Friday, March 12, 2021

THE TOP BANANA: TODAY'S EDUCATION HEADLINES Friday, March 12, 2021 #REDFORED #tbats #REOPENSCHOOLSSAFELY #openonlywhensafe

THE TOP BANANA
TODAY'S EDUCATION HEADLINES

Arthur Camins: Why We Should Abandon Standardized Tests and Embrace Assessments | Diane Ravitch's blog - https://wp.me/p2odLa-tLA via @dianeravitch

President Biden’s Refusal to Eliminate Student Debt Is Out of Touch With Black Voters Who Helped Get Him Elected https://www.theroot.com/president-biden-s-refusal-to-eliminate-student-debt-is-1846456586

Ditch diesel for electric school buses? NJ advocates say that would pay off in the long run https://www.njspotlight.com/2021/03/arguing-electric-school-buses-nj-save-money-long-run-supply-power-grid-when-idle-clean-energy-get-rid-diesel/

Montclair schools may reopen, other districts struggling with negotiations https://www.njspotlight.com/video/montclair-schools-may-reopen-other-districts-struggling-with-negotiations/

NYC schools staffers suspended for refusing COVID-19 tests sue Education Dept. https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/education/ny-mandatory-covid-testing-suspension-lawsuit-20210312-yqypgw7xrbgirdzdycydhkwml4-story.html#ed=rss_www.nydailynews.com/arcio/rss/category/new-york/education/

Head of Federal Student Aid Office Under Betsy DeVos Resigns - The New York Times - https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/11/us/mark-brown-student-aid-devos.html on @nytimes

L.A. school board approves deal with teachers to reopen campuses by mid-April http://feeds.latimes.com/~r/lanowblog/~3/A2dnzxBXteA/lausd-teachers-reopen-schools

Arlington public schools will offer five days of in-person school next fall https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/arlington-virginia-schools-five-days-fall-plan/2021/03/11/4186b316-82c7-11eb-9ca6-54e187ee4939_story.html

Montgomery County planning for five-day in-person school week in the fall https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/montgomery-county-maryland-schools-five-days-fall/2021/03/11/81c7c1a0-82ad-11eb-ac37-4383f7709abe_story.html

OPINION: Why we must invest in new, innovative workforce training to fill a skills gap https://hechingerreport.org/opinion-why-we-must-invest-in-new-innovative-workforce-training-to-fill-a-skills-gap/

Garamendi Secures Critical Funding To Reopen Schools, Distribute Vaccines, Extend Unemployment Benefits, & Send $1,400 Stimulus Checks | Davis, CA Patch - https://patch.com/california/davis/garamendi-secures-critical-funding-reopen-schools-distribute-vaccines-extend

Honoring Black Mothers – Parenting for Liberation - https://wp.me/p7fXox-1OL via @Parenting4Lib

OEA organizer challenges incumbent on troubled Western Heights board https://nondoc.com/2021/03/12/seat-1-western-heights-school-board/ via @nondocmedia

Children Struggling to Learn in a Pandemic - LA Progressive - https://www.laprogressive.com/?p=364178

Learning pods and hubs, a pandemic innovation, thrive and evolve | EdSource - https://edsource.org/?p=650994 on @edsource

Missouri House favors plan allowing students to switch school districts | Education | stltoday.com - https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/education/missouri-house-favors-plan-allowing-students-to-switch-school-districts/article_49f84f69-68c8-5d0d-a038-5fccc26d2c0e.html on @stltoday

Amid Pandemic, 79% of K-12 Parents Support In-Person School https://news.gallup.com/poll/336173/amid-pandemic-parents-support-person-school.aspx

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves signs bill limiting transgender athletes - https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/2021/03/11/mississippi-governor-signs-bill-limiting-transgender-athletes/4645691001/#new_tab via @clarionledger

NYC DOE suspended workers refusing school-issued COVID tests: suit - https://wp.me/pb3Qpq-1bA2a by @nypmetro on @nypost

House passes bill to allow education opportunity accounts https://www.kentucky.com/news/business/article249868228.html

'Panic Mode': Austin ISD Needs To Evaluate 800 Students For Special Ed. It Doesn't Have The Staff To Do It. | KUT Radio, Austin's NPR Station - https://www.kut.org/education/2021-03-11/panic-mode-austin-isd-needs-to-evaluate-800-students-for-special-ed-it-doesnt-have-the-staff-to-do-it#new_tab

Deborah Kerr wants to decentralize Wisconsin education department | Local Government | madison.com - https://madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/deborah-kerr-wants-to-decentralize-wisconsin-education-department/article_88066f47-bebc-5e96-b58b-91fa70983867.html#new_tab on @WiStateJournal

A deeper look at Catholic schools' pandemic enrollment plunge | National Catholic Reporter - https://www.ncronline.org/node/196693 on @ncronline

Biden administration to implement testing programs in schools as part of reopening effort https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/542870-biden-administration-to-implement-testing-programs-in-schools-as-part#.YEu8TKr3I8s.twitter

Parents sue San Diego Unified for failing to provide in-person instruction - The San Diego Union-Tribune - https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/education/story/2021-03-11/parents-sue-san-diego-unified-for-failing-to-provide-in-person-instruction#new_tab by @Kristen_Taketa on @sdut

Why an Indianapolis district turned to bus drivers to keep students on track https://in.chalkbeat.org/2021/3/11/22325911/why-an-indianapolis-district-turned-to-bus-drivers-to-keep-students-on-track via @ChalkbeatIN

Reimagining the future of public education after COVID | TheHill - https://thehill.com/node/542596

Minnesota education commissioner resigns, replaced by deputy - StarTribune.com - https://www.startribune.com/minnesota-education-commissioner-resigns-replaced-by-deputy/600032283/#new_tab on @StarTribune

This Utah school district is committing to a virtual future beyond the pandemic - https://www.sltrib.com/news/education/2021/03/12/this-utah-school-district/#new_tab on @sltrib

(Re)Building The Black Teacher Pipeline Is A Component Of Educational Justice - Philly's 7th Ward

by Mike Simpson / 23min

(RE)BUILDING THE BLACK TEACHER PIPELINE IS A COMPONENT OF EDUCATIONAL JUSTICE Across the entire United States, there aren’t nearly enough Black teachers inside classrooms. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, less than 7% of teachers nationwide are Black; only 1.5% of teachers are Black men. That is a problem because Black teachers are a force for equity for all students, e

College Deans Speak Out Against High Stakes Testing | Diane Ravitch's blog

by Mike Simpson / 41min

College Deans Speak Out Against High Stakes Testing Scores of education deans signed a letter to Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA), chair of the House Education Committee, in opposition to the recent announcement by the Biden administration that it would not grant waivers to states from the annual testing mandate in the Every Student Succeeds Act, which originated as part of the No Child Left Behind Act o

Newsom’s CA school reopening bill funds extra programs | The Sacramento Bee

by Mike Simpson / 53min

Tutoring, meals and more: What California’s school reopening plan has for families When Megan Bacigalupi’s sons went to distance learning last March, she knew it wouldn’t be easy. Now, the two boys who attend kindergarten and second grade in Oakland Unified School District, have been learning through Zoom for more than a year. What was a challenge in 2020 has the potential to impact her sons for

Biden’s American Rescue Plan is actually a huge new school reform - The Washington Post

by Mike Simpson / 1h

Biden’s American Rescue Plan is actually a huge new school reform President Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan is aimed at helping the country recover from the coronavirus pandemic — but it is another thing, as well: a major federal school reform unlike those we’ve seen in the past few decades. While the new law is aimed at helping families get back on their feet and helping businesses a

Code Acts in Education: Pandemic Privatization and Digitalization in Higher Education | National Education Policy Center

by Mike Simpson / 1h

Code Acts in Education: Pandemic Privatization and Digitalization in Higher Education The state of emergency in higher education systems around the world during the Covid-19 pandemic has opened up the sector to an expanding range of education technologies, commercial companies, and private sector ambitions. In our new report commissioned by Education International (the global federation of teach

NewBlackMan (in Exile) TODAY #BLM #BLACKLIVESMATTER

by Mike Simpson / 1h

NewBlackMan (in Exile) NewBlackMan (in Exile) TODAY Big Education Ape: THIS WEEK WITH NEWBLACKMAN (IN EXILE) - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2021/03/this-week-with-newblackman-in-exile-blm.html Sanya N’Kanta On Precious Time With Family by Mark Anthony Neal / 12h "Jamaican-born, North Carolina-based singer and songwriter Sanya N’Kanta has written songs about race and immigration, but his ne

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

by Mike Simpson / 1h

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 Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... The latest news and resources in education since 2007 - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2021/03/this-week-in-education-larry-ferlazzos.html Friday’s

Bowman and education experts blast Biden admin for mandating standardized tests amid pandemic | Salon com

by Mike Simpson / 2h

Bowman and education experts blast Biden admin for mandating standardized tests amid pandemic | Salon.com Bowman and education experts blast Biden admin for mandating standardized tests amid pandemic "It's a mistake that reflects a broader problem in American education," Rep. Jamaal Bowman wrote in a statement Rep. Jamaal Bowman on Tuesday joined progressive education experts in criticizing the B

Teacher Tom: Thingmaker Featuring Creepy Crawlers

by Mike Simpson / 2h

Thingmaker Featuring Creepy Crawlers John Sain was a couple years older than me, which would have made him seven or eight. We always called him by his full name to distinguish him from his next door neighbor who was also named John. John Sain's father, Mr. Sain, had the caché of being retired military and having once killed a rattle snake in his garage with a garden hoe then called us kids in fr

Pressure on Education Secretary Miguel Cardona Grows: Cancel Standardized Tests in this Crazy COVID-19 School Year | janresseger @teachcardona

by Mike Simpson / 3h

Pressure on Education Secretary Miguel Cardona Grows: Cancel Standardized Tests in this Crazy COVID-19 School Year | janresseger Pressure on Education Secretary Miguel Cardona Grows: Cancel Standardized Tests in this Crazy COVID-19 School Year There is absolutely no reason why the U.S. Department of Education should refuse to grant states waivers this spring from the federal requirement for stand

10 Year Assessment of Education Reform in DC — a Fraud, says its former director of assessments, Richard Phelps | GFBrandenburg's Blog

by Mike Simpson / 3h

10 Year Assessment of Education Reform in DC — a Fraud, says its former director of assessments, Richard Phelps Stolen from Valerie Jablow: Looking Back on DC Education Reform 10 Years Later, Part 1: The Grand Tour by Valerie Jablow [ Ed. Note: As DC’s office of the state superintendent of education (OSSE) seeks a waiver of PARCC testing again (recall that OSSE waived PARCC last school year due

How My ELL History Students Have Evaluated Our Class – And Me! | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

by Mike Simpson / 3h

HOW MY ELL HISTORY STUDENTS HAVE EVALUATED OUR CLASS – AND ME! As regular readers know, at various times during the school year I have my students complete anonymous evaluations of our classes. I advise them that I always make the results public – to blog readers and to our administrators. Sometimes that commitment results in unexpected situations, like the year The Washington Post picked up on

$240,000 in Mini Grants to Address Education Inequities - Year 2021 (CA Dept of Education)

by Mike Simpson / 4h

$240,000 in Grants to Address Education Inequities - Year 2021 (CA Dept of Education) State Superintendent Tony Thurmond Announces $240,000 in Grants to Address Inequities that Deepened During Pandemic SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond today announced that the California Department of Education (CDE) has selected 12 recipients of mini grants, totaling more than $

CURMUDGUCATION: FL: Let's Assess Four Year Olds

by Mike Simpson / 4h

FL: Let's Assess Four Year Olds We have been down this road before, but I will beat this drum till my knuckles bleed (and the older my children and my grandchildren get, the harder I'll drum). Florida is once again reporting that 40% of Florida kindergartners are " not ready for kindergarten. " Rep. Erin Grall (R) told a House early learning subcommittee "That's on us," as part of her pitch for

YESTERDAY

THE TOP BANANA: TODAY'S EDUCATION HEADLINES Thursday, March 11, 2021 #REDFORED #tbats #REOPENSCHOOLSSAFELY #openonlywhensafe

by Mike Simpson / 23h

Big Education Ape THE TOP BANANA TODAY'S EDUCATION HEADLINES Congress approves massive infusion of funds for schools - Chalkbeat - https://www.chalkbeat.org/2021/3/10/22323283/congress-biden-stimulus-money-education-schools#new_tab on chalkbeat LA Schools, Teachers

Big Education Ape

(Re)Building The Black Teacher Pipeline Is A Component Of Educational Justice - Philly's 7th Ward

(RE)BUILDING THE BLACK TEACHER PIPELINE IS A COMPONENT OF EDUCATIONAL JUSTICE

Across the entire United States, there aren’t nearly enough Black teachers inside classrooms.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, less than 7% of teachers nationwide are Black; only 1.5% of teachers are Black men. That is a problem because Black teachers are a force for equity for all students, especially the Black students who have been historically marginalized.

Students of all backgrounds who miss out on Black teachers lack exposure to their content knowledge and pedagogical praxis, which is often influenced by their desire to support all students, particularly students they see themselves in. In addition, a 2016 study showed that students perceived Black teachers more favorably than white teachers. When students say that, they are telling us something about the quality of learning and support they are receiving from Black teachers.

BLACK TEACHERS SUPPORT THE ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT OF ALL STUDENTS, AND BLACK STUDENTS IN PARTICULAR.

Moreover, Black teachers support the academic achievement of all students, and Black students in particular. Black students who have had at least one Black teacher are more likely to graduate from high school, attend college and are less likely to drop out of school. Black students are also less likely to receive exclusionary discipline at the hands of a Black teacher.

According to the same 2016 study, students perceived Black teachers (more than their White peers) to hold students to high academic standards, to support their efforts, to help them organize content and to explain ideas CONTINUE READING: (Re)Building The Black Teacher Pipeline Is A Component Of Educational Justice - Philly's 7th Ward

College Deans Speak Out Against High Stakes Testing | Diane Ravitch's blog

College Deans Speak Out Against High Stakes Testing

Scores of education deans signed a letter to Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA), chair of the House Education Committee, in opposition to the recent announcement by the Biden administration that it would not grant waivers to states from the annual testing mandate in the Every Student Succeeds Act, which originated as part of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002. The letter was written before the confirmation of Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. The signatures were gathered by Kevin Kumashiro as spokesman for the group.

Dear Chairman Scott,

I am writing as a leader of Education Deans for Justice and Equity (https://educationdeans.org), an alliance of hundreds of education deans across the country with expertise in educational equity and civil rights.

We, in EDJE, are deeply concerned by the recent announcement by the U.S. Department of Education that it will not grant state waivers of ESSA mandates for 2021 student testing, as it did in 2020. Two weeks ago, we sent the attached letter to Secretary-Designate Miguel Cardona, signed by over 200 deans and other leaders, that outlines what we believe the research makes clear, namely, that there are fundamental problems with these tests, that the administration and use of these tests widen CONTINUE READING: College Deans Speak Out Against High Stakes Testing | Diane Ravitch's blog

Newsom’s CA school reopening bill funds extra programs | The Sacramento Bee

Tutoring, meals and more: What California’s school reopening plan has for families

When Megan Bacigalupi’s sons went to distance learning last March, she knew it wouldn’t be easy.

Now, the two boys who attend kindergarten and second grade in Oakland Unified School District, have been learning through Zoom for more than a year. What was a challenge in 2020 has the potential to impact her sons for years to come.

“Normally they’d be sitting with peers at a table interacting together, learning together, and all of that it’s gone.,” said Bacigalupi, who is part of Open Schools CA, a parent-led push to reopen schools. “So what I have noticed with both my kids is just like the engagement with school, the willingness to do the work. It was hard a year ago, it’s almost impossible now.”

Last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law a hard-fought funding bill designed to get students back in classrooms this spring. Of the $6.6 billion in state funding for school reopening, $4.6 billion is to be used by schools to mitigate learning loss, aiming to help kids like Bacigalupi’s sons get the supplemental instruction and support they need to catch up from a year of education through screens.

Lawmakers will give schools flexibility in how they want to spend the money, but there are some parameters.

Schools must use at least 85% of the money for in-person instruction, and at least 10% should be used to hire paraprofessionals for supplemental instruction, with a focus on rehiring those who were subject to layoffs.

Otherwise, there’s a wide range of ways schools can use the funds. They can extend the school day or year, launch summer school programs, provide meals to vulnerable students, create extra programming and instruction for students, hire mental health professionals, or create extra training for educators, among other things.

The funds will be portioned out to each school district based on student populations. By June 1, schools must present a plan to use the money. Schools then have until August 2022 to use the learning mitigation funds.

Schools will receive money based on the typical state funding formula, with extra CONTINUE READING: Newsom’s CA school reopening bill funds extra programs | The Sacramento Bee

Biden’s American Rescue Plan is actually a huge new school reform - The Washington Post

Biden’s American Rescue Plan is actually a huge new school reform

President Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan is aimed at helping the country recover from the coronavirus pandemic — but it is another thing, as well: a major federal school reform unlike those we’ve seen in the past few decades.

While the new law is aimed at helping families get back on their feet and helping businesses and schools reopen after a year of turmoil, it includes measures that together have the potential to slash poverty among the 12 million students who live in low-income households.

Biden himself tweeted recently: “No child should grow up in poverty. The American Rescue Plan will expand the child tax credit and cut the child poverty rate in half.”

Outside estimates on its impact have come to the same conclusion, including one from the nonprofit Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, which said that two key tax credit provisions could “together lift more children above the poverty line, 5.5 million, than any other economic support program.” An Urban Institute analysis of the plan said the child poverty rate in 2021 will fall by more than 52 percent, largely from changes in tax law and the $1,400 stimulus checks that are part of the relief package.

It should be noted that most of the provisions in this new law will remain in effect only for a year or two — and there is no guarantee what will happen beyond then. But directly aiming to reduce child poverty is exactly what many advocates for children have long said is needed.

Policymakers have been focused for decades on improving public schools with a culture based on standardized testing, the expansion of charter schools and other “school choice” measures, and, in some places, the demonization of teachers. Child poverty, they said, was an excuse for poor performance by adults.

But the testing/choice/big data approach has not closed the achievement gap, and on some measures, it has barely moved.

Critics say research clearly shows that standardized test scores are fundamentally a metric of the state of child poverty in America, not of school quality. Students who live in low-income Zip codes virtually CONTINUE READING: Biden’s American Rescue Plan is actually a huge new school reform - The Washington Post

Code Acts in Education: Pandemic Privatization and Digitalization in Higher Education | National Education Policy Center

Code Acts in Education: Pandemic Privatization and Digitalization in Higher Education

The state of emergency in higher education systems around the world during the Covid-19 pandemic has opened up the sector to an expanding range of education technologies, commercial companies, and private sector ambitions. In our new report commissioned by Education International (the global federation of teacher unions), entitled ‘Pandemic Privatisation in Higher Education: Edtech and University Reform’, we examine various ways commercialization and privatization of higher education have been pursued and advanced through the promotion of edtech and ‘digital transformation’ agendas during campus closures and disruptions over the last year. Although we recognize that digital technologies and private or commercial organizations can bring many benefits to HE, they also raise significant challenges with long-term implications for HE staff, students and institutions. Many of these challenges are long-term political and economic matters as much as they are short-term practical matters of online teaching.

The report is detailed and long enough, but even since we finished it in late 2020, the developments we identified have accelerated and expanded. These include investors seeking to capitalize on new visions of teaching and learning, and multisector coalitions coming together to reimagine the future of HE through digital infrastructure and platform-based transformations — ultimately ‘re-infrastructuring’ and ‘platformizing’ universities to operate according to design principles imported by the digital tech industry. These are profoundly political issues about control, power, influence and governance in HE, mirrored by similar shifts of control to technology in the health sector.

Maybe most of the proposed changes associated with so-called digital transformation won’t work CONTINUE READING: Code Acts in Education: Pandemic Privatization and Digitalization in Higher Education | National Education Policy Center

Bowman and education experts blast Biden admin for mandating standardized tests amid pandemic | Salon com

Bowman and education experts blast Biden admin for mandating standardized tests amid pandemic | Salon.com

Bowman and education experts blast Biden admin for mandating standardized tests amid pandemic

"It's a mistake that reflects a broader problem in American education," Rep. Jamaal Bowman wrote in a statement

Rep. Jamaal Bowman on Tuesday joined progressive education experts in criticizing the Biden administration's decision to mandate standardized testing in schools despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Bowman (D-N.Y.)—a former teacher and principal—argued that "prioritizing testing in the middle of the pandemic is a big mistake."

"It's a mistake that reflects a broader problem in American education," the first-term congressman said in a statement. "We have an obsession with arbitrary testing metrics above all else, even in the middle of a pandemic that's dislodged every facet of American life. We've forgotten that testing is one useful tool, and should not be the goal of education in and of itself."

"The pandemic created the world's largest education crisis," asserted Bowman. "All students were impacted, but we know which students took the hardest hit... We must empower educators to provide the best learning environment possible for students. This is not the time to waste time. Let's dive into action to fix the problems we already know exist."

Bowman's statement follows a letter sent Monday by acting Assistant Education Secretary Ian Rosenblum to state school superintendents informing them that the department will not invite state requests for "blanket waivers of assessments" required by the Every Student Succeeds Act, even though such waivers were granted last year CONTINUE READING: Bowman and education experts blast Biden admin for mandating standardized tests amid pandemic | Salon.com

Teacher Tom: Thingmaker Featuring Creepy Crawlers

Thingmaker Featuring Creepy Crawlers

John Sain was a couple years older than me, which would have made him seven or eight. We always called him by his full name to distinguish him from his next door neighbor who was also named John. John Sain's father, Mr. Sain, had the caché of being retired military and having once killed a rattle snake in his garage with a garden hoe then called us kids in from the street where we were playing so that we could see first hand what these local dangers looked like. He even allowed me the honor of carrying the sack with the corpse around to the back of the house where we buried it. Mr. Sain once sucked blood from a finger I'd cut on a bit of glass while we worked together on a church-organized roadside litter clean-up crew. After spitting the blood onto the pavement, he told me it was to help avoid infection, which sounded both scientific and manly. Having such a father and being older, John Sain stood a little above the rest of us. He went to school during the day and so could only play with us in the evening and on weekends. When he was out there with us, it made our regular games special.

One day, I showed him some small plastic "army men" that I particularly treasured, which prompted him to invite me to his bedroom where he pulled out what he told me was an "army man making set." There was a small heating element, molds portraying the hollows of soldiers in various action poses, and CONTINUE READING: Teacher Tom: Thingmaker Featuring Creepy Crawlers

Pressure on Education Secretary Miguel Cardona Grows: Cancel Standardized Tests in this Crazy COVID-19 School Year | janresseger @teachcardona

Pressure on Education Secretary Miguel Cardona Grows: Cancel Standardized Tests in this Crazy COVID-19 School Year | janresseger

Pressure on Education Secretary Miguel Cardona Grows: Cancel Standardized Tests in this Crazy COVID-19 School Year

There is absolutely no reason why the U.S. Department of Education should refuse to grant states waivers this spring from the federal requirement for standardized testing. Two weeks ago, a Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Department of Education’s Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, Ian Rosenblum released guidance telling states they must test students as required by the Every Student Succeeds Act despite the pandemic. After that, the Senate finally voted to confirm President Biden’s appointment of Miguel Cardona as Secretary of Education.

We all hope that Dr. Cardona will reconsider. And it is becoming clear that the subject is not closed. Experts, parents, educators, and members of the public continue to press the new Secretary of Education to do the right thing in this year when some students have been in school, many are on hybrid schedules, and many others continue to learn remotely.

Why should Secretary Cardona cancel testing this spring? When Rosenblum announced that he was charging ahead to require testing, he ignored more than a month of informed advocacy by board of education members, education experts, school administrators, schoolteachers and parents—all pushing the Department of Education to grant states waivers to cancel the tests in this COVID-19 year. (See here, here, here, and here.) No one in the Department has provided a convincing justification for requiring that the high-stakes tests be administered this school year.

Opponents of testing this spring have spoken about problems of feasibility when some CONTINUE READING: Pressure on Education Secretary Miguel Cardona Grows: Cancel Standardized Tests in this Crazy COVID-19 School Year | janresseger

10 Year Assessment of Education Reform in DC — a Fraud, says its former director of assessments, Richard Phelps | GFBrandenburg's Blog

10 Year Assessment of Education Reform in DC — a Fraud, says its former director of assessments, Richard Phelps

Stolen from Valerie Jablow:

Looking Back on DC Education Reform 10 Years Later, Part 1: The Grand Tour by Valerie Jablow

[Ed. Note: As DC’s office of the state superintendent of education (OSSE) seeks a waiver of PARCC testing again (recall that OSSE waived PARCC last school year due to the pandemic) and the DC auditor just released a bombshell report of poor stewardship of DC’s education data, it is time to revisit how standardized test data, teacher evaluations, and harsh school penalties were united by ed reformers in DCPS under mayoral control. This first-hand account of what went down in DCPS, the first of two parts by semi-retired educator Richard P. Phelps, appeared in Nonpartisan Education Review in September 2020 and is reprinted here with permission. The author thanks DC budget expert Mary Levy and retired DCPS teacher Erich Martel for their helpful comments in the research of this article.]

By Richard P. Phelps

Ten years ago, I worked as the director of assessments for DCPS. My tenure coincided with Michelle Rhee’s last nine months as chancellor. I departed shortly after Vincent Gray defeated Adrian Fenty in the September 2010 DC mayoral primary.

My primary task was to design an expansion of that testing program that served the IMPACT teacher evaluation system to include all core subjects and all grade levels. Despite its fame (or infamy), the test score aspect of the IMPACT program affected CONTINUE READING: 10 Year Assessment of Education Reform in DC — a Fraud, says its former director of assessments, Richard Phelps | GFBrandenburg's Blog

How My ELL History Students Have Evaluated Our Class – And Me! | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

HOW MY ELL HISTORY STUDENTS HAVE EVALUATED OUR CLASS – AND ME!

As regular readers know, at various times during the school year I have my students complete anonymous evaluations of our classes. I advise them that I always make the results public – to blog readers and to our administrators.

Sometimes that commitment results in unexpected situations, like the year The Washington Post picked up on one of my blog posts and published an article with this headline: NEWS BREAK (not breaking news): Teacher asks students to grade him. One wrote: ‘I give Mr. Ferlazzo an A at being annoying.’

I’ve collected many of those posts, along with other articles about the use of anonymous student surveys, at Best Posts On Students Evaluating Classes (And Teachers).

This post will review the evaluation done my by ELL US History students in our full-time distance learning class (theoretically, we may go to hybrid in May). It’s the first post about a series of surveys I’ve been doing over the past month.

Most of the questions asked students to respond using a linear scale, with 1 being the worst and 5 being the best.

Here’s the first question:

In an ordinary year, I would be disappointed with these results – I’ve usually gotten mostly 5’s. However, this CONTINUE READING: How My ELL History Students Have Evaluated Our Class – And Me! | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

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Friday, March 12, 2021