Big Education Ape

Wednesday, September 16, 2020

Distance Learning Impasse Could Plunge Sacramento City Schools Further Into Fiscal Crisis, County Superintendent Says - capradio.org

Distance Learning Impasse Could Plunge Sacramento City Schools Further Into Fiscal Crisis, County Superintendent Says

Almost all of Sacramento County’s thirteen school districts have a distance learning plan in place during the pandemic — agreed to by both teachers and administrators — and are in solid financial shape.

But there is one outlier: the Sacramento City Unified School District.

That’s according to Dave Gordon, the Sacramento County Superintendent of Schools, who provides fiscal oversight and other guidance to schools from Elk Grove to Elverta.

In a recent interview, Gordon told CapRadio that the impasse between SCUSD and its labor partner, Sacramento City Teachers Association (SCTA), could compromise the district’s ability to comply with education laws, and be a roadblock to reimbursement

In a recent letter to California State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tony Thurmond, the district expressed concern about teachers’ schedules that vary from the district, and that some are “either less than the required instructional minutes or lack the daily live instruction requirement under the law.”

The district confirmed to CapRadio that it faces financial penalties if it does not adequately track attendance and the amount of learning — live or independent study — that takes place among its 42,000 students.

CapRadio interviewed county Superintendent Gordon about the impact of the deadlocked negotiations over distance learning in SCUSD, and about the district’s long term fiscal viability. Below is a transcript of the interview, edited for length and clarity.

What is your role over Sacramento school districts?

We do fiscal oversight of all of the school districts. We don't oversee their instructional practices, but if asked, we would give guidance.

So the situation right now at Sacramento City Unified appears that the district is providing a set of directions and the teachers are providing, in some or many cases, different directions than the district. And the district really needs to function as one organization — not as a teacher-run organization and a district-run organization. So what seems to be going on now is not appropriate [and] not legal, most likely. And you can imagine the chaos that this is creating.

Can you tell me more about that? That that situation is not legal? What do you mean by that?

Well, the district is authorized to run its affairs and report to the state and account to the state CONTINUE READING: Distance Learning Impasse Could Plunge Sacramento City Schools Further Into Fiscal Crisis, County Superintendent Says - capradio.org

Teacher Tom: The Most Rigorous Curriculum

The Most Rigorous Curriculum

Our outdoor classroom is one big slope and within that slope there are many ups and downs, reflecting our city which is built on hills. We're forever experimenting with gravity out there, rolling and flowing things downhill or dragging and pushing things up. There are parts of the space that are so steep one needs a running start to get to the top and there is very little flat upon which to rest one's legs.

We have a pair of wagons, which are regularly used on the hills. Once, we made an airplane.

From my photos, it's easy to see the physics and engineering learning, but those were minor aspects, side-effects, of the bigger, more important project, which was figuring out how to get along with the other people.

There are those who question the "rigor" of a play-based curriculum when, in fact, we're engaged in the most rigorous curriculum known to mankind. There is simply no greater or more important challenge than the one of balancing our own individual desires and needs with those of the other humans CONTINUE READING: Teacher Tom: The Most Rigorous Curriculum

NYC Educator: De Blasio and Carranza Abandon the Hybrid Fantasy

De Blasio and Carranza Abandon the Hybrid Fantasy

For weeks I've been marveling that the two grown men who ran education in the country's largest school district accepted a plan that relied on teachers who simply do not exist. If you break a class into two to five sections, who teaches the students who aren't in the building on any given day? Yet Chancellor Carranza would get up in front of news cameras and claim everyone would receive synchronous instruction each and every day.

They explained how the fantasy worked. You and I would teach chemistry. We'd coordinate lessons and each of us would teach 12 kids a day. The other students from our classes, all 44 of them, would be with a hybrid remote teacher, who'd magically recreate our lesson online. Also, there'd be some kind of virtual something specialist who'd write and provide the lessons. The problem, obvious to everyone but de Blasio and Carranza, was that we then needed somewhere between 1.5 and 2 teachers where we used to need only one.

They put forth solutions. Everyone from Tweed with a license would teach. Supervisors would teach. They'd hire thousands of substitutes. Imagine a substitute, hired out of nowhere, with not experience. There's a long and hallowed DOE tradition that the least qualified person gets the most difficult tasks. They can't learn and you can't teach, so we put you together. It's poetry, a thing of beauty.

So who was gonna get those remote classes of 44? Of course it would be the new sub. That's one reason I argued we'd be teaching chemistry. I've got over thirty years experience and I can't teach day one of chemistry. How is a newbie we just dragged off the street gonna do it? How will that guy teach Chinese? In fact, how will a person with no experience teach anything to an obscenely huge class, on a computer, with no training whatsoever?

These were just a few of the issues with which our visionary chancellor had to contend. He was all smiles right up until recently. He had ideas. A Queens high school was told to eliminate all comp time jobs and make every supervisor teach two classes. They were grappling at straws and embracing ridiculous, unworkable solutions. And it just hung there, until days before opening, we learned they'd abandoned it on Twitter, of all places.

Now I'm not what you'd call an organizational genius by any measure. But I CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: De Blasio and Carranza Abandon the Hybrid Fantasy

Senate Republicans Once Again Refuse to Help States and Their Local School Districts | janresseger

Senate Republicans Once Again Refuse to Help States and Their Local School Districts

Last week, the Republican dominated U.S. Senate once again failed to pass its latest version of a second stimulus bill to help alleviate the recession that is undermining the economy, the lives of individuals, and institutions like public schools. The Republicans called their bill a skinny (minimal) bill, and everybody knew it wasn’t going to pass, but the consequences are likely to be serious. At least, by sinking the bill, Congress did not pass the Betsy DeVos favorite, a tuition tax credit Freedom Scholarship program inserted at the last minute by Sen. Ted Cruz.

The Washington Post’s Erica Werner, Seung Min Kim and Tony Romm explain last week’s Senate action: “The failed GOP bill would have authorized new money for small businesses, coronavirus testing and schools, and $300 in enhanced weekly enhanced unemployment benefits. The measure included roughly $650 billion in total spending, but it would repurpose roughly $350 billion in previously approved spending, bringing the tally of new funding to around $300 billion. The measure did not include a second round of $1,200 stimulus checks for individual Americans, even though that’s something the White House supports. It also excluded any new money for cities and states, a top Democratic priority as municipal governments face the prospect of mass layoffs because of plunging tax revenue. And it contained some conservative priorities that Democrats dismissed as unacceptable ‘poison pills’ including liability protections for businesses and a tax credit aimed at helping students attend private schools.”

There is speculation that Congress won’t be able to agree on any additional stimulus prior to the election. Under pressure from Democratic members of the House to pass something before CONTINUE READING: Senate Republicans Once Again Refuse to Help States and Their Local School Districts | janresseger

CURMUDGUCATION: Scrap the Big Standardized Test This Year

Scrap the Big Standardized Test This Year

When schools pushed the pandemic pause button last spring, one of the casualties was the annual ritual of taking the Big Standardized Test. There were many reasons to skip the test, but in the end, students simply weren’t in school during the usual testing time. Secretary of Education issued waivers so that states could cancel their test (which is mandated by the Every Student Succeeds Act).

But that was last year.

This year, many states are already indicating that they will seek waivers again. South Carolina and Georgia have both announced their intention to get federal permission to skip the test. The Massachusetts legislature is considering a bill that would suspend the state’s MCAS exam for four years.

Meanwhile, thedepartment of education has signaled that it is not ready to let testing go. Discussing the waivers in a virtual press conference, assistant ed secretary James Blew said “Our instinct would not be to give those waivers.”

Instinct or not, there is no good reason to go through with the Big Standardized Test in the coming school year.

First of all, there’s the cost in time and money, both of which will be in short supply in the coming year. States are anticipating a financial crunch, and schools will need every possible minute to deal CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Scrap the Big Standardized Test This Year

Teacher Tom: Clouds Must Be Free

Clouds Must Be Free

I like the idea of being "free," whatever that means, and I like the idea of empowering others to be free. It is, one could say, the driving force behind both my personal and professional life. I don't know if I've ever achieved it, but I've always, to the best of my ability strived toward it.

I will not obey is one of my mantras, commandeered from Utah Phillips and made my own. It is, at the same time, the attitude of a dictator unless I also strive to also make the possibilities embodied in that stance a reality for others. "I'll be the boss of me. You be the boss of you." It's another mantra, one I've tried to live for most of my adult life, especially when engaged with young children. To me it means that my relationships must be based upon agreement rather than command.

Of course, that is only the tip of the freedom iceberg. Even if we can achieve perfect interpersonal freedom, and we likely cannot, there are still the worldly shackles of society, culture, environment, biology, and wealth that make our freedom incomplete. Philosophers and theologians tell us that nothing short of death, the return of consciousness back into the universe or heaven, can make us free; that bodies are our ultimate earthly prisons. Others, however, tell us that freedom is possible on this earth, but only through a constant process of escape, of letting go, of being water. Even if this freedom is only experienced in sips, they say, it is real CONTINUE READING: Teacher Tom: Clouds Must Be Free

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

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

A VERY BUSY DAY

Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

The latest news and resources in education since 2007

Big Education Ape: THIS WEEK IN EDUCATION Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... The latest news and resources in education since 2007 - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2020/09/this-week-in-education-larry-ferlazzos_12.html

Ed Tech Digest

by Larry Ferlazzo / 2h

Nine years ago, in another somewhat futile attempt to reduce the backlog of resources I want to share, I began this occasional “” post where I share three or four links I think are particularly useful and related to…ed tech, including some Web 2.0 apps. You might also be interested in THE BEST ED TECH RESOURCES OF 2020 – PART ONE , as well as checking out all my edtech resources . Here are this w

This Week’s Resources To Support Teachers Coping With School Closures

by Larry Ferlazzo / 11h

Wokandapix / Pixabay I have a number of regular weekly features (see HERE IS A LIST (WITH LINKS) OF ALL MY REGULAR WEEKLY FEATURES ). This is a relatively new addition to that list. Some of these resources will be added to The Best Advice On Teaching K-12 Online (If We Have To Because Of The Coronavirus) – Please Make More Suggestions ! and the best will go to The “Best Of The Best” Resources To

New PBS NewHour Video Segment: “The hopes, fears and reality as schools open worldwide”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 11h

Mediamodifier / Pixabay I’m adding this segment from tonight’s PBS NewsHour to THE BEST POSTS PREDICTING WHAT SCHOOLS WILL LOOK LIKE IN THE FALL :

Four African-American Girls Were Murdered 56 Years Ago Today In The Birmingham Church Bombing – Here Are Teaching & Learning Resources

by Larry Ferlazzo / 16h

Fifty-six years ago today four African-American girls were killed when their church was bombed in Birmingham, Alabama. You might be interested in The Best Resources For Learning About The Birmingham Church Bombing . I remember and say the names of Addie Mae Collins (aged 14), Cynthia Wesley (aged 14), Carole Robertson (aged 14) and Denise McNair (aged 11), who died in the bombing of Birmingham, A

Nice Graphic Illustrating Elements Of The New IB TOK Curriculum

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1d

In what I think was a bad policy move, the International Baccalaureate program went forward this year with major changes to the Theory of Knowledge curriculum instead of delaying them a year. I have no negative feelings about the new curriculum itself – I think most are good changes. In the face of a pandemic, however, I don’t think teachers like me needed the added pressure of figuring out how t

Two Options For Beginning A Week Of Distance Learning

22by Larry Ferlazzo / 1d

geralt / Pixabay Here are two options (out of many!) to begin a week of distance learning. On Mondays, my talented colleague Lara Hoekstra asks students to respond in writing to a series of questions – the first couple are more reflective on the past week, while the next ones are more SEL-oriented. Here’s a downloadable example . I’m trying out something a little different – a simple Google Form

“Videos Teachers Can Learn From …”