CATCH UP WITH CURMUDGUCATION + ICYMI: Hellacious Week Edition (5/31)

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: Hellacious Week Edition (5/31)

Hellacious Week Edition 

Well, this has been a bunch of big ugly crap, on top of the One Damn Thing After Another sundae that is 2020. Let's read.

All About the Mask
Nancy Flanagan looks at the politics and symbolism of the ongoing mask wars.

Chalkbeat Discovers Teachers on Front Lines
Chalkbeat lets a brand new charter leader lay out some obvious obviousness about teachers and pandemic response. NYC Educator breaks it down and provides a good response.

Distance Learning? Even my students will tell you that's not the future
The LA Times, via Yahoo, offers bad news for those banking on distance learning.

Vouchers hurt poor kids
The 10th Period blog responds to a pro-reform editorial about the Ohio EdChoice lawsuit. Some good response here to the classic "but vouchers help the poor kids" argument.

Good News and Bad News from Harrisburg
Steven Singer reports on financial impacts on PA schools-- and bonuses for the private edubiz guys.

All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace
Audrey Watters speaks to the impulse to deal with the fall's crisis with more automation and surveillance.

Betsy DeVos Ignores Congress
Jan Resseger takes a big, deep look at DeVos's plan to use relief money to help fuel her own pet causes.

Giving private schools federal emergency funds slated for low-income students will shortchange at-risk kids
Derek Black is at the Conversation, laying out how the DeVos plan will cut funding true at-need students in US schools.

Lawsuit Over AP Botch No Publicity Stunt  
The indispensable Mercedes Schneider takes a look at the Fairtest lawsuit over the complete clusterf#@! that was the College Board's online AP test

Annie Tan: My First Year Disaster With TFA 
Schneider again, interviewing Annie Tan about her less-than-awesome experience with Teach for America.

I Just Don't Think Remote Learning Works
Susan Sciara, a special ed teacher, writes for Hechinger Report about the failure of the remote learning adventure.

Private Interests Are Wrongly Shaping Education Policy in Ohio 
An op-ed at cleveland.com looks at Ohio's messed-up history with privatization, bad policy, and business people in the driver's seat.

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: Hellacious Week Edition (5/31)

CATCH UP WITH CURMUDGUCATION

CATCH UP WITH CURMUDGUCATION

AND DON'T FORGET PETER GREENE ON FORBES CLICK HERE 

The Betsy DeVos Reverse Robin Hood Act: What Is The Big Deal? - https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2020/05/28/the-betsy-devos-reverse-robin-hood-act-what-is-the-big-deal/#648904fa2083 by @palan57 on @forbes

No, Software Still Can’t Grade Student Essays - https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2020/05/25/no-software-still-cant-grade-student-essays/#2907dfab13fc by @palan57 on @forbes

Changing To Personalized Learning Would Be Huge Mistake. What If We Tried Personalized Learning Instead. - https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2020/05/22/changing-to-personalized-learning-would-be--huge-mistake-what-if-we-tried-personalized-learning-instead/#16e7f1774ae0 by @palan57 on @forbes

Teaching And The Social Contract (TL;DR)

62by Peter Greene / 13h

I didn't write anything yesterday, which is an unusual day for me, but I've just been trying to take it all in. I have family in Seattle, friends in Pittsburgh. There's a lot of mess out there tonight. It's nothing new for our country, but it's never been laid out so starkly. The woman in Central Park deliberately weaponizing her status as a white woman to, at best, put a Black man in his place an

Betsy DeVos, the Catholic Church, and Public Tax Dollars

54by Peter Greene / 2d

The Trump administration and the Catholic Church have seemed extra tight lately. And an awful lot of it has to do with public education. Cardinal Timothy Dolan (New York) took the lead in a fun conference call last month in which Trump , along with Betsy DeVos, swapped personal admiration and what is either some quid pro quo or just a shared love for the notion of shredding public education and re

Why shouldn't high stakes testing be abandoned next year?

100+by Peter Greene / 3d

Testing in the fall? Let's talk about that idea. Thomas Toch is one of those reformsters who has managed to bounce from job to reformy job . Currently, he's head honcho at FutureEd , an ed reform advocacy group that bills itself as a thinky tank, and there isn't an educational disruption that they haven't tried to make a case for. This spring they have been vocal in trying to protect the future of

Boutique Virtual Pre-School (I Am Not Making This Up)

42by Peter Greene / 4d

Here's another entry in the swanky virtual pre-school field. It's Bumo Virtual School , and it is the brainchild of an influencer and an entrepreneur. They originally wanted to start a café where parents could hang out while their littles played and learned stuff. It was going to be "a chic little spot in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Century City." But then the coronavirus happened, so they shi

Separating Home And School For Teachers

400+by Peter Greene / 5d

Watching my wife deal with the challenges of doing crisis pandemic distance learning, I've been having flashbacks to my first job. I taught in Lorain High School (not the current LHS but the one that stood where there is now a vacant lot), and I rented an apartment right across the street from the school. When I found the place, I was delighted-- the ultimate in convenience. I wouldn't even have t

ICYMI: A Year Older Edition (5/24)

by Peter Greene / 7d

I had a birthday this week, but I feel pretty much the same. I might have taken a couple of half-days off, so let's see if the reading list looks any shorter. After online learning flopped... The continuing saga of failed online learning in Fairfax, VA, continues with a flood of Google-based student-on-student harassment. Students think College Board is running a reddit scam One fun side note to t

How Hard Are CDC Guidelines To Follow

1Kby Peter Greene / 9d

So now everyone is freaked out about the CDC "guidelines" as reported on that blue meme that was going around. This, of course, was the point-- to sell the idea that public schools will be like prisons, so everyone should pull their kids out. Because in the spirit of never letting a crisis go to waste, there are folks from your neighbor with the tin hat all the way up to the US Secretary of Educat

Betsy DeVos Has, In Fact, Become Arne Duncan 2.0

54by Peter Greene / 10d

When this originally ran at Forbes.com, there was still some qujestion about the premise. Since then I've updated it with new info from DeVos herself. For many conservatives, one of the greatest sins perpetrated by Obama’s 

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

EdAction in Congress May 31, 2020 - Education Votes

EdAction in Congress May 31, 2020 - Education Votes

EdAction in Congress May 31, 2020

McConnell still stalling on fiscal aid while 40 million are jobless

The coronavirus has killed more than 100,000 Americans and left more than 40 million jobless—roughly a quarter of the U.S. workforce, the level at the height of the Great Depression. But that’s no reason for Congress to act anytime soon, according to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). “I think about a month from now we’ll take a look at how things are going and be able to make a more intelligent decision,” he said. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) responded, “We need a pause? Tell that to the virus.”

The longer Congress delays, the greater the likelihood we’ll see a repeat of the Great Recession a decade ago, during which financially strapped state and local governments cut essential student services and laid off tens of thousands of educators. This time, the damage could be even worse. NEA supports the HEROES Act passed by the House, which would provide $915 billion in direct relief for state and local governments that can be used pay educators and other vital workers. The bill also provides $90 billion to stabilize education funding, takes steps to narrow the digital divide and close the homework gap, and recognizes the pressing need for PPE for educators. TAKE ACTION

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Despite COVID-19 educators risk their lives for students, ESP of the Year says

In Kentucky alone, two ESPs, both bus drivers, have passed away since school buildings closed. In North Carolina, three others have passed away from the virus. “I hate that it took a dedicated member’s life to open others’ eyes,” said Matthew Powell, NEA’s 2019 ESP of the Year. “When you have stories about ESPs still fighting for our students, risking their own lives to meet the needs of every child, that really sticks out.”

Educators know it will take ongoing advocacy to secure personal protective equipment (PPE) and implement other safety measures that meet Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) standards for teachers and support professionals, whose duties vary widely. NEA is seeking directed funding for PPE for educators, including—and especially—the support professionals who continue to prepare and distribute meals; clean, maintain, and secure school buildings; oversee technology needs; and perform other vital work during the coronavirus pandemic. TAKE ACTION

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Cheers and Jeers

Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) and Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA)honored NEA Aspiring Educators by filming a video celebrating their “graduation.”

Sens. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) released a comprehensive report on the GOP’s push to confirm far-right judges chosen not for their qualifications or experience, but for their allegiance to political goals.

EdAction in Congress May 31, 2020 - Education Votes

CURMUDGUCATION: Teaching And The Social Contract (TL;DR)

CURMUDGUCATION: Teaching And The Social Contract (TL;DR)

Teaching And The Social Contract (TL;DR)

I didn't write anything yesterday, which is an unusual day for me, but I've just been trying to take it all in. I have family in Seattle, friends in Pittsburgh. There's a lot of mess out there tonight.

It's nothing new for our country, but it's never been laid out so starkly. The woman in Central Park deliberately weaponizing her status as a white woman to, at best, put a Black man in his place and, at worst, to try to harm him for daring to challenge her right to break the rules. The armed white guys threatening duly elected lawmakers with harm and worse, because masks make them sad; met by well-disciplined law enforcement who do everything to avoid escalating the situation (reminiscent of the Bundy family's armed attack on a US facility to protect their right to steal US resources-- nobody lost their cool there, either). A peaceful protest of the gazillionth unjust death of a Black man escalated.

One of the most useful lenses I've found in the past few days is this one, from Trevor Noah

In it, he talks about the social contract, the various sorts of deals we make as a society that keeps the society working. We pretend sometimes that it's people exercising authority, like police officers or school teachers, who keep the place working, but in the absence of some kind of contract, even if it's unspoken and unexplained, there aren't enough authority figures on the planet to keep things from falling apart--it's the contract that makes the center hold.

On some level, we understand this. I'm not the only teacher who spent his first year (or two) CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Teaching And The Social Contract (TL;DR)

Robert Shepherd’s Glossary of Adjectives to Describe Trump | Diane Ravitch's blog

Robert Shepherd’s Glossary of Adjectives to Describe Trump | Diane Ravitch's blog

Robert Shepherd’s Glossary of Adjectives to Describe Trump

Robert Shepherd writes comments on the blog frequently, and he also writes his own blog. He is a recently retired teacher in Florida who spent decades as a writer, editor, and developer of curriculum and assessments in the education publishing industry.

Since he has often expresssed his views of the current occupant of the White House, I invited him to assemble a Trump glossary.

He did.

Some people respond to crises with focused, quiet intensity. Not our 73-year-old President in the orange clown makeup. He can’t stop tweeting and blabbering randomly and profusely. And what does he tweet and blab about? Well, he suggests holding events at his resorts, he attacks perceived enemies, and he praises himself. And then on Memorial Day, while others are laying a wreath on the grave of Uncle Javier who died in Vietnam, Trump accuses a journalist of murder and goes golfing.

This demonstrated lack of concern for others (for victims and survivors of natural disasters and war and disease, for example) shows that Donald Trump doesn’t give a microbe on a nit on a rat’s tushy about anything but Donald Trump. Obviously, he cares only about money (sorry, Evangelicals, his only God is Mammon) and about himself.

But hey, Trump’s a romantic figure, a man in love. This must be his appeal. And when he speaks, in his toddler English, about the love of his life, Donald Trump, you can be certain that he will use terms like “a winner,” “the greatest,” “the best,” and so on. He will tell you about his “great genes” and his uncle who was “a super genius [which is a lot better than an ordinary genius] at MIT.”

OK, over the years, I’ve had my disagreements with the man to whom I variously refer as Moscow’s Asset CONTINUE READING: Robert Shepherd’s Glossary of Adjectives to Describe Trump | Diane Ravitch's blog

America Is Burning | Diane Ravitch's blog

America Is Burning | Diane Ravitch's blog

America Is Burning

These are the worst of times.

Police brutality in Minneapolis murdered a black man who allegedly used a fake $20 bill. Petty crimes are adjudicated in a court of law. Police do not have the authority or right to use lethal force when confronting an unarmed person. After a long string of similar incidents where black people were unjustly murdered, the killing of George Floyd ignited protests across the nation. Some of the protests turned violent, and fires were burning in widely scattered cities in the midst of confrontations between police and protestors.

Racism is America’s deepest, most intractable sin.

The explosion of protest is unlikely to lead to any productive change until the racists in the White House are ousted and replaced by people who determined to fight racism. We currently have a government of old white men who have used their words and deeds to stoke the fires that are now burning. Trump has no credibility to calm the situation or to offer solace or to promise meaningful change. He has spent many years expressing the anger of racists, repeatedly claiming that President Obama was not born in the U.S., demanding the death penalty for the Central Park Five (who were ultimately found innocent), pretending never to have heard of David Duke when Duke offered his endorsement of Trump, CONTINUE READING: America Is Burning | Diane Ravitch's blog

Black Lives Matter; The Truth Matters – redqueeninla

Black Lives Matter; The Truth Matters – redqueeninla

Black Lives Matter; The Truth Matters

I was packed into the intersection at Fairfax and Third today with my adult daughter. And I didn’t feel any of this reported aggression.

A veteran of a fair number of protests, this rally was not like any other. It felt intense, powered by focused anger, but not aggressive. I never once felt unsafe or as if the crowd were out of control. People were mad but not hostile. It sounds like a pedantic distinction but there you have it, there was no feeling of impending violence. None at all. Collective fury but not belligerent:  coiled vigilance

But there was weird stuff afoot. By the time we arrived late for the call, a clutch of people were talking to the media and eliciting motorist support on the NE CONTINUE READING: Black Lives Matter; The Truth Matters – redqueeninla

Good News: Harrisburg is Not Cutting Education Funding! Bad News: Handouts for the Rich & Charter Schools | gadflyonthewallblog

Good News: Harrisburg is Not Cutting Education Funding! Bad News: Handouts for the Rich & Charter Schools | gadflyonthewallblog

Good News: Harrisburg is Not Cutting Education Funding! Bad News: Handouts for the Rich & Charter Schools

If you live in Pennsylvania, you can breathe a sigh of relief now that the legislature has passed a stopgap budget that does not cut education funding.

But you can let out that breath in a cry of disgust when you see where much of that money is going and how many underprivileged kids will be left wanting.

GOOD NEWS

With the economy in tatters due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the state legislature never-the-less passed a budget this week providing flat funding for most state programs for five months.

The major exception is public schooling. That has been fully funded for the entire year.

So for 12 months, there will be no state cuts to basic and special education or block grant programs for K-12 schools. Nor will there be state cuts to pre-kindergarten programs or colleges and universities receiving state funding such as community colleges.

That’s really good news in such uncertain times.

School directors can get their own financial houses in order for 2020-2021 without CONTINUE READING: Good News: Harrisburg is Not Cutting Education Funding! Bad News: Handouts for the Rich & Charter Schools | gadflyonthewallblog

What Senator Milligan Said to Cade Brumley About Teacher Voice, and More | deutsch29

What Senator Milligan Said to Cade Brumley About Teacher Voice, and More | deutsch29

What Senator Milligan Said to Cade Brumley About Teacher Voice, and More

On May 27, 2020, newly-appointed Louisiana state superintendent, Cade Brumley, made his appearance before Louisiana’s Senate and Governmental Affairs committee for his confirmation hearing. The video archive can be found here, beginning at time 2:27:00.)

I watched much of Brumley’s hearing and was particularly impressed by what Senator Barry Milligan had to say about teacher voice, which was underscored by Senator Glen Womack. The senators also raise the subjects of curriculum and standards.

Since this information is surely of interest to Louisiana teachers, I trascribed select sections for an easy, concise read.

Below are Senator Milligan’s words to Brumley (beginning at 2:54:40). Milligan chose to speak to Brumley rather than interview him:

Welcome. You come from DeSoto Parish, and from my church, and you have an excellent track record, and many, many fans. I guess, I don’t really have a question. I guess, what I want to share is, coming from a family of teachers, you, know, the frustration that they have, and the teachers that I know who have left, it wasn’t about the money. They didn’t do this to get rich. They have a true passion for the children and teaching, and they’re frustrated because when you look at curriculum choices, student assessments, teacher assessments, it’s constantly chaging, and they can’t gain any momentum. And right now, I know that the battles that I hear at home with my family isn’t about the money. It’s about the fact that they are constantly changing the curriculum to where, at this very moment, they’re teaching from a script.

Why do you have to go to college to become an educator if you’re going to teach from a script?

And they feel hemmed in by that, you know? They have to be at a certain place in the curriculum today, and tomorrow, it’s got to be somewhere else, and if you fall behind, you have to skip ahead, and it causes a lot of frustration.

Again, the teachers that I know that left, it wasn’t about the money. It CONTINUE READING: What Senator Milligan Said to Cade Brumley About Teacher Voice, and More | deutsch29

Portfolio Management At LAUSD: Private Security, Promotional Hats, Outsourced Instruction, No-Bid HighTech Contracts – Los Angeles Education Examiner

Portfolio Management At LAUSD: Private Security, Promotional Hats, Outsourced Instruction, No-Bid HighTech Contracts – Los Angeles Education Examiner

Portfolio Management At LAUSD: Private Security, Promotional Hats, Outsourced Instruction, No-Bid HighTech Contracts

In mid-May, 2020 the LAUSD board reviewed the Deputy Superintendent’s weekly lists of purchases and contracts for March 16-May 8, 2020, part of “the $540m in expenditures for Covid19” approved through the LA County Office of Education (LACOE).

That $314m is detailed below, authorized under the emergency conditions declared two months earlier at the board’s special meeting of March 10, 2020. This is also when last the board met in regular session prior to 5/19/20; three days later the District shuttered ordinary operations on March 13, 2020.

Under this “Emergency Resolution” the Superintendent may “…enter into necessary contracts to respond to emergency conditions.” That is, these expenditures are subject to neither venerable bidding protocols that control waste, fraud and abuse, nor oversight by the school board, which sets District policy. LACOE now approves these expenditures but according to what directives?

The Superintendent who now controls purse, policy and process, was appointed with a tenuous mandate, by a school board elected under an avalanche of ideological school-privatization money. That board unethically extending the tenure of its slim majority just long enough to appoint this Superintendent by failing to censure its swing board member charged with felonious campaign fraud. What priorities does the former investment banker Superintendent Austin Beutner’s emergency spending reveal?

Figure 1 shows the relative distribution of the two broad categories of CONTINUE READING: Portfolio Management At LAUSD: Private Security, Promotional Hats, Outsourced Instruction, No-Bid HighTech Contracts – Los Angeles Education Examiner