Michelle Obama delivers $100,000 from Ellen DeGeneres to a D.C. public school. What’s wrong with this picture? - The Washington Post

Michelle Obama delivers $100,000 from Ellen DeGeneres to a D.C. public school. What’s wrong with this picture? - The Washington Post

Michelle Obama delivers $100,000 from Ellen DeGeneres to a D.C. public school. What’s wrong with this picture?

Former first lady Michelle Obama recently walked into an elementary school in the nation’s capital and delivered a box with a stunning gift: $100,000 in cash, courtesy of entertainer Ellen DeGeneres. Children and adults screamed and jumped for joy when they saw the money in a genuinely heartwarming scene (that you can see below in the video Obama tweeted). And why not?

For one thing, Obama is, according to some polls, the most admired woman in the world. Having her show up at your school is a treat by itself. What’s more, the school can certainly use the money.

All of the mostly African American students at Randle Highlands Elementary School in Southeast Washington come from economically disadvantaged homes, according to D.C. Public Schools’ website, and Principal Kristie Edwards said in the video that many of the children are homeless or in the foster care system. Edwards says in the video that her school is in one of the “roughest” areas of the city, but that her students know they can expect “love and a hug” when they come to school — and that they will be safe.

As the box was opened, Obama said, “Ellen is giving you guys $100,000 to help you cover whatever business that you have for the schools, whether it is for the food pantry or whether it’s computer programs. We hope this will make sure that you will not have to go into your pockets any longer for these kids because we know how amazing you guys are.”

So what’s wrong with this picture?

Michelle Obama

✔@MichelleObama

I had so much fun putting a smile on all of these little faces from Randle Highlands Elementary School in Washington, D.C. Thanks to the @TheEllenShow for letting me be a part of #EllensGreatestNight!

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The problem certainly is not a visit from a former first lady or an entertainer trying to help a school.

Rather, the problems are:

• The funding system in U.S. public education leaves the poorest schools with the fewest resources
• School system budgets do not provide most teachers with all the supplies they need to do their jobs — and this has been baked into the process for many years.
• The D.C. government has had multimillion-dollar budget surpluses the past few years, and Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) is in charge of the school system. Why are there campuses that don’t have all of the supplies they need?

In her comments at Randle, Obama said she and DeGeneres hoped the $100,000 would “make sure CONTINUE READING: Michelle Obama delivers $100,000 from Ellen DeGeneres to a D.C. public school. What’s wrong with this picture? - The Washington Post

Public School Teacher Questions for 2020 Dem Presidential Candidates | gadflyonthewallblog

Public School Teacher Questions for 2020 Dem Presidential Candidates | gadflyonthewallblog

Public School Teacher Questions for 2020 Dem Presidential Candidates

What happens when you give a microphone to a public school teacher?

That’s not a rhetorical question. I really want to know, because we so rarely let educators speak in any context other than the classroom.

Maybe that’s why it’s so refreshing that MSNBC is hosting “Public Education Forum 2020: Equity and Justice for All”on Saturday, Dec. 14, in my hometown of Pittsburgh.

Public policy is usually made by billionaires who tell their think tanks what to write up and then give it to legislators to vote it into law.

But ask parents, students, community members or – God forbid! – school teachers about what we should do with something as mundane as education!? That’s crazy talk!

Well, the Democrats, at least, are taking it seriously.

The candidates who are expected to attend Saturday’s forum include: Former Vice President Joe Biden; Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana; billionaire businessman Tom Steyer; and Sens. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Bernie Sanders of CONTINUE READING: Public School Teacher Questions for 2020 Dem Presidential Candidates | gadflyonthewallblog

Teachers “Grow” Their Students’ Heights As Much As Their Achievement | VAMboozled!

Teachers “Grow” Their Students’ Heights As Much As Their Achievement | VAMboozled!

Teachers “Grow” Their Students’ Heights As Much As Their Achievement

The title of this post captures the key findings of a study that has come across my desk now over 25 times during the past two weeks; hence, I decided to summarize and share out, also as significant to our collective understandings about value-added models (VAMs).

The study — “Teacher Effects on Student Achievement and Height: A Cautionary Tale” — was recently published by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) (Note 1) and authored by Marianne Bitler (Professor of Economics at the University of California, Davis), Sean Corcoran (Associate Professor of Public Policy and Education at Vanderbilt University), Thurston Domina (Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), and Emily Penner (Assistant Professor at the University of California, Irvine).

In short, study researchers used administrative data from New York City Public Schools to estimate the “value” teachers “add” to student achievement, and (also in comparison) to student height. The assumption herein, of course, is that teachers’ cannot plausibly or literally “grow” their students’ heights. If they were found to do so using a VAM (also oft-referred to as “growth” models, hereafter referred to more generally as VAMs), this would threaten the overall validity of the output derive via any such VAM, given VAMs’ sole purposes are to measure teacher effects on “growth” in student achievement and only student achievement over time. Put differently, if a VAM was found to “grow” students’ height, this would ultimately negate the validity of any such VAM given the very purposes for which VAMs have been adopted, implemented, and used, misused, and abused across states, especially over the last decade.

Notwithstanding, study researchers found that “the standard deviation of teacher effects CONTINUE READING: Teachers “Grow” Their Students’ Heights As Much As Their Achievement | VAMboozled!

CURMUDGUCATION: Privatization Is Their North Star

CURMUDGUCATION: Privatization Is Their North Star

Privatization Is Their North Star

Remember when ed reform was complicated, when it felt as if the whole business was a perfect storm of hydra heads, and it was all a public school supporter could do to try to track all the heads, let alone the body of the beast to which they were all attached?

Things have changed. And the change tells us a lot about the body of the beast, as the many heads of the hydra have become neglected or even abandoned.

Oh, Common Core. Once upon a time it looked like some folks really, truly wanted to lash all of US education to a single set of standards. But one of the first signs of Maybe Not was when the very guys who wrote the thing immediately moved on to new gigs, rather than sticking around to watch over their baby. And when the political winds shifted and conservatives turned on what had been essentially a conservative idea (except that it was being pushed by That Black Guy In The White House, and it turns out that sensitivity to federal overreach has a lot to do with who's doing the reaching)-- at any rate, besieged from both sides, the Core was abandoned. It was not, it turns out, the most critical priority of the disruptive reformster movement.

Nor have they stuck around to keep defending high stakes testing. Remember when they were pitching it so hard, comparing it to bathroom scales and medical check-ups and, hey, you have to take tests your whole life. But pushback has been steady for HST, with parents and teachers and CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Privatization Is Their North Star

Invest in black in STEM like the way we do black kids on the football field

Invest in black in STEM like the way we do black kids on the football field

Let’s invest in black kids who pursue STEM the way we do black kids on the football field
Our students must develop tech skills or risk unemployment at the hands of AI

In a crowded hotel lobby in New Orleans the day after Thanksgiving, primary and secondary students and playful adults threw paper planes towards a target for a prize of $50. The game at the carnival-style booth was meant to teach attendees about the basic parts and functions of airplanes.

The throngs, of course, were not there for that science-lite lesson; they came for the annual Bayou Classic football game between two historically black universities: Grambling State University, and Southern University and A&M College. In the past five years, attendance at the event has been on the upswing, with an average of 65,000 fans attending each year.

Taking advantage of the event’s popularity, organizers of the Bayou Classic teamed up with Louisiana-based NexusLA, an economic development organization, to host a pitch competition between teams of tech-savvy college entrepreneurs. It’s a prime event to draw attention to black talent in the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Teams of students representing Southern and Grambling, Xavier University of Louisiana and Southern University Law School pitched various STEM-inspired products in the fourth annual BizTech Challenge for a total of $15,000 in prize money.

While the winners can use the prize money toward the development of their own technologies, organizers hope the funding will launch a new tradition of investing in black tech entrepreneurs and the development of black talent.

Related: Support for charters in 2020 election comes with a price

Earlier this year, the global consulting firm McKinsey & Company released the report “The Future of Work in Black America,” on the potential impacts of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies and automation on specific racial groups — and it spells gloom and doom for African Americans. The report found that robots and other CONTINUE READING: Invest in black in STEM like the way we do black kids on the football field

The Science of Writing: A 36-Year Journey and Counting | radical eyes for equity

The Science of Writing: A 36-Year Journey and Counting | radical eyes for equity

The Science of Writing: A 36-Year Journey and Counting

Science is not a hammer.

Science is an old-growth forest, each tree an organic thing. Think of a tree as a theory. At any moment that tree (theory) is fully a tree but not the tree it will be.

As a tree grows, it becomes more robust, a stronger trunk, deeper roots. If we inspect that trunk, we find rings detailing the history of how that tree became stronger with age. Theories too are not simply the result of fixed evidence, but an accumulation of evidence, an accumulation that evolves over time.

Science, like that old-growth forest, is never settled, but it is always at any moment the best that it can be in terms of being a forest and in terms of the trees being the tress of that moment. You see, science is also organic, not yet the forest or trees it can and will be.

Old-growth forests are also characterized by being untouched by humans, and while science is the product of humans, science often seeks ways to limit the flaws of that human contact (a lofty and unattainable goal, but one that helps science aspire toward truth and Truth).

Science ultimately is aspirational; it can never be settled, fixed, and anyone CONTINUE READING: The Science of Writing: A 36-Year Journey and Counting | radical eyes for equity

Screens in the Classroom: Tool or Temptation? - The New York Times

Screens in the Classroom: Tool or Temptation? - The New York Times

Screens in the Classroom: Tool or Temptation?
Smartphones and other devices have long been maligned as distractions in university classrooms. But when employed strategically, many educators find them useful.

This article is part of our continuing Fast Forward series, which examines technological, economic, social and cultural shifts that happen as businesses evolve.

Karen Huxtable-Jester, who teaches in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences at the University of Texas at Dallas, knows technology’s distractible downside. Once, while observing a lecture, Professor Huxtable-Jester discovered that a group of students had been watching a movie instead of their instructor.

“In years past, I was fully on board with the idea of banning technology use in my classes,” she said, making exceptions for students with disabilities who needed help. Over time, though, she became more flexible: “Every now and then, I could say, ‘Can we look something up?’”

The experience of Professor Huxtable-Jester, who is also the associate director at the university’s Center for Teaching and Learning, demonstrates evolving debates on whether smartphones, tablets and laptops divert students’ attention from the lesson at hand. “People develop very strong opinions,” she said. “The dividing line is everyone wants to do what is right, but no one knows what that is.”

Many professors and education professionals are discovering that rather than distract, strategically applied devices increase engagement with students, especially those with learning disabilities, who are on the autism spectrum and for whom English is a second language.

Brad Turner, vice president and general manager of global education and literacy for Benetech, a nonprofit educational software company that creates tools for students with dyslexia and other reading issues, said “technology is the great equalizer” that allowed “every student to learn in the way they need to learn or want to learn, to the greatest extent that they want to learn.” CONTINUE READING: Screens in the Classroom: Tool or Temptation? - The New York Times

Go behind the scenes at NEA’s presidential candidate interviews - Education Votes

Go behind the scenes at NEA’s presidential candidate interviews - Education Votes

Go behind the scenes at NEA’s presidential candidate interviews

Educators are keeping public education a central focus of the 2020 presidential election following wins for students and schools across the country during 2019 races. Parents, students, teachers, and support staff have carried the Red For Ed spirit into rallies and electoral work, calling for greater investment in public schools and expanded opportunities for all children. 

Leading up to the 2020 election, NEA members are leading the charge in selecting a new president. NEA has invited ALL presidential candidates to participate in its candidate recommendation process. That process includes getting to know members, listening to their concerns and hopes, and engaging with them on issues that affect our schools, our students, and our communities. 

Senator Michael Bennet

It starts with a candidate questionnaire. Then participating candidates sit down for a recorded interview with NEA President Lily Eskelsen García. Last week, NEA publicly released the five videos that are available at this time.

“Our priority is listening to our members, letting them continue to lead this process, and lifting up their voices so that every candidate is not only hearing from educators, but also directly answering their questions about how to expand opportunities for our students by strengthening our neighborhood public schools,” said García.

García presented each candidate with a variety of the most frequently asked questions submitted directly by NEA members, including how a candidate would select a Secretary of Education, increase educator pay, and more.

Senator Amy Klobuchar

Sen. Michael Bennet applauded a question on immigration reform as a former Denver superintendent, saying, “There are [other] education policy questions you could be asking and instead what you’re doing is using this time to advocate for the kids in my school district. I deeply appreciate that.” 

One subject on which the candidates agree is that we need a new Secretary of Education. Sen. Amy Klobuchar says one of her first moves in education will be to replace Betsy DeVos. What qualities would she look for in a Secretary of Education? ”You want someone who doesn’t just have the head for this work, but also has the heart,” said Klobuchar, whose mom was a second-grade teacher and active union member.

During the interviews—all of which are available at StrongPublicSchools.org—the candidates agreed on the importance of involving educators in decisions that affect public education. 

Senator Elizabeth Warren

“When the educators fight, CONTINUE READING: Go behind the scenes at NEA’s presidential candidate interviews - Education Votes

Participate in the 2020 Black Lives Matter in School Week of Action Webinar Recording – Black Lives Matter At School

Participate in the 2020 Black Lives Matter in School Week of Action Webinar Recording – Black Lives Matter At School

Participate in the 2020 Black Lives Matter in School Week of Action Webinar Recording

We hope you will consider organizing a Black Lives Matter in School Week of Action from February 3-7, 2020. Please watch our webinar and learn more about how various cities organized their 2019 week of action. Once the 2020 curriculum is finalized by our national curriculum committee we will post it here.

Join the 2020 BLM@School Week of Action Webinar

Participate in the 2020 Black Lives Matter in School Week of Action Webinar Recording – Black Lives Matter At School

Choosing Democracy: SCUSD Budget Crisis- State Audit

Choosing Democracy: SCUSD Budget Crisis- State Audit

SCUSD Budget Crisis- State Audit

December 10, 2019====See also  Community Forum post below.
2019-108


The Governor of California President pro Tempore of the Senate Speaker of the Assembly
State Capitol
Sacramento, California 95814

Dear Governor and Legislative Leaders:

As directed by the Joint Legislative Audit Committee, my office conducted an audit of the Sacramento City Unified School District (Sacramento Unified). Our assessment focused on Sacramento Unified’s financial condition, and the following report details the audit’s findings and conclusions. We determined that Sacramento Unified has not proactively addressed its financial problems.

Sacramento Unified failed to take sufficient action to control its costs in three main areas—teacher salaries, employee benefits, and special education. Sacramento Unified increased its spending by $31 million annually when it approved a new labor contract with its teachers union in 2017. Despite warnings from the Sacramento County Office of Education that it could not afford the agreement, the Sacramento City Unified School District Board of Education approved the agreement without a plan for how it would pay for it. Sacramento Unified also failed to control the costs of the generous employee benefits it provides, which increased by 52 percent from fiscal years 2013–14 through 2017–18. We also found that Sacramento Unified lacked clear policies to guide staff on what are appropriate expenditures for special education, limiting its ability to control these costs. Consequently, Sacramento Unified projects it will largely deplete its general fund in October 2021 and will likely need to accept a loan from the State to continue operating. If it accepts such a loan, the required loan payments would result in less funding for students and a loss of local control to an appointed administrator.

Although both Sacramento Unified and its teachers union have proposed changes to stabilize the district’s finances, we found that the proposals are unlikely to solve the district’s ongoing financial problems. In fact, several proposals from the teachers union would increase costs dramatically. Given that accepting state assistance would result in less funds for students, we would have expected Sacramento Unified to develop a detailed plan for resolving its financial concerns, but it has not done so. It states that it needs to make $27 million in reductions by fiscal year 2021–22, but even that amount may not be sufficient to end its deficit spending. We have identified a number of options the district could take, including making changes to salaries and benefits for different groups of employees; however, if it is to avoid the negative effects of insolvency, Sacramento Unified must act quickly to develop and implement a plan.

Respectfully submitted,

ELAINE M. HOWLE, CPA California State Auditor

Report is not the same as the SCUSD press release on the subject.

Choosing Democracy: SCUSD Budget Crisis- State Audit

Pennsylvania: Republican Legislators Target State’s Neediest Districts for Failed Takeover Strategy | Diane Ravitch's blog

Pennsylvania: Republican Legislators Target State’s Neediest Districts for Failed Takeover Strategy | Diane Ravitch's blog

Pennsylvania: Republican Legislators Target State’s Neediest Districts for Failed Takeover Strategy

The York Dispatch, a newspaper in a district that has been targeted for state intervention, blasted the state with a scathing editorial. 

I hope the editorial board will forgive me for reprinting it in full. “Financial recovery” has not helped any district; it is a disaster for the students, teachers, and schools. It accomplishes nothing but disruption.

The vultures are circling, and York City School District officials would be wise to take notice.

York City is among four Pennsylvania districts placed in state-mandated financial recovery in 2012 under a new law proponents said would finally hold to account school districts that have failed taxpayers and students alike.

York City schools clearly earned the dubious designation, one it will keep after state officials in August denied the district’s request to be removed from recovery.

Its graduation rates are among the lowest in the state — among, unsurprisingly, its peers also listed on the state’s initial list of underperformers: Harrisburg, Chester Upland and Duquesne. Its financial condition has been a CONTINUE READING: Pennsylvania: Republican Legislators Target State’s Neediest Districts for Failed Takeover Strategy | Diane Ravitch's blog

Kentucky’s Governor Beshear dumps state school board. Kentucky teacher Randy Wieck comments. – Fred Klonsky

Kentucky’s Governor Beshear dumps state school board. Kentucky teacher Randy Wieck comments. – Fred Klonsky

KENTUCKY’S GOVERNOR BESHEAR DUMPS STATE SCHOOL BOARD. KENTUCKY TEACHER RANDY WIECK COMMENTS

When Democrat Andy Beshear defeated Kentucky Republican Governor Matt Bevin last November it was seen as a defeat for Donald Trump in a sold red state.

Although that is a fair interpretation, there were local issues that played a role in Bevin’s defeat, education and public pensions among them.

On Tuesday Beshear signed an executive order Tuesday in his first day in office to create a new state school board. The displaced board members promptly said they would file a lawsuit.

Beshear has said for weeks he would act quickly when he took office to dismiss the state Board of Education.

“This morning, I reorganized the state board of education and appointed new members who support public education,” announced the new governor.

Eddie Campbell, president of the Kentucky Education Association, which backed Beshear’s campaign, said, “The KEA supports Gov. Beshear’s decision to reconstitute the Kentucky Board of Education.

“Under the previous administration, board appointees were based more on CONTINUE READING: Kentucky’s Governor Beshear dumps state school board. Kentucky teacher Randy Wieck comments. – Fred Klonsky

Vice: Pete Buttigieg’s Financial Relationships with Charter Advocates | Diane Ravitch's blog

Vice: Pete Buttigieg’s Financial Relationships with Charter Advocates | Diane Ravitch's blog

Vice: Pete Buttigieg’s Financial Relationships with Charter Advocates

Rachel Cohen writes here about the charter supporters backing Pete Buttigieg. 

Billionaire Reed Hastings held a fundraiser for Mayor Pete. Hastings, CEO of Netflix, has given millions to the California Charter Schools Association. He has said he looks forward to the day when there are no elected school boards. He likes schools run by corporate boards. He says they didn’t discuss charter schools, which is one of Hastings’ causes about which he is passionate.

Cohen writes:

Linda Lucy, who has served as the president of the South Bend teachers union since June 2018, told VICE she had never met with Pete Buttigieg, and had “nothing to add” about the union’s relationship with the mayor. “Politicians have hijacked the teaching profession in our public schools,” she said.

Buttigieg does appear to have made time for Heather Willey, one of Indiana’s top charter school lobbyists, who co-hosted a fundraiser for Buttigieg in Indianapolis on October 4, according to an invitation obtained by VICE.

Willey served on the board of the Institute for Quality CONTINUE READING: Vice: Pete Buttigieg’s Financial Relationships with Charter Advocates | Diane Ravitch's blog