THE TOP BANANA: TODAY'S EDUCATION HEADLINES #REDFORED #tbats #COVID-19 #REOPENSCHOOLSSAFELY #COVIDOUTBREAK #BIDENWINS #46

 THE TOP BANANA

TODAY'S EDUCATION HEADLINES 

Montgomery County parents stage another COVID-19 school-closing protest, this time with a road rally - https://www.inquirer.com/health/coronavirus/coronavirus-covid-montgomery-county-schools-closing-protest-20201129.html#new_tab via @PhillyInquirer

Reopening Whiplash in New York City - The New York Times - https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/30/us/reopening-whiplash-in-new-york-city.html

Appeals court refuses to intervene after health dept. closes Mich. school - https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2020/11/29/appeals-court-denies-intervention-christian-school-closed-health-department-coronavirus/6457178002/#new_tab via @freep

Schools Have Struggled To Fulfill IEPs Amid Pandemic, Government Report Finds - Disability Scoop - https://www.disabilityscoop.com/?p=29099 on @disabilityscoop

New Jersey moves to strengthen Black history education mandates - https://www.inquirer.com/education/nj-education-black-history-curriculum-amistad-legislation-cherry-hill-mcknight-angela-assembly-20201125.html#new_tab via @PhillyInquirer

Scottsdale Unified School District to close five schools Monday due to lack of staffing - https://www.abc15.com/rebound/state-of-education/scottsdale-unified-school-district-to-close-five-schools-monday-due-to-lack-of-staffing#new_tab by @DanielleLerner on @abc15

DeVos: Postpone National Assessment of Educational Progress exam in 2021 - The Washington Post - https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/naep-exams-2021-devos/2020/11/25/8f8741a4-2f3c-11eb-860d-f7999599cbc2_story.html#new_tab

Black Lives Matter lesson heightens racial tensions in Burlington Area schools - https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/education/2020/11/30/black-lives-matter-lesson-heightens-racial-tensions-burlington-area-schools/6424763002/#new_tab via @journalsentinel

New York City to reopen schools for 200,000 students Dec. 7, mayor says - https://www.politico.com/states/new-york/city-hall/story/2020/11/29/new-york-city-to-reopen-schools-for-200-000-students-next-week-mayor-says-1338269#new_tab

Virtual Charter Schools Are Booming During COVID-19 : NPR - https://www.npr.org/2020/11/30/928209482/virtual-charter-schools-are-booming-despite-a-checkered-reputation#new_tab on @NPR

Cleveland Heights-University Heights City School District votes to strip healthcare benefits for striking teachers | wkyc.com - https://www.wkyc.com/article/news/education/cleveland-heights-teachers-benefits-strike/95-907d435e-a208-449a-8c9f-02477bd9c566#new_tab on wkyc

Kentucky COVID-19 restrictions: Appeals court closes in-person classes - https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/education/2020/11/29/kentucky-coronavirus-appeals-court-ruling-religious-schools/6436082002/#new_tab via @courierjournal

Amid COVID-19, homeless students form learning pod at carport - Los Angeles Times - https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-11-26/covid-19-homeless-students-form-learning-pod-carport#new_tab by @LauraMNewberry on @latimes

Mike Klonsky's Blog: WEEKEND QUOTABLES - http://michaelklonsky.blogspot.com/2020/11/weekend-quotables_30.html

Kentucky coronavirus restrictions order likely headed to Supreme Court - https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/education/2020/11/30/daniel-cameron-kentucky-coronavirus-religious-schools-restrictions-supreme-court/6462195002/#new_tab via @courierjournal

Perspective | An argument for giving kids open-book tests during the pandemic (and after) https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2020/11/30/an-argument-giving-kids-open-book-tests-during-pandemic-after/?tid=ss_tw

OPINION: What math class and police brutality have in common

by Mike Simpson / 56min

What math class and police brutality have in common An obsession with rule-following cuts short Black students’ opportunities Last May, a 15-year-old Black girl in Michigan known only by her middle name, Grace, was put in juvenile detention for not completing her homework. Teens not turning in their homework is hardly an anomaly. Other teens are scolded, lose marks or, at worst, get detention fo

Teaching in the Pandemic: ‘This Is Not Sustainable’ - The New York Times

by Mike Simpson / 56min

Teaching in the Pandemic: ‘This Is Not Sustainable’ Teacher burnout could erode instructional quality, stymie working parents and hinder the reopening of the economy. At Farmington Central Junior High in rural Illinois, classes still start at 8 a.m. But that’s about the only part of the school day that has not changed for Caitlyn Clayton, an eighth-grade English teacher tirelessly toggling betwe

Teacher Tom: Talking to Children About the Pandemic and Everything

by Mike Simpson / 56min

Talking to Children About the Pandemic and Everything In a recent interview in The New York Times Magazine , children's book author Mo Willems was asked if he had any advice for parents struggling to talk with their children about difficult things, like the pandemic. "Probably the most fundamental insight is that even a good childhood is difficult: You're powerless; the furniture is not made you

Making the Transition from Writing in High School to Writing in College – radical eyes for equity

by Mike Simpson / 56min

Making the Transition from Writing in High School to Writing in College Three behaviors have over the course of about 40 years come to constitute a significant percentage of who I am—writing, teaching, and cycling. Of those three, I have received the most formal education in teaching, completing all three of my degrees (BA, MEd, EdD) in education; in many ways, I am self-taught as a writer and a

CURMUDGUCATION: Donors Choose Monday: Expanding the Library

by Mike Simpson / 56min

Donors Choose Monday: Expanding the Library This week's project is exactly the sort of thing that shouldn't be on donors choose. Mrs. Gibson is an elementary teacher in South Carolina, and she's looking to expand her classroom library. My students are living in a low income area where literacy is our focus in order to meet the needs they may not be receiving at home. My focus is to bring in book

Grassroots Education Network- November 2020 Newsletter - Network For Public Education

by Mike Simpson / 56min

Grassroots Education Network- November 2020 Newsletter The NPE Grassroots Education Network is a network of over 155 grassroots organizations nationwide who have joined together to preserve, promote, improve, and strengthen our public schools. If you know of a group that would like to join this powerful network, please go here to sign on. If you have any questions about the NPE Grassroots Educat

Nobody Should Be Wasting Time Worrying About When to Administer Standardized Tests | janresseger

by Mike Simpson / 56min

Nobody Should Be Wasting Time Worrying About When to Administer Standardized Tests Parents, children, teachers, principals, and school superintendents are living through a time of unknowns. COVID-19 is raging across the states with many public schools operating only online. Some public schools, which have been able to open in person or on hybrid schedules, have subsequently been forced to close

Virtual Charter Schools Are Booming, Despite A Checkered Reputation | 89.3 KPCC

by Mike Simpson / 56min

Virtual Charter Schools Are Booming, Despite A Checkered Reputation Parent Mandii Brower vividly remembers what it was like when her kids' school in Yukon, Okla., switched to distance learning in the spring: "It was just like, we never learned with our teachers again. They never checked on things again." She says "school" consisted of just a few short daily assignments. "I [couldn't] see my kids

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

by Mike Simpson / 56min

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/2020/11/this-week-in-education-larry-ferlazzos_28.html “This Is Not Sustainable”: Important NY Times Article About Teachers’ Str

CURMUDGUCATION: The 2020 Edubook Christmas List

by Mike Simpson / 3h

The 2020 Edubook Christmas List Time to go hunting for books for the people on your Christmas list, and I have some recommendations for you if there are people on your list who care about public education (and really, everybody should). Before we start shopping, let me also direct your attention to Bookshop.org , an online vendor set up to benefit local independent booksellers instead of, say, g

In a twist, de Blasio’s latest screw-up is not his worst | JD2718

by Mike Simpson / 3h

In a twist, de Blasio’s latest screw-up is not his worst Over the last nine months Bill de Blasio has gotten a lot wrong. Almost every announcement has been late, off-base, and off kilter. He kept schools open when they should have been closed, he canceled break when students and teachers needed it, he announced policies without consulting teachers, families, principals, he came up with half-ass

NYC Educator: The Chancellor Reveals His Re-opening Plan

by Mike Simpson / 3h

The Chancellor Reveals His Re-opening Plan Dear Colleagues, I hope you had a restful Thanksgiving holiday this year. You’ll need it, because I’m about to arbitrarily and capriciously change my reopening plan, again, with no consultation whatsoever with your union. This has been an eventful and challenging year on many levels. We’ve managed to double the infection rate in the city. Worse, parents

Reclaiming the Field | The Merrow Report

by Mike Simpson / 22h

Reclaiming the Field I know that I interviewed hundreds of future Trump supporters during my 41 years of reporting on public education for PBS and NPR. I’m also pretty sure that I taught some of them in high school 55 years ago. Joey L. is a case in point. Joey was a junior back in 1966 when he was in my English class, so he would be about 70 years old today. Back then most public schools (inclu

CATCH UP WITH CURMUDGUCATION + ICYMI: Long Weekend Edition (11/29)

by Mike Simpson / 1d

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: Long Weekend Edition (11/29) Long Weekend Edition (11/29) Thanksgiving was not so bad at our house; the board of directors had a lovely time and I was able to talk to both grown children. So we'll call it a win. In the meantime, people keep writing stuff and I have some of it here for you to read. How a Bad Bill Becomes a Bad Law Sharon Murchie is an English teacher in Mich

CommonWealth Magazine

by Mike Simpson / 1d

In-person learning now considered ‘high risk’ by CDC Change in guideline quietly made on agency website THE CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL and Prevention quietly removed controversial guidelines from its website promoting in-person learning in schools, and instead is now listing it as “high risk. The disputed guidance was composed of documents written by political appointees outside of the agency.

A Week in the Life of a Baltimore School Returning to In-Person Classes (Erica Green) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

by Mike Simpson / 1d

A Week in the Life of a Baltimore School Returning to In-Person Classes (Erica Green) New York Times Journalist Erica Green spent a week in a Baltimore school where in-person instruction resumed. It is rare to get such a peek inside a big city district school during the pandemic–nearly all large urban districts are shuttered and rely upon remote instruction. This article appeared November 28, 20

Choosing Democracy: Its Over: Democracy Won !

by Mike Simpson / 1d

Its Over: Democracy Won ! We want to thank the many people who helped us avoid a catastrophic coup. It looks like the worst may be over. Monday likely was decisive. Trump was handed another legal slapdown in his effort to disenfranchise millions of confirmed voters with evidence-free claims. Local organizing in Michigan pushed-back against wayward electorates — ending with Michigan officially ce

TOP POSTS THIS WEEK 11/28/20 #REDFORED #tbats #COVID-19 #REOPENSCHOOLSSAFELY #COVIDOUTBREAK #BIDENWINS #46

by Mike Simpson / 1d

Big Education Ape TOP POSTS THIS WEEK 11/28/20 ‘Slaying Goliath’: Diane Ravitch argues in new book that public education advocates have beat back efforts to privatize schools - The Washington Post The real story of New 

Big Education Ape

Helping Black Students Shine

Helping Black Students Shine

Helping Black Students Shine

by Ernie McCray

Lately I’ve been thinking of Black kids, Black students, specifically. Thinking of all the teachable moments out in the universe that I would call on to help them shine if I were in the classroom during these times.

And the first thought that came to mind is I would turn them on to what it means to be Black at this very time.

We’d talk about what we’d all just seen this past NBA season, superstars flying through the air slamming monstrous dunks and shooting rainbow 3’s with “Black Lives Matter” sewn into their jerseys.

We’d talk about the significance embedded in a Black woman taking on the role of Vice-president of the United States, the first of her gender to serve in such a capacity.

We’d talk about how Black voters showed up in large numbers, essentially rescuing a drowning democracy.

All to get them to look at themselves and think of how and where they fit in the scheme of things.

And I’d dive right in there with them as a co-learner, for sure, as we, in our studies, embrace our Blackness and continue the process of overcoming the systemic anti-Blackness colonialism that has plagued our journey for centuries.

I can see us looking into how expressions like “Eeenie meenie miney mo” or call “a spade a spade” or the “black sheep of the family” got popularized; how Black music came to be seen as “urban,” in reference to “thug life” in so many White people’s eyes.

I’d want to know if they had ever been told how “articulate” they are just because they speak grammatically?

We’d wade in the water of other cultures to get more of a sense of who we are, seeing that Native people CONTINUE READING: Helping Black Students Shine

Reopening Whiplash in New York City - The New York Times

Reopening Whiplash in New York City - The New York Times

Reopening Whiplash in New York City

Schools will reopen as abruptly as they closed — but only for some.

Parents, teachers and children had only a few days to get used to the nation’s biggest school district shutting classrooms before Mayor Bill de Blasio announced another plot twist on Sunday: Students in pre-K and elementary school would return to school after all, starting on Dec. 7.

But — and there is always a “but” in the New York City school system — not all younger school students will be able to go back.

(This story gets a bit into the weeds for New Yorkers. For everyone else, it’s most important to know that by prioritizing young and special needs learners, New York City is adopting a model that is becoming more common across the country and world.)

In early November, the mayor set a deadline for parents to decide if their children would return to classrooms this school year. To date, about 335,000 students have opted into hybrid learning — less than a third of the city’s roughly 1.1 million students in public schools.

Of those, about 190,000 are in pre-K or elementary school, or in a specialized district for students with disabilities. They’re the only kids who will be able to attend class starting next week. Middle and high school students will continue all-remote learning.

“I have to say, I’m not actually surprised at all,” said our colleague Eliza Shapiro, who covers the city’s schools. “The mayor was super clear that he wanted to reopen, that he would do it as soon as he could, and the science from the summer and fall has made elementary schools the safest bet.” CONTINUE READING: Reopening Whiplash in New York City - The New York Times

OPINION: What math class and police brutality have in common

OPINION: What math class and police brutality have in common

What math class and police brutality have in common

An obsession with rule-following cuts short Black students’ opportunities

Last May, a 15-year-old Black girl in Michigan known only by her middle name, Grace, was put in juvenile detention for not completing her homework. Teens not turning in their homework is hardly an anomaly. Other teens are scolded, lose marks or, at worst, get detention for this offence. But Grace was incarcerated. The difference? She’s Black.

Grace’s story is just one example of how the American education system and American policing tactics converge.

The education system has a dangerous obsession with rule-following for Black children that cuts short opportunities, just as policing has a dangerous obsession with rule-following for Black people that cuts short lives.

This is particularly evident in math class.

Black students often receive compliments in math class for rule-following. In lower-income schools (which are often predominately Black), students are encouraged to follow math rules and formulae without questioning the teacher or the math itself, leaving them no room to ask questions or screw up.

Teachers are more likely to judge their Black students’ math abilities based on non-academic qualities, such as behavior and physical characteristics. A decade ago, Common Core math was introduced to emphasize understanding over rote learning, but the delivery of standards varies across schools, classrooms and teachers, depending both on who is being assessed and who is doing the assessing.

Related: White and female teachers show racial bias in evaluating second grade writing

In higher-income schools (which are often predominately white), understanding is often prioritized over procedure, and students learn math in more abstract ways, such as understanding why one uses a certain formula, instead of just being told to use it “because that’s the formula.” They also are shown how these abstract concepts contribute to the higher CONTINUE READING: 

Teaching in the Pandemic: ‘This Is Not Sustainable’ - The New York Times

Teaching in the Pandemic: ‘This Is Not Sustainable’ - The New York Times

Teaching in the Pandemic: ‘This Is Not Sustainable’

Teacher burnout could erode instructional quality, stymie working parents and hinder the reopening of the economy.

At Farmington Central Junior High in rural Illinois, classes still start at 8 a.m. But that’s about the only part of the school day that has not changed for Caitlyn Clayton, an eighth-grade English teacher tirelessly toggling between in-person and remote students.

At the start of the school day, Ms. Clayton stands in front of the classroom, reminding her students to properly pull their masks over their noses. Then she delves into a writing lesson, all the while scanning the room for possible virus threats. She stops students from sharing supplies. She keeps her distance when answering their questions. She disinfects the desks between classes.

Then in the afternoon, just as her in-person students head home, Ms. Clayton begins her second day: remote teaching. Sitting in her classroom, she checks in one-on-one via video with eighth graders who have opted for distance learning. To make sure they are not missing out, she spends hours more recording instructional videos that replicate her in-person classroom lessons.

All this fall, as vehement debates have raged over whether to reopen schools for in-person instruction, teachers have been at the center — often vilified for challenging it, sometimes warmly praised for trying to make it work. But the debate has often missed just how thoroughly the coronavirus has upended learning in the country’s 130,000 schools, and glossed over how emotionally and physically draining pandemic teaching has become for the educators themselves.

In more than a dozen interviews, educators described the immense challenges, and exhaustion, they have faced trying to provide normal schooling for students in pandemic conditions that are anything but normal. Some recounted whiplash experiences of having their schools abruptly open and close, sometimes more than once, because of virus risks or quarantine-driven staff shortages, requiring them to repeatedly switch back and forth between in-person and online teaching.

Others described the stress of having to lead back-to-back group CONTINUE READING: Teaching in the Pandemic: ‘This Is Not Sustainable’ - The New York Times

Teacher Tom: Talking to Children About the Pandemic and Everything

Teacher Tom: Talking to Children About the Pandemic and Everything

Talking to Children About the Pandemic and Everything

In a recent interview in The New York Times Magazine, children's book author Mo Willems was asked if he had any advice for parents struggling to talk with their children about difficult things, like the pandemic.

"Probably the most fundamental insight is that even a good childhood is difficult: You're powerless; the furniture is not made your size. But when parents come up to me and ask, "How do you talk to the kid about the pandemic?" they're asking me to be disloyal. They're actually asking about a form of control. "Hey, you have this relationship with kids. Help me control them." (Expletive) you! I'm not on your side."

I would have said it differently, but he puts his finger on a central challenge in the relationship between children and the important adults in their lives. Even those of us who don't believe it's right for adults to control the kids struggle with it. Of course, most of us have learned to not physically and emotionally bully children into obedience, but this drive to control them creeps in nevertheless. Willems' point, I think, is that the moment we begin to strategize about our relationship with a child we are seeking to manufacture a response that satisfies our own emotional needs, to control them for our own ends. None of us like to be manipulated. We rebel when we detect that someone, be it a salesman, guru, or lover, is using their words to steer us. It's the same with children.

When we tell ourselves "But it's for their own good" we set ourselves up as the experts on their bodies and minds, CONTINUE READING: Teacher Tom: Talking to Children About the Pandemic and Everything

Making the Transition from Writing in High School to Writing in College – radical eyes for equity

Making the Transition from Writing in High School to Writing in College – radical eyes for equity

Making the Transition from Writing in High School to Writing in College

Three behaviors have over the course of about 40 years come to constitute a significant percentage of who I am—writing, teaching, and cycling.

Of those three, I have received the most formal education in teaching, completing all three of my degrees (BA, MEd, EdD) in education; in many ways, I am self-taught as a writer and a cyclist even though I would argue that I have developed a level of expertise in all three that are comparable.

Recently, I bought my first gravel bicycle and have been making the small but noticeable transition to gravel riding that has forced me to experiment with decades of cycling knowledge built on road and mountain bicycling in order to ride gravel at a level comparable to road cycling (my first and deepest cycling love).

This, I think, is at the core of all of my personas as writer, teacher, and cycling—behaviors that are all journeys and not aspects of my life that I can (or should) finish.

Even though, as I noted above, teaching is my primary career and what I have the most education in, I am perpetually learning to teach; and I count on my CONTINUE READING: Making the Transition from Writing in High School to Writing in College – radical eyes for equity

CURMUDGUCATION: Donors Choose Monday: Expanding the Library

CURMUDGUCATION: Donors Choose Monday: Expanding the Library

Donors Choose Monday: Expanding the Library

This week's project is exactly the sort of thing that shouldn't be on donors choose. 

Mrs. Gibson is an elementary teacher in South Carolina, and she's looking to expand her classroom library.

My students are living in a low income area where literacy is our focus in order to meet the needs they may not be receiving at home.

My focus is to bring in books that we help them connect with other cultures within the world and the school setting to help them become culturally competent and aware.

A classroom teacher should not have to go begging for books, and yet, here we are. I've made this comparison before--tips should not be a necessary part of a food server's income, but if I refuse to tip as a protest against the system, I'm just being a jerk and the people who get hurt are not the people perpetuating the system. 

So my dream is a world in which South Carolina funds public education properly and Mrs. Gibson and all the teachers like her have the classroom libraries they need. But in the meantime I can either complain about the problem or take a simple step to improve even one small corner of the universe. So I'm giving a tiny little donation to this project, and I encourage you to do the same.

CURMUDGUCATION: Donors Choose Monday: Expanding the Library

Grassroots Education Network- November 2020 Newsletter - Network For Public Education

Grassroots Education Network- November 2020 Newsletter - Network For Public Education

Grassroots Education Network- November 2020 Newsletter

The NPE Grassroots Education Network is a network of over 155 grassroots organizations nationwide who have joined together to preserve, promote, improve, and strengthen our public schools. If you know of a group that would like to join this powerful network, please go here to sign on. 

If you have any questions about the NPE Grassroots Education Network please contact Marla Kilfoyle, NPE Grassroots Education Network Liaison at marlakilfoyle@networkforpubliceducation.org

Notes from Marla

November saw us on the precipice of a historic election.  With the incoming Biden/Harris administration, we hope that we can finally get someone in the USDOE that stands strong for our public schools, our public schools students, and our public school parents. We need a USDOE secretary rooted in equity and a vision that will get our public schools what they need to serve all of our children and families.  With that being said, NPE and our amazing partners launched the Keep Your Promises this month. We congratulate President-elect, Joe Biden, and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, on their historic victory. We look forward to working with them as they fulfill their promised commitment to our nation’s public schools. The promises made during the campaign drew support from public education advocates across the nation. With those promises in mind, we listed the top five K-12 priorities that they should keep at the forefront as they govern. In order to do this, we need Pro-Public education leadership in the Department of Education. Let’s make sure that Joe Biden chooses a public education advocate for the next Secretary of Education. We need a leader who rejects corporate reforms, high-stakes testing, and school privatization. It is CONTINUE READING: Grassroots Education Network- November 2020 Newsletter - Network For Public Education

Nobody Should Be Wasting Time Worrying About When to Administer Standardized Tests | janresseger

Nobody Should Be Wasting Time Worrying About When to Administer Standardized Tests | janresseger

Nobody Should Be Wasting Time Worrying About When to Administer Standardized Tests

Parents, children, teachers, principals, and school superintendents are living through a time of unknowns. COVID-19 is raging across the states with many public schools operating only online. Some public schools, which have been able to open in person or on hybrid schedules, have subsequently been forced to close already reopened buildings or specific classrooms as COVID-19 cases arise and everybody quarantines.

In the midst of a chaotic situation with no good and stable solutions for many public schools, suddenly last week everybody started worrying about what to do about this year’s standardized tests. The Washington Post‘s Perry Stein reports that outgoing Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos postponed the winter administration of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the one test administered across all the states, the test that tracks school achievement over the decades and is not distorted by high stakes consequences.

Representatives Bobby Scott (D-VA) and Patty Murray (D-WA), the Democratic leaders of the House Education Committee, agreed to delay the NAEP, but said the nation needs some kind of measure of learning loss during the pandemic.  They released a statement declaring that annual state tests mandated under the Every Student Succeeds Act must surely be administered: “Existing achievement gaps are widening for our most vulnerable students, including students from families with low incomes, students with disabilities, English learners, and students of color. In order for our nation to recover and rebuild from the pandemic, we must first understand the magnitude of learning loss that has impacted students across the country. That cannot happen without assessment data.”

While I frequently agree with Representatives Scott and Murray, I think worrying about CONTINUE READING: Nobody Should Be Wasting Time Worrying About When to Administer Standardized Tests | janresseger

Virtual Charter Schools Are Booming, Despite A Checkered Reputation | 89.3 KPCC

Virtual Charter Schools Are Booming, Despite A Checkered Reputation | 89.3 KPCC

Virtual Charter Schools Are Booming, Despite A Checkered Reputation

Parent Mandii Brower vividly remembers what it was like when her kids' school in Yukon, Okla., switched to distance learning in the spring: "It was just like, we never learned with our teachers again. They never checked on things again." She says "school" consisted of just a few short daily assignments.

"I [couldn't] see my kids' education going that way."

So this fall, Brower enrolled her two daughters in Epic Charter Schools, a virtual program that allows students to study online, at their own pace, with pre-recorded lessons and one-on-one teacher support. For Brower, the difference has been night and day. She says Epic "[has] it down pat, and they know how to help families."

Brower wasn't the only parent to give the Oklahoma-based virtual school a try this year. Since last spring, Epic enrollment has grown to be double the size of the state's largest public school district.

In fact, across the country, fully virtual K-12 charter schools have experienced a pandemic-induced "surge," as one sector observer put it. K12 Inc., one of the biggest in the business, has reported a 57% enrollment increase, taking it up to 195,000 students; Connections Academy, another heavy hitter, has reported a 41% jump, and the list goes on.

Virtual charter schools have been around for a couple of decades. In that time, they've been both relatively niche and highly controversial. Free to families but paid for by taxpayers, they enrolled about 300,000 full-time students in the 2017-18 school year, according to the National Education Policy Center. The market has been dominated by publicly-traded corporations, including K12 Inc. and Pearson, which CONTINUE READING: Virtual Charter Schools Are Booming, Despite A Checkered Reputation | 89.3 KPCC