CATCH UP WITH CURMUDGUCATION + ICYMI: August Already Edition (8/2)

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: August Already Edition (8/2)

August Already Edition (8/2)

So, here are some things to read.

Is the push to reopen schools really a plot to dismantle them?
Accountabaloney listens to some bonus content from Have You Heard that lays out how DeVos has set up a pandemic win-win for herself.

Worst Year Ever  
Nancy Flanagan reflects on the year and wonders if it couldn't actually mark a good change for education?

How the child care crisis will distort the economy for a generation.
Politico takes a look at the ripples that are going to spread from the pandemic crisis in child care (which is just a more severe version of the child care crisis we were already having) 

Trump paints teachers as villains; how that hurts students.
I saw this piece when Anna Lutz Fernandez posted this on her own, but then NBC picked it up, and here it is. Well worth the read.

Note from the principal: This fall your classroom will be equipped with a lion.
From Mary, a blog that specializes in satire. A reminder that satire doesn't always make you laugh.

Infamous John Deasy Resigns, Again 
Thomas Ultican with a well-researched look at how reformsters manage to fail upward, with a case study of one of the great serial failures of ed reform.

The Post-Espinoza End Game  
Bruce Baker and Preston Green take a look at what comes next, now that SCOTUS has busted another hole in the wall between church and state.

How To Stop Magical Thinking in School Reopening Plans 
Share this with an administrator. Jersey Jazzman lays out how to do a reality check on a district's plan for the fall.

Biden Opens Door for Vouchers
Not on purpose, mind you. But here's Max Eden to explain the opportunity that reformsters think Biden just handed them.

Does Covid-19 spell the end for public schooling?
Finally, this scary read from USA Today, conjecturing about just how bad this could be for education in the long run.

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: August Already Edition (8/2)

CATCH UP WITH CURMUDGUCATION

AND DON'T FORGET PETER GREENE ON FORBES CLICK HERE 

SCOTUS Gives Private Religious Schools The Okay To Discriminate Freely - https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2020/07/16/scotus-gives-private-religious-schools-the-okay-to-discriminate-freely/#6585b9e16366 by @palan57 on @forbes


For Teachers, This Is All Unfortunately Familiar - https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2020/07/25/for-teachers-this-is-all-unfortunately-familiar/#3685b1d73c9a by @palan57 on @forbes

Report: PA Charters Game The Special Education System.

21by Peter Greene / 1d

In a new report, Education Voters of Pennsylvania looks at “how an outdated law wastes public money, encourages gaming the system, and limits school choice.” Fixing the Flaws looks at how Pennsylvania’s two separate funding systems have made students with special needs a tool for charter gaming of the system, even as some of them are shut out of the system entirely. The two-headed system looks li

Pence, DeVos, And More Private School Choice Baloney

200+by Peter Greene / 2d

My thanks to Bill Ferriter, who raised some of this on Twitter, thereby allowing me to boost my blood pressure before I even got all the way home from vacation. Mike Pence, Betsy DeVos and a few other notables took a trip yesterday to North Carolina, to plug an assortment of their favorites issues while visiting a private school that, unsurprisingly, underlined everything wrong with their favorit

Diary of a Socialist Indoctrinator

67by Peter Greene / 3d

This ran over a year ago at Forbes.com in response to a comment by Trump Jr. and for some reason I never shared it over here. Correcting that now, since teachers are once again teaching students to hate America. Monday We started the week here at Karl Marx Middle School with the usual reminders about monitoring the hall between classes and limiting bathroom passes during class periods. Principal

Archives: Personalization and Outliers

by Peter Greene / 4d

While the Institute is away at a corporate retreat, far, mostly, from the interwebz, I've arranged for some dips into the archives. Personalization and the Outliers Henry Ford was an early proponent of personalization. "Any customer can have a car pained any color that he wants," said Ford in 1909, "so long as it is black." There have always been limits to personalization. I like to wear hats, bu

Archives: Myth of the Hero Teacher

by Peter Greene / 4d

While the Institute is away at a corporate retreat, far, mostly, from the interwebz, I've arranged for some dips into the archives. Oh, that damn hero teacher. She does it for the kids, and not because she likes to eat and have a place of shelter. And now we need her to answer the call again. I've bitched about this myth a few times, but here's an early take on this damaging trope: The Myth of th

Archives: What Does The Free Market Really Foster?

by Peter Greene / 5d

While the Institute is away at a corporate retreat, far, mostly, from the interwebz, I've arranged for some dips into the archives. If I ever get a "theory" named after me, let it be this one-- The free market does not foster superior quality; the free market fosters superior marketing. And here are some of the many times I've talked about it. What Choice Won't Do Netflix and the Myth of Personal

Archives: Test Prep

by Peter Greene / 5d

While the Institute is away at a corporate retreat, far, mostly, from the interwebz, I've arranged for some dips into the archives. As we argue about whether or not the Big Standardized Test should be given this year (spoiler alert-- no, it shouldn't), let's take a look at some of the reasons it sucks up so much time during the year. And no, test prep is not about memorizing a list of facts. It's

Archives: Nobody Really Wants Choice

by Peter Greene / 6d

While the Institute is away at a corporate retreat, far, mostly, from the interwebz, I've arranged for some dips into the archives. Despite the constant focus on school choice, I remain unconvinced that choice is what people really want. Nobody Really Wants Choice Families need a choice. Parents want a choice. Poor students deserve a choice. We hear the rhetoric over and over again, but I remain

Archives: Whitney Tilson and DFER

by Peter Greene / 7d

While the Institute is away at a corporate retreat, far, mostly, from the interwebz, I've arranged for some dips into the archives. This profile of Whitney Tilson, a gabillionaire hedge funder and a founding father of DFER and a guy who got in on the ground floor of reformsterism, looks at many of the talking points that are still driving the discussions about education. You can team this piece u

Archive: Support Public Schools

by Peter Greene / 7d

While the Institute is away at a corporate retreat, far, mostly, from the interwebz, I've arranged for some dips into the archives. As various privatizers and profiteers try to use the coronavirus as a mean to Katrina public ed into oblivion, here's a listicle of reasons to support one of the US's oldest institutions. 10 Reasons To Support Public Schools Public education has become a political or

Archives: Slow Schools

by Peter Greene / 7d

While the Institute is away at a corporate retreat, far, mostly, from the interwebz, I've arranged for some dips into the archives. That time that Daniel Katz argued in favor of the educational equivalent of a slow foods movement, and I chimed in with a "Yeah, what he said, because this..." Slow Schools In a recent blog post, Daniel Katz made a plea for a slow schools movement (like the slow food

Archive: Forever Schools

by Peter Greene / 9d

While the Institute is away at a corporate retreat, far, mostly, from the interwebz, I've arranged for some dips into the archives. From 2014, and spun from a Buzzfeed article that incorrectly predicted the beginning of the end for charters. But I still like the idea, take from those cute puppy posters about adopting a pet "forever." Forever Schools Public schools are forever schools, not until s

Archive: TNTP and The Opportunity Myth

by Peter Greene / 9d

While the Institute is away at a corporate retreat, far, mostly, from the interwebz, I've arranged for some dips into the archives. TNTP first crammed the discussion of education with the Widget Effect, one of those faux white papers that thinky tanks pop out. Their new attempt to "inform" everyone's conversation is Th Opportunity Myth which, sadly, I see quoted far too often. Here's what I hd to

Archives: Teacher Time

by Peter Greene / 10d

While the Institute is away at a corporate retreat, far, mostly, from the interwebz, I've arranged for some dips into the archives. Teacher Time Every profession measures time differently. Doctors and lawyers measure time in hours or vague lumps. Teachers measure time in minutes, even seconds. If a doctor (or his office) tell you that something is going to happen "at nine o'clock," that means som

Archives: Not Loving Personalized [sic] Learning

by Peter Greene / 10d

While the Institute is away at a corporate retreat, far, mostly, from the interwebz, I've arranged for some dips into the archives. Of course it's being pitched heavily, again, as a solution to Covid woes. But... 8 Reasons Not To Love Personalized [sic] Learning As we roll into 2019, it becomes increasingly clear that much of the education debate is going to center on Personalized [sic] Learning.

Archives: The Hard Part

by Peter Greene / 11d

While the Institute is away at a corporate retreat, far, mostly, from the interwebz, I've arranged for some dips into the archives. The most-read thing I've ever published, with close to a million hits on HuffPost. As noted, I would have been a little more careful if I'd known this was going to be so widely read. The Hard Part They never tell you in teacher school, and it's rarely discussed elsew

Archives: Teacher Merit Pay

by Peter Greene / 12d

While the Institute is away at a corporate retreat, far, mostly, from the interwebz, I've arranged for some dips into the archives. Again from seven years ago, and again, still completely applicable today. Why Teacher Merit Pay Is Stupid Sometimes we forget the obvious, so let me spell it out. Here's why teacher merit pay will never make sense.

Archives: Defending Music Education

by Peter Greene / 12d

While the Institute is away at a corporate retreat, far, mostly, from the interwebz, I've arranged for some dips into the archives. An important idea to bring up, now that districts are looking for things to cut. Stop "Defending" Music Today I ran across one more xeroxed handout touting the test-taking benefits of music education, defending music as a great tool for raising test scores and making

Archive: Schools Don't Serve Businesses

by Peter Greene / 13d

While the Institute is away at a corporate retreat, far, mostly, from the interwebz, I've arranged for some dips into the archives. Hard to believe it's been seven years since the Gates Foundation mouthpiece set me off. But this still applies (and he wasn't the last to suggest this. The Wrongest Sentence Ever In The CCSS Debate At Impatient Optimists, a Gates Foundation website, Allan Golston rec

ICYMI: Vacation Edition (7/19)

by Peter Greene / 14d

The Institute staff and board of directors are headed for a corporate retreat in a place where the internet doesn't really reach, so things will be quiet here for a bit. But before I go, here's some reading for you to do. Sorry for all the paywalls today. There have been several recurriing themes in this week's coverage. For instance, lots of folks have noticed that Betsy DeVos's current 

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

Schools Aren't Going to Reopen This Fall - The Atlantic

Schools Aren't Going to Reopen This Fall - The Atlantic

‘This Push to Open Schools Is Guaranteed to Fail’
It is time to stop pretending. Our children are staying home.

In March, we were all living in 15-day increments. Working from home and distance learning, for those who had the terrible luxury of such things, would be a weeks-long affair, surreal but temporary. Fifteen days to flatten the curve. Fifteen days to slow the spread.

Scientists warned us even then that a return to normalcy would take longer, but the telescoped timeline had obvious appeal. You can put up with almost anything for just 15 days.

Acting on the chance to get it right was essential, but we now know it was not temporary. We’ve seen the failures—in testing, in containment, in federal and state leadership—compound in catastrophic ways. And as our pandemic summer has stretched on, many of us have let go, one by one, of experiences from the world we used to inhabit. We bid goodbye to sleepaway camp, to live music, to distant travel, to boisterous weddings, and to spontaneity in general. Today, a new realization is dawning, and as the debate over schools reopening rages, we must acknowledge it plainly: We aren’t going back to how it was. And we shouldn’t.

“This push to open schools is guaranteed to fail,” says Peter Hotez, a pediatrician and molecular virologist, and the dean for the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. I’ve been corresponding with Hotez, and with several epidemiologists, over the course of the pandemic, and have noticed a starkness in their views in recent weeks. “The social-distancing expectations and mask requirements for the lower grades are unrealistic,” Hotez told me. “In communities with high CONTINUE READING: Schools Aren't Going to Reopen This Fall - The Atlantic

Billionaires Push To Reopen Schools Without A Plan - PopularResistance.Org

Billionaires Push To Reopen Schools Without A Plan - PopularResistance.Org

BILLIONAIRES PUSH TO REOPEN SCHOOLS WITHOUT A PLAN

Schools in the U.S. provide students with much more than an education. They provide child care, meals (for 14 million students), medical services (mostly for students with disabilities), psychological counseling, supervised physical activity and social connections.

There are more than 135,000 educational institutions and 56.6 million students in grades K through 12. Since 2014 the majority of all public school students have been children of color. (National Center for Education Statistics)

While all parents want their children to be able to return to school, more than two-thirds polled want schools physically reopened only if safe. That feeling is strongest in Black and Latinx families.

But President Donald Trump wants students in this coming semester to physically face their teachers. His billionaire Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has said in  interview after interview: “Students have to go back to the classroom.”

Apparently Trump believes that, unless kids are back in school, the economy is not going to recover, which he needs to be reelected. However, he and DeVos don’t have a plan for how to do this. They criticized an early draft from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as “very tough and expensive guidelines.” Trump and DeVos demand the country’s 13,000 public school districts draw up plans to keep their staff and students safe, even with severe budget cuts.

The recently modified CDC guidelines read like a political justification of the Trump-DeVos position — rather than recommendations for actions/policies CONTINUE READING: Billionaires Push To Reopen Schools Without A Plan - PopularResistance.Org

Pandemic Shows How Important Unions Are | Blog For Iowa

Pandemic Shows How Important Unions Are | Blog For Iowa

Pandemic Shows How Important Unions Are

AFT Leader Randi Weingarten discusses reopening schools: (6.5 minutes)

Thursday we got this email from the Abby Finkenauer campaign:

I’m Ken Sagar, retired president of the Iowa Federation of Labor. But today I’m not here to give you an update on labor issues around the state, I’m here to support my friend, long-time labor ally Abby Finkenauer.

While I was at the AFL-CIO, we eagerly supported her first run in 2018. And although I’m no longer working for a union, I can still testify to her dedication to workers in Iowa.

She didn’t just make promises, she went out and got results for all of us.

Now it’s our turn to help her. Abby’s up against a tight deadline — and we need to rally around her. She needs to raise $5,328 before midnight tomorrow to hit her end-of-July Ad Fund goal. Making a contribution today is directly supporting a pro-labor agenda. Click here. 

Abby’s father was a union pipefitter-welder. She didn’t learn about working Iowans’ issues second-hand. She learned about them by living them — CONTINUE READING: Pandemic Shows How Important Unions Are | Blog For Iowa

Johaan Neem: Will Public Schools Survive the Pandemic? | Diane Ravitch's blog

Johaan Neem: Will Public Schools Survive the Pandemic? | Diane Ravitch's blog

Johaan Neem: Will Public Schools Survive the Pandemic?

Johann Neem, historian of education at Western Washington University, wrote an article in USA Today about the threat that COVID-19 poses to the future of public education. Affluent parents, he notes, are making their own arrangements. Some have created “learning pods” and hired their own teachers. Others will send their children to private schools, which have the resources to respond nimbly to the crisis. He recounts the early history of public schools and points out that they became essential as they served an ever-growing share of the community’s children.

Neem writes that the increase in the number of charter schools and vouchers, as well as Betsy DeVos’s relentless promotion of charters and vouchers, has already eroded the stature of public schools.

He warns:

We are at a moment of reckoning. The last time public schools were closed was when Southern states sought to avoid integration. The goal then was to sustain racial inequality. Even if today the aim is not racist, in a system CONTINUE READING: Johaan Neem: Will Public Schools Survive the Pandemic? | Diane Ravitch's blog

Opening Schools a Completely Crazy Idea - LA Progressive

Opening Schools a Completely Crazy Idea - LA Progressive

Opening Schools a Completely Crazy Idea

Shocking New Study Upends Any Notion of Opening Schools: Even Children Younger Than Five May Carry High Levels of the Coronavirus, up to 100 Times as Much as Adults.

According to a July 31 article in The Chicago Tribune (originally published in The NYT), a just-released Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) study found that children may carry high levels of the Coronavirus up to 100 times as much as adults. The startling finding comes at a time that Donald Trump and Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos are trying to gaslight the American public to reopen public schools and make students and teachers kindling wood for another surge in the Coronavirus.

According to an article in the Washington Post, Trump is quoted as saying on July 30:

“I do say again, young people are almost immune to this disease. The younger the better,” President Trump said Thursday during a White House briefing. “They’re stronger. They have a stronger immune system.”

These are not the words of a man with medical knowledge; they are the delusional pronouncements of a merchant of death.

Indeed, the CDC, which just a few days ago succumbed to the political pressure of the Trump White House and announced that schools were safe to open, has now, just a short time later, come to the inevitable recognition of what the scientific data reveals: “A new [CDC] report suggests that CONTINUE READING: Opening Schools a Completely Crazy Idea - LA Progressive

EdAction in Congress August 2, 2020 - Education Votes

EdAction in Congress August 2, 2020 - Education Votes

EdAction in Congress August 2, 2020

Congress must act NOW to stem the damage from COVID-19

Two weeks after returning from vacation, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and his Senate enablers revealed their current take on COVID-19—a bill with zero chance of passing the Senate, let alone the House. Those shortcomings reflect the chaos and disarray within the GOP, and something even worse: a refusal to take the pandemic seriously. More than two months after the House passed the HEROES Act, nothing has changed from the GOP’s perspective.

Officially called the HEALS Act—a cruel irony—McConnell’s bill does too little, too late about what students, parents, and educators care about most: reopening schools safely, providing meaningful distance learning, and bridging the gaps in state and local budgets that have already cost nearly a million educators their jobs.

Again and again, McConnell has proclaimed liability protection his top priority—in his own words, to protect against “an epidemic of lawsuits” that does not exist. His bill waives liability but requires neither federal nor state mandates to protect health and safety—an approach that encourages schools and campuses to reopen despite public health concerns while sending the message that they are, indeed, unsafe.

Other provisions further political and ideological goals. To pressure schools to reopen without regard to safety, the HEALS Act reserves two-thirds of K-12 emergency funding for schools that physically reopen and provide in-person instruction. To help privatize education—Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’ goal from the start—the bill uses two mechanisms to siphon funding from the public schools that educate 9 out of 10 students: vouchers funneled through non-profits (like foundations) and set-asides for private schools.

The true nature of the HEALS Act—a transparent attempt to achieve political goals, not alleviate suffering—is revealed by what it does NOT do. The suspension of payments on student loan debt is not renewed. The moratorium on evicting renters is not renewed. States and localities do not get any of the support they need to close the budget caps caused by COVID-19, an omission that could prolong the pandemic and worsen the economic crisis.

COVID-19 has already done more than enough damage to our nation—more than 150,000 deaths and the biggest quarterly economic contraction in U.S. history. To save lives, stem the economic decline, and begin the healing, Congress needs to stop playing games and craft a bipartisan bill that can pass both the House and the Senate. The road to recovery truly does run through our schools and campuses. TAKE ACTION 

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ESP of the Year’s take on McConnell’s bill

Andrea Beeman, NEA’s 2020 Education Support Professional of the Year, participated in a July 28 panel discussion sponsored by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, “The Impact of McConnell’s Immunity Proposal on Workers and Communities of Color.” Immunity from liability is the centerpiece of the HEALS Act Majority Leader McConnell introduced in the Senate last Monday.

“It seems to me that we are doing the OPPOSITE of what we should be doing to reopen schools for in-person learning,” Beeman said. “Instead of striving to contain the pandemic BEFORE we return to in-person learning, by focusing on waiving liability for keeping schools safe, we are saying to students, educators, and families: Beware. Enter at your own risk.”  A special education paraprofessional at Maple Heights High School in Maple Heights, Ohio, Beeman started her career as a paraeducator 19 years ago. In her current position, she works with students who have severe developmental disabilities. 

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Allow schools for military kids to offer remote instruction

The Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) is requiring most of the schools it operates—here and overseas—to reopen and offer in-person instruction five days a week despite a resurgence of COVID-19 in many of those places. Students exposed to COVID-19 at school could bring the virus home and infect their parents, which could have a devastating impact on our nation’s military readiness. DoDEA educators are eager to return to their schools and see their students, but are concerned about safety—specifically, the availability of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), the feasibility of social distancing, and adequate staffing levels.

Remote instruction should be offered for many reasons: it would provide time to address staffing needs, procure PPE, develop realistic cleaning procedures, and educate students and their parents about their options. DoDEA has promised to expand the Virtual School Program created before the pandemic—which provides specialized content and requires students to enroll for an entire semester—but planning and staffing remain in flux. Instead, DoDEA schools should offer remote instruction when the new school year starts. TAKE ACTION

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Cheers and Jeers

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) and Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) introduced the Counseling Not Criminalization in Schools Act (S. 4360/H.R. 7848), which would create a $2.5 billion grant program for school districts seeking to replace law enforcement officers with psychologists, social workers, and other staff with mental health expertise.

Reps. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) and David Joyce (R-OH) introduced the bipartisan Protecting Access to Loan Forgiveness for Public Servants Act (H.R. 7761) to ensure that educators whose jobs are disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic still qualify for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-IL) introduced the RETAIN Act, which would create a fully refundable tax credit to encourage early childhood educators to remain in the profession.

House Education and Labor Committee Chair Bobby Scott (D-VA) introduced the Pandemic Child Hunger Prevention Act, which would expand access to free school meals for all children during the COVID-19 pandemic and keep the school meal program from collapsing.

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) called slavery a “necessary evil” and introduced a bill to discourage schools from including 1619 Project materials in their curricula because they teach students to “hate America.” The first enslaved Africans arrived in America in 1619.

EdAction in Congress August 2, 2020 - Education Votes

Mr. G for District 3: Chris Guerrieri's Education Matters: Is DCPS planning to keep infections secret?

Mr. G for District 3: Chris Guerrieri's Education Matters: Is DCPS planning to keep infections secret?

Is DCPS planning to keep infections secret?

Superintendent Greene and the board are planning to send staff and students back to school when they know it is dangerous, have warned staff not to be too vocal in their dissent, said they will ignore guidelines meant to protect us when they prove inconvenient and now that they will keep infections secret unless they close schools. How the &%#$ is any of this right?

From First Coast News,

Duval County Public Schools says students and staff have a right to privacy, so it will not make any announcements unless instances of COVID-19 impact campus operations.

https://www.firstcoastnews.com/article/news/education/first-coast-schools-plan-how-to-handle-positive-covid-19-cases-within-the-buildings/

Um, nobody expects the district to release names and they know that. When they site "privacy concerns" they are looking for any excuse no matter how tenuous to keep the public in the dark and that is both shameful CONTINUE READING: Mr. G for District 3: Chris Guerrieri's Education Matters: Is DCPS planning to keep infections secret?

NYC Educator: Dr. Fauci’s Experiment

NYC Educator: Dr. Fauci’s Experiment

Dr. Fauci’s Experiment

On the evening of July 28th, Dr. Anthony Fauci told the American Federation of Teachers the following:

“You’re going to be part of the experiment of the learning curve of what we need to know.”

I was a little surprised by that. First of all, I frequently see Dr. Fauci compared to President Trump, portrayed as the relative voice of reason. He seems to be truthful to a fault, and frequently speaks the bad news the White House would be happier to deny. I can only suppose that’s why he made this statement as well.

I’m not at all sure, though, that teachers, students, and our families ought to be participating in this experiment. The stakes here are literally life and death, and I’m neither inclined nor honored to be a canary in a coal mine. I’ve lost friends to this virus. I have young colleagues who’ve spent weeks in the hospital. Even more of my colleagues have lost parents and other family. In fact, we’ve learned a lot about COVID 19 in a relatively short period of time, and we’ve learned it the hard way.

Of course there is still a lot we don’t know about the virus. It’s shocking, however, that any medical doctor, let alone Dr. Fauci, would suggest that the way to learn about it is to send Americans into schools and find out exactly how many of them get sick and die. While it’s true that this information might prove of value, we’ve already got 150,000 dead and millions more sick.

I’m not a doctor, and I won’t pretend to know much about disease. I do know, though, that doctors take an oath to first, do no harm. I’m baffled as to how sending tens of millions of Americans to schools to find out just how the virus spreads entails doing no harm.

Furthermore, we have a pretty good idea of what school openings can be like. In Israel, we now know that opening the schools prematurely was a disaster that brought about a CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: Dr. Fauci’s Experiment

solidaridad: Open Letter to LAUSD Board Regarding the Implementation of AB 1505

solidaridad: Open Letter to LAUSD Board Regarding the Implementation of AB 1505

Open Letter to LAUSD Board Regarding the Implementation of AB 1505

A copy of this letter was sent to each individual member via email

August 1, 2020

Dear Members of the Board of Education:

I am an educational rights attorney and law professor here in Los Angeles. I live within the boundaries of the Los Angeles Unified School District (“LAUSD”) and I am a registered voter.

I am writing you regarding the implementation of AB 1505. I’m asking you to vote YES on said implementation this Tuesday, August 4, 2020.

As you know, Assembly Bill No. 1505 went a long way towards reigning in the more egregious excesses of the charter school industry. Most notably, it discouraged the practice of “forum shopping” in which a charter school corporations found to be out of compliance with the law, and thus denied a petition or renewal, could circumvent the law by seeking authorization with another authorizer. Public policy supports placing more oversight and accountability on these private entities that divert funding from our public schools.

Assembly Bill No. 1505 also implemented a number of other student-centered policies that force the charter school industry to be more accountable, transparent, and responsive to the communities from which they draw their funding. A key issue advanced by AB 1505 was in regards to credentialing. Students in our communities deserve instruction from educators with appropriate education in child development and pedagogy.

A YES vote on the implementation of AB 1505 provides a path for placing pupils over profits.

Sincerely,

-rds

solidaridad: Open Letter to LAUSD Board Regarding the Implementation of AB 1505

Mr. G for District 3: Chris Guerrieri's Education Matters: Superintendent Greene, the pandemic won't last but you losing the confidence of your staff probably will

Mr. G for District 3: Chris Guerrieri's Education Matters: Superintendent Greene, the pandemic won't last but you losing the confidence of your staff probably will

Superintendent Greene, the pandemic won't last but you losing the confidence of your staff probably will

I want to try and be sympathetic to Superintendent, she has a tough job, and there has been a failure of leadership at the city, state, and federal level. That being said, she admitted during the NAACP/Friends zoom call that she thinks putting families and teachers in danger is the right choice. Friends, she knows we will be in danger and says that is okay, and that is not a choice I can get behind.

First I would like to acknowledge some people want to go back, they don't mind the virus, maybe they don't think it is really happening, perhaps they believe their and their family's health is worth the risk, maybe it is something else? I don't get them, and I don't want to spend the energy trying.

Terrie Brady read the results of a poll that said, 1800 teachers, wanted to give virtual instruction, 400 were all right with some type of hybrid and 300 wanted to go back, I have rounded the numbers. That means 72 percent of teachers, the overwhelming majority didn't feel it was time or safe to return, and only 12 percent said, bring it on.

Then what about the non instructional staff that wasn't given even the meager choices that teachers have? CONTINUE READING: Mr. G for District 3: Chris Guerrieri's Education Matters: Superintendent Greene, the pandemic won't last but you losing the confidence of your staff probably will

SSPI Thurmond Announces Recommendations to Draft Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum - Year 2020 (CA Dept of Education)

Draft Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum - Year 2020 (CA Dept of Education)

State Superintendent Tony Thurmond Announces Recommendations to Draft Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum

Recommendations kick off public input period before March 2021 adoption deadline

SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond announced today that the California Department of Education (CDE) has posted online its latest recommendations to the draft Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum. The recommendations are scheduled to be reviewed by the Instructional Quality Commission (IQC) at its quarterly meeting on August 13, the next in ongoing opportunities for public input before final adoption.

The CDE recommends that the model curriculum remain rooted in four foundational disciplines of ethnic studies—African American Studies, Asian American Studies, Chicano Latino Studies, and Native American and Indigenous Studies. The CDE also recommends the draft include educator resources for engaging in expanded, critical conversations that can be customized to reflect a school community’s diversity and engage in broader social justice issues.

“Our schools have not always been a place where students can gain a full understanding of the contributions of people of color and the many ways throughout history—and present day—that our country has exploited, marginalized, and oppressed them. At a time when people across the nation are calling for a fairer, more just society, we must empower and equip students and educators to have these courageous conversations in the classroom,” said Thurmond. “I am proud to submit these recommendations for a draft Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum that will not only serve as a roadmap for educators but, hopefully, inspire action across the nation.”

California is required by law to develop a model curriculum in ethnic studies to be utilized as a guide and outline for schools as they consider implementing ethnic studies courses. This guide will help districts and schools as they begin to develop their own ethnic studies curriculum reflecting their student demographics and community.

The CDE’s recommendations and proposed edits were informed after reviewing tens of thousands of public comments, learning from ethnic studies subject matter experts and thought leaders, listening to educators, and engaging with students across the state. Based on stakeholder feedback, the CDE has recommended removing all language that can be perceived as anti-Semitic and has recommended a draft that provides resources educators can use to acknowledge California’s diversity and make connections to the experiences of all students.

“Our recommendations are to stay true to the fidelity of the ethnic studies movement, which has been fighting for this type of curriculum for decades, and which remains urgently relevant today—as we can see through the countless demonstrations for racial justice in our communities,” Thurmond said.

More information on the CDE recommendations and the draft Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum can be found on the IQC Agenda for August 13. CDE’s recommendations to the draft Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum are in alignment with state law and the State Board of Education-adopted (SBE) guidelines, which can be found on the CDE Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum Guidelines web page.

The IQC will review the CDE recommendations at its August 13 meeting and will post the revised draft of the model curriculum for a 30-day period of public review prior to taking action later this year to recommend the model curriculum to the SBE. State law requires the SBE to take final action on the model curriculum by March 31, 2021.

More information on the Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum can be found on the CDE Model Curriculum Projects web page. Individuals and groups will have the opportunity to submit public comment on the draft Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum during the 30-day review period. The IQC will review and consider those public comments at its November meeting. Comments can also be submitted at any time to ethnicstudies@cde.ca.gov.

To engage a diverse cross-section of students more deeply in the four core disciplines of ethnic studies, Superintendent Thurmond earlier this month hosted a four-part series of virtual classroom lessons featuring civil rights icons, prominent ethnic studies instructors, and state leaders. The archived webinars can be found on the CDE Facebook page.

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Tony Thurmond — State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Communications Division, Room 5602, 916-319-0818, Fax 916-319-0100

Draft Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum - Year 2020 (CA Dept of Education)

POLITICAL ROPE-A-DOPE – Dad Gone Wild

POLITICAL ROPE-A-DOPE – Dad Gone Wild

POLITICAL ROPE-A-DOPE

“Honest people don’t hide their deeds.”
― Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights

“Nobody lives forever, nobody stays young long enough. My past seemed like so much excess baggage, my future a series of long goodbyes, my present an empty flask, the last good drink already bitter on my tongue.”
― James Crumley, The Last Good Kiss

I grew up watching Muhamad Ali fight. These days boxing has surrendered its crown to MMA, but when I was a kid it was king, and nobody held court like Ali. He was brave, fast, strong, funny, and frightening. Easily the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time. We all admired him and talks of his exploits dominated our playground conversations.

I was 9 years old in 1974 when Ali challenged then-champion George Foreman in the classic fight that became forever known as the “Rumble in the Jungle”. Younger folks, familiar with Foreman through his infomercials, might not realize that the man was a devastating puncher. Pre-fight, many experts gave Ali little chance at taking the belt. Ali wasn’t just a great athlete though, he was a great tactician.

In the weeks prior to the fight, he would go out of his way to needle Foreman and anger him. During training sessions, he toughened up his mid-section by repeatedly having sparring partners punch him in the stomach. The early rounds of the fight found Ali repeatedly laying on the ropes, looking helpless while Foreman pummeled him with blows. Looks can be deceiving though, as noted by author Norman Mailer, “”Standing on one’s feet it is painful to absorb a heavy body punch even when blocked with one’s arm. The torso, the legs, and the spine take the shock. Leaning on the ropes, however, Ali can pass it along; the rope will receive the strain.”

As the fight entered the eighth round, the toll of throwing so many punches was starting to show on Foreman, as he grew physically exhausted. This is what Ali had been waiting for. Foreman tried to CONTINUE READING: POLITICAL ROPE-A-DOPE – Dad Gone Wild

Worlds of Education: "The Edtech Pandemic Shock", by Ben Williamson & Anna Hogan | National Education Policy Center

Worlds of Education: "The Edtech Pandemic Shock", by Ben Williamson & Anna Hogan | National Education Policy Center

Worlds of Education: "The Edtech Pandemic Shock", by Ben Williamson & Anna Hogan

The Covid-19 pandemic was the context for two major disruptions in education. The first was the disruption to schooling for millions of students worldwide, and a rapid shift to remote learning online. The second, closely related disruption was the entry of the commercial education technology sector into public education at worldwide scale, and its attempts to profit from the shock of the pandemic.

In our recent project for Education International on commercialization and privatization of education in the context of Covid-19, we mapped the range of ways in which the private sector and commercial businesses capitalized on the crisis of school closures. Our findings suggest that commercial companies were not only seeking short-term profit during the pandemic. They were active participants in multisector networks that are fundamentally committed to ‘reimagining’ and transforming how public education as a sector is organized in the future.  

Reimagining education

The experience of the pandemic in education has been characterized by some as a historic opportunity for reform. Pivoting to remote learning was the ‘greatest edtech experiment’ in history, claimed some media sources. Digital learning was a ‘microcosm’ of the future in the making. The OECD’s director of education, Andreas Schleicher, said it was ‘a great moment’ in which all the ‘red tape’ stifling innovation in public education had been cut away.

These imaginaries of historic opportunities quickly manifested in practical actions. In New York State, Governor Andrew Cuomo drafted in the help of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to ‘reimagine education’ for the state, and to put Gates’s longstanding reformatory ideas into action.

 ‘The old model of everybody goes and sits in a classroom and the teacher is in front of that classroom, and teaches that class, and you do that all across the city, all across the state, all these buildings, all these physical classrooms – why, with all the technology you have?’ asked Cuomo. The alternative path, it seemed, was obvious—tear down the existing system of CONTINUE READING: Worlds of Education: "The Edtech Pandemic Shock", by Ben Williamson & Anna Hogan | National Education Policy Center