry teachers slap down praise from Betsy DeVos: ‘You can thank us by resigning’

CURMUDGUCATION: The Problem With Tax Credit Scholarships

CURMUDGUCATION: The Problem With Tax Credit Scholarships

The Problem With Tax Credit Scholarships

The classic talking point for tax credit scholarships (yet another type of voucher) is that they don't actually take money away from public education. This is technically correct because the money never actually gets into the government's hands; instead of paying taxes, the contributor hands the money to their favorite charter or private school and gets credit for paying taxes.

So does that take money away from education? Of course.

Let's imagine a neighborhood in North Egg with ten households. Out of those households, there are five children who spend every Saturday cleaning up the neighborhood. The families, many of whom include folks who work on Saturday, decide that the kids need something to eat for lunch, so the ten households create a Saturday Lunch Fund, and every family commits to chip in two bucks to the fund. Mrs. McSam handles the collecting of the money, and uses it to buy the workers a couple of pizza, some drinks, and a few extras to go with.

This system works for a while. Some Saturdays the pizza's not very good, and sometimes the dessert item is some pretty good ice cream and other times it's some kind of packaged processed junk. But for the most part, the basic needs of the workers are met.

Then one of the families says, "We actually take our nephew from a South Egg out to lunch every Saturday. Could you just count the money we spend on him toward our contribution for the Saturday Lunch Fund?"

"I don't see why not," says Mrs. McSam. "It's not like you're taking money out of the fund."

Two other families say, "We don't actually have any kids. But we do buy organic kelp for our church CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: The Problem With Tax Credit Scholarships

Diane Ravitch’s Education “Wisdom and Wit” is Critical at this Time

Diane Ravitch’s Education “Wisdom and Wit” is Critical at this Time

Diane Ravitch’s Education “Wisdom and Wit” is Critical at this Time

We will someday view this era as one in which the nation turned its back on its public schools, its children, and its educators. We will wonder why so many journalists and policymakers rejected the nation’s obligation to support public education as a social responsibility, and accepted the unrealistic, unsustainable promises of entrepreneurs and billionaires. And we will, with sorrow and regret, think of this as an era when an obsession with testing and data obliterated any concept or definition of good education. Some perhaps may recall this as a time when the nation forgot that education has a greater purpose than preparing our children to compete in the global economy.

~”Flunking Arne Duncan.” The Wisdom and Wit of Diane Ravitch, p.47.

Diane Ravitch’s new book enables us to further understand the lies and deception behind the current push to privatize public education. This is a book that both Republicans and Democrats should find interesting. It would make an interesting and welcome gift for teachers during Teacher Appreciation Week.

Diane’s focus is on public schools. It provides a history surrounding the fight for public education since 2010. She does not hold back from telling us about those who have worked to destroy free public education, no matter their political party. Some of those CONTINUE READING: Diane Ravitch’s Education “Wisdom and Wit” is Critical at this Time

Today Is Dedicated to Gary Rubinstein’s Review of Success Academy Podcasts | Diane Ravitch's blog

Today Is Dedicated to Gary Rubinstein’s Review of Success Academy Podcasts | Diane Ravitch's blog

Today Is Dedicated to Gary Rubinstein’s Review of Success Academy Podcasts

Teacher Appreciation Week begins today. How better to launch it than by devoting the day to Gary Rubinstein’s review of podcasts about Success Academy?

Gary began his teaching career in TFA, but turned into a sharp critic of TFA and a dedicated career teacher.

Gary Rubinstein came across a trove of podcasts about Success Academy, and he suspected theyheld the key to the “success” of Success Academy in New York City. SA is the quintessential “no excuses” charter chain. It’s rules are strict, even draconian. The chain is driven by a philosophy that black and brown children must be disciplined and surveilled closely. No error must go uncorrected. Every infraction must be swiftly punished.

I debated whether to publish Gary’s posts as they appeared or all at once. I decided on the latter course of action. So today is devoted to podcasts about Success Academy. Though it is based in New York City, its impact is national. The chain presents itself as a model for American education. Nonsense.

Here is Gary’s first report.

Of all the charter school networks in the country, there is none that is more controversial or more secretive than Success Academy. If ‘success’ is defined as high 3-8 state test scores, then Success Academy has earned its name. But critics charge that this ‘success’ comes at the expense of other, more important measures of success.

This past November, a seven part podcast was published by a production company called startup. Soon after it was released, there were some excerpts of some of the most negative parts of the podcast printed on some blogs, but generally it seems to have came and went.

I was very interested in this podcast for a lot of reasons. I’ve been following Success Academy for years and have been piecing together evidence about all the different CONTINUE READING: Today Is Dedicated to Gary Rubinstein’s Review of Success Academy Podcasts | Diane Ravitch's blog

Challenging the Grammar of Schooling (Part 2) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Challenging the Grammar of Schooling (Part 2) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Challenging the Grammar of Schooling (Part 2)

At the recent annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, I participated in a symposium entitled “Changing the Grammar of Schooling? An Examination of Reform.” The chair, Jal Mehta (Harvard University) invited Michael Fullan (University of Toronto) and me to comment on four researchers’ papers. The papers were:

Making the Periphery the Core: Possibilities and Challenges in Public Eduation

Jal David Mehta, (Harvard University); Sarah M. Fine, (University of California, San Diego)

Design Thinking, Leadership, and the Grammar of Schooling Implications for Educational Change Lea Hubbard, (University of San Diego); Amanda Datnow, (University of California, San Diego);

College for All and the Grammar of Schooling Karen Quartz, (University of California, Los Angeles)

The Rise and the Fall of New Schools in New York City and Singapore Thomas Hatch, (Teachers College, Columbia University); Jordan Corson, ( Teachers College, Columbia University); Sara M. Gerth van den Berg, (Teachers College, Columbia University).

Here are my comments on these papers.

I want to thank Jal for inviting me to comment on the four papers presented here….

These four papers examine the concept of the “grammar of schooling”—I still put the phrase in quote marks—that David Tyack and I grounded our history of CONTINUE READING: Challenging the Grammar of Schooling (Part 2) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Sunday, May 5, 2019

Peter Greene: The Very Best Teacher Appreciation Week Gifts

The Very Best Teacher Appreciation Week Gifts

The Very Best Teacher Appreciation Week Gifts

Since 1984, the PTA has designated the first week in May as Teacher Appreciation Week. The week is marked by lots of discounts from various vendors, suggestions for pretty decorations, and even social media ideas. There's actually a theme: Teachers are out of this world. Pinterest is loaded with ideas. Some of it is pretty cheesy, and some of it is pretty ephemeral. If you really want to show appreciation to a teacher, what is your best option?

When I was in elementary school, I was an awkward mess of flailing limbs. But our gym teacher was great at crafting activities that helped build confidence and inclusiveness instead of sparking Darwinian playground struggles. I appreciated it, but maybe not as much as my parents did. They wrote him a lovely note, thanking him for helping me grow and become more confident. I know this, because decades later when I was back working with him as a teacher in the same district, he still had that letter. When he retired from public education and started teaching in a college teaching program and traveling as a motivational speaker, he still had the letter, saved in a file with other letters like it.

I have a file like that. So do many other teachers. You can give a teacher flowers, but they die. Food is great, but short-lived. Tchotchkes gather dust, though they do look cute on a desk. I taught CONTINUE READING: The Very Best Teacher Appreciation Week Gifts

REDUX: Teacher Appreciation Week is a Pathetic Joke! | gadflyonthewallblog

Teacher Appreciation Week is a Pathetic Joke! | gadflyonthewallblog

Teacher Appreciation Week is a Pathetic Joke!

It’s Teacher Appreciation Week, America!

All over the country, millions of educators can look forward to a free burrito. Or maybe an Arby’s sandwich. Or a complimentary donut.

Because we REALLY appreciate teachers here.

What a pathetic joke!

I don’t mean to seem ungrateful.

I’ll redeem my coupon at Chipotle. I’ll take that Roast Beef Classic. I’ll grab that Dunkin’ Cruller.

But let’s be honest. These cheesy buy-one-get-one coupons don’t demonstrate appreciation. They’re guilt.

They’re a manifestation of the feeling that we SHOULD appreciate teachers, but don’t. Not really.

Not for one week, not for one day!

Why else would we begrudge them a middle class income? Why else would we provide them with so few resources and so much responsibility? Why else would we bar them from making any meaningful decisions about how their students should be taught yet hold them accountable for everything their students do?

Appreciate teachers? We don’t LISTEN to them. We don’t RESPECT them. Many of us don’t even LIKE them.

The only time we value teachers is when a maniac enters a school with a gun. Then – when they protect our children with their very lives – then we praise them as heroes!

On that day and that day only. But every other day – not so much.

We won’t do anything to keep guns out of the hands of school shooters. At most we want to arm teachers – Great! Something else to be responsible for on top of education, counseling and children’s all around well-being. But otherwise, we won’t do anything to help teachers do their jobs. And we certainly won’t listen to their professional opinions on anything!

That would be living in a culture of life. But we live in a culture of death.

We do the barest minimum for children – especially poor and minority kids. Instead we invest in parasitic business interests that provide zero value for students and parents.

We’ve got nothing for teachers or proven educational practices but we throw public CONTINUE READING: Teacher Appreciation Week is a Pathetic Joke! | gadflyonthewallblog

The Best Teacher Appreciation Gift - Teacher Habits

The Best Teacher Appreciation Gift - Teacher Habits

The Best Teacher Appreciation Gift

It’s teacher appreciation week and all across the country, appreciative parents are looking for ways to express their gratitude (at least, that’s what I tell myself). The best teacher appreciation gift I ever received cost the giver nothing but 10 minutes of her time. If you want to make a teacher’s day this week, do what she did:

1. Sit down with your children and ask them who their favorite teachers are.

2. Ask them, “What are three things you like about this teacher?”

3. Write an email to those teachers and tell them what your child told you.

4. Click the little CC button and enter the email addresses of the CONTINUE READING: The Best Teacher Appreciation Gift - Teacher Habits

Note to the Kappan: Illinois state school underfunding undermines equity, not teacher pensions. – Fred Klonsky

Note to the Kappan: Illinois state school underfunding undermines equity, not teacher pensions. – Fred Klonsky

NOTE TO THE KAPPAN: ILLINOIS STATE SCHOOL UNDERFUNDING UNDERMINES EQUITY, NOT TEACHER PENSIONS.

The latest issue of the education magazine, The Kappan, addresses education funding inequality.

One article blames teacher pensions.

Why not blame teachers and our pensions for public school underfunding?

The authors , James V. Shuls, Collin Hitt and Robert M. Costrell, try to make the case that Illinois’ teacher pensions are responsible for the funding inequality in our state.

Their footnotes suggest they rely heavily on the Illinois Policy Institute and Bellweather Education Partners as sources.

Both outfits are known for the contempt with which they consider our contractual retirement benefits.

Illinois is at the bottom of most lists of states ranked on the the basis of state funding for education. It is also at the bottom of the list of states ranked on the basis of state funding of our teacher pension.

How then is it possible that state pension funding is responsible for inequitable school funding when both are underfunded?

The answer is that it is not.

The central issue for inequality in Illinois school funding is the racism inherent in a school funding system based on local taxes. Poor districts have less money for schools. A recent Illinois school funding bill did little to fundamentally change the lack of CONTINUE READING: Note to the Kappan: Illinois state school underfunding undermines equity, not teacher pensions. – Fred Klonsky

Latest News and Comment from Education

Monday, May 6, 2019

Angry teachers slap down praise from Betsy DeVos: ‘You can thank us by resigning’

CURMUDGUCATION: The Problem With Tax Credit Scholarships

Diane Ravitch’s Education “Wisdom and Wit” is Critical at this Time

Today Is Dedicated to Gary Rubinstein’s Review of Success Academy Podcasts | Diane Ravitch's blog

Challenging the Grammar of Schooling (Part 2) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Sunday, May 5, 2019

Peter Greene: The Very Best Teacher Appreciation Week Gifts

REDUX: Teacher Appreciation Week is a Pathetic Joke! | gadflyonthewallblog

The Best Teacher Appreciation Gift - Teacher Habits

Note to the Kappan: Illinois state school underfunding undermines equity, not teacher pensions. – Fred Klonsky

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