KEEP UP/ CATCH UP WITH DIANE RAVITCH'S BLOG A site to discuss better education for all

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

KEEP UP/ CATCH UP WITH DIANE RAVITCH'S BLOG 

A site to discuss better education for all

TODAY

Texas: Public Schools Outperform Charter Schools

by dianeravitch / 10min

William Gumbert relies on data from the Texas State Education Departmentvto demonstrate they the state’s woefully underfunded public schools outperform the well-funded overhyped charter schools. The real puzzle in Texas and elsewhere is why billionaires and financiers continue to fund failure. See the analysis here .

Texas: Charter Schools Grow Rapidly Despite Inferior Performance Compared to Public Schools

by dianeravitch / 1h

William Gumbert prepared a graphic portrayal of the dramatic growth of privately managed charter schools in Texas. Two facts stand out from his presentation: 1) Charter schools are diverting billions of dollars from the state’s underfunded public schools. 2) Public schools perform better than charter schools. Public officials are turning public money over to entrepreneurs at a furious pace withou

Carl Cohn: Teachers Are the Foundation for Superintendents’ Success Plus Some Memories of San Diego

by dianeravitch / 2h

Carl Cohn is a veteran educator who served as superintendent in Long Beach and in San Diego. He has received many awards for his service. The selection of a new superintendent in Long Beach prompted him to write his thoughts about previous crises faced by the district and about the importance of teachers today. No superintendent can succeed without building relationships of mutual respect and col

Vicki Cobb: Why Does Science Matter?

39by dianeravitch / 3h

The Trump administration is the most anti-science federal government in modern history. In every department and agency, Trump minions have pushed out scientists and replaced them with religious fanatics, Trump loyalists, or incompetents, is some combination thereof. Vicki Cobb, author of science 

NY Times: Economic Stimulus Bill is a Bonanza for Wealthiest

60by dianeravitch / 11h

Jesse Drucker of the New York Times writes that the federal stimulus bill will bestow a bonanza on the nation’s wealthiest individuals and corporations. While millions of Americans are jobless, and countless small businesses are facing bankruptcy, the 1% are scooping up unearned benefits, thanks to the unscrupulous strategies of Senate Republicans. Drucker writes: As the federal government dispen

New York City: Parents and Advocates Write to Mayor and Chancellor

26by dianeravitch / 17h

What happens now to students in New York City, the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic? Here is an open letter to Mayor DeBlasio and Chancellor Carranza from the city’s leading advocates for children: April 24, 2020 Dear Mayor de Blasio and Chancellor Carranza, The COVID-19 pandemic has brought the ugliest inequities in our society into the glaring light for all to see. We must not continue the

Arkansas: An Urgent Appeal to State Officials

100+by dianeravitch / 17h

This letter was written by Rev./Dr. Anika Whitfield of Grassroots Arkansas: The LRSD should not and must not force employees to report to work against the wisdom of the CDC, national standards and criteria during this pandemic. LRSD paraprofessionals should not have to ignore their own health concerns for themselves, their families, and their communities to prevent job or compensation loss. The w

Help Amy McGrath Defeat Mitch McConnell! Save America from the Grim Reaper!

45by dianeravitch / 19h

Mitch McConnell is a national menace. He wants states to declare bankruptcy and break all their pension contracts. He brags about being “the Grim Reaper,” the man who kills any legislation that might help regular people. If states are forced to go bankrupt, it will destroy the retirement security of teachers, police, firefighters, and all public sector workers. He takes care of his fat cat donors

Arkansas: Reasons Why Governor Hutchinson Should Care About Virus in the Prisons

by dianeravitch / 20h

Blogger “Like a Renegade” observes that Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson is indifferent to the presence of COVID 19 in the prison population. The blogger reminds the governor that prisoners interact with a large number of staff who then go out into the general population and may spread the disease. She also points out that most inmates are in jail for a term, or for a death sentence. The virus is

Hail and Farewell! Achieve Is Finished!

28by dianeravitch / 21h

Unless you are a policy wonk or live inside the Beltway, you probably never heard of Achieve. Achieve is an organization that was founded in 1996 by governors and business leaders to raise academic standards and to advocate for college and career readiness. Achieve is closing its doors this summer. Is the job done or did the money run out or did people just get tired of the same old same old? Yea

William Doyle and Pasi Sahlberg Explain to Checker Finn Why Play Is Good for ALL Children

44by dianeravitch / 22h

A few months ago, William Doyle and Pasi Sahlberg published their book about the importance of play, called Let the Children Play: How More Play Will Save Our Schools and Help Children Thrive . Checker Finn Jr. criticized their book in the conservative journal Education Next, maintaining that middle-class and affluent kids need to play, but poor kids need to keep their noses to the academic grind

Manufacturer of Lysol: Please Don’t Drink Lysol

99by dianeravitch / 23h

Trump, who is not a medical doctor, suggested at his daily campaign rally yesterday, that his experts should study the effects of ingesting disinfectants, since they are known to kill coronavirus. Or inserting ultraviolet light inside the body or staying in bright sunshine. The manufacturer of Lysol, a leading disinfectant, released a warning to the public: Do not ingest Lysol. Anderson Cooper as

Former Labradoodle Breeder Selected to Lead U.S. Coronavirus Task Force

64by dianeravitch / 23h

The New York Times reported that Alex Azar , the head of Health and Human Services, had chosen a former labradoodle breeder to lead the federal government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. No, this is not a story from the Onion. This one takes the cake. Lincoln, said historian Doris Kearns, was surrounded by a “team of rivals.” Trump has surrounded himself with a team of incompetents. WASHI

Mitch McConnell to Kentucky and Other States: Drop Dead!

87by dianeravitch / 1d

Mitch McConnell, Senator from Kentucky, says that the federal government should let the states go bankrupt. This would destroy the pensions and health insurance of every public sector worker, including teachers, police, fire fighters, and others. Workers in McConnell’s home state, his own constituents, would be grievously harmed. So would public sector workers in every other state that was forced

APR 23

FOX News Falls Silent About Trump’s Favorite Virus Drug

by dianeravitch / 1d

For several weeks, Trump has been promoting an anti-malaria drug called hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19. FOX News has enthusiastically echoed Trump’s claims, disregarding the judgment of medical doctors who warned that the drug’s effectiveness had not been proven in clinical trials. But suddenly FOX went silent. The Washington Post reporters Paul Farhi and Elahe Izadi explained. At the heigh

Michigan: Federal Appeals Court Rules that Students in Detroit Have a Fundamental Right to Literacy

200+by dianeravitch / 1d

In a major decision affecting students in Detroit, a federal appeals court overruled a lower court decision and concluded that students have a fundamental right to literacy. The dissenting judge, appointed by Trump, ruled that there is no such right. The case began in 2016, when Rick Snyder was governor. The Detroit News reported: The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that Detroi

Teresa Hanafin: There He Goes Again, More Lies from the Trumpeter

by dianeravitch / 1d

Teresa Hanafin in Fast Forward in the Boston Globe : Some interesting quotes for your reading pleasure: CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield to The Washington Post: “There’s a possibility that the assault of the virus on our nation next winter will actually be even more difficult than the one we just went through. We’re going to have the flu epidemic and the coronavirus epidemic at the same time.” Tr

David Dayen: Who Will the Federal Reserve Bail Out? Big Corporations? Wall Street?

23by dianeravitch / 1d

David Dayen writes a daily report on COVID-19 for The American Prospect. Today’s post is very disturbing, and it has so many links included that you will have to open the post to read the source of his data and assertions. Bear in mind that the Fed is giving away OUR money, not theirs and certainly not Trump’s. Who is getting it? That’s a secret. Dayen writes: Yesterday we found out that two luxu

Senate Intelligence Committee Agrees that Russia Intervened in 2016 Election

by dianeravitch / 1d

For the entirety of Trump’s time in office, he has ridiculed the claim that Russia intervened in the 2016 election. He called this the “Russia hoax” and has attempted repeatedly to discredit the government intelligence agencies that reached this conclusion. He portrays himself as the victim of a “deep state” conspiracy to undermine the legitimacy of his election. He even tasked Attorney General W

Alexander and Blunt: Government Needs a “Shark Tank” Competition to Produce More Virus Tests

28by dianeravitch / 1d

Lamar Alexander and Roy Blunt are senior Republican Senators who chair important committees. In this article, they propose a “shark tank” competition for government agencies, believing that the funding and the competition will ramp up the number of tests produced. They admit that the federal government has failed to supply the numbers of reliable tests needed by the American public to feel safe a

NAEP Scores Drop in History, Civics: DeVos Blames Public Schools, Not NCLB, RTTT, ESSA, CCSS

100by dianeravitch / 1d

The National Center for Education Statistics released NAEP scores in history and geography, which declined, and in civics, which were flat. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos went into her customary rant against public schools, but the real culprit is a failed federal policy of high-stakes testing narrowly focused on reading and math. If DeVos were able to produce data to demonstrate that scores

George Packer: America Is a Failed State

100+by dianeravitch / 1d

In an illuminating article in The Atlantic, George Packer argues that America is a failed state. Trump didn’t “make America great again.” He took its weaknesses, frailties, fault lines, and failures and deepened them. He didn’t create them. They were there, the bullies, the racists, the white nationalists, the haters. He gave them license to come into the daylight. He encouraged them. When the vi

Heritage Foundation’s “National Coronavirus Task Force” Recommends Universal Vouchers and Uncertified Teachers

500+by dianeravitch / 2d

Talk about taking advantage of a crisis! The rightwing extremist Heritage Foundation has issued its own report on how to recover from the pandemic. They cover it with patriotic glitz to make it appear like a government report, which it is not. It calls itself the “National Coronavirus Recovery Commission. But it is just a self-aggrandizing report from a rightwing think tank funded by the usual su

APR 22

Stuart Egan: The Step-by-Step Destruction of Democracy in North Carolina

39by dianeravitch / 2d

In this powerful post , NBCT teacher Stuart Egan describes the calculated attack on democracy and social justice in North Carolina. The state was once considered one of the most enlightened in the South. It is now one of the most regressive, taken down by the Tea Party, by a legislature dominated by ALEC, and by politicians determined to destroy opportunity for people of color and poor people. Eg

Andy Hargreaves: What to Do and What Not to Do When You Are Teaching Kids at Home

66by dianeravitch / 2d

Andy Hargreaves recently retired from his position at Boston College, where he won international acclaim for his work supporting teachers and promoting excellence and equity in schooling. He has been a leader in researching and disseminating strategies for educational effectiveness. In this article that was published on Valerie Strauss’s Answer Sheet blog in the Washington Post, Hargreaves offers

NYC: Success Academy Lays Off Employees, Fires Teachers

100+by dianeravitch / 2d

Alex Zimmerman of Chalkbeat reports that Success Academy is laying off employees and firing teachers . The layoffs, about 4% of “non-core” employees, were laid because of the financial crunch caused by the pandemic. The teachers were fired, the chain said, because of their performance. SA has a board of billionaires and millionaires and is known for its lavish spending on test prep rallies (“Slam

An Open Letter to Joe Biden, by Diane Ravitch and Carol Burris

300+by dianeravitch / 3d

Carol Burris and I wrote “ An Open Letter to Joe Biden, ” which was published by Valerie Strauss on her blog “The Answer Sheet” at the Washington Post. Valerie Strauss begins: During the Obama administration, public school advocates led by Diane Ravitch opposed the education agenda of Education Secretary Arne Duncan, who had embraced standardized testing, charter schools and the Common Core State

APR 21

CDC Director Warns of Resurgence of Virus Next Winter

27by dianeravitch / 3d

The stringent restrictions in place are “flattening the curve,” but the director of the Centers for Disease Control warned of the possibility of a new outbreak next winter. Even as states move ahead with plans to reopen their economies, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned Tuesday that a second wave of the novel coronavirus will be far more dire because it is like

Betsy DeVos Hands Out Another $200 Million, Mostly to Rich Corporate Charter Chains

1Kby dianeravitch / 3d

In 1994, the Clinton administration started a small federal program and funded it with $4.5 million to help launch new charter schools. At the time, charter schools were a new idea, and there were not many of them. The first charter school had opened in Minnesota in 1991, and six states passed laws authorizing charters in 1992. In 1994, the idea was too new to have produced results or research. S

Peter Greene: Why Business Ideas Don’t Work in Education

32by dianeravitch / 3d

Peter Greene once again nails a basic fact: education is not a business, and it can’t be run like a business. Business ideas work well in the world of commerce, where businesses compete to provide a better product or better service. Probably there will be readers who question how well business is functioning right now, as megastores like Walmart gobble up neighborhood stores, destroying Main Stre

John Thompson Reviews Rachel Maddow’s Book “Blowout”

100+by dianeravitch / 3d

Who better to review a book about the depredations of the fossil fuel industry than John Thompson, who lives in Oklahoma, where that industry controls the legislature? Thompson pointed out when he sent this review that the federal government spends ten times more to subsidize fossil fuels than it spends on education. He writes: Rachel Maddow’s Blowout: Corrupted Democracy, Rogue State Russia , an

Steven Singer: No, You Can’t Risk My Children’s Lives to Restart Your Economy

500+by dianeravitch / 4d

Steven Singer hears the growing demand to reopen schools in the midst of the pandemic , and he sees an ulterior motive. The clamor to reopen the schools is not about education or even the lives of children, but freeing their parents to go back to work. He writes that despite the lack of testing or vaccines, the Trump administration is eager to open up the economy, and reopening schools is central

APR 20

Charles Blow: Stop Covering Trump’s Fake Daily Briefings

35by dianeravitch / 4d

For months, the Trump administration refused to hold press conferences to avoid answering questions from the press. Then came the pandemic, and two things happened. First, Trump stopped holding rallies for his base because it was too dangerous to hold them (ironic since he sides with the protestors who believe the pandemic is a hoax). Second, Trump realized that he could substitute daily “briefin

Jonathan Lovell: Rest In Peace, Dear Friend

98by dianeravitch / 4d

On April 14, we lost a dear friend of this blog, of public education, of the Network for Public Education, and of me personally. Dr. Jonathan Lovell, emeritus professor of writing at San Jose State University in California died in his sleep. Jonathan was the director of the San Jose Area Writing Project. He described himself this way on LinkedIn: “I am a teacher of teachers, with a specific focus

Boston Globe: Parents Are Frustrated by Trying to School Their Children at Home

100+by dianeravitch / 4d

The Boston Globe interviewed parents and discovered a groundswell of exhaustion and frustration caused by the closure of schools and their new roles at home. I don’t think these parents will want more of the same when school reopens. The kids and their parents will be thrilled to see their teachers and classmates again when that happy day arrives. It was music class that finally drove Melissa Maw

An End to Schooling as We Know It? To Grocery Stores? To Concerts? To Live Plays? To Dances? To Offices?

34by dianeravitch / 4d

A wise reader, who is anonymous, posted this comment a few days ago. I thought it was wise because we hear so many Disrupters cheering about “the end of schooling as we know it” when the reality is that most parents and students can’t wait for real school to start again. You don’t hear those same voices saying that no one will ever work in an office again; no one will every go to a concert or a p

Nancy Bailey: Stop the Talk about “Reinventing” and “Reimagining” Schools After the Pandemic Unless You Are a Parent or Teacher

400+by dianeravitch / 5d

Nancy Bailey has grown disgusted with the talk of “reinventing” and “reimagining” the school when the talk is coming from the same people who have wrecked the schools with their uninformed and harmful ideas for the past 20 years. If there is going to be any “reinvention,” it should be done by parents and teachers at their own schools, she says. Those who have failed us in the past should not be a

APR 19

Washington Post: Trump’s Claims About WHO Were Wrong

by dianeravitch / 5d

Trump froze funding to the World Health Organization on grounds that it had not given forewarning about the virus but had parroted the Chinese government line that it was contained. Dr. Birx dutifully parroted the Trump line. The Washington Post disagreed in an editorial. More than a dozen U.S. researchers, physicians and public health experts, many of them from the Centers for Disease Control an

Leonie Haimson: Why is NYC Spending Millions on Idle Buses?

20by dianeravitch / 5d

Leonie Haimson of Class Size Matters asks why the NYC Department of Education is spending millions for school buses that are useless while planning to cut the budget of the schools by $827 million? She writes: If DOE suspended our busing contracts now, the DOE would save $700 million through the end of the year – even after paying for the two weeks in March when they were used. This would prevent

San Francisco School Board Decides to Give All Students an A

200+by dianeravitch / 5d

The San Francisco school board resolved the question of how to grade students for a school year cut short by giving everyone an A. The city’s school board settled on the idea during a meeting Tuesday, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The grades will be given to every middle school and high school student. Elementary schoolers don’t receive letter grades. “Why not just give students As,”

Tim Wu: How America Outsourced Its Ability to Fight Pandemic

100+by dianeravitch / 5d

Tim Wu is a law professor at Columbia University. He ran for Lt. Governor in New York on a progressive ticket with Zephyr Teachout. On April 24, 2012, the Federal Trade Commission, the nation’s principal gatekeeper for health care mergers, published an innocuous-seeming notice granting a request for “early termination” of its review of a $108 million health care acquisition. Newport Medical Instr

CEO of Scandal-Ridden IDEA Charter Chain Resigns

400+by dianeravitch / 5d

Tom Torkelson, c-founder of the IDEA charter chain, has stepped down as CEO and will be replaced by the other co-founder JoAnn Gama. Based in Texas, IDEA is a favorite of Betsy DeVos, who has sent hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to the chain to help it expand. Less than two weeks ago, DeVos gave another $72 million to IDEA. The chain previously had received more than $200 million from De

An Open Letter to the New New Left from the Old New Left: Vote for Biden

53by dianeravitch / 6d

Veterans of the political struggles of the 1960s explain in this open letter published in The Natio n why they will vote for Joe Biden. In my view, anyone who opposes racism, fascism, and the dominance of the fanatical religious right should vote for Biden. The letter begins: On April 13, 2020, Senator Bernie Sanders urged his supporters to vote for the presumptive Democratic nominee, former vice

APR 18

Washington Post: U.S. Shipped Millions of Dollars of Face Masks, Ventilators to China in January

65by dianeravitch / 6d

One reason that the U.S. was unprepared for the pandemic is that we were shipping medical supplies to a China even though government officials had been warned that the disease was likely to reach our country. U.S. manufacturers shipped millions of dollars of face masks and other protective medical equipment to China in January and February with encouragement from the federal government, a Washing

Teachers and Principals in Oakland Give More to Neediest than Billionaires

73by dianeravitch / 6d

The blog started today with an account of the paltry amounts of money that our leading edu-philanthropists are contributing to alleviate the suffering of students and families during this crisis and to help public schools through the crisis. By contrast, some principals and teachers in the Oakland Education Association have agreed to give half or all of their stimulus checks to the families of un

CNN: Four Countries that Were Most Successful in Confronting Pandemic

80by dianeravitch / 6d

CNN describes what four countries did to achieve control over coronavirus . The key to success, it appears, is to be prepared, to test extensively, and to act decisively. The four countries are Taiwan, Iceland, South Korea, and Germany. Their infection rates and death rates are well below those in the U.S., where states have had to compete for supplies and testing has been inaccessible for most p

New York Times: Kids Say They Miss School

100+by dianeravitch / 6d

The New York Times asked children how they felt about learning online at home and most said they would rather be at school. This article was written by Henry Dodd, age 11, whose father works for the Times. Kids are getting more bored by the day. We wish we could go back to school to see our friends. But some of us are also really scared about getting the coronavirus, and we don’t want our friends

Richard Rothstein: Pandemic Reveals Dramatic Economic and Social Inequities

53by dianeravitch / 6d

Richard Rothstein, author of The Color of Law an d the classic Class and Schools has written an important article showing how the coronavirus is exposing and deepening the inequities in our society. This article was originally published by Shelterforce: The Voice of Community Development . Richard Rothstein writes: The COVID-19 pandemic will take existing academic achievement differences between

Chalkbeat: Big Education Philanthropists Are Missing in Action on Coronavirus Response

61by dianeravitch / 7d

Matt Barnum of Chalkbeat checked to see what the billionaire philanthropists are doing in response to the coronavirus. The answer: Not much. When asked to underwrite charter schools, Teach for America, and wacky teacher-

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

COVID-19 and the Impact on Communities of Color - NEA Today

COVID-19 and the Impact on Communities of Color - NEA Today

COVID-19 and the Impact on Communities of Color

Since early April, the NAACP and BET have hosted a series of virtual town halls focused on the health, economic, and social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the African American community.

The coronavirus has hit hard across the U.S. It’s particularly dire in rural areas and communities of color. Disparities have stressed millions of people, from economic hardships and limited access to health services to slow internet speeds and lack of internet access at home. These problems didn’t surface overnight. They’ve existed for decades, filtering into classrooms and hurting students along the way.

In part three of their four-part “Unmasked: A COVID-19 Virtual Town Hall Series, NEA Vice President Becky Pringle, along with other top, national leaders, discussed the rising educational inequalities and how legislation can mitigate the burden African American students and other students of color face.

The hour-long call was part analysis of the current realities with an enhanced understanding of the problem, but also part solution to help move the nation  toward a future that is equitable and fair for everyone.

With approximately 20,000 people on the line, Pringle was quick to call out the underlying problem that has disproportionately impacted communities of color.

“Here’s the reality,” she says, “structural racism [is] the pre-existing condition that [has] destined us to be where we are—where our communities of color are disproportionately impacted by the coronavirus. We shouldn’t be shocked.”

Research has long pointed to the inequitable conditions, from past to present, that CONTINUE READING: COVID-19 and the Impact on Communities of Color - NEA Today

Teachers and Students Describe a Remote-Learning Life - The New York Times

Teachers and Students Describe a Remote-Learning Life - The New York Times
Teachers and Students Describe a Remote-Learning Life
They talk about how the change to online instruction has affected them.

This article is part of our latest Learning special report, which focuses on the challenges of online education during the coronavirus outbreak.

We asked teachers and college students about their experiences with the change to online instruction. The Learning Network, a site about teaching and learning with content from The New York Times, asked students in grades K through 12 how they have been coping with remote learning. The following comments have been edited and condensed.

Teachers’ Voices
So much of what we do in classrooms are driven by student responses and reactions. I’d give anything to watch their faces light up, their hands in the air, their smiles and fist pumps when they share a new learning or big idea with me. – Meg Burke, teaches grades 3 through 8, Doylestown, Pa.

Here I am, at 66, within a year of full retirement, having to learn how to use Google Classroom with 35 first graders at various places in their learning. I feel as though I am attempting to drive on a road that I am simultaneously paving while also following a paper map. – Janet Kass, teaches first grade, Bloomingburg, N.Y.

Over 80 percent of the students at my school come from low-income families, and

only a quarter of my students have a computer at home. For economically disadvantaged students, this outbreak means they will fall even further behind their wealthier peers. – Kaitlin Barnes, teaches fourth grade, Baltimore

Dear Parents: I promise you that we have your child’s best interest at heart. We worry about them, we miss them, we want more than anything to be back in the classroom. We don’t teach because we like figuring out how to work Zoom, we don’t teach to stare at a screen all day, we don’t teach to field an onslaught of emails each day. We teach because we love your children. – Kara Conceison, teaches sixth grade, Watertown, Mass.

William Doyle and Pasi Sahlberg Explain to Checker Finn Why Play Is Good for ALL Children | Diane Ravitch's blog

William Doyle and Pasi Sahlberg Explain to Checker Finn Why Play Is Good for ALL Children | Diane Ravitch's blog

William Doyle and Pasi Sahlberg Explain to Checker Finn Why Play Is Good for ALL Children

A few months ago, William Doyle and Pasi Sahlberg published their book about the importance of play, called Let the Children Play: How More Play Will Save Our Schools and Help Children Thrive.

Checker Finn Jr. criticized their book in the conservative journal Education Next, maintaining that middle-class and affluent kids need to play, but poor kids need to keep their noses to the academic grindstone.

Doyle and Sahlberg respond to Finn in Education Next in this article.

They write in answer:

Chester E. Finn Jr.’s review in the Winter 2020 Education Next of our book Let the Children Play reveals a startling lack of knowledge of medical guidelines for children in school, including children in poverty.

Finn contends that our policy message, the need for more intellectual and physical play in school, “portends damage to children and society at least as severe as the practices the authors rightly deplore.” The reason, Finn asserts without evidence, is that playful teaching and learning “does little harm to middle-class kids,” but “for CONTINUE READING: William Doyle and Pasi Sahlberg Explain to Checker Finn Why Play Is Good for ALL Children | Diane Ravitch's blog

Worker’s Dilemma – radical eyes for equity

Worker’s Dilemma – radical eyes for equity

Worker’s Dilemma

A former first-year student of mine, about to graduate during the Covid-19 pandemic, emailed me recently since we will miss the chance to talk face-to-face before graduation. This student was incredibly kind about the role I played in their undergraduate journey, offering this as well: “I came to you with concerns over a major sophomore year, and instead of lecturing me you asked me what my dream job was.”

This student made some dramatic changes to their life and college career then, and now, I think is on a path that will be far more fulfilling. But this situation plays out over and over, and quite differently, at my selective, small liberal arts university.

The students at my university are often socially and economically conservative, or at least come from homes that are socially and economically conservative. These students are keenly aware of viewing a college education in terms of return on investment.

In other words, is there major going to lead to a career that justifies the price tag of those four years (and often the additional years of graduate school that follow)?

More often than not, I interact with students who want to follow their bliss, but their parents want them to respect their investment—by preparing for a high-paying career.

My journey to and through college was quite different in most ways than the CONTINUE READING: Worker’s Dilemma – radical eyes for equity

Coronavirus distance learning upends teachers' workflow - Los Angeles Times

Coronavirus distance learning upends teachers' workflow - Los Angeles Times

Inside teachers’ never-ending crisis shifts: ‘You just keep going all day and all night’ 

It’s just past 8 a.m. at the Inglewood elementary school where sixth-grade teacher Aba Ngissah has taught for seven years.

The blinds on classroom windows, normally open, are drawn, and hundreds of parents and students, rather than rushing for the start of class, are lining up outside the front gate waiting for food.

Ngissah is starting her day in the cafeteria — against a backdrop of giant tissue-paper flowers that are slowly falling apart more than a month after she and her students made them for Read Across America Day. She works quickly alongside other volunteer teachers and Inglewood school district staff, filling hundreds of brown paper bags with boxed cereal, sandwiches, milk, apples and cookies.

It’s been about a month since Hudnall Elementary School shut down, its 400 students among the 6.1 million K-12 California students whose campuses are closed.

After every bag is claimed on this recent Friday, Ngissah will help give out laptops. In the afternoon, she goes home, washes her hands and changes her clothes to protect her elderly mother, who is staying with her. About 1 p.m., she’ll sit down at her computer and begin her real job.

“You just keep going all day and all night,” she says.

That’s just what it means to be a teacher right now.

Parents line up early April 4 in front of Hudnall Elementary School for meal bags.

(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

An unprecedented moment

Nothing — not her classroom experience, her skills as a teachers union organizer nor her work introducing online learning tools — prepared Ngissah for this moment when her classroom would be locked and her students sent home to isolate themselves against the novel coronavirus.

Her first priority is making sure her kids are fed.

At Hudnall, 90% of students come from low-income households and qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, so the safety net of school meals has always been important. Right now, it’s vital.

At times, Ngissah and other teachers and staff members use their own money to buy toilet paper, cleaning supplies, ramen noodles, rice and meat for families.


It all happened so abruptly, this radical change to schooling.

When schools closed in mid-March, Ngissah sent books and work packets with CONTINUE READING:  Coronavirus distance learning upends teachers' workflow - Los Angeles Times

CURMUDGUCATION: MI: Court Says Students Deserve Actual Education

CURMUDGUCATION: MI: Court Says Students Deserve Actual Education

MI: Court Says Students Deserve Actual Education

Periodically the courts get involved in the question of what states are actually supposed to provide. Back in 2017 a case went all the way to the Supremes that was designed (no case gets before SCOTUS without being carefully prepared and selected and curated by a bunch of Major Players) to get at the question of how hard a district had to work on that whole IEP thing-- how much education is "enough"? SCOTUS rejected a low bar for students with disabilities, a decision that shored up IDEA (and which may be weighing on some minds as schools try to solve the problems of crisis education at a distance).

But Endrew F. v. Douglas County School District was about IEPs in Colorado. Other cases have been less encouraging.

Way back in 2014, the court of appeals in Michigan ruled that the state's obligation to educate students didn't mean that the state had to, you know, actually educate anybody. As long as they spent some number of dollars on something called education, that was good enough. That suit involved the Highland Park school district, a part of greater Detroit's school system, and in 2012 it was handed over to the Leona Group to operate as a charter. The charter operator's promptly ran up a deficit and were taken to court to answer for doing a lousy job of educating students. It was at that point that the court said, "Nah, as long as they are running a building called a 'school' and offering 'classes' in it, it doesn't matter if they suck." So much for charter school accountability in Michigan. The state supreme court refused to hear the case.

In 2016, some Detroit students tried again, and that started out poorly, with the state (under CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: MI: Court Says Students Deserve Actual Education

UK College of Education Leading in the midst of COVID-19: Creating Opportunities for Newest Teachers | Cloaking Inequity

UK College of Education Leading in the midst of COVID-19: Creating Opportunities for Newest Teachers | Cloaking Inequity

UK COLLEGE OF EDUCATION LEADING IN THE MIDST OF COVID-19: CREATING OPPORTUNITIES FOR NEWEST TEACHERS

by Amanda Nelson

Sydney Harper was on her final leg of student teaching when the semester was turned upside down. Kentucky schools, like most across the nation, were closing their doors to help slow the spread of the novel coronavirus.

“It didn’t seem real. I kept telling myself that we’d be back in no time, that this wasn’t going to last that long,” said Harper, a senior STEM education-mathematics major.

In early March, faculty at the University of Kentucky College of Education were called into emergency meetings. Students in the midst of required field experiences, such as student teaching, could be left in limbo if schools shuttered indefinitely. The novel coronavirus still felt like a distant threat, but faculty quickly created back-up plans, just in case.

As the reality of the situation set in and closings were announced, Harper was only slightly stressed about completing her requirements to graduate. She knew professors would walk students through the uncharted territory. More worrisome to Harper was the possibility of not seeing her students again.

“I’ve become so attached to them and couldn’t fathom potentially not seeing them for a long period of time, or not at all,” she said.

Learning by doing is an important aspect of teacher training. Like all education majors at UK, Harper had a variety of field experiences in schools. Prior to student teaching at Woodford County High School, she had stints at Southern Middle School (8th grade mathematics), Frederick Douglass High School (freshman mathematics), Lafayette High School (Algebra 2 and 3), and Tates Creek High School (Calculus 1 AB).

Gertie Sercus, who is in the Master of Arts in Teaching Secondary STEM Education program, said texting and using Facetime is helping the five student teachers in their cohort keep up with each other and their professor, Lisa Amick. They have become close, she said, and lean on each other often, especially now.

“We keep in contact multiple times a day,” Sercus said. “We talk about how much we miss each other and miss our students.”

Pivoting to Non-Traditional Instruction 

Gabrielle Lonnemann is student teaching at Fayette County’s Picadome Elementary in a K-3 special education setting for students with learning and behavior disorders.

The school has now been closed for weeks, but UK student teachers are partnering with their mentor teachers, called cooperating teachers, to keep instruction going for students through Kentucky’s non-traditional instruction program.

Lonnemann works with her cooperating teacher through text, email, Google Drive, YouTube, Zoom, and Google Meet. They have developed materials to send in packets to students and have recorded videos with instructions. They meet online with the students and other Picadome faculty.

“There is no better feeling than seeing those little faces on the screen and knowing that the materials you developed are being used to help your students learn and stay connected,” Lonnemann said. “It is also awesome to see how much fun they are having exploring the technology they are using. When my cooperating teacher and I met with a student the other day, he thought it was funny to see his face through the computer screen and that he was doing homework in his pajamas.”

Channon Horn, a special education clinical associate professor, said although teaching remotely has its challenges, it provides students with valuable opportunities to demonstrate their ability to differentiate instruction using various forms of technology. They are taking whatever resources are available and developing instruction aligned with the individual needs of their students.

“Special education teacher candidates have been trained to be flexible and accommodating,” Horn said. “The pandemic has provided an abundance of evidence that they can do both effectively and efficiently.”

Elementary education major Jhana French is doing her student teaching at Wellington Elementary. She was surprised by the abrupt change to the semester but knows that quick pivots will be necessary as a teacher.

“Nothing can really prepare you for what we are doing right now during the pandemic,” she said. “But things are going to be thrown at you every day as a teacher, without you being prepared for it. It probably will not be to this extreme, but it’s good to practice being able to adapt in every situation. That’s what teaching is. It will make us stronger teachers.”

Teachers in all specialties are transforming their lessons to be offered online. On the YouTube channel Mr. Noble’s Fitness World, UK College of Education alum Billy Noble morphs into characters in his fictional “Noble family.” The CONTINUE READING: UK College of Education Leading in the midst of COVID-19: Creating Opportunities for Newest Teachers | Cloaking Inequity

Russ on Reading: Poetry Month: On Friday We Get Pizza

Russ on Reading: Poetry Month: On Friday We Get Pizza

Poetry Month: On Friday We Get Pizza

It was true 50 years ago; it is true today. Friday is pizza day n the school cafeteria. I clearly remember the anticipation I felt as a student (and as a teacher) on Fridays, because I knew there was pizza in the oven for lunch. With April being Poetry Month, here is a poem from my book There's a Giant in My Classroom (Infinity Press) inspired by a lifetime of eating in school cafeterias. This poem has always proved popular with upper elementary school kids.

On Friday We Get Pizza

It’s Monday in the lunchroom,

And we kids are getting nervous.

We’re wondering what inedible

The cafeteria will serve us.

But we’re ready for most anything:

Rabbit tacos, candied beets-a.

We can get through Monday,

‘Cause on Friday we get pizza.

It’s Tuesday and we’re hungry.

Hear the rumbling CONTINUE READING: Russ on Reading: Poetry Month: On Friday We Get Pizza

Trump and DeVos Target Dreamers by Denying Access to Coronavirus Relief Fund for College Students | janresseger

Trump and DeVos Target Dreamers by Denying Access to Coronavirus Relief Fund for College Students | janresseger

Trump and DeVos Target Dreamers by Denying Access to Coronavirus Relief Fund for College Students

When it passed the CARES Act to provide coronavirus relief, Congress included funds to be used by colleges and universities for emergency grants to help students whose lives were disrupted when the schools were shut down without warning. Although Congress provided considerable latitude by leaving it up to the schools to identify the students most in need, Betsy DeVos and the U.S. Department of Education have now set guidelines for the allocation of the funds. Dreamers cannot qualify.

The NY Times’ Erica Green explains: “The funding is part of $12.6 billion allocated directly to colleges and universities under Congress’s $2 trillion coronavirus stabilization law to help them recoup financial damages caused by the pandemic. Half of those funds are supposed to go directly to students affected by campus closures. In the coming weeks, schools are expected to award emergency relief grants to students to pay for expenses like food, housing, child care and technology. The stimulus law, called the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, or CARES Act, directs the secretary to distribute the stimulus funding to colleges in the same manner the department distributes other financial aid. But it did not explicitly define which students are eligible. Undocumented students do not qualify for federal financial aid funds, but the emergency grants do not fall under that category.”

Despite that Congress left latitude for colleges and universities to award funds to the students their staffs deem most in need, on Tuesday, Betsy DeVos provided specific guidance about how colleges and universities can allocate the funds.  Green explains: “Education Secretary Betsy DeVos ordered higher education institutions to dole out more than $6 billion in emergency CONTINUE READING: Trump and DeVos Target Dreamers by Denying Access to Coronavirus Relief Fund for College Students | janresseger

Education Law Center: New York’s Pandemic Adjustment: Depriving Resources to Students Impacted by COVID-19 | National Education Policy Center

Education Law Center: New York’s Pandemic Adjustment: Depriving Resources to Students Impacted by COVID-19 | National Education Policy Center

Education Law Center: New York’s Pandemic Adjustment: Depriving Resources to Students Impacted by COVID-19

On March 27, Congress enacted the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, which includes $13.5 billion in emergency relief to support a rapid response by school districts to a crisis unprecedented in the history of American public education: states closing all public school buildings and transitioning students en masse from classroom instruction to learning at home through remote and digital means.¹

But the ink was hardly dry on the CARES Act when New York approved its Fiscal Year 2021 Budget with a COVID-19 “pandemic adjustment,” effectively wiping out the promise of additional federal resources for educating students remotely during school closure.

New York is the first state to enact a budget in the wake of the CARES Act. In this report, we show how the pandemic adjustment is actually a “pandemic cut” in New York State school aid, backfilled with the federal CARES Act emergency relief funds. Our analysis also shows that these cuts most impact students in New York City and other high poverty districts. We then explain how the pandemic adjustment replicates the strategy used by states to cut K-12 education funding during the 2008 Great Recession. In some states it took years to restore these cuts, and in others they had yet to be restored before the COVID-19 crisis.

CARES Act Emergency Relief Funds for K-12 Education

On March 18, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo issued an executive order closing all of the state’s CONTINUE READING: Education Law Center: New York’s Pandemic Adjustment: Depriving Resources to Students Impacted by COVID-19 | National Education Policy Center

CURMUDGUCATION: Internet Accessibility, Arne Duncan, and Dreaming Big

CURMUDGUCATION: Internet Accessibility, Arne Duncan, and Dreaming Big

Internet Accessibility, Arne Duncan, and Dreaming Big

Arne Duncan penned an op-ed in the Washington Post this week; the piece is notable because it is not baloney, but addresses one of the issues that the great pandemic pause has brought to the fore-- internet accessibility.

Duncan notes that currently if you don't have internet, you don't have school. And he notes that while internet providers stepped forward with heartwarming offers of free internet for poor families, that turned out to come with a little asterisk about debt and financial suitability. He doesn't it, but this is probably related to the fact that in many cases the "free" internet  was actually a sort of free introductory offer-- 60 or 90 days free if you've sign up for their internet service, and if you forget to cancel in time--voila, you're now a paying-full-price customer. In short, many ISPs have treated this issue like a marketing opportunity and not a chance for do-goodery. Duncan notes that some public pressure in some areas has helped fix this.

But that's only the tip of the internet iceberg. He talks about getting internet to all of Chicago, which is not a simple thing, but is probably easier than the kinds of problems we face in rural areas like mine, where some families will never have internet access of any sort-- wi-fi or phone-- until some major infrastructure is built.

Internet connectivity in my neck of the woods, and other necks like it, has always been wonky. My old high school's most effective barrier against student smartphone use is that signal reception in the school is terrible (the other side of that is that students are constantly looking to charge during the day because signal-seeking phones use up charges quickly). One of the elementary schools in my old district depends on a satellite dish for their internet connection. When my wife had a zoom staff CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Internet Accessibility, Arne Duncan, and Dreaming Big