Agency saved by DeVos appears to have accredited a college with no students, faculty or classrooms | Salon.com

Agency saved by DeVos appears to have accredited a college with no students, faculty or classrooms | Salon.com

Agency saved by DeVos appears to have accredited a college with no students, faculty or classrooms
A joint investigation by USA Today and The Argus Leader calls the ACICS' ability to vet schools into question

The Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges & Schools (ACICS) accredited a college which appears to have no faculty or students after Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos reversed an Obama era decision to shutter the federal agency after it accredited colleges that defrauded students, according to a new investigation. 

The ACICS, which accredited now-shuttered for-profit schools, including ITT Tech, Corinthian Colleges, and Brightwood College, was shut down by former President Obama's administration in 2016. The department argued at the time that the agency, which oversaw 725 schools and more than $3 billion in federal financial aid, "exhibited a profound lack of compliance" with the "most basic" responsibilities of an accreditor.

A judge allowed DeVos, who has often sided with for-profit institutions, to reinstate the ACICS in 2018, The Washington Post reported. A former Obama administration official told the outlet that Devos "ignored her career staff's 57 findings of ACICS's noncompliance." The education secretary similarly came under fire for ignoring career staff when she gutted a debt relief program for students defrauded by the for-profit colleges accredited by ACICS.

After losing dozens of colleges and their membership fees after it was shut down, the agency had a need for new members. It accredited institutions with dubious operations, including a South Dakota "university" which does appears to have "no students, no faculty and no classrooms," according to the joint investigation by USA Today and The Argus Leader.

With its membership down from 290 institutions to just 63, the ACICS accredited Reagan National CONTINUE READING: Agency saved by DeVos appears to have accredited a college with no students, faculty or classrooms | Salon.com

Amplifying Profits Selling Harmful Pedagogy | tultican

Amplifying Profits Selling Harmful Pedagogy | tultican

Amplifying Profits Selling Harmful Pedagogy

By Thomas Ultican 2/19/2020

Amplify education Inc. has a two decade history of trying to profit by selling education technology. The bottom line is even if their pedagogy was good – which it is not – it would be unhealthy for children. The big dream of replacing teachers with digital screens and making gobs of money has a fatal flaw. The last thing 21st century children need is more screen time. It is dangerously unhealthy and delivers low quality teaching.

A History of Profiteers and Disrupters

Greg Gunn a former associate of the Carlyle Group who had earned a Masters of Electrical Engineering from MIT joined with Larry Berger to found Wireless Generation. Berger was a graduate of Yale University with a BA and had been a White House fellow working on Educational Technology at NASA during the Clinton administration. In 2010, News Corporation paid $360 million dollars to acquire Wireless Generation and renamed it Amplify Education, Inc. Including performance incentives, Larry Berger pocketed $40 million and agreed to stay on as head of curriculum.

Amplify a Commercial Venture Profiteering off Public Education

The mogul, Rupert Murdoch, proposed buying a million I-Pads for delivering classroom instruction. However, the Apple operating system did not allow the flexibility needed to load the Wireless Generation software. Amplify chose a CONTINUE READING: Amplifying Profits Selling Harmful Pedagogy | tultican

Food Fight: How 2 Trump Proposals Could Bite Into School Lunch | 89.3 KPCC

Food Fight: How 2 Trump Proposals Could Bite Into School Lunch | 89.3 KPCC

Food Fight: How 2 Trump Proposals Could Bite Into School Lunch

Two pending rule changes meant to reduce what the Trump administration calls abuse of federal benefit programs could also mean hundreds of thousands of children lose access to free school meals.

The first proposed change: The Trump administration wants to tighten states' standards for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also known as food stamps. States have long been able to simplify enrollment in SNAP, allowing families who live near poverty to apply for the benefit with less paperwork and somewhat more flexible rules to qualify. But the administration believes some households are getting benefits they don't deserve.

"Too often, states have misused this flexibility without restraint," said U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue in July, when the change was proposed. "That is why we are changing the rules, preventing abuse of a critical safety net system, so those who need food assistance the most are the only ones who receive it."

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's proposal would force states to tighten SNAP enrollment standards. As a result of the proposed change, USDA estimates more CONTINUE READING: Food Fight: How 2 Trump Proposals Could Bite Into School Lunch | 89.3 KPCC

Public Schools Are a “Pillar of our Democracy.” Trump and DeVos Declare Them “Antiquated and Oppressive.” | janresseger

Public Schools Are a “Pillar of our Democracy.” Trump and DeVos Declare Them “Antiquated and Oppressive.” | janresseger

Public Schools Are a “Pillar of our Democracy.” Trump and DeVos Declare Them “Antiquated and Oppressive.”

If you are going to read one article about public education this week, I recommend Derek Black’s commentary in last Friday’s USA Today, Trump’s ‘Education Freedom’ Plan Is an Attack on Public Schools. That’s Un-American.  Derek Black is a professor of law at the University of South Carolina.

Black begins by challenging what he calls the coded language being used by President Donald Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to pitch DeVos’s one program idea—the one she has pitched unsuccessfully to Congress now for three years running and the program she is pitching again this year.  This is, of course, her idea for a kind of federal private school vouchers at public expense, a $5 billion plan for tuition-tax-credits.

Black explains: “‘Education freedom’—the Trump administration’s new buzzwords—is not about good education for the public. It’s about ending all that public education stands for. The administration won’t claim that precise goal because it’s politically toxic, including with a huge chunk of its own base. Instead, President Donald Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos have carefully aimed at core aspects of public education without ever formally declaring war. But peel away the coded language and convoluted tax schemes, and the only thing left is an agenda incompatible with public education.”

In his State of the Union message, Trump described “American children trapped in government schools.”

Black responds: “‘Government schools’ refers to public schools in general…  (T)he point is to equate public schools with all the negative connotations government conjures—waste, CONTINUE READING: Public Schools Are a “Pillar of our Democracy.” Trump and DeVos Declare Them “Antiquated and Oppressive.” | janresseger

School Reforms That Are Persistent and Admired But Marginal (Part 4) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

School Reforms That Are Persistent and Admired But Marginal (Part 4) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

School Reforms That Are Persistent and Admired But Marginal (Part 4)

Every school reform is a solution to a problem. How a problem is identified (e.g., unilaterally, multilaterally) and who does the framing of it (e.g., policymakers, practitioners, parents), of course, matters. The cartoonish superintendent (or elected official) sees the problem in test scores declining the longer students are in school. His solution: allow 3 year-old toddlers to start school.

Poking fun at the screwy logic of this solution to an identifiable and well-known problem is easy to do. What’s harder is to figure out amid the never-ending flood of school reforms past and present, why some are adopted by districts but stayed mired in a protected corner of the system. And other adopted reforms spread to all schools in a district.

District officials are on the look out constantly for reforms that solve problems they face in school governance, organization, curriculum, and instruction. But these niche-based adopted programs (e.g., charters, Montessori schools, problem-based learning, competency-based learning, International Baccalaureate) persist over time, are admired in what they do–which is why districts embrace them–yet remain marginal to what other schools in the district do daily. It is puzzling.

Before offering my explanation for why this situation is common nationally, past and present, I want to take a crack at the common myth (neither my first nor last CONTINUE READING: School Reforms That Are Persistent and Admired But Marginal (Part 4) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Rounding Up the Top News – Los Angeles Education Examiner

Rounding Up the Top News – Los Angeles Education Examiner

Rounding Up the Top News

Every week we’ll be rounding up the top education news. Here’s the top news from the last eight days.

Who is funding the LAUSD elections?

LAUSD Board elections are becoming more and more expensive. We’ve already discussed how much of that money is from dark money PAC’s, but over the last week larger, legacy media have taken a look at the mega-bucks that are taking over the LAUSD Board elections.

LAist notes that the record for spending in an LAUSD primary election is at least $5.7 million. That record is being challenged with a couple of weeks left, and the figure of over $4 million spent so far is rising rapidly.

About half of those dollars are from retired Manhattan Beach businessman Bill Bloomfield who is sending out hit pieces against incumbent Jackie Goldberg (LAUSD5) and in the open election in LAUSD7. Bloomfield tells the Los Angeles Times that the Board needs a “fresh directive” to justify mailers that, in Goldberg’s words are “vicious lies.”

It seems that the mailers with vicious personal attacks that strain credulity CONTINUE READING: Rounding Up the Top News – Los Angeles Education Examiner

NYC Public School Parents: Class Size and School Overcrowding Citywide Trends

NYC Public School Parents: Class Size and School Overcrowding Citywide Trends

Class Size and School Overcrowding Citywide Trends

Here is a presentation explaining why class size is important, with data showing citywide class size trends since 2006.

What it really means when Trump, DeVos and their allies refer to public schools as ‘government schools’ - The Washington Post

What it really means when Trump, DeVos and their allies refer to public schools as ‘government schools’ - The Washington Post

What it really means when Trump, DeVos and their allies refer to public schools as ‘government schools’

If you were listening to President Trump deliver his State of the Union address this month, you heard him refer to public schools as “government schools.” It was not the first time, and you can expect to hear it with increasing frequency from him, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and their allies as they push to increase programs that use public money for private and religious school education.

Trump and DeVos use the term most often with the adjective “failing” attached as a broad denunciation of the public school system, which advocates see as the nation’s most important civic institution. The president and education secretary say their goal is to provide families with the most education options even as they disparage the one that enrolls most of America’s schoolchildren and continues to get high marks from the public.

It isn’t entirely clear where “government schools” originated in this context. This term showed up in a 1929 encyclical from Pope Pius XI on Christian education in which he calls “unjust and unlawful” any “monopoly, educational or scholastic, which, physically or morally, forces families to make use of government schools, contrary to the dictates of their Christian conscience, or contrary even to their legitimate preferences.”

In 1954, a white Southern segregationist who opposed school desegregation used it, as did free-market economist Milton Friedman in 1955. In the mid-2010s, conservatives in Kansas invoked the term during a battle over public education funding. Now, Trump and DeVos use it as they push their No. 1 education priority: Getting Congress to pass a $5 billion tax credit program that would allow use of public money for children to attend private and religious school.

“Government schools” is invoked mostly by people who are suspicious of public institutions and see government as a problem rather than a solution. That sentiment was perhaps best encapsulated by President Ronald Reagan in an Aug. 12, 1986, speech in which he famously said, “'The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.'”

In this line of thinking, schools should be operated like businesses because the private sector and CONTINUE READING: What it really means when Trump, DeVos and their allies refer to public schools as ‘government schools’ - The Washington Post

CURMUDGUCATION: Choice, Parents, Power, Caveat Emptor, and Stupid

CURMUDGUCATION: Choice, Parents, Power, Caveat Emptor, and Stupid

Choice, Parents, Power, Caveat Emptor, and Stupid

Here's an opening sentence from a recent piece of charter advocacy from the74:

But charter schools and the new, more consumer-oriented public education landscape they represent are here to stay.

Well, no. I'm going to skip past the "here to stay" part, because what caught my attention was the "consumer-oriented pub lic education landscape" bit.

Because that's not what choicers have been pushing. What they have pushed, and established to a greater or lesser degree in many cities, is a business-oriented landscape for folks who want to sell an education-flavored product.

The rhetoric is relentlessly focused on the buyer. Let the money follow the child. Let the parents decide. They know the student's needs better than anyone. They should be empowered to make the educational decisions.

What this means is, "Give them the money and let them fend for themselves." Got a complaint, parents? Too bad-- we gave you your education voucher freedom savings scholarship account money. Everything after that was all on you. Caveat emptor.

Suggest that a choice system needs oversight and accountability, and you'll get the next round of CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Choice, Parents, Power, Caveat Emptor, and Stupid

Getting Rid of Gym Class | Teacher in a strange land

Getting Rid of Gym Class | Teacher in a strange land

Getting Rid of Gym Class

In 2006, Michigan established a ‘merit curriculum’—a set of HS graduation requirements for every student in MI. There was a lot of fanfare around this standardizing and toughening up, with everyone from the governor to local representatives crowing about rigor and high expectations. Here’s the official blurb:

A high school diploma in Michigan will soon say a lot more about the graduate whose name it bears. It will tell employers that our students have mastered the reading, writing, and math skills required for success in the workplace. It will tell college and university admissions officers and career and technical schools the student is ready for the rigors of post-secondary education. It will tell the world — Michigan is committed to having the best-educated workforce.

Many large, suburban high schools in Michigan already had similar graduation requirements—four math credits, four ELA credits, three science and three specific social studies credits, plus two credits in a foreign language and one apiece in the arts, physical education and health, plus an online or technology class. Other schools, especially smaller and rural schools, were compelled to re-jigger their master schedules, course sequences and staffing.

When state legislatures start tinkering with professional work that used to be the strict purview of school districts and their on-site leadership, weird things happen. One of the big shockwaves of the Merit Curriculum was: Everybody takes algebra! Not only CONTINUE READING: Getting Rid of Gym Class | Teacher in a strange land

Statement of Solidarity In Support of Wet’suwet’en First Nation: All The Darkness Shall Be Exposed To The Light – Wrench in the Gears

Statement of Solidarity In Support of Wet’suwet’en First Nation: All The Darkness Shall Be Exposed To The Light – Wrench in the Gears

Statement of Solidarity In Support of Wet’suwet’en First Nation: All The Darkness Shall Be Exposed To The Light

Today I had the luxury of enjoying time with my child who is home from college for a brief visit. As wonderful as it was to have a day off of work, it felt wrong to enjoy a “holiday” celebrating two colonizers. This feeling was particularly strong for me this year. You see my child is now pursuing their education on the un-ceded lands Canada calls British Columbia. It is a place where a significant struggle for Indigenous rights is unfolding. I feel a responsibility to encourage them to educate themselves, to be a good guest, and to support the self-determination efforts of Indigenous peoples who put their lives on the line to protect their territories and culture. I signed a pledge in support of the Wet’suwet’en First Nation and made a contribution towards their legal fees. Information about various ways you can support can be found on the supporter toolkit page here.

I write this statement of solidarity today, hoping my voice can in some small way honor ongoing Wet’suwet’en resistance to the colonial violence being carried on behalf of Coastal GasLink and other pipeline companies and their investors, many of which have ties to the United States. If you haven’t been following the Royal Mounted Canadian Police’s armed CONTINUE READING: Statement of Solidarity In Support of Wet’suwet’en First Nation: All The Darkness Shall Be Exposed To The Light – Wrench in the Gears

Shawgi Tell: Federal Charter Schools Program, a Lifeline for Owners of Capital, Under Threat | Dissident Voice

Federal Charter Schools Program, a Lifeline for Owners of Capital, Under Threat | Dissident Voice

Federal Charter Schools Program, a Lifeline for Owners of Capital, Under Threat

Neoliberals established the Federal Charter Schools Program in 1994, three years after the nation’s first charter school law was passed in Minnesota. Since then, billions of public dollars have been handed over to privately-owned-operated non-profit and for-profit charter schools through the federal program. The money is usually used for charter school start-up costs.

Putting aside the persistently high failure rate among charter schools and the rampant corruption and waste in the segregated charter school sector, charter school advocates are now worried that President Trump’s latest budget (FY21), which is rarely approved as is by Congress, may disadvantage charter schools by potentially depriving them of public funds that belong to the public. President Trump and U.S. Secretary of Education, billionaire Betsy DeVos, want to lump more than two dozen education programs, including charter school funding, into one large grant ($19.4 billion) given to the states to do with as they wish, which would mean that public money for privately-owned-operated non-profit and for-profit charter schools would not be so readily available. The stand-alone $440 million Federal Charter School Program would in effect disappear and it would become harder for privately-owned-operated non-profit and for-profit charter schools to seize public funds under such an arrangement. This change is said to empower states and remove some of the “federal footprint” from education. But an alternative interpretation, one that only time will reveal to be true or false, is that such a governance shift will restrict access to the charter school sector by “smaller players” and privilege the main monopolies in this deregulated sector. The “big players” in CONTINUE READING: Federal Charter Schools Program, a Lifeline for Owners of Capital, Under Threat | Dissident Voice

It's Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... A VERY BUSY DAY | The latest news and resources in education since 2007

Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007

It's Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... A VERY BUSY DAY 

 The latest news and resources in education since 2007

A Look Back: Students Remember More When They Tell Stories

21by Larry Ferlazzo / 12h

I thought that new – and veteran – readers might find it interesting if I began sharing my best posts from over the years. You can see the entire collection here . In 2012, I wrote a short piece for ASCD In Service titled Students Remember More When They Tell Stories . Educators might still find it useful. I also include additional information on the topic among the many links in The Best Sources

New Resources On Race & Racism

by Larry Ferlazzo / 15h

I’m adding these new resources to various “Best” lists. You can find links to all of those many lists that relate to race and racism at “Best” Lists Of The Week: Resources For Teaching & Learning About Race & Racism: Slave Auction Sites is a NY Times interactive. I’m adding it to USEFUL RESOURCES FOR LEARNING ABOUT THE 400TH ANNIVERSARY OF BRINGING ENSLAVED AFRICANS TO AMERICA . Why School Integr

Stop Wasting Money - This App Finds Every Promo Code Online

by Honeysponsored

If you aren't using this tool when you shop online, you're probably wasting money.

SEL Weekly Update

by Larry Ferlazzo / 16h

I’ve recently begun this weekly post where I’ll be sharing resources I’m adding to The Best Social Emotional Learning (SEL) Resources or other related “Best” lists. You might also be interested in THE BEST SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING RESOURCES OF 2019 – PART TWO Finally, check out “Best” Lists Of The Week: Social Emotional Learning Resources . Here are this week’s picks: Trump’s words, bullied kids

Most Popular Posts Of The Week

by Larry Ferlazzo / 18h

I’m making a change in the content of the regular feature. In addition to sharing the top five posts that have received the most “hits” in the preceding seven days (though they may have originally been published on an earlier date), I will also include the top five posts that have actually appeared in the past week. Often, these are different posts. You might also be interested in IT’S THE THIRTE

Update About Videos On This Blog

by Larry Ferlazzo / 21h

ElisaRiva / Pixabay Edublogs is a great platform for blogging, and one of the reasons it’s so great is because it’s constantly upgrading itself. Unfortunately, its most recent upgrade has resulted in any videos that had been embedded in 

Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007