SPECIAL CORONAVIRUS UPDATE Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the 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

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

CBS News Video: “Students fear lack of internet access could leave them behind with online learning”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1h

janeb13 / Pixabay This new CBS News video holds no surprises to those of us who are teaching, but it’s still worth watching:

ASCD Educational Leadership Publishes Great Open-Access Issue On Distance Learning

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1h

ASCD Educational Leadership has just published a great open-access issue on distance learning . Here’s just a portion of the Table of Contents: I’m adding it to THE “BEST OF THE BEST” RESOURCES TO SUPPORT TEACHERS DEALING WITH SCHOOL CLOSURES .

Over 200 Million People Shop Online – Few Know This Trick

by Honeysponsored

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

Interesting Video: Denmark Reopens Elementary Schools

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1h

cromaconceptovisual / Pixabay This was a surprise to me:

YESTERDAY

Infographic: ‘7 Tips For Remote Teaching’

by Larry Ferlazzo / 10h

is the headline of my latest Education Week Teacher column. In it, teacher Wendi Pillars shares a visual representation of the key points from my video of the same name. You can see it here, too: And, here’s the video again in case you haven’t seen it:

Google Creates Ton Of New Interactives At “Family Fun with Arts & Culture”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 11h

Google has unveiled a ton of new interactives at Family Fun with Arts & Culture . It looks like there’s something there for just about every subject and every age. Though it is apparently geared towards “family,” they all could certainly be used in lessons. You can read more about it at Google’s post . However, I’d encourage you just to go there and click around….

My Latest BAM! Radio Show Is On “Grading ELLs Fairly: What Works, What Doesn’t”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 11h

My latest ten-minute BAM! Radio Show is on Grading ELLs Fairly: What Works, What Doesn’t . I’m joined in the conversation by Margo Gottlieb, Ph.D., Becky Corr and Kristin Spears, who have all also contributed written commentaries to my Education Week Teacher column. It was actually recorded prior to the school closure crisis – my apologies for the the posting delay. It shares a lot of great advic

The Best Videos For Teaching & Learning About – Yes – “Poop”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 11h

OpenClipart-Vectors / Pixabay TED-Ed just published an animated video and accompanying lesson about….poop, and I thought it would be a good opportunity for me to pull together various other resources I’ve shared over the years on the topic. It’s actually a great subject for student engagement – despite protestations of “Ewww!” Here’s what I got (let me know if you have other additions): Today’s T

Here’s What The Next Fall Could Look Like For Students & Teachers In California

by Larry Ferlazzo / 15h

California Governor Newsom talked today about what the fall school year might look like here in California. Check it out at the Sacramento Bee article, How life in California schools will look different this fall due to the coronavirus crisis . It actually reflects a lot of the ideas in Could These Be Visions Of What Our School Year Might Look Like In The Fall?

Must Watch Video: “You Clap For Me Now…”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 17h

Clker-Free-Vector-Images / Pixabay You’ll want to watch this amazing video, and I hope someone makes an U.S. version. I couldn’t find it on YouTube, so am only embedding a Twitter and Facebook version: #YouClapForMeNow pic.twitter.com/1Dm2hZb6kc — Tez (@tezilyas) April 14, 2020

Video: “How Quarantines Are Enforced Around the World”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 19h

congerdesign / Pixabay ’m adding this new Wall Street Journa video to: A BEGINNING LIST OF THE BEST RESOURCES FOR LEARNING ABOUT THE CORONAVIRUS The Best Sites For Learning About The World’s Different Cultures

Most Popular Posts Of The Week

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1d

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

Ed Tech Digest

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1d

Eight years ago, in another somewhat futile attempt to reduce the backlog of resources I want to share, I began this occasional “” post where I share three or four links I think are particularly useful and related to…ed tech, including 

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

Whitmer links Betsy DeVos to upcoming coronavirus stay-at-home order protest; organizers say she’s not involved - mlive.com

Whitmer links Betsy DeVos to upcoming coronavirus stay-at-home order protest; organizers say she’s not involved - mlive.com

Whitmer links Betsy DeVos to upcoming coronavirus stay-at-home order protest; organizers say she’s not involved

Supporters of an upcoming “traffic jam” aimed at protesting Michigan’s stay-at-home order say U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has no connection to the event after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said it was “inappropriate” for a sitting Cabinet member to attack her politically.

Whitmer didn’t mention DeVos by name during a Monday press conference, but suggested the West Michigan native was linked to the protest because a group funded in part by members of the DeVos family, the Michigan Freedom Fund, is supporting it.

“I think it’s really inappropriate for a sitting member of the United States President’s cabinet to be waging political attacks on any governor, but obviously on me here at home,” she said. “I think that they should disavow it and encourage people to stay at home and be safe.”

The protest, scheduled for noon Wednesday, was organized by the Michigan Conservative Coalition and also lists the Michigan Freedom Fund as a host. Participants are being asked to stay in their cars and drive around the Michigan Capitol building to start a traffic jam while honking horns and displaying signs or painted vehicles to protest the stay-at-home order.

“We WANT gridlock,” the event description reads.

Nick Wasmiller, a spokesperson for the DeVos family, said the family hasn’t funded the protest and hasn’t offered prior support to the Michigan Conservative Coalition.

“They understand the frustration of fellow Michiganders, however, as elements of the governor’s top-down approach CONTINUE READING: Whitmer links Betsy DeVos to upcoming coronavirus stay-at-home order protest; organizers say she’s not involved - mlive.com

Jack Schneider: How covid-19 has laid bare inequities in public education - The Washington Post

How covid-19 has laid bare inequities in public education - The Washington Post

How covid-19 has laid bare the vast inequities in U.S. public education

There is something about a crisis that has a way of shining light on stark realities — and nowhere is that truer than in education.

The closing of schools during the covid-19 pandemic and the quick switch to distance learning has laid bare the gaping and persistent inequities in educational opportunities that exist across the United States.

This post examines how that looks in the era of the pandemic and how we might look at things differently when schools reopen, which they will — eventually.

This was written by Jack Schneider, a scholar of education history and policy at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell and the author of several books, including “Beyond Test Scores.” He is also the co-host of an education podcast called “Have You Heard” with Jennifer Berkshire.

By Jack Schneider

For the past generation, we have been talking about the achievement gap in American public education — the fact that low income students and students from historically marginalized racial groups, on average, score lower than their more privileged peers. Chiefly, this matter has been treated as a problem with the schools. CONTINUE READING: How covid-19 has laid bare inequities in public education - The Washington Post

ANDRE PERRY: Experienced teachers could retire in droves by the time schools reopen

Experienced teachers could retire in droves by the time schools reopen

Teachers could retire in droves by the time schools reopen
The disruptions after Hurricane Katrina sparked a major exodus of experienced teachers. Could the same happen to schools nationwide after the coronavirus pandemic?

Eventually we will flatten the curve, create a vaccine for Covid-19 and re-open school buildings that have been shuttered for months. But schools won’t look the same.

In particular, students may not see some of their most beloved teachers when they come back to school next year.

A study of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina offers powerful insights into what we might see on the other side of our social distancing efforts. One of the most important, and potentially devastating, effects of our current extended period of homeschooling is a likely flood of early retirements.

Comparisons to post-Katrina New Orleans make a lot of sense. The causes of our impending recession are more akin to what happened in the Gulf South after Hurricane Katrina in August of 2005 than to the housing crisis, sparked in 2008: An unprecedented, singular natural disaster forced multiple cities to shut down schools and businesses for months. An obvious difference is people aren’t being forced to leave their homes because of the coronavirus. Yet, just as the pandemic is upending our entire society, Katrina forever changed Southern Louisiana and parts of Mississippi, its schools, and the mindset of anyone who lived through that CONTINUE READING: Experienced teachers could retire in droves by the time schools reopen

Teacher Tom: Let's Not Forget What We Lose With Those Screens Between Us and the Other People

Teacher Tom: Let's Not Forget What We Lose With Those Screens Between Us and the Other People

Let's Not Forget What We Lose With Those Screens Between Us and the Other People

I've been taking a lot of long and necessarily solitary walks these days. The weather has been glorious and, frankly, there's not a lot else to do. Occasionally, I encounter people coming toward me from the opposite direction. The protocol is for both of us to move as far to the right as we can in an attempt to create the six foot separation that is the depressing hallmark of our current era. Sometimes one or the other of us has to step out into the street because most of the neighborhood sidewalks aren't wide enough to accommodate both of us. I've been trying to make eye contact, to smile, and to greet my fellow pedestrians. It's not the usual big city protocol, but these are extraordinary times.

The other day I was making my way up the long hill of Dexter Avenue after a turn through Fremont. I spied a young man in the distance, a boy really, maybe still in middle school. We were to pass one another on a wide section of the sidewalk so I moved to my side well in advance of our encounter and he to his. Then, just as we approached one another, just as I was about to nod my head in greeting, he began to drift toward the center of the sidewalk, toward me. It didn't seem intentional. Indeed, I felt myself pulled toward him as well. It was almost as if we were falling into one another's gravitational fields.

Several years ago, there was a commercial on television featuring screen-based technology that allowed children to "paint" on their screens. The pitch featured a girl CONTINUE READING: Teacher Tom: Let's Not Forget What We Lose With Those Screens Between Us and the Other People

“The Coronavirus Just Might End School Privatization Nonsense” | Diane Ravitch's blog

“The Coronavirus Just Might End School Privatization Nonsense” | Diane Ravitch's blog

“The Coronavirus Just Might End School Privatization Nonsense”

This is an essay I wrote for Education Week. I thank them for their close reading, fact-checking, and careful editing.

The vast majority of the nation’s schoolchildren are out of school because of the deadly coronavirus. Parents are frantically trying to figure out how to keep their children engaged in learning, and many districts are providing online instruction or recommending resources for lessons. After teaching her two children for a week, Shonda Rhimes, the creator and producer of hit TV shows, tweeted, “I think teachers should be paid a billion dollars a year. Or a week.” Another parent forced into homeschooling joked, “Is there any way I can get one of my children transferred to someone else’s class?”

Most parents don’t feel qualified to teach their children at home, especially since museums, libraries, and other public spaces are also closed. They don’t long to be home schoolers; they long for schools to reopen. It turns out that parents and students alike really appreciate their local schools, really respect their teachers, and can’t wait for schools to restart.

Among the sweetest videos on Twitter these days are the teacher parades, such as the one in Lawrence, Kan., where elementary school teachers drive their cars in a slow line around the neighborhood, waving to their children, who stand on their porches and wave back to CONTINUE READING: “The Coronavirus Just Might End School Privatization Nonsense” | Diane Ravitch's blog

Louisiana Governor Closes School Facilities for Rest of School Year | deutsch29

Louisiana Governor Closes School Facilities for Rest of School Year | deutsch29

Louisiana Governor Closes School Facilities for Rest of School Year

Louisiana governor, John Bel Edwards plans to issue a formal proclamation closing Louisiana schools for the remainder of the 2019-20 school year.

WDSU.com includes a video in which Edwards declares the following during a April 13, 2020, press release while in Monroe, LA:

It is my intention to announce that school will not resume in the sense that students are going to go back to school, going to the school building.

Education will continue, the school year continues, but they will not be going back onto the campuses.

According to the April 13, 2020, Baton Rouge Advocate, Edwards plans to issue a formal declaration “later this week after consulting with state education leaders.”

On April 08, 2020, the Louisiana Association of School Superintendents petitioned Edwards to close schools for the remainder of the school year. One day later, on April 09, 2020, the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) issued its own letter “respectfully request[ing] that [Edwards] act now in making a decision to formally extend school facilities closures for the remainder of the Spring term.”

Louisiana Governor Closes School Facilities for Rest of School Year | deutsch29

My latest book, A Practical Guide to Digital Research: Getting the Facts and Rejecting the Lies, is now available for purchase on Amazon and via Garn Press!

Follow me on Twitter @deutsch29blog

Grading for the Pandemic Term | JD2718

Grading for the Pandemic Term | JD2718

Grading for the Pandemic Term

How are we going to do it? That’s a great question. Soon the UFT will meet with the DoE to shape guidance to schools. This would be a great moment for teachers to weigh in, which is exactly what a group from Francis Lewis has done here. I actually was invited to sit down with them (metaphorically, I’m not allowed in the same room as them irl today), but could not make it.

But after they were done, I looked at their notes, and thought, I like these. I’d like to change some stuff.  So that’s what I’ll do. First comes their suggestion, then mine, then some of my thoughts. You should express your opinion, too. The more voices, the better.

Proposed Grading Policy for Spring 2020 (from several teachers at FLHS)

We agree with the mayor that now is a time to show compassion for the students we serve. We understand that they and their families are suffering from enormous stress, anxiety, and perhaps even the loss of loved ones. We understand some of them lack sufficient technology to participate. We therefore propose the following policy for the remainder of our school year:

1. Do no harm. Wherever students were at the time schools were closed, we agree not to lower their grades. We cannot penalize students for circumstances beyond their control.

2. Teachers shall have flexibility to use either numerical grades, or pass/ fail options. Students who may have been on the cusp of passing and show promise can receive a P as a grade. High achieving students entering or applying for colleges can still get grades of 98 or higher, for example. Teachers will have wide latitude in raising student grades for excellent work or participation as they see fit.
3. Classes based on cumulative learning will do a thorough review in September 2020, CONTINUE READING: Grading for the Pandemic Term | JD2718

CURMUDGUCATION: FL: Court Delivers Another Blow To Public Education

CURMUDGUCATION: FL: Court Delivers Another Blow To Public Education

FL: Court Delivers Another Blow To Public Education

Florida's HB 7069 is the gift that just keeps on giving. Or rather, taking. This cobbled-together Frankenstein's monster of a bill included a variety of methods for draining the blood from public education, and one of its most astonishing pieces of legalized theft was just upheld by the court.

The bill was shepherded through by then-House speaker Richard Corcoran; he's now the state's education head honcho. The most famous portion of the bill was the Schools of Hope, a name that only makes sense if you mean that these schools give hope to privatizers and profiteers. Schools of Hope are the ultimate use of the tactics of weakening public schools and then publicly labelling them failures; this program encouraged edu-biz entrepreneurs to open up charter schools right next door to "failing" public schools, thereby tapping into a ready-made market. The program is already targeted for expansion by including Trump's "opportunity zones" and by expanding the definition of "failing" for schools. It's a fine policy for a state legislature that is absolutely devoted to gutting public education and letting privateers feast on the pieces. Schools of Hope are the anti-Samaritan law, a law in which the state finds struggling schools beaten and lying beside the road (and by "finds" I mean "helps beat up") and then, instead of calling for assistance, waves over a bunch of vultures.

But schools of hope might not be the most audacious, astonishing attack on public schools.

While plenty of Florida legislators have close personal connections to the charter school industry, CONTINUE READING:  CURMUDGUCATION: FL: Court Delivers Another Blow To Public Education

School Nurses Join Fight Against Coronavirus - NEA Today

School Nurses Join Fight Against Coronavirus - NEA Today

School Nurses Join Fight Against Coronavirus

After a grueling shift, exhausted nurses and doctors walk out hospital doors, their tired faces red and raw where masks have rubbed against their skin for many long hours. But when they’re met by a chorus of cheers and salutes from firefighters, police, and EMTs, those tired faces break into smiles, and, a lot of the time, tears.

Among them is Sue Weimer, the school nurse from Shawnee High School in Burlington County, New Jersey. Now she’s on the front lines, caring for the surge of coronavirus patients as a per diem nurse at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where she had been working part time as an ER nurse on weekends during the school year.

The cheers from other first responders and the waves, applause and signs saying “Thank You” from people standing on porches or in apartment windows helps buoy spirits, as does the outpouring of support Weimer says she’s received from from friends and neighbors. The support is tangible — from donated meals from area restaurants to headbands with buttons sewn onto them so hospital staff can attach masks and head covering bands around them to avoid irritating their skin.

On social media, Weimer sends encouraging messages to students and their families.

“I want to let kids know their school nurses are still here and we’re doing what we CONTINUE READING: School Nurses Join Fight Against Coronavirus - NEA Today

Teacher Bashers Gonna Bash — Even In a Pandemic | Gary Rubinstein's Blog

Teacher Bashers Gonna Bash — Even In a Pandemic | Gary Rubinstein's Blog

Teacher Bashers Gonna Bash — Even In a Pandemic

Teaching during a pandemic is challenging.

And some teachers are facing more hardships than others.  There are teachers who have been infected with Covid-19.  There are teachers who have family members who have been infected and are currently fighting for their lives.  There are teachers who have family members who have already died of Covid-19.  There are teachers who are physically healthy but are suffering mental trauma from all that is going on.  And, yes, there are teachers who have died — infected, some of them, in schools that should have been closed a week or two sooner.

One challenge that some teachers have is that they have their own children at home.  Not to diminish the very real issues that teachers who do not have children at home are facing, but since this is the struggle that I am dealing with most, it is the one that I can address with the most detail.  I have two children, 12 years old and 9 years old.  My older child has adjusted pretty well to remote learning so far.  My younger child has not.  For me, this is my hardship and I’m lucky that, at least for now, this is the thing that occupies a lot of my energy.  I could have much bigger problems.

This crisis has put a lot of people out of work.  Certain jobs have temporarily ceased to CONTINUE READING: Teacher Bashers Gonna Bash — Even In a Pandemic | Gary Rubinstein's Blog

Teacher Tom: I Am Not Afraid; I Am Afraid

Teacher Tom: I Am Not Afraid; I Am Afraid

I Am Not Afraid; I Am Afraid

I'm not afraid of this virus. I'll either get it or I won't. My immune system will either fight it off or it won't. It's like every other virus in that sense. I'm practicing social distancing, staying home, and washing my hands because that's what we're doing to keep our healthcare system from being overrun, but I'm comfortable with the fact that I will one day slip up, or someone close to me will slip up, and I'll contract the highly contagious illness that goes with it. There's even a decent chance I've already survived it given all the travel I did between December and March and the fact that this virus is as likely to reveal itself through symptoms as not. There are a handful of doctors, nurses, and even some infectious disease specialists in my social circle and every one of them privately confirms my assumptions, with the caveat that there's a slim chance that I get lucky enough to dodge it for a couple years until a vaccine is developed and deployed.

Mine isn't a manufactured fearlessness, one to wear like armor against anxiety. I'm genuinely unconcerned about this virus and I've been genuinely unconcerned about all viruses during my entire career as a preschool teacher. I've always washed my hands and taken other common sense CONTINUE READING: Teacher Tom: I Am Not Afraid; I Am Afraid

When will schools reopen after the coronavirus? - The Washington Post

When will schools reopen after the coronavirus? - The Washington Post

When will schools reopen? It depends on where you live, who’s in charge and whether they believe Anthony Fauci.

When will schools reopen in the United States?

The unsatisfying answer is that it all depends — on where you live, who is in charge and how much the decision-makers respect the opinion of infectious-disease specialist Anthony S. Fauci and the other scientists leading the fight to stem the spread of the coronavirus.

Officials in 21 states have ordered or recommended that all schools — many of which have been closed for at least a month already — stay shuttered throughout the end of the 2019-2020 school year, according to a tally kept by Education Week. Two more states are closed “until further notice,” while other states have varying opening dates, some of which have been pushed well into May. Tens of millions of students are at home, attempting distance learning with varying degrees of success.

President Trump has said repeatedly he wants to open the country for business as soon as possible, often mentioning May 1 as a goal. Yet epidemiologists are warning that the coronavirus, which has already killed more than 22,000 people in the United States, will be a threat to public health for many months. And Fauci, who is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and who has become the medical community’s leading spokesman on the pandemic, has suggested that schools may be able to open in the fall if current efforts to “flatten the curve” are successful. He was nothing if not indefinite.

“You know, it is unpredictable, but you can get a feel for it if we start talking about the things where the curve goes down,” Fauci said at a recent White House briefing. “How we respond and what kind of a rebound we see or don’t see, I think is going to have a lot of influence probably more immediately on things like summer camps than it does in the fall.” (Trump on Sunday night retweeted a call for the CONTINUE READING: When will schools reopen after the coronavirus? - The Washington Post

How Remote School Can Work in the COVID-19 Pandemic - The Atlantic

How Remote School Can Work in the COVID-19 Pandemic - The Atlantic

What Teachers Need to Make Remote Schooling Work
The coronavirus pandemic is increasing academic gaps, and educators are scrambling to reduce them.

Editor’s Note: This story is the 14th in our series “On Teaching,” which aims to collect the wisdom and knowledge of veteran educators. As the coronavirus pandemic has forced the vast majority of American students to learn at home or remotely, we’re asking some of the country’s most experienced and accomplished teachers to share their advice and identify their students’ most urgent needs.

San Francisco’s Mission High School is one of the most diverse in the nation. Its roughly 1,100 students hold at least 47 different passports; more than 60 percent of students are considered low income. Even before the coronavirus threw the nation into an economic crisis, most of Mission High’s students already struggled with access to basic needs—health care, housing, food, or access to the internet or computers—in a city among the nation’s wealthiest. Pirette McKamey, an English teacher of 27 years and Mission’s first-year principal, estimates—based on two weeks of calls and emails to Mission High families after San Francisco’s public schools shut down on March 16—that close to 30 percent of students don’t have a computer at home or access to high-quality internet.

San Francisco’s public schools didn’t begin formal remote instruction until today, but many teachers at Mission High kicked into high gear in the very first week of closures, providing voluntary assignments and attempting to connect with every student—including those with disconnected phone lines, those in homeless families, and recent immigrants speaking only Arabic, Spanish, or Mandarin. McKamey and other teachers have lent out laptops, and the district swiftly raised funds for additional computers, internet access, and free meals—the demand for which has doubled each week since the district began giving out food on March 17. Meanwhile, teachers are collaborating to adapt their curriculum to learning online, a big challenge in a school that is CONTINUE READING: How Remote School Can Work in the COVID-19 Pandemic - The Atlantic

“Schools and Communities First” Records Breaking Number of Signatures - LA Progressive

“Schools and Communities First” Records Breaking Number of Signatures - LA Progressive

“Schools and Communities First” Records Breaking Number of Signatures

ackers of the Schools and Communities First Ballot Initiative didn’t let a little thing like a global pandemic stop them from submitting 1.7 million signatures to the California Secretary of State to earn a spot on the November ballot. The measure needs 50%+1 vote to pass. California’s fiscal analyst estimates it would raise an estimated $8-$12.5 billion a year for education and public safety by changing the state constitution and raising property taxes on California’s largest businesses.

“Now more than ever, we need to support those heroes on the front lines who have been caring for the most vulnerable, educating our children, and keeping Californians safe,” said Alex Stack, communications director for the Schools & Communities First campaign, in a press statement.

Backers of the Schools and Communities First Ballot Initiative didn’t let a little thing like a global pandemic stop them from submitting 1.7 million signatures to the California Secretary of State to earn a spot on the November ballot.

To qualify for the fall ballot, Schools and Communities First would need nearly one million verified signatures (read: signatures of voters registered in California). Because of poor handwriting, error recording the signatures or people just putting bad information on the signature sheets, the state recommends gathering 20% more signatures than the minimum requirement.

Schools and Communities First went farther, gathering a record-making 1.7 million signatures – the vast majority of which were collected before COVID19 changed the way people live their lives.

If this news seems familiar, it’s because a similar measure has already qualified for the fall ballot. This replacement measure reduces the number of businesses that would be impacted, alleviating the concerns of some small business owners. According to Stack, once the signatures on the new measure are approved, the other measure will be removed from the ballot.

If passed, Schools and Communities First would raise money by repealing a portion of the iconic CONTINUE READING: “Schools and Communities First” Records Breaking Number of Signatures - LA Progressive

Please Accept My Resignation From The 'Ed Reform' Movement - Philly's 7th Ward

Please Accept My Resignation From The 'Ed Reform' Movement - Philly's 7th Ward

PLEASE ACCEPT MY RESIGNATION FROM THE ‘ED REFORM’ MOVEMENT

To all my disrupter friends, please accept this letter as my resignation from the so-called “education reform movement.”

For more than 20 years I’ve been lost in the reform forest, but no more. For too long I’ve relied on false prophets who have filled me with false consciousness and bribed me with bank statements. 

I have new advisors now. Many of them. They stay in touch with me daily, contact my family members, inquire about my personal life, and offer constant feedback about my career. They have taken a lot of care to educate me and I appreciate it.

While there are too many of them to count, here’s an incomplete picture to give you an idea:

A small sampling of the people who have called me names, used stereotypes against me, and assigned my activism and ideas to wealthy white masters.

These are people who have dedicated themselves to tirelessly rescuing lost fools and returning them to their forever families in government schools. What amazing grace.

They want me to tell you a few things, so here goes.

I renounce every critique I’ve ever made about the American public education system. Our public schools are the best in the world if you remove the children who aren’t white. The test scores don’t lie when white kids pass them. Unfortunately, the tests don’t tell us anything meaningful about nonwhite people.

Our nation’s teachers are faultless heroes. Their unions are freedom fighters. If there are racialized outcomes it is because children are too poor to learn, their parents too irresponsible to teach them, and their politicians refuse to provide schools more money to deal with them. 

If we really want better outcomes we will split them into small cohorts and CONTINUE READING: Please Accept My Resignation From The 'Ed Reform' Movement - Philly's 7th Ward

Millions of public school students will suffer from school closures, education leaders have concluded - The Washington Post

Millions of public school students will suffer from school closures, education leaders have concluded - The Washington Post

Millions of public school students will suffer from school closures, education leaders have concluded

Only weeks after the coronavirus pandemic forced American schools online, education leaders across the country have concluded that millions of children’s learning will be severely stunted, and are planning unprecedented steps to help them catch up.

In Miami, school will extend into the summer and start earlier in the fall, at least for some students. In Cleveland, schools may shrink the curriculum to cover only core subjects. In Columbia, Mo., this year’s lessons will be woven into next year’s.

Some experts suggest holding back more kids, a controversial idea, while others propose a half-grade step-up for some students, an unconventional one. A national teachers union is proposing a massive national summer school program.

“We have to have a recovery plan for education,” said Eric Gordon, chief executive for the Cleveland Metropolitan School District. “I’m really worried that people think schools and colleges just flipped to digital and everything’s fine and we can just return to normal. That’s simply not the case.”

The ideas being considered will require political will and logistical savvy, and they are already facing resistance from teachers and parents. They’ll also require money, and lots of it, at a time when a cratering economy is devastating state and local budgets, with plunging tax collections and rising costs. As Congress considers another coronavirus spending package, schools’ ability to make up ground may hinge on how much more they can pry from Washington.

The $2.2 trillion stimulus package approved last month included $13.5 billion for K-12 education. In the next round, a coalition of school administrators and teachers unions is seeking more than $200 billion, citing those depleted state budgets.

Sign up for our Coronavirus Updates newsletter to track the outbreak. All stories linked in the newsletter are free to access.

In New York state, for instance, schools were poised for deep cuts, with the state anticipating revenue losses as high as $10 billion. The stimulus package will reverse those cuts, but without more bailout CONTINUE READING: Millions of public school students will suffer from school closures, education leaders have concluded - The Washington Post