Big Education Ape

Sunday, July 7, 2019

CATCH UP WITH CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: Really Really Summer Now Edition (7/6)

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: Really Really Summer Now Edition (7/6)

ICYMI: Really Really Summer Now Edition (7/6)

Hot and steamy here, which still makes us better off than some corners of the world. Here's some reading for the day. Remember-- share the stuff that really speaks to you.

The Teaching Machine Imaginary

I do miss Audrey Watters, but here's a new Hack Education post that, in typical Watters fashion, links book editing, the Jetsons, teaching machines, and pigeons.

Education Reformers Still Don't Understand Racism

Rann Miller over at the Progressive takes a look at what reformsters still don't get.

Did Busing Ever Succeed?

Matt Barnum takes a dive into the research to see if he answer the newly-revived question.

Charter Schools Unleashed Education Hunger Games in California

Andrea Gabor's background as a business journalist lets her bring a special level of insight to ed reform coverage. Here's the story of the ups and downs of charters in California.

L.A. charter schools’ plans: Take back mayor’s office, sue district, battle teachers union

Meanwhile, California charters haven't learned much.

Charter Schools Aren't a Radical Solution and Neither Is Blaming Them

Andre Perry with a thoughtful and nuanced look at some of the systemic problems schools face.

Indiana's Catholic schools get millions in public money. Some lawmakers want that to stop.

In Indiana, some folks are finally figuring out how vouchers really work to give tax dollars to private religious schools (including those that actively discriminate against LGBTQ students).

People Who Regulate Charter Schools Also Make Millions From Them

It's this story again. This time we're in Utah for a local TV station's tale of self-dealing and profiteering.

The Facts About Newark Schools-- Update

Since Cory Booker's Presidential run brought the subject up again, here's Jersey Jazzman with the actual facts about the big money play in Newark.

The Breaststroke

Jose Vilson reflects on the last year of school.

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: Really Really Summer Now Edition (7/6)

CATCH UP WITH CURMUDGUCATION

Elizabeth Warren's Better Answer On Testing

500+by Peter Greene / 1d

Yesterday the NEA did quickie interviews with ten of the Democratic candidates, ranging from the front-runners like Sanders and Warren all the way down to (checks notes)-- some guy named Tim Ryan who is apparently also running. There were plenty of fine moment and plenty of pandering, and, it has to be noted, plenty of issues that went unaddressed by some candidates because they didn't get asked a

Eight Weeks of Summer: Learning Conditions

by Peter Greene / 1d

This post is week 4 of 8 in the 8 Weeks of Summer Blog Challenge for educators. I'm continuing this challenge, answering the questions from the viewpoint of my old non-retired self. Here's this week's prompt: What are optimal conditions in which to learn, for you, and for students? For me, it's mostly a matter of opportunity and independence. Probably the biggest single thing I learned in college

JUL 05

CAP & Fordham Shoot The Moon

67by Peter Greene / 1d

When the Moonshot For Kids competition first crossed my screen, I took a moment to consider it as a topic for commentary, then moved on. But then this tweet popped up today: What is education’s version of the self-driving car? Let @edprogress and @educationgadfly know your innovative idea to improve student outcomes through a #MoonshotForKids and you could win $10,000 https://t.co/evwibCFhrl — CAP

JUL 03

When The Wall Of Separation Comes Down

84by Peter Greene / 3d

As noted earlier this week, the Supreme Court has decided to hear a case that could blow a hole in the wall separating religion from public schools . Lots of folks are salivating at the prospect, from hard-core libertarians to the Dominionist folks who think the church should take back the school system. So let me say again what I have said many times before-- if the wall separating church and sta

JUL 02

Big Brother Is Listening (More Ed Tech From The Surveillance State)

96by Peter Greene / 4d

We have repeatedly seen examples of ed tech innovations that hinge on surveillance, and not just surveillance, but software to interpret what the surveilled data means. This results in some huge promises. Here's software that says it will read student facial expressions and eye movements to determine if anyone is learning. Companies are lining up to tell you all about the social and emotional well

JUL 01

This Case Could Break The Wall Between Church And School

500+by Peter Greene / 5d

Three weeks ago, I wrote about the Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue case for Forbes , trying to explain why it would be a big deal if the Supremes decided to hear this case. One thing has changed since then-- the court has decided they will hear the case. This is a big deal. Here's a slightly modified version of that Forbes piece to serve as an explainer for why we need to pay attention.

JUN 30

ICYMI: Now Where Was I Edition (6/30)

49by Peter Greene / 6d

Last week I was on an actual vacation, so I'm still getting back up to speed. Here's what I've got for you to read on this muggy Sunday. Michigan's School Choice Mess Jennifer Berkshire took a road trip to Michigan for the Have You Heard podcast, to see what she could learn about the choice system, the local love for DeVos, and the implication for the nation as a whole. This episode focuses on the

JUN 29

DeVos Backs Corporate Profits Again

50by Peter Greene / 7d

If there is one signature feature of a DeVos doctrine, it's that the government should never, ever stand between a business and its revenue stream. That part of the doctrine was on display yesterday as DeVos officially announced her intention to let for-profit colleges do whatever the hell they want. Okay, that may be an overstatement. What she actually did was roll back the Obama-era requirement

Eight Weeks of Summer: Leaders and Followers

41by Peter Greene / 7d

This post is week 3 of 8 in the 8 Weeks of Summer Blog Challenge for educators. This post will catch me up on this little project. It's an interesting piece of teacher sharing and is also turning out to be a nice antidote to political overload. As always, I'm answering the prompt on behalf of the younger, pre-retirement version of me. How are you both a leader and a follower in your career? Of co

Eight Weeks Of Summer: Influences

25by Peter Greene / 7d

This post is week 2 of 8 in the 8 Weeks of Summer Blog Challenge for educators. Well, actually, I'm a week late because I was on vacation where the mosquitoes are stronger than the wifi. But I'm going to stick with the exercise anyway, because I find it interesting. Here's the Week #2 prompt. As always, I'll answer for my previous pre-retirement self. What has contributed to the educator you are

JUN 28

Dear Teachers: Don't Make Your Lesson Relevant

500+by Peter Greene / 8d

When I was getting my teacher training way back in the 1970s, we used to hear a great deal about making our teaching relevant. It took me several years of teaching to figure out why that was terrible advice. And it hasn't ever gone away

NEA Representative Assembly Honors 2019 ESP of the Year

NEA Representative Assembly Honors 2019 ESP of the Year

NEA Representative Assembly Honors 2019 ESP of the Year

Matthew Powell, the 2019 Education Support Professional of the Year, took the stage at the NEA Representative Assembly on Saturday. Introducing him to the almost 7,000 delegates gathered in the George E. Brown Convention Center in Houston, NEA President Lily Eskelsen García commended Powell for his “commitment to public education and our students.”

“Technically, he has the title of custodial supervisor,” Eskelsen García added. “But that is just one of the many hats this talented man wears.”

In addition to his work as a custodial supervisor, Powell is also the night watchman and fills in as a bus driver when the district needs substitute drivers. He works at Graves County Central Elementary School in Mayfield, Kentucky.

Powell, who was named ESP of the Year at the annual NEA ESP national conference in March, is a passionate advocate for teaching the whole child—and for the critical role ESPs play in that effort. In his speech to the RA, Powell highlighted the lasting impact every school staff member has on students and their community.

“My ‘class’ includes all 538 of the students in my school,” Powell told the delegates. “My classroom is on the bus, in the cafeteria, on the playground, in the halls, at the outside koi fish pond, and many other places around the school.”

Powell took time in his speech to salute four educators—a teacher, a bus driver, a “lunch lady,” and a school custodian—who affected him growing up and helped him become the educator he is today.

“What these educators really did was create an atmosphere where I felt supported, CONTINUE READING: NEA Representative Assembly Honors 2019 ESP of the Year

Media response to NEA forum reflects prominence of education in Election 2020 - Education Votes

Media response to NEA forum reflects prominence of education in Election 2020 - Education Votes

Media response to NEA forum reflects prominence of education in Election 2020

By Danielle Sklarew

On Friday, 10 candidates seeking the 2020 Democratic nomination for the presidency participated in NEA’s Strong Public Schools Presidential Forum in Houston to define their visions for public education before an audience of more than 10,000 educators and guests.

[Watch the forum in its entirety here.]

Reporters from more than 90 media outlets—including the Washington Post, CBS News, and CNN—covered the event to record and analyze candidates’ responses to questions contributed by NEA members across the country through the StrongPublicSchools.orgwebsite.

“As an educator, I see firsthand the difficult issues affecting my students,” said TaRae Gardner, a fifth-grade teacher in Iowa’s Sioux City Community School District. “So when candidates talk about access to health care, mental health services and raising pay checks for the middle class you can bet I am interested in what they are saying. It affects me, my students, and my job directly.”

The press is well aware of the outsized role that educators will play in selecting the Democratic nominee and, ultimately, the nation’s next president. In the 2016 election, 1 in every 39 votes was cast by an NEA member or family member.

Here is how the media captured the powerful interactions that took place between the candidates and NEA members at the Strong Public Schools forum:

Jonathan Martinez, a reporter from KPRC 2 Houston, was impressed by the enthusiastic delegates at the #StrongPublicSchools forum. CONTINUE READING: Media response to NEA forum reflects prominence of education in Election 2020 - Education Votes

It's Time to Kill High-Stakes Testing - Teacher Habits

It's Time to Kill High-Stakes Testing - Teacher Habits

It’s Time to Kill High-Stakes Testing

Elizabeth Warren made some news in education circles this past week when she sat for an interview with NEA President Lily Eskelsen Garcia. Garcia read a question from a retired teacher who wanted to know what Warren would do to end high-stakes testing. Warren said, in part:

“This notion that it’s all about testing — that it’s all about what somebody far off in the state capital or far off in the national capital says, here’s what constitutes success and worse yet, here’s what constitutes failure — no, that’s not what education is about,” Warren said.

“Education is what goes on in the classroom; what a teacher has said is the goal. And when a kid gets there, it is a teacher who knows it. We do not need high-stakes testing.”

While I put almost zero stock in what Presidential candidates say while trying to woo voters with transparent pandering, there is the potential that sound clips like the one above can generate interesting conversations. Warren’s rhetorical stand against high-stakes testing certainly did that.

Peter Greene, who writes one of the best education policy blogs from CONTINUE READING: It's Time to Kill High-Stakes Testing - Teacher Habits

Carol Burris: Don’t Let Democratic Candidates Get Away With: “I’m Against For-Profit Charters” | Diane Ravitch's blog

Carol Burris: Don’t Let Democratic Candidates Get Away With: “I’m Against For-Profit Charters” | Diane Ravitch's blog

Carol Burris: Don’t Let Democratic Candidates Get Away With: “I’m Against For-Profit Charters”

Carol Burris, executive director of the Network for Public Education, writes here about the efforts by most Democratic candidates to avoid confronting the dangers of privatization:

When Democratic candidates are questioned about charter schools, many typically reply, “I am against for-profit charter schools.” Everyone cheers. Politicians have created a convenient (and false) dichotomy that says nonprofit charter schools are good, and for-profit charter schools are bad.

Don’t be fooled. There are now only 2 states that allow for-profit charter schools—Arizona and Wisconsin. California changed its laws.

However, 35 states allow for-profit Charter Management Organizations (CMOS) to run their nonprofit charter schools.

40% of the charter schools in Florida are run by for-profit charter management companies. While the individual charter is a nonprofit, it can turn over everything from hiring, to curriculum, to financial management to a for-profit corporation. In Michigan, 80% of the so-called nonprofit charter schools are run by for-profit companies.

To understand how this arrangement works, read this CONTINUE READING: Carol Burris: Don’t Let Democratic Candidates Get Away With: “I’m Against For-Profit Charters” | Diane Ravitch's blog

Charter Scandal a Product of Shabby Law and Ignored Oversight | tultican

Charter Scandal a Product of Shabby Law and Ignored Oversight | tultican

Charter Scandal a Product of Shabby Law and Ignored Oversight

By T. Ultican 7/7/2019

Notoriously clever operators of an online charter empire were indicted for allegedly stealing $50 million dollars. The Grand Jury of San Diego County heard the testimony of 72 witnesses and voted out a 67-count indictment against Sean McManus, Jason Schrock, Justin Schmitt, Eli Johnson, Steven Zant and six others. The charges were centered on the byzantine operations of the A3 Education organization which took full advantage of weak charter school laws in California.

From the indictment,

“Conspirators knowingly obtained state funding for children who were not assigned certificated teachers as required by law, were not in contact with the charter school, and who were not provided any educational services during the dates claimed.”

“Conspirators themselves, and through subordinates courted small school districts across California who were suffering budget woes and suggested they authorize charter schools as a means to generate additional state funding for the district in the form of oversight fees.”

The Small District Authorizer Model

Carol Burris was one of the first people to identify McManus as a predator. In her 2017 investigative report “Charters and Consequences”, she wrote about the Wise school which calls itself a Waldorf inspired charter school. She noted,

“No one really seems to be wise to Wise—except perhaps California STEAM Sonoma, which claims Wise Academy as its project.”

“The former Academy of Arts and Sciences CEO, Sean McManus, described Wise as “a boutique program that people usually have to pay for, so to be part of a free charter school appeals to a lot of people in the area.” Wise and the state funding it brings left the Academy of Arts and Sciences, and CONTINUE READING: Charter Scandal a Product of Shabby Law and Ignored Oversight | tultican

2019 Teacher of the Year: 'Everyone Benefits From Diversity'

2019 Teacher of the Year: 'Everyone Benefits From Diversity'

2019 Teacher of the Year: ‘Everyone Benefits From Diversity’

Rodney Robinson, the 2019 National Teacher of the Year, brought the 7,000 NEA Representative Assembly delegates to their feet on Saturday with an impassioned plea for diversity, increased opportunity for our most vulnerable students, and a day of reckoning for politicians who refuse to fully-fund public education.

“When we talk about education justice,” said NEA President Lily Eskelsen García, “Rodney lives it every day.”

Robinson teaches social studies at Virgie Binford Education Center, a school inside the Richmond Juvenile Detention Center in Richmond, Virginia. He became a teacher to honor his mother, who was denied the opportunity due to poverty and racism in rural Virginia.

As Robinson told RA delegates, his mother was still his greatest teacher, imparting life lessons that shaped his career as an educator – namely an early understanding of the need for equity. Not all children grow up on a level playing field and some need more help in order to achieve.

“A one-size-fits all model of equality does not work in education and education funding,” Robinson said. “Equity ensures that the students suffering from multi-generational poverty receive the same resources and education as those born with a silver spoon in their mouths.”

The staggering budget cuts that have devastated the public education system in so many parts of the country have to be reversed. “The national economy has CONTINUE READING:

NEA RA. Community allies and the strike fund. – Fred Klonsky

NEA RA. Community allies and the strike fund. – Fred Klonsky

NEA RA. COMMUNITY ALLIES AND THE STRIKE FUND.

For the past four years the NEA top brass has tried to change the rules to allow those who don’t work directly in education be allowed to join the NEA in a new community allycategory.

Each time this has come up for a vote it has failed.

I’m not the first person to suggest that a form of organization like a union created in the 19th century is not going to be very effective in a 21st century world without radical changes.

The traditional union model based in a workplace seems outdated to many.

Some might think that the attempt by the NEA leadership to create a category of community ally is a response to the changes in the world of work.

At this year’s Representative Assembly the leadership presented the community ally category for a vote again.

Bylaw Amendment 1.

To create a new membership category of “community ally” and charge the NEA Board of Directors with adopting rules for implementation, while prohibiting such members from nominating, voting for, or holding any elected or appointed Association office or position.

The fourth time was the charm and the Bylaw change received 69% approval.

My sense is that the hesitation of delegates to approve this change these past few CONTINUE READING: NEA RA. Community allies and the strike fund. – Fred Klonsky

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