A Conversation in 2020 with James Baldwin’s “Letter from a Region in My Mind” – radical eyes for equity

A Conversation in 2020 with James Baldwin’s “Letter from a Region in My Mind” – radical eyes for equity

A Conversation in 2020 with James Baldwin’s “Letter from a Region in My Mind”

One of the worst forms of propaganda about text and reading in formal schooling is that any text has a fixed meaning, independent of the reader, the reader’s history, or the writer and the writer’s history.

Traditionally, K-12 schooling, often in English courses, has implemented a very reduced version of New Criticism that frames all text meaning as a static formula whereby the reader adds up the techniques and discovers an authoritative meaning (that is singular and, again, not grounded in the people creating meaning or the conditions surrounding either the writing or the reading). More recently this anemic approach to text and reading has been reinvigorated by the “close reading” movement embedded in the failed Common Core era.

In 2020 as the Trump era could be coming to a close and the U.S. is being ravaged by a pandemic and another round of something like mainstream racial awareness, I re-read James Baldwin’s “Letter from a Region in My Mind.”

The 1962 publication of this essay (which becomes a section of The Fire Next Time) had a distinct historical and personal set of purposes—Baldwin’s CONTINUE READING: A Conversation in 2020 with James Baldwin’s “Letter from a Region in My Mind” – radical eyes for equity

OPINION: ‘For our many Black and Brown children, the threats to their physical safety now and into the future are eating away at their insides’

OPINION: Trauma hurts our kids. Here's how educators can help address it

OPINION: ‘For our many Black and Brown children, the threats to their physical safety now and into the future are eating away at their insides’
Ways that teachers and schools can intervene to help students through traumatic events

Our students are traumatized. They are living with fear and confusion. They are experiencing or witnessing police violence, rioting and looting. And schools, a place where children typically process events and emotions, are shuttered.

What are children to do? Who will acknowledge, understand and respond to their trauma and its accompanying symptomology? Who’s there to enable our students to understand racism and violence, and to mitigate the lack of certainty in our world? Who will lead our children forward with hope for a better tomorrow, a world in which we protect our Black and Brown children?

Let’s begin by understanding how we got to this spot.

Related: OPINION: With schools closed in Minnesota, Black students again struggle with ‘hurt, heartache and trauma’

Prior to the pandemic and the most recent instances of police brutality, America’s students were already traumatized. In addition to family-based trauma, homelessness and food insecurity, children were living through the aftermath of natural disasters and school shootings.

We needed to respond and help them. We were only just recognizing the need for, and the value of, trauma responsiveness. Then, in the blink of an CONTINUE READING: OPINION: Trauma hurts our kids. Here's how educators can help address it

Virtual Charter Industry Expecting Big Growth and Profits Due to Pandemic | Diane Ravitch's blog

Virtual Charter Industry Expecting Big Growth and Profits Due to Pandemic | Diane Ravitch's blog

Virtual Charter Industry Expecting Big Growth and Profits Due to Pandemic

The virtual charter industry is anticipating growth in enrollments and profits, thanks to the pandemic.

The largest of the virtual charters is the K12 Inc. virtual charter chain, listed on the New York Stock Exchange, whose revenues exceeded $1 billion this year.

Executives haul in big salaries (one of K12’s founders, Ron Packard, was paid $5 million a year but has since moved on to lead other charter chains). Michael Milken was an early investor in K12 and Bill Bennett was a prominent leader until he made racist remarks that caused him to be removed.

The most important thing to know about virtual charter schools is that they have dismal track records. They enroll as many students as possible through heavy advertising and marketing, but their graduation rates are low, their test scores are low, and their attrition rates are CONTINUE READING: Virtual Charter Industry Expecting Big Growth and Profits Due to Pandemic | Diane Ravitch's blog

If High Stakes Standardized Testing Fades, Lots of Awful Punishments for Students, Teachers, and Schools Would Disappear | janresseger

If High Stakes Standardized Testing Fades, Lots of Awful Punishments for Students, Teachers, and Schools Would Disappear | janresseger

If High Stakes Standardized Testing Fades, Lots of Awful Punishments for Students, Teachers, and Schools Would Disappear

In yesterday’s Washington Post, Valerie Strauss published a very hopeful column: It Looks Like the Beginning of the End of America’s Obsession with Student Standardized Tests.  I hope she is right.  Her column covers current efforts to stop the requirement for college entrance exams and the wave of testing in primary and secondary public schools that was enshrined in the 2002 No Child Left Behind Act. This post will be limited to examining the implications of the mandated standardized testing that, for two decades, has dominated America’s K-12 public schools.

Strauss begins: “America has been obsessed with student standardized tests for nearly 20 years.  Now it looks like the country is at the beginning of the end of our high-stakes testing mania—both for K-12 ‘accountability’ purposes and in college admissions.  When President George W. Bush signed the K-12 No Child Left Behind Act in 2002, the country began an experiment based on the belief that we could test our way to educational success and end the achievement gap.  His successor, Barack Obama, ratcheted up the stakes of test scores under that same philosophy. It didn’t work, which came as no surprise to teachers and other critics. They had long pointed to extensive research showing standardized test scores are most strongly correlated to a student’s life circumstances.”

Strauss explains what’s different this year: “Now, we are seeing the collapse of the two-decade-old bipartisan consensus among major policymakers that testing was the key lever for holding students, schools and teachers ‘accountable.’ And it is no coincidence that it is happening aginst the backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic that has forced educational institutions to revamp how they operate.  States are learning that they can live without them, having been given permission by the Department of Education to not give them this past spring… Former vice president Joe Biden, who is the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee and ahead of Trump in many polls, has tried to distance himself from the pro-testing policies of the CONTINUE READING: If High Stakes Standardized Testing Fades, Lots of Awful Punishments for Students, Teachers, and Schools Would Disappear | janresseger

There is no easy calculation for September | JD2718

There is no easy calculation for September | JD2718

There is no easy calculation for September

At Wednesday’s United Federation of Teachers Delegate Assembly and again at Thursday’s UFT Town Hall, President Michael Mulgrew made the point clearly:

“Socially Distanced Capacity” divided by “# of Teachers” ≠ “Number of ‘cohorts'”

If you listened in, you heard him explain. Say you have a fourth grade with 200 kids. 8 teachers. Given your capacity, you can fit 100 kids into 10 rooms. But where do the extra two teachers come from? And who is teaching the 100 kids remotely?

He made it simple. Honestly, that was enough for the DA. But the situation on the ground will be far more complex. Push-ins change student capacity. We are not talking about lunch. Which, I assume, is a time masks come off? How much time will teachers stay in rooms without breaks? How will bathroom flow (pardon the choice of words) be managed?

It’s wonderful to say “oh yes, entrance can be staggered” – but I know the people saying it have not tried to do it. Nor managed distancing in hallways that are half-full. Nor stairwells. Nor elevators.

But we don’t have to go there. Mulgrew made it really clear.

And he had to. The DoE had put out an absurdly dumb powerpoint that facilely made it sound CONTINUE READING: There is no easy calculation for September | JD2718

CATCH UP WITH CURMUDGUCATION + ICYMI: Fathers Day Edition (6/21

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: Fathers Day Edition (6/21

 Fathers Day Edition

I've had my hands full elsewhere, and have been spending refreshingly little time on line, but I still have a few goodies to pass along. Remember, sharing is caring,

What Teachers Want
American Education Research Journal has some research about what it takes to attract and retain teachers. A fun conversation starter.

Looking for the Missing  
NBC News has the story of Detroit teachers who went looking for students who went missing when schools shut down.

Charter Schools Tap Coronarelief
Erica Green at the NYT with a story of how some charter schools are wearing their "business" hats when money is involved.

Netflix billionaire building secret luxury teacher retreat
Reed "Who needs elected school boards" Hastings has another fun eduproject. Rich amateurs messing in education-- what could possibly go wrong?

What Anti-racist teachers do differently
The Atlantic with a cool story about How It's Done

The Beginning of the End for Testing?
Valeria Strauss with some analysis about where we are right now with the whole Big Standardized Test love affair.

Standardized Tests Increase School Segregation  
Steven Singer explains how standardized testing adds to our segregation problems.

Arrested Development: How Police Ended Up In Schools
Have You Heard (the only podcast we actually follow here at the Curmudgucation Institute) takes a look at how we ended up with the halls of school being policed like the streets of a city.

On Comparing Education Spending Across Time   
Nobody explains and clarifies the esoteric issues of school funding better than Mark "Jersey Jazzman" Weber. Here's a guide to the meaning and use of some of those figures folks like to throw around.

Ask Dads How To Reimagine Public Schools   
Nancy Bailey offers a Fathers Day look at what fathers would like to see in the world of reimagined public education.

Strummin' On The Ol Banjo  
Nancy Flanagan takes a look at issues that music teachers face, and how they are really some of the same issues all teachers face.



CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: Fathers Day Edition (6/21

CATCH UP WITH CURMUDGUCATION

AND DON'T FORGET PETER GREENE ON FORBES CLICK HERE 

GOP Legislators To Schools: Re-Open Or Else. - https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2020/06/15/gop-to-schools-re-open-or-else/#2a137089159c by @palan57 on @forbes



Teachers Face A Summer Of Soul Searching. What Do They Do In The Fall? - https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2020/06/12/teachers-face-a-summer-of-soul-searching-what-do-they-do-in-the-fall/#424383032993 by @palan57 on @forbes

No, Software Still Can't Grade Student Essays

56by Peter Greene / 1d

One of the great white whales of computer-managed education and testing is the dream of robo-scoring, software that can grade a piece of writing as easily and efficiently as software can score multiple choice questions. Robo-grading would be swift, cheap, and consistent. The only problem after all these years is that it still can’t be done. Still, ed tech companies keep making claims that they ha

AEI And The Commodification Of Education

20by Peter Greene / 2d

The American Enterprise Institute comes from that part of the ed reform spectrum devoted to free market approaches. But a new report from AEI really pushes the boundaries of treating education as a commodity like a house or a piece of jewelry. Really. The report is entitled " An Appraisal Market for K-12 Education " and it's authored by Lindsey Burke, the director of the Center for Education Polic

Rebecca Friedrichs Still Hates The Teachers Unions

26by Peter Greene / 4d

In 2014, Rebecca Friedrichs, after twenty-some years in the classroom, decided to go ahead and be the face of a lawsuit that would be derailed when Justice Scalia died. The court would eventually get to take their shot at unions with the Janus case. But while Friedrichs may have lost a lawsuit, she did manage to launch a career as a far-right Christianist spokesperson . She has done plenty of work

To Those Of You Worried About The Covid Slide

100+by Peter Greene / 6d

Dear concerned policy makers, bureaucrats, and edu-wonks: Ever since NWEA, the testing manufacturer that promised it can read minds by measuring how long it takes students to pick a multiple choice answer, issued their report on the Covid-19 Slide , you have been freaking out a little because they hear you say that distance learning has been disastrous and if we do it again in the fall, we'll prod

ICYMI: Summer Vacation Edition (6/14)

40by Peter Greene / 8d

Whatever summer vacation means this year, it has finally arrived at my house. Which mostly just means that my wife has shifted from working on things for this year to working on things for next year. Here are some things to read. Predecessors Try To Fill Void Left By DeVos This is a strange little thing. First, that Duncan and Spelling see themselves as somehow way different from DeVos. Also, ther

AL: Why The State Pulled The Plug On A Charter For The First Time

40by Peter Greene / 8d

Last week, the Alabama Public [sic] Charter School Commission took an unprecedented action and revoked a charter school's charter before it even managed to open. It's a tangly story, with connections to several charter school issues. Woodland Prep was supposed to be a hot new charter school, but it came with so much baggage that t here is an entire blog following the entire mess. Believe me-- I'm

Never Mind The Personalized Learning. Let's Do Personalized Learning Instead.

43by Peter Greene / 9d

As the education world scrambles to figure out what next fall will look like, many, many voices are speaking up for reimagined schooling. One particular model has surfaced repeatedly, and it’s not at all new—but it could be. 

CURMUDGUCATION - http://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/

Reopening Schools and Debunking Demagoguery | tultican

Reopening Schools and Debunking Demagoguery | tultican

Reopening Schools and Debunking Demagoguery

By Thomas Ultican 6/21/2020

Education professionals throughout America are feverishly engaged in preparing for the first school year in the unprecedented Sars-Cov-2 era. Simultaneously, demagogues are pushing an often uninformed agenda. For example, congressmen Jim Banks of Indiana and Tom Tiffany of Wisconsin have introduced legislation to force all schools to open with in-person classes by September or else lose federal funding. At the same time McKinsey and Company, the 74 and other school privatization friendly groups are loudly proclaiming that an education gap disaster will devastate Black and Brown children if we do not reopen brick and mortar schools immediately.

Education Leaders are Getting Ready for Fall

Across California and the whole of the US, parents, students, teachers and administrators are involved in intense school reopening discussions with less than two months to go in some cases. County Health Departments in both Los Angeles and San Diego have indicated that masks will be mandatory for all students and school personnel.

California’s second largest school district, San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD), and other districts plan in-person, online and “hybrid” learning options. However, SDUSD will need an infusion of federal dollars to operate for the full year. Board President, John Lee Evans, says without financial help they will be forced to revert to all online learning in the winter semester.

On June 18th, Sweetwater Union High School District in Chula Vista, Calafornia held a virtual meeting for all stakeholders to lay out plans for starting school on August 3rd. It will include distance learning through August 28th and then implements students on campus in three phases. The initial transition to on campus learning limits the number of students to 10% of the student body at any one time. This would be ramped up to 20% and then eventually 50% of students would be allowed on campus at one time.

Districts are busy stockpiling surgical face masks and placing future orders. They CONTINUE READING: Reopening Schools and Debunking Demagoguery | tultican