Sunday, November 1, 2020

CATCH UP WITH CURMUDGUCATION + ICYMI: Dear God Let It Please Be Over Soon Edition (11/1)

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: Dear God Let It Please Be Over Soon Edition (11/1)

Dear God Let It Please Be Over Soon Edition

Of course, it probably won't be. This is probably going to drag out for weeks. But we can hope that we're, as they say, turning a corner this week. Hope you en joyed that extra hour. Happy All Saints Day. In the meantime, here's some stuff to read.

A Voting Rights Battle In A School Board Coup

In Georgia, the battle over voting, schools, and race, surfaces in yet another battle. New York Times reporting.

The fight for the suburbs started in schools

EdWeek also travels to a part of Georgia where te white folks just don't want uppity Black voices on their school board.

One Teacher's Black Lives Matter Lesson Divided a Town

Or at least revealed divisions that were there. Newsweek has this not feel good story.

Charter Double Dipping

Carol Burris and Greg Leroy in the Daily News explaining how charters engineered a relief fund windfall.

NC Candidate Backed by anti-teacher millionaire

If you're in North Carolina, you want to pay attention to this race for state superintendent.

We Couldn't Find It

How bad can the for-profit college sector be? How about a school with no students or faculty. USA Today has the story.

Death by a Thousand Cuts

Teacher education programs are taking continued hits, and the teacher pipeline is getting narrower and narrower. From Inside Higher Education.

How an education crisis is spurring a tectonic shift in Arizona politics

What has to happen for voters to support both Trump and increased taxes for public ed? Arizona is forging a whole new path. Jennifer Berkshire reports on this odd political shift.

DeVos will let religious groups apply for charter grants

Surprising absolutely nobody except some pro-charter Democrats who were sure that the charter movement was all about social justice, Betsy DeVos took the next step in shifting taxpaer dollars from public to private religious schools. Here's Matt Barnum with his take at Chalkbeat.

DeVos on the Docket

Here at the Institute we've taken many shots at the74, which started out aspiring to be an anti-union player for ed in 2016. But nowadays they do some actual legit journalism, like this pioece breaking down the record-setting lawsuit total racked up by Betsy DeVos.

Bad Leadership Creating School Crisis

Jeff Bryant is at the Progressive laying out te details of a national shortage of capable school district leaders.

Teachers Struggling To Pull Students Out Of QAnon Rabbit Hole

Buzzfeed with an interesting look at the challenge of having students in your classroom who have adopted bananas beliefs.

Betsy DeVos's Scary Story

If parents know best, what's wrong with this guy in a DeVosian scare story. The indispensable Mercedes Schneider breaks down this Halloween

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: Dear God Let It Please Be Over Soon Edition (11/1)

CATCH UP WITH CURMUDGUCATION

AND DON'T FORGET PETER GREENE ON FORBES CLICK HERE

Why Is Writing So Hard To Teach? - https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2020/10/22/why-is-writing-so-hard-to-teach/?sh=37cc2f1c5736 by @palan57 on @forbes

Betsy DeVos Really Really Really Really Really Hates Loan Forgiveness. - https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2020/10/28/betsy-devos-really-really-really-really-really-hates-loan-forgiveness/?sh=c3c1d982b571 by @palan57 on @forbes

San Diego Schools Are Changing Their Grading System. Is It A Good Idea? - https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2020/10/20/san-diego-schools-are-changing-their-grading-system-is-it-a-good-idea/?sh=7dfc3bec5dd6 by @palan57 on @forbes

The National Review Vs. Evil Teachers Unions

39by Peter Greene / 21h

Psychic AI and Plagiarism Detection

by Peter Greene / 2d

Artificial Intelligence is used to sell a lot of baloney. It would be bad enough it were used only to teach badly and provide poor assessments of student work, but AI is also being hawked as a means of rooting out plagiarism. For an example of this phenomenon at its worst, let's check in on a little webcast from Mark Boothe at Canvas Learning Management System . He's talking to Shouvik Paul at Co

DeVos New NAEP Baloney Sandwich

91by Peter Greene / 3d

Betsy DeVos would like you to know--again, some more--that public schools are failing. Her exhibit this time is the newly-released NAEP results for 12th graders in 2019. And as usual at NAEP time, her brief exhortation is riddled with baloney. America is the greatest country on the face of the earth, and we should deliver our rising generation the greatest educational opportunities possible. Sadl

Another Skills of Tomorrow Pitch

by Peter Greene / 3d

Matt Barnum of Chalkbeat has made a small hobby out of tracking one of the pervasive made-up statistics of education-- "65% (or 80% or what-have-you) of the jobs that this years kindergartners will fill don't exist yet." Well, the folks at the World Economic Forum have another variation on this kind of crystal ball data theme-- "50% of all employees will need reskilling by 2025." Fortunately, I g

Is It Time For The Internet To Be A School-Managed Public Utility?

by Peter Greene / 5d

School has opened across the country, but in many districts that means class via internet—if those students are among those fortunate enough to have access to fast, large-capacity internet connections. How many aren’t connected? The answer is that nobody’s exactly sure. One study say s that 33 million citizens live without the net. The FCC says that 19 million Americans lack access to broadband a

Segregation, Privatization, and Taxation

29by Peter Greene / 5d

The New York Times ran a piece yesterday about a school board voting mess in Sumter County, Georgia (that's the county of Plains, home of Jimmy Carter's peanut farm). The story itself is an instructional look at how yet another white minority is trying to keep their hands on the levers of power, resulting in a district that is 70% Black run by a board that is 70% white. But Nicholas Casey has dow

Ed Department Produces Advertisement For Computer-Based Education

25by Peter Greene / 6d

Even as Betsy DeVos has been demanding that public schools get their doors opened and their teachers back in the bricks and mortar classrooms, the department has announced its release of a slick "guide" to computer-based edu-flavored products. It's a nice package of marketing materials for the folks working the digitized street corner of the education privatization neighborhood. From the Office o

ICYMI: Fake Spring Edition (10/25)

by Peter Greene / 6d

It was beautiful here most of the week, which served in part as a reminder that pandemic winter is going to suck so very much. Here are a few pieces to check out from the week. The Perfect Trap Paul Thomas with some good insights about teaching writing and the power of redrafting. Neoliberal Education Reformers Have Found A New Way To Scapegoat Teachers At Jacobin, Josh Mound talks about that awf

Did Covid-19 Destroy The Case Against School Choice?

35by Peter Greene / 8d

Betsy DeVos repeatedly insists that the current pandemic A) shouldn't in any way interfere with the normal operation of public schools and B) makes it "more clear than ever" that school choice must be a thing, toot de suite. The two prongs of her argument belong to two entirely different pitchforks, but many folks with more coherent debate tools have picked up that second point. One of those is R

VA: Teacher Ejected From Board Meeting For Live Covid Demo

56by Peter Greene / 9d

Henrico County Public School District is a Virginia school district that sits right beside Richmond. For the first part of the school year, they have been using distance learning, and finding it just as unsatisfactory as pretty much

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

First Quarter Report On What I’m Doing In Full-Time Distance Learning & How It’s Going | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

FIRST QUARTER REPORT ON WHAT I’M DOING IN FULL-TIME DISTANCE LEARNING & HOW IT’S GOING

Our first quarter of full-time distance learning ends this week, and I thought it would be interesting to some readers, and helpful to me, to take some time to reflect on what I’ve been doing and how it’s been going.

I’m dividing this post into several categories: Summary, Concerns, and then specific discussions about what’s happening in each of my classes (ELL History, ELL Intermediate/Beginners English, IB Theory of Knowledge (I have three periods of TOK).

SUMMARY

I’m feeling that – overall – my students are learning a lot and like our classes and, based on the regular anonymous surveys I’m using regularly (see HERE ARE STUDENT RESPONSES TO SURVEYS I USED ONE-MONTH INTO FULL-TIME VIRTUAL LEARNING), most agree with that assessment. Distance learning is clearly not as good as face-to-face teaching in normal times, but our classes are nothing to sneeze at.

I believe I worked harder during the first six weeks of this school year than I ever have during my teaching career (including my first year!) but, fortunately, the last two weeks I’ve been able to complete all my lesson planning for the following week during the previous work week. Prior to that time, my entire weekends were spent planning and grading. This still means I’m working lots of hours after-and-before school, including making calls to students’ homes, and the hours are still not reasonable. It does mean, however, that the odds are increasing that I might be able to sustain this pace for at least the next few months without major damage to my mental or physical health.

Maybe.

Nevertheless, I continue to have a number of concerns…

CONCERNS

There are many.

I think that most of the students – at our school, at least – are going to CONTINUE READING: First Quarter Report On What I’m Doing In Full-Time Distance Learning & How It’s Going | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

Weighing a Transformative Model for Youth Justice - LA Progressive

Weighing a Transformative Model for Youth Justice

Last year, Los Angeles County supervisors called on a panel of judges, prosecutors, public defenders and youth advocates to reimagine a juvenile justice system and report back.

Now, the results are in, and the 150-member group is calling for an entirely new approach: Instead of surveillance and incarceration, teams of counselors, mediators and community members would help respond to crises and guide youth who commit crimes toward restorative justice and job opportunities.

Under the plan expected to be heard by the Board of Supervisors in the next month, the county’s two remaining juvenile halls and its six detention camps would be shut down, with most young people instead housed in “Safe and Secure Healing Centers.” Only those found to have committed the most serious and violent offenses would be held in locked facilities, but they would be reconstructed with a less prison-like and more therapeutic design.

As a result, the juvenile probation department would end its troubled tenure overseeing thousands of young people, replaced by a system driven by a “care first, jail last” philosophy local leaders have said they are committed to enacting.

Kent Mendoza of the Anti-Recidivism Coalition. Image courtesy of the Division of Youth Diversion and Development.

At an initial cost of $75 million, a new youth development department would be charged with diverting many more youth out of the justice system altogether and would oversee community-led “Youth Engagement and Support” teams to provide crisis response and community supervision.

Should the plan proceed, the jobs of more than 3,400 probation employees who now oversee roughly 530 young people ages 12 to 17 in the county’s juvenile detention facilities and another 4,600 who live at home under department supervision CONTINUE READING: Weighing a Transformative Model for Youth Justice - LA Progressive

‘It’s science, stupid’: A school subject emerges as a hot button political issue – Raw Story

‘It’s science, stupid’: A school subject emerges as a hot button political issue

At the top of Dr. Hiral Tipirneni’s to-do list if she wins her congressional race: work with other elected officials to encourage mask mandates and to beef up COVID-19 testing and contact tracing. Those choices are backed up by science, said Tipirneni, an emergency room physician running for Arizona’s 6th Congressional District.

On the campaign trail, she has called on her opponent, Rep. David Schweikert (R-Ariz.), to denounce President Donald Trump’s gathering of thousands for a rally in Arizona and his comments about slowing down COVID-19 testing.

“I believe in data; I believe in facts,” Tipirneni told KHN. “I believe in science guiding us … whether it’s the opioid crisis or tax policy or immigration reform. Those decisions could be and should be driven by the data. Science is not partisan.”

Tipirneni is one of four Democratic physicians running as challengers for Congress in 2020, all in closely watched races mostly rated as toss-ups. And it’s not just doctors. The group 3.14 Action (named for the value of pi) is working to help elect more scientists to office, promoting on its website candidates such as Mark Kelly, an engineer and former astronaut, who is seeking a Senate seat in Arizona, and Nancy Goroff, who has a doctorate in chemistry and is running for Congress in New York. Science is an integral part of their policy CONTINUE READING: ‘It’s science, stupid’: A school subject emerges as a hot button political issue – Raw Story

NYC Educator: Change Your Clocks Today and Your President on Tuesday

Change Your Clocks Today and Your President on Tuesday

Just a brief reminder that Donald Trump is on the ballot this year. While a thousand Americans die daily from COVID, the worst disaster in my living memory, there's still no national program or mask mandate. While Trump lies that he'll protect Americans with pre-existing conditions, a concept most developed countries don't face, the SCOTUS he packed eight days before the election is ready to kill Obamacare, the only actual protection there is.

If you're union, remember it was Trump's court that passed Janus, and remember that those who hate us and everything we stand for aren't finished. Remember the only reason we have rights at work is union.

Remember his choice for Secretary or Education hates public education and will do anything in her power to end it, solely to create profit for her BFFs. Remember that they want to open schools all over the country and don't give a golly gosh darn what the COVID rates are.

Remember all the young children separated from their parents, and remember he's dumping them all in Mexico, no matter where they come from.

Remember people of color being murdered on the streets, and remember that Trump stands with the people doing the killing.

Remember the inclination of religious zealots to deny CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: Change Your Clocks Today and Your President on Tuesday

Betsy DeVos’ Scary Story | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

Betsy DeVos’ Scary Story

It’s Halloween, and I’d like to tell you a scary story. Actually, I’d like to allow US ed sec Betsy DeVos tell a story scary for its lack of details and ultimately intended to drive her readers toward her pet goal of school choice, particularly private school choice.

I call it, “Did You Really Mean to Implicate This Parent?”

Put yourself in the shoes of the father whose son, a recent high school graduate, was honored in the local newspaper. Dad’s pride turns to dismay as he discovers his son can’t read or comprehend the article about himself. Dad marches over to the high school principal’s office, his son and the newspaper in tow, and asks his son to read the article to the principal. He, of course, can’t. The father pointedly asks the principal how he could’ve graduated his son—or anyone else—who can’t read. There is no defensible answer.

DeVos doesn’t say whether the high school in question is a traditional public high school, or a charter high school, or even a private high school for that matter, but let’s assume that she means to point her “government schools” finger at traditional public high schools. However, she is clear in her intent to blame the school for graduating someone who cannot “read or comprehend the article.”

So, here’s the scary part for DeVos’ message of parents knowing what is best: DeVos just implicated the parent. Of course, she did not mean to do so. She meant to place all blame for unnamed graduate not being able to “read or comprehend” a news article on the CONTINUE READING: Betsy DeVos’ Scary Story | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

CURMUDGUCATION: The National Review Vs. Evil Teachers Unions

The National Review Vs. Evil Teachers Unions

Upon first reading "Teachers Unions and the Myth of 'Public' Schools" at National Review, my immediate impulse was to just mutter "fatuous bullshit" and move on. But this piece is a fine distillation of a current genre of writing--the piece that blames current school closures on the self-serving teachers' unions, who see distance learning as a great way to pursue their dream of being paid for doing nothing. And as such, it needs to be responded to, even if only by a lowly blogger. Also, the National Review is not some completely stupid rag, and it should do better than this.

The writer is Cameron Hilditch, a William F. Buckley Fellow in Political Journalism at National Review Institute. He's originally from Belfast, went to Exford, and has been playing in the big leagues. When you see his picture, you're going to think he looks like he's about twelve, but it's not fair to hold that against him; in my picture at the top of this blog, I look like I still have hair.

Hilditch comes out of the gate mighty aggressive:

American taxpayers have been hoodwinked by the whole idea of “public schools.” No other institutions get away with such bad behavior on the part of some employees who staff them.

He cites the last batch of NAEP scores as his proof, making the usual mistake, deliberate or not, of mistaking NAEP "proficiency" for "adequacy" instead of "top quality." He calls these numbers CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: The National Review Vs. Evil Teachers Unions

I Just Want to Teach, but My District Won’t Let Me Do it Safely | gadflyonthewallblog

I Just Want to Teach, but My District Won’t Let Me Do it Safely

I love teaching.

But I can’t do it if I’m dead.

Therein lies the back to school nightmare I’ve been living through for most of the summer and fall.

The Coronavirus pandemic has affected people unequally.

Folks like me with pre-existing conditions are at greater risk from the virus than others.

I have heart disease and Crohn’s Disease.

My doctors tell me that I am more CONTINUE READING: I Just Want to Teach, but My District Won’t Let Me Do it Safely | gadflyonthewallblog

Mike Klonsky's Blog: SNCC: Danny Lyon's new film.

SNCC: Danny Lyon's new film.

https://vimeo.com/461037507

A note from Danny Lyon:

This is an open link to my new film SNCC. Anyone can see it. It is free.

I welcome comments on the Vimeo site. Please share this with anyone you want.

Thanks

Danny

https://vimeo.com/461037507

Radical artists from the movement are creating a mural of John Lewis being in Rochester New York. John was a powerful stump speaker, an inspiration. The 3000 square foot wall that will display John’s picture is across the street from where Fredrick Douglas gave his July 4th speech.

I urge you to contribute to this effort by Darius Dennis, an amazing
artist who has taken pictures of the movement made them one hundred
feet high, and turned them into an inspiration for the Black Lives Matter movement. One is already up in Chicago and another up in Louisville. A true synthesis of two grass roots struggles bridging sixty years of
time. A great accomplishment.

Danny Lyon

Goggle: GoFundMe, John Lewis Mural
gofundme.com/f/john-lewis-mural

https://vimeo.com/461037507

Mike Klonsky's Blog: SNCC: Danny Lyon's new film.

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Sunday, November 1, 2020