Friday, February 12, 2021

THE TOP BANANA: TODAY'S EDUCATION HEADLINES Friday, February 12, 2021 #REDFORED #tbats #BLM #BLACKLIVESMATTER #BLACKHISTORYMONTH #RIPKARENLEWIS

THE TOP BANANA
TODAY'S EDUCATION HEADLINES

Hite offers school tour to show Philadelphia is ready for hybrid reopening https://philadelphia.chalkbeat.org/2021/2/11/22279300/hite-offers-school-tour-to-show-philadelphia-is-ready-for-hybrid-reopening via @ChalkbeatPHL

3 Teachers On The Push To Return To The Classroom http://feeds.scpr.org/~r/893KpccSouthernCaliforniaNews-Education/~3/kUHTGKf_jB4/

Many Texas students can skip STAAR tests this year, but high schoolers might have to show up to graduate https://www.texastribune.org/2021/02/12/texas-staar-test-2021/

Join The Texas Tribune for an interview with state Rep. Harold Dutton, chair of the House Public Education Committee https://www.texastribune.org/2021/02/11/texas-public-education-harold-dutton/

Behind The Lens episode 115: Active cases https://thelensnola.org/2021/02/12/behind-the-lens-episode-115-active-cases/

David Labaree on Schooling, History, and Writing: The Problems That Accountability Metrics Pose for Schooling | National Education Policy Center - https://nepc.colorado.edu/node/10766 on @NEPCtweet

Schools walk the tightrope between ideal safety and the reality of COVID | Salon.com - https://www.salon.com/2021/02/12/schools-walk-the-tightrope-between-ideal-safety-and-the-reality-of-covid_partner/

Groups Call for ‘New Deal for Higher Education’ https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2021/02/11/groups-call-%E2%80%98new-deal-higher-education%E2%80%99#.YCa57iw-vBw.twitter

As Chicago teachers begin return to classrooms, new arenas of struggle emerge - World Socialist Web Site - https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/02/12/chic-f12.html on @WSWS_Updates

CDC guidance on schools is coming. That might not settle a heated debate. https://politi.co/3741pit via @politico

'We've become parodies of ourselves': California Democrats bemoan SF school board https://politi.co/2Oynlfn

Teachers, those with comorbidities eligible for vaccines Feb. 22 https://nondoc.com/2021/02/11/teachers-those-with-comorbidities-eligible-for-vaccines-feb-22/ via @nondocmedia

Should Schools Reopen Before Teacher Vaccinations? https://www.laprogressive.com/teacher-vaccinations/

California’s School Districts Rushing to Reopen – Why? https://www.laprogressive.com/californias-school-districts/

OPINION: Resuming universal standardized testing in America’s public schools would be ‘foolhardy’ https://hechingerreport.org/opinion-resuming-universal-standardized-testing-in-americas-public-schools-would-be-foolhardy/

To test or not to test? Educators weigh the value of standardized testing during a pandemic https://hechingerreport.org/to-test-or-not-to-test-educators-weigh-the-value-of-standardized-testing-during-a-pandemic/

How much will it take to reopen, catch up kids, and save public schooling long term? https://hechingerreport.org/how-much-will-it-take-to-reopen-catch-up-kids-and-save-public-schooling-long-term/

Reopening NYC schools has cost $767 million: de Blasio https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/education/ny-school-reopening-cost-767-million-20210211-ivxme7466vh4zmmsr54bkixfza-story.html#ed=rss_www.nydailynews.com/arcio/rss/category/new-york/education/

Biden Trims Ambitions on School Reopening Pledge https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/11/us/politics/biden-schools-reopening.html

American Federation of Teachers president on reopening schools https://www.wsgw.com/american-federation-of-teachers-president-on-reopening-schools/

Gibson Named TEA Executive Director – Tennessee Education Report - http://tnedreport.com/?p=5156 via @TNEdReport

Biden’s executive orders: what they mean for educators and students https://educationvotes.nea.org/?p=48815#.YCbDVjaymaU.twitter via @EdVotes

In the Public Interest: The Latest Charter School Scandals | Diane Ravitch's blog - https://wp.me/p2odLa-tv1 via @dianeravitch

They teach all day. Between classes, they find vaccine appointments for strangers. https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/vaccine-hunters-montgomery/2021/02/12/a9d4c394-6766-11eb-8c64-9595888caa15_story.html

CDC considering classifying schools into color-coded zones for reopening https://www.cbsnews.com/news/school-reopening-guidelines-cdc-color-coded-zones/ via @CBSPolitics

Former head of a St. Louis charter school sentenced for role in fraud - https://www.businessinsider.com/former-st-louis-charter-school-head-sentenced-fraud-2021-2#new_tab on @CareersInsider

To test or not to test? As schools remain closed, debate heats up over standardized testing https://www.nbcnews.com/news/education/test-or-not-test-schools-remain-closed-debate-heats-over-n1257508 via @nbcnews

Education secretary nominee Miguel Cardona on COVID, school reopening - https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2021/02/11/education-secretary-nominee-miguel-cardona-covid-school-reopening/4393049001/#new_tab via @usatoday

San Francisco school board halts appointment based on race - ABC7 San Francisco - https://abc7news.com/sfusd-sfud-pac-parent-advisory-council-seth-brenzel/10328448/#new_tab via @abc7newsbayarea

Bill to restrict transgender athletes passes North Dakota House | Grand Forks Herald - https://www.grandforksherald.com/news/government-and-politics/6883917-Bill-to-restrict-transgender-athletes-passes-North-Dakota-House#new_tab

Online students won't have to take STAAR test, Texas Education Commissioner Morath says - https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/education/article/Texas-Education-Commissioner-online-staar-test-15943346.php#new_tab on @houstonchron

Judge: Arizona's tax on wealthy to fund education can take effect | Arizona and Regional News | tucson.com - https://tucson.com/news/state-and-regional/judge-arizonas-tax-on-wealthy-to-fund-education-can-take-effect/article_e9476a22-a375-5019-ba6b-c1686c042936.html#new_tab on @tucsonstar

Big Education Ape: CDC Releases New Guidelines For Reopening Schools : NPR - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2021/02/cdc-releases-new-guidelines-for.html

Big Education Ape: Christina Groeger: How Education Embedded Inequality | Diane Ravitch's blog - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2021/02/christina-groeger-how-education.html

Big Education Ape: Milla Granson (Lily Ann Granderson), Black Educator Hall of Fame - Philly's 7th Ward - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2021/02/milla-granson-lily-ann-granderson-black.html

Big Education Ape: CURMUDGUCATION: School Choice: Branding for an Open Market - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2021/02/curmudgucation-school-choice-branding.html

NANCY BAILEY: $100M For Children “Learning Faster Than Ever Before” In Tennessee?!

by Mike Simpson / 1h

$100M For Children “Learning Faster Than Ever Before” In Tennessee?! $100M For Children “Learning Faster Than Ever Before” In Tennessee?! Tennessee lawmakers just signed off on a $100 Million program called Reading 360. Sixty million is federal Covid-19 relief money and $40 million federal grant money. What is this? Why Tennessee? Will other states follow? While the media bombards the public with

Teacher Tom: The Central Challenge of Our Time

by Mike Simpson / 1h

The Central Challenge of Our Time Most people seem to think that preparing children to serve the economy is the primary goal of education. Indeed, many seem to think that it's the primary job of childhood. Adults obsessively ask young children what they are going to be when they grow up. Our policy makers fret about the jobs of tomorrow, parents worry that their preschool choice will ultimately

My Interview with Karen Lewis at Annual NPE Conference in 2015 | Diane Ravitch's blog

by Mike Simpson / 1h

My Interview with Karen Lewis at Annual NPE Conference in 2015 Network for Public Education National Conference: Diane Ravitch in Conversation with Karen Lewis from Schoolhouse Live on Vimeo . I think you will enjoy watching this spirited discussion between me and Karen Lewis at the annual NPE conference in Chicago in 2015. I spoke more than she did because I wanted to make it as easy as possibl

Big Data on Learning Loss Is Not the Point: Teachers Know How to Use Formative Assessments to Guide Their Work with Each Child | janresseger

by Mike Simpson / 1h

Big Data on Learning Loss Is Not the Point: Teachers Know How to Use Formative Assessments to Guide Their Work with Each Child Recently on the news, I heard an education researcher discussing the importance of using standardized tests to measure something called “learning loss” across racial, ethnic, and regional groups of children during the pandemic. Like so many others, this so-called expert

Anxiety over Pandemic Learning Loss (Alfie Kohn) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

by Mike Simpson / 3h

Anxiety over Pandemic Learning Loss (Alfie Kohn) Alfie Kohn has been writing and speaking about education, human behavior and parenting for more than two decades. His most recent book was “Schooling Beyond Measure and Other Unorthodox Essays About Education,” Anguish and even anger are entirely appropriate reactions to the fact that coronavirus infection rates are still too high in most areas to

Biden School Reopening Plan Now Has a Survey | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

by Mike Simpson / 3h

Biden School Reopening Plan Now Has a Survey In December 2020 , President Biden pledged to reopen most schools in his first 100 days in office– dependent upon sufficient resources to protect students and staff during the Coronavirus pandemic. Months later, in February 2021 , the Biden administration is catching flack for a seriously modified version of that pledge– 51 percent of K-8 schools open

Education Matters: The year before Pratt-Dannals was fired he got stellar reviews.

by Mike Simpson / 3h

The year before Pratt-Dannals was fired he got stellar reviews. I mention this because the school board recently rated superintendent Greene highly effective, a sentiment I don’t think the majority of staff and, at this point, families would agree with. I have a different take than the school board one that comes from being in the classroom and doing the novel thing of actually talking to teache

Online Training: FFVP: How to Apply - Nutrition (CA Dept of Education)

by Mike Simpson / 3h

Online Training: FFVP: How to Apply The California Department of Education (CDE) Nutrition Services Division (NSD) announces a new online training course: Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program (FFVP): How to Apply, Course Number 460 . You may access the course on the CDE FFVP: How to Apply web page . This course provides an overview of the FFVP and the FFVP grant application process. As a reminder,

YESTERDAY

THE TOP BANANA: TODAY'S EDUCATION HEADLINES Wednesday, February 10, 2021 #REDFORED #tbats #BLM #BLACKLIVESMATTER #BLACKHISTORYMONTH #RIPKARENLEWIS

by Mike Simpson / 22h

Big Education Ape THE TOP BANANA TODAY'S EDUCATION HEADLINES Chicago Teachers Union OKs Deal To Return To Class, With Vaccines Promised | 89.3 KPCC - https://www.scpr.org/news/2021/02/10/96570/chicago-teachers-union-oks-deal-to-return-to-class/ Council members offer support to three Philadelphia school board nominees - Chalkbeat Philadelphia - https://philadelphia.chalkbeat.org/2021/2/10/22277243

Harry T. Moore, Black Educator Hall of Fame Member - Philly's 7th Ward #BLM #BLACKLIVESMATTER #BLACKHISTORYMONTH

by Mike Simpson / 22h

Harry T. Moore, Black Educator Hall of Fame Member - Philly's 7th Ward HARRY T. MOORE, BLACK EDUCATOR HALL OF FAME MEMBER E’ry day this month, the Center for Black Educator Development , in partnership with

Big Education Ape

CDC Releases New Guidelines For Reopening Schools : NPR

CDC Offers Clearest Guidance Yet For Reopening Schools

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released its much-anticipated, updated guidance Friday to help school leaders decide how to safely bring students back into classrooms and/or keep them there. Rather than a political push to reopen schools, the update is a measured, data-driven effort to expand on old recommendations and advise school leaders on how to "layer" the most effective safety precautions: masking, physical distancing, handwashing and respiratory etiquette, ventilation and building cleaning, and contact tracing.

For politicians, parents and school leaders looking for a clear greenlight to reopen schools, this is not it. While the CDC goes to great lengths to explain that proper mitigation can help keep kids and staff safe at school, even in hard-hit communities, it also warns that schools lulled into a false sense of security because of low community transmission rates could still spread the virus if they don't enforce mask-wearing and socially distanced classrooms.

The updated guidance comes as President Biden tries to make good on his promise to help more K-8 schools reopen within his first 100 days in office. School reopening has become a potent political battle between parents and educators. In Washington, Republicans have used it to criticize the Biden administration for bowing to pressure from a powerful interest group, teachers unions, rather than listening to scientists and CONTINUE READING: CDC Releases New Guidelines For Reopening Schools : NPR

Christina Groeger: How Education Embedded Inequality | Diane Ravitch's blog

Christina Groeger: How Education Embedded Inequality

Historian of education Christina Groeger writes that Americans have long believed that education is the key to equality, but she thinks that this faith is misplaced.

She writes:

“The best way to increase wages and reduce wage inequalities in the long run is to invest in education and skills,” wrote economist Thomas Piketty in his landmark Capital in the Twenty-First Century. For nearly 200 years, education has been seen as a central means of reducing the gap between rich and poor. Today, this idea has become something of a national faith, as politicians across the political spectrum tout the power of education to shape a more egalitarian society. However, faith in educational expansion as a means of achieving the American Dream has obscured the ways the same process has in fact deepened economic inequality at different historical moments. If we don’t explore its full consequences, education as a policy tool can become a dangerous trap.

In the U.S., the relationship between education and social inequality points to a paradox. On the one hand, the U.S. has long had among the highest rates of school enrollment and attainment in the world. In 2017, the United States ranked second-highest globally for the CONTINUE READING: Christina Groeger: How Education Embedded Inequality | Diane Ravitch's blog

Milla Granson (Lily Ann Granderson), Black Educator Hall of Fame - Philly's 7th Ward

MILLA GRANSON (LILY ANN GRANDERSON), BLACK EDUCATOR HALL OF FAME

E’ry day this month, the Center for Black Educator Development, in partnership with Phillys7thWard.org, will highlight a Black Educator Hall of Famer.

But, don’t forget, e’ry month is Black History Month…February is just the Blackest.

Today, our featured Black Educator is Milla Granson.

Milla Granson, was born Lily Ann Granderson; enslaved in Virginia in 1816, however her life was one of incredible dedication and heroism to our people at the risk of her own welfare.

As a child, she was taught to read and write by the children of her captor while enslaved in Kentucky. Once that captor died, she was sold to another captor in Mississippi where she endured torture compared to her enslavement in Kentucky. “O, how I longed to die!” she told a friend; “and sometimes I thought I would die from such cruel whippings upon my bared body.”

However, it was in Mississippi where Granson defied the extreme risk and CONTINUE READING: Milla Granson (Lily Ann Granderson), Black Educator Hall of Fame - Philly's 7th Ward

CURMUDGUCATION: School Choice: Branding for an Open Market

School Choice: Branding for an Open Market

Coming up with the right name for a policy initiative is a critical step in framing a conversation and controlling the narrative. The classic example is the abortion debate, in which one side is "pro-choice" and the other is "pro-life," carefully selected terms that frame each side as champions of an undeniable good. Just watch supporters of "defund the police" get caught in an endless loop of "no, no, what we really mean is..." to understand how important this branding can be.

"School choice" is branding, and relatively new branding at that. You can watch it take off on the Google Ngram viewer to see how often the phrase has been used:

It starts its steep rise in the mnid-80s (Reagan, Nation at Risk), peaks in 2001, hits a trough again in 2013, and has been bouncing back since.

But what is "school choice" the brand name for? I mean, if we were serious--really serious--about school choice, we would come up with a system that allowed families to choose any school in the state, and we would take the regulatory steps to make sure that every one of those schools met the requirements of a quality school that was part of the public good of public education. We would CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: School Choice: Branding for an Open Market

NANCY BAILEY: $100M For Children “Learning Faster Than Ever Before” In Tennessee?!

$100M For Children “Learning Faster Than Ever Before” In Tennessee?!

$100M For Children “Learning Faster Than Ever Before” In Tennessee?!

Tennessee lawmakers just signed off on a $100 Million program called Reading 360. Sixty million is federal Covid-19 relief money and $40 million federal grant money. What is this? Why Tennessee? Will other states follow? While the media bombards the public with learning loss warnings, this program is about acceleration.

Fast-Track

Here’s what the brochure says. Tennessee is now in a position to not just protect students, teachers, and schools in the face of an unprecedented global pandemic, but to accelerate student learning further and faster than ever before.

Accelerate doesn’t mean catching up or identifying where a child’s working developmentally. It doesn’t mean helping children with reading difficulties.

Accelerate means hurry, hasten, quicken, rush, and fast-track.

Accelerating learning seems to be an obsession among some policymakers, and it’s hard CONTINUE READING: $100M For Children “Learning Faster Than Ever Before” In Tennessee?!

Teacher Tom: The Central Challenge of Our Time

The Central Challenge of Our Time

Most people seem to think that preparing children to serve the economy is the primary goal of education. Indeed, many seem to think that it's the primary job of childhood. Adults obsessively ask young children what they are going to be when they grow up. Our policy makers fret about the jobs of tomorrow, parents worry that their preschool choice will ultimately impact their child's university options, and few people question the competitive grooming that takes place in schools as the children are forever graded like beef and ranked like show ponies. We hear the voices of business titans echo in buzz words like "grit" and "accountability." Some corporate types even see themselves as customers of schools, with your child being the product they will squeeze and compare before finally purchasing at the lowest price they can negotiate.

What we ignore is that our children don't exist to serve the economy. Indeed, it should be the other way around: the economy should be serving we the people, but as more and more of our nation's wealth has been transferred to our wealthiest citizens over the last several decades, we the people have grown poorer, less powerful, and more dependent upon these modern day feudal lords.

I don't spend a lot of time thinking about the future of the CONTINUE READING: Teacher Tom: The Central Challenge of Our Time

My Interview with Karen Lewis at Annual NPE Conference in 2015 | Diane Ravitch's blog

My Interview with Karen Lewis at Annual NPE Conference in 2015

Network for Public Education National Conference: Diane Ravitch in Conversation with Karen Lewis from Schoolhouse Live on Vimeo.

I think you will enjoy watching this spirited discussion between me and Karen Lewis at the annual NPE conference in Chicago in 2015. I spoke more than she did because I wanted to make it as easy as possible for her. She had already suffered her devastating brain tumor and was undergoing treatment, but as you will see, she has lost none of her sharp wit and edginess.

My Interview with Karen Lewis at Annual NPE Conference in 2015 | Diane Ravitch's blog

The Queen of Soul and The Supremes at the NPE Conference In Chicago

Karen Lewis

The Queen of Soul

Diane Ravitch and The Supremes

Big Data on Learning Loss Is Not the Point: Teachers Know How to Use Formative Assessments to Guide Their Work with Each Child | janresseger

Big Data on Learning Loss Is Not the Point: Teachers Know How to Use Formative Assessments to Guide Their Work with Each Child

Recently on the news, I heard an education researcher discussing the importance of using standardized tests to measure something called “learning loss” across racial, ethnic, and regional groups of children during the pandemic.

Like so many others, this so-called expert made the for case for reinstating—this spring during the pandemic—the standardized testing prescribed by the federal government in No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). Ignoring the impossibility of collecting valid and reliable data and the impracticality of even of trying to administer the tests when some students are learning online and others attending in-person classrooms, this person pretended Miguel Cardona, the new education secretary, can merely require the tests and they will happen. She implied that the mandated tests in two subjects, basic language arts and math, will inform teaching once students come back to school even though we know that teachers do not receive scores for months and the data they receive will not contain information about the particular questions students get right or wrong. And she didn’t mention that even if a teacher did know exactly how a student marked any particular multiple choice answer, it would tell the teacher nothing about that student’s thinking.

Then this specialist who wanted to measure “learning loss” reinforced the notion that the collection of national data would enable the federal government and the states to invest in the schools where children are farthest behind. Advocates for standardized testing this spring often justify the need for testing during the pandemic as a way to drive investment in schools, as though investing in schools where children are farther behind has ever been the result of CONTINUE READING: Big Data on Learning Loss Is Not the Point: Teachers Know How to Use Formative Assessments to Guide Their Work with Each Child | janresseger

Anxiety over Pandemic Learning Loss (Alfie Kohn) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Anxiety over Pandemic Learning Loss (Alfie Kohn)

Alfie Kohn has been writing and speaking about education, human behavior and parenting for more than two decades. His most recent book was “Schooling Beyond Measure and Other Unorthodox Essays About Education,”

Anguish and even anger are entirely appropriate reactions to the fact that coronavirus infection rates are still too high in most areas to permit the safe reopening of schools. Not only do many of our kids miss their friends and the chance to make new ones, but school attendance also is a prerequisite for millions of parents to go to work. Also, schools provide healthy meals, which matters in a country with appalling levels of poverty and hunger.

The shutdown is bad enough. Must we also deal with the fear that children who are spending less, or even no, time in classrooms are destined to fall behind academically?

Not necessarily. The research that fuels dire warnings, which largely extrapolates from claims about “summer learning loss” (SLL), is much less persuasive than most people realize. For example, Paul T. von Hippel at the University of Texas at Austin looked carefully last year at a foundational study on SLL in low-income students and discovered he was unable to replicate its findings, partly because of problems with its methodology, such as a failure to adjust for the difficulty level CONTINUE READING: Anxiety over Pandemic Learning Loss (Alfie Kohn) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Biden School Reopening Plan Now Has a Survey | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

Biden School Reopening Plan Now Has a Survey

In December 2020, President Biden pledged to reopen most schools in his first 100 days in office– dependent upon sufficient resources to protect students and staff during the Coronavirus pandemic.

Months later, in February 2021, the Biden administration is catching flack for a seriously modified version of that pledge– 51 percent of K-8 schools open at least one day per week– which just goes to show that opening schools is complicated.

Before making promises about opening schools ASAP, it is best to first find out the status of in-person learning nationwide and from that construct an informed plan for moving forward.

To that end, it seems that the US Dept of Ed (USDOE) does (now) have a plan to begin informing its plan, so to speak, which it announced in this February 05, 2021, press release:

ED Announces National Survey to Gather Critical Data on School Reopening
To help safely reopen America’s schools and promote educational equity, the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) at the U.S. Department of Education today announced the largest representative and highest-quality effort yet to gather vital data on the impact of COVID-19 on students and the status of in-person learning.
Currently, there is not enough data to understand the status of school re-opening and how students are learning nationwide. This project, known as the “NAEP 2021 School Survey,” will collect high-quality data from a nationally and state-representative sample.
Today’s announcement follows President Biden’s Jan. 21 Executive Order to ensure CONTINUE READING: Biden School Reopening Plan Now Has a Survey | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

Education Matters: The year before Pratt-Dannals was fired he got stellar reviews.

The year before Pratt-Dannals was fired he got stellar reviews.

I mention this because the school board recently rated superintendent Greene highly effective, a sentiment I don’t think the majority of staff and, at this point, families would agree with. I have a different take than the school board one that comes from being in the classroom and doing the novel thing of actually talking to teachers, and that is she needs to be thanked for her service and shown the door.

Pratt-Dannals, during the financial crisis, declared a financial emergency, which did a lot of things, including freezing teacher salary. When the board found out the district was sitting on 120 million dollars, he didn’t last long. Unfortunately, they never made teachers whole and reinstated their step, you know, because never miss an opportunity to &#$% teachers when you can.

Something similar happened this year. It is true the state did the district no favors. Still, instead of letting veteran teachers know they care, the district decided to just go along with their horrible mistreatment, all while having about 15 million extra in reserves and refusing to read the room. The district didn’t need to rush to %@#$ them. They could have let things play out, which despite the pandemic, will be favorable. There has been some talk of circling back around to take care of vets, but the blatant disrespect can CONTINUE READING: Education Matters: The year before Pratt-Dannals was fired he got stellar reviews.

Education Matters: DCPS High schools go on alert because of district incompetence - https://jaxkidsmatter.blogspot.com/2021/02/dcps-high-schools-go-on-alert-because.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+blogspot/iYxgC+(Education+Matters)

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Friday, February 12, 2021