Wednesday, May 19, 2021

THE TOP BANANA: TODAY'S EDUCATION HEADLINES Wednesday, May 19, 2021 #REDFORED #tbats #edchat #K12 #learning #edleadership #edtech #engchat #literacy #edreform #TEACHTRUTH

THE TOP BANANA
TODAY'S EDUCATION HEADLINES

Helping students cope with the pandemic - https://www.koat.com/article/helping-students-cope-with-the-pandemic/36459023# on @koat7news

Six in 10 Parents Plan to Vaccinate All of Their Children and Large Majority of Parents Would Feel Safer Sending Kids to School if Most Other Children Were Vaccinated - https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/six-in-10-parents-plan-to-vaccinate-all-of-their-children-and-large-majority-of-parents-would-feel-safer-sending-kids-to-school-if-most-other-children-were-vaccinated-301292096.html on @PRNewswire

Watch Malcolm X: Make it Plain | American Experience | Official Site | PBS - https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/malcolmx/#transcript on @AmExperiencePBS

Manchester School District joins ConVal’s education funding lawsuit - https://www.concordmonitor.com/Manchester-School-District-joins-ConVal-s-education-funding-lawsuit-40525454 on @conmonitornews

What Is Critical Race Theory and Why Do Some People Want to Ban It? - https://www.newsweek.com/what-critical-race-theory-why-do-some-want-ban-1587389 on @newsweek

What Is Critical Race Theory, and Why Is It Under Attack? - https://www.edweek.org/leadership/what-is-critical-race-theory-and-why-is-it-under-attack/2021/05 by @Stephen_Sawchuk on @educationweek

PW special report: After conservative criticism, UNC backs down from offering acclaimed journalist tenured position https://bit.ly/3ou6N5T #ncpol via @ncpolicywatch

May’s (2021) Useful Parent Engagement Resources – Part Three | Engaging Parents In School… - https://engagingparentsinschool.edublogs.org/?p=6415

Malcolm X Would Have Been 96 Years Old Today – Here Are Teaching & Learning Resources | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - https://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/?p=117682 on @Larryferlazzo

Flouting CDC Guidance, Some Schools Are Lifting Mask Mandates – Mother Jones - https://www.motherjones.com/?p=913508

Texas governor bans schools, local governments from requiring masks https://www.politico.com/news/2021/05/18/texas-ban-mask-mandate-489453

AFT's Weingarten says CDC asked union to weigh in on school reopenings https://nypost.com/2021/05/18/weingarten-says-cdc-asked-aft-to-weigh-in-on-school-reopenings/?utm_source=twitter_sitebuttons&utm_medium=site%20buttons&utm_campaign=site%20buttons via @nypost

Providence school Superintendent Harrison Peters faces calls to resign - https://www.providencejournal.com/story/news/education/2021/05/18/providence-school-superintendent-harrison-peters-faces-calls-resign/5157150001/ via @projo

Opposition mounts among US workers to repeal of mask mandate https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/05/19/mask-m19.html

Vengeance or politics? Democrat Harold Dutton explains why he advanced bill targeting transgender athletes, other GOP priorities https://www.texastribune.org/2021/05/19/harold-dutton-texas-gop-bills/

NYC Educator: Billionaires Love Yang and Adams---Stringer? Not So Much - http://nyceducator.com/2021/05/the-mayors-race-billionaires-vs-people.html

Senate Weighs Investing $120 Billion in Science to Counter China https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/18/us/politics/senate-china-science.html

In two D.C.-area school systems, masks come off for recess as other districts weigh changing guidance https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/school-mask-mandates-dc-va-md/2021/05/18/d3c9b9f0-b74a-11eb-96b9-e949d5397de9_story.html

STUDENT VOICE: Supreme Court, don’t punish us for raising our voices https://hechingerreport.org/student-voice-supreme-court-dont-punish-us-for-raising-our-voices/

Wednesday’s Must Read Articles On School Reopenings | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - https://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/?p=117672 on @Larryferlazzo

Summer Camp and Covid: Shifting Mask Rules and Other Guidelines https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/19/us/summer-camp-covid.html

Can’t Agree on Values? The State Will Decide for You | Cato at Liberty Blog - https://www.cato.org/blog/cant-agree-values-state-will-decide-you#new_tab on @CatoInstitute

Gov. Abbott bans public schools, local officials from requiring masks - https://www.statesman.com/story/news/coronavirus/2021/05/18/texas-governor-abbott-bans-public-schools-local-officials-requiring-masks/5149412001/#new_tab via @statesman

Denver school enrollment predicted to drop 6% by 2025 - Chalkbeat Colorado - https://co.chalkbeat.org/2021/5/18/22442178/denver-public-schools-declining-enrollment-2025#new_tab on chalkbeat

JCPS school board poised to approve 'do-over' year - https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/education/2021/05/18/jcps-school-board-poised-to-approve-do-over-year/5023420001/#new_tab via @courierjournal

How Is The Reparations Won Curriculum Being Taught? | WBEZ Chicago - https://www.wbez.org/stories/how-is-the-reparations-won-curriculum-being-taught/2ac25fdd-f1b2-4f5e-9369-923fac3620c0

Student's arrest for racist post sparks free speech debate - https://apnews.com/article/fairfield-connecticut-high-school-racist-post-36ab75190a03be2ccd4dddbda1544ff8#new_tab on @ap

This Alabama school system fired teachers, gave administrators $20,000 in bonuses - al.com - https://www.al.com/news/2021/05/this-alabama-school-system-fired-teachers-gave-administrators-20000-in-bonuses.html#new_tab on @aldotcom

Parents claim school board teaching Critical Race Theory | 11alive.com - https://www.11alive.com/article/news/education/parents-accuse-school-board-of-trying-to-teach-students-with-critical-race-theory/85-fce39e59-a639-491b-b60f-1170206ae49e#new_tab on 11AliveNews

When a student threatened her life, a retired Denver teacher says an SRO protected her - https://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/local-news/when-a-student-threatened-her-life-a-retired-denver-teacher-says-an-sro-protected-her#new_tab by @NicoleDenver7 on @DenverChannel

Florida 10-Year-Old Calls Mask Guidelines Hypocritical During School Board Meeting - https://www.newsweek.com/florida-10-year-old-calls-mask-guidelines-hypocritical-during-school-board-meeting-1592711#new_tab on @newsweek

Analysis faults districts on lack of spending accountability for Covid funding | EdSource - https://edsource.org/?p=654980 on @edsource

Big Education Ape: A parent’s plea – Educate Louisiana - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2021/05/a-parents-plea-educate-louisiana.html

Teacher Tom: We Will Win When We Love

Big Education Ape / 1h

We Will Win When We Love Psychologist Carl Jung wrote, "Where love rules there is not a will to power; and where power predominates, there love is lacking." This, I think, is an important thing upon which modern educators in general, and early childhood educators in particular, could stand to meditate. I strive to place love at the center of my practice, as I know is true of most of my colleague

Jeff Bryant: The Story of a School That Beat Back a State Takeover and Thrived | Diane Ravitch's blog

Big Education Ape / 1h

Jeff Bryant: The Story of a School That Beat Back a State Takeover and Thrived Jeff Bryant reports here on the inspiring example of a so-called “failing school” in North Carolina that not only succeeded in blocking a state takeover, but then heightened community collaboration to turn the school into a community school. North Carolina passed a state takeover plan based on Tennessee’s failed Achie

What Does Educational Equity Mean? | janresseger #BLM #BLACKLIVESMATTER

Big Education Ape / 1h

What Does Educational Equity Mean? | janresseger What Does Educational Equity Mean? Monday, May 17, 2021, marked the 67th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education , which banned racially segregated schools and unequal access to education. Over more than two decades, NAACP attorneys Charles Hamilton Houston and Thurgood Marshall built up a series of court prece

Malcolm X (May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965) – radical eyes for equity

Big Education Ape / 1h

Malcolm X (May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965) Malcolm X (May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965) – radical eyes for equity

Dartmouth Blindsides Med Students with Shaky Cheating *Evidence* | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

Big Education Ape / 2h

Dartmouth Blindsides Med Students with Shaky Cheating *Evidence* One of my concerns in teaching senior English is that students will cheat on major assignments. The increasing usage of online technology in my classroom has done little to quell this concern. In my case, I had reason to suspect that an adult completed an online test for one of my students, who then possibly shared those results wi

A Scholarly Masterpiece: William Frantz Public School | tultican

Big Education Ape / 2h

A Scholarly Masterpiece: William Frantz Public School By Thomas Ultican 4/18/2021 My wonderful friend from New Orleans, Mercedes Schneider, said of this meticulously researched book, “Intense, captivating, and horrible in its reality, William Frantz Public School is a story overdue for the telling – a must read for those seeking to understand New Orleans’ history and the lingering impact of Whit

Education Matters: Greene and the district don't deny Corcoran had teacher removed from the classroom

Big Education Ape / 2h

Greene and the district don't deny Corcoran had teacher removed from the classroom Where not a lawyer, it seems to me Amy Donofrio is going to own the district as she sues it into oblivion. Corcoran tells the Times Union he had Greene remove her from the classroom. While the district sticks with her, she is under investigation (for what) story. I spoke with a school board member on Sunday, and t

CURMUDGUCATION: PA: One District (Mostly) For Sale

Big Education Ape / 2h

PA: One District (Mostly) For Sale Chester Upland is a district that has struggled with issues and money and racism for decades; they are the history of every problem facing public education in the last century, right up to and including the gutting of a public education system by privatizing charter operators . Poorer and Blacker than all surrounding districts, they have suffered through one da

Education Research Report: U.S. Spending on Public Schools in 2019 Highest Since 2008

Big Education Ape / 2h

U.S. Spending on Public Schools in 2019 Highest Since 2008 K-12 School Spending Up 4.7% in 2019 From Previous Year The nation spent $752.3 billion on its 48 million children in public schools in fiscal year 2019, a 4.7% increase from the previous year and the most per pupil in more than a decade. Instructional salaries, the largest expenditure within current spending, totaled $239.9 billion in f

YESTERDAY

THE TOP BANANA: TODAY'S EDUCATION HEADLINES Tuesday, May 18, 2021 #REDFORED #tbats #edchat #K12 #learning #edleadership #edtech #engchat #literacy #edreform #TEACHTRUTH

Big Education Ape / 22h

Big Education Ape THE TOP BANANA TODAY'S EDUCATION HEADLINES How Teachers Fought for Their Safety in the Pandemic—and Won | The Nation - https://www.thenation.com/?p=385623 on @TheNation The Case For Universal Pre-K Just Got Stronger : Planet Money : NPR -

Big Education Ape

A parent’s plea – Educate Louisiana

A parent’s plea. – Educate Louisiana

A Parent’s Plea

When I first decided to advocate for education policy, it was my hope that I could educate the public (parents, teachers, students, etc.) about education policy, and how it affects them. There has been instances when my writings drilled down to specific school districts, but I have always tried to address issues by providing specific statutes and/or policies that, if followed, would eliminate the issue. In recent years, I have been pulled away from advocacy by the needs of my own family, a pandemic, two hurricanes, an ice age, and now, a 100 year flood. When this parent reached out to me, I realized that there are so many things wrong about this incident that the only way I could help is to make sure that as many people as possible hear about it.

Below you will find the letter written to me by a parent that I am publishing with their permission. It is long. It is hard to read. And it is heart-breaking. Fair warning, it contains profanity, but it is relevant to the incident. My intent is not to generate racist comments, or for people to taking black or white positions. This is about the fine line between handling issues that occur out of school when they cross over into school, and how a failure to take into consideration the behaviors of others that drive a student into a corner and ultimately lashes out. But more importantly, the right for every child to receive an education in a safe and loving environment. Please share.

“This letter is in regards to our son, Sam McCarley, a 6th grade student at Sherwood Middle School.

Our hell started on April 27th… Actually it had been growing up to that point, but, that was the day that it all exploded, and the CONTINUE READING: A parent’s plea. – Educate Louisiana

Teacher Tom: We Will Win When We Love

We Will Win When We Love

Psychologist Carl Jung wrote, "Where love rules there is not a will to power; and where power predominates, there love is lacking." This, I think, is an important thing upon which modern educators in general, and early childhood educators in particular, could stand to meditate.

I strive to place love at the center of my practice, as I know is true of most of my colleagues. We genuinely love the children we teach and they love us. I've witnessed this to be widely true wherever I've visited. It's perhaps our greatest reward (because it sure isn't financial). When it goes as it should, we spend our days loving and being loved, swimming in it, breathing it. Our job is to keep them safe and to otherwise simply be there, loving them and helping them as they figure out how to connect with, to love, more people. This is the foundation of not just all learning, but all living in the fullest sense of the word.

When I look at our habitual idea of schooling, I see a lot of CONTINUE READING: Teacher Tom: We Will Win When We Love

Big Education Ape: Teacher Tom: Teacher Tom's Play Summit is Here: Together, Let's Turn This World Around - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2021/05/teacher-tom-teacher-toms-play-summit-is.html

Jeff Bryant: The Story of a School That Beat Back a State Takeover and Thrived | Diane Ravitch's blog

Jeff Bryant: The Story of a School That Beat Back a State Takeover and Thrived

Jeff Bryant reports here on the inspiring example of a so-called “failing school” in North Carolina that not only succeeded in blocking

a state takeover, but then heightened community collaboration to turn the school into a community school.

North Carolina passed a state takeover plan based on Tennessee’s failed Achievement School District. The state listed several schools that were targets for takeover and charterization. Community outrage slowed the state’s plan, and only one school was taken over.

This is the success story of one that got away from the clutches of the state and the privatizers.

Bryant writes:

As soon as Anna Grant’s busy workday at Forest View Elementary School in Durham, North Carolina, ended, she would head toward the next school where she was CONTINUE READING: Jeff Bryant: The Story of a School That Beat Back a State Takeover and Thrived | Diane Ravitch's blog

What Does Educational Equity Mean? | janresseger #BLM #BLACKLIVESMATTER

What Does Educational Equity Mean? | janresseger

What Does Educational Equity Mean?

Monday, May 17, 2021, marked the 67th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education, which banned racially segregated schools and unequal access to education. Over more than two decades, NAACP attorneys Charles Hamilton Houston and Thurgood Marshall built up a series of court precedents leading to the 1954 decision in Brown, which declared that educational opportunity, “where the state has undertaken to provide it, is a right which must be made available to all on equal terms.” However, two-thirds of a century later in most places in the United States racial separation and inequity remain the conditions of our children at school.

Among advocates for educational equality, there has, for decades, been an ongoing conversation about the definition of equity. Iris Rotberg, a professor of education policy at George Washington University, recently published a column in which she quotes Thurgood Marshall’s definition all those years ago: “We sit… not to resolve disputes over educational theory but to enforce our Constitution… I believe the question of education quality must be deemed to be an objective one that looks at what the state provides its children, not what the children are able to do with what they receive.”

Rotberg interprets Marshall’s words: “The government’s responsibility, therefore, is to ensure equal opportunity, not to debate its link to student achievement.” She is interpreting Marshall’s definition of justice to mean equality of educational inputs and not a comparison of test score outcomes. She is advocating that states be held accountable for equalizing CONTINUE READING: What Does Educational Equity Mean? | janresseger

Malcolm X (May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965) – radical eyes for equity #BLM #BLACKLIVESMATTER

Malcolm X (May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965) – radical eyes for equity

Malcolm X (May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965)

Malcolm X (May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965) – radical eyes for equity

Dartmouth Blindsides Med Students with Shaky Cheating Evidence | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

Dartmouth Blindsides Med Students with Shaky Cheating *Evidence* | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

Dartmouth Blindsides Med Students with Shaky Cheating *Evidence*

One of my concerns in teaching senior English is that students will cheat on major assignments.

The increasing usage of online technology in my classroom has done little to quell this concern. In my case, I had reason to suspect that an adult completed an online test for one of my students, who then possibly shared those results with friends who also scored suspicious-fabulously. As much as I was miffed, I did not have evidence solid enough to pursue any serious course of action against any individual student. Therefore, I threw out the test and required my students from then on to complete major online assignments during class time, and in class, whenever possible. (Those in quarantine had to log in during class time or during a preset window to complete the assignment, often using Google Meet so that I might monitor the situation.)

The prospect of students cheating on remote assignments bugs me. Even so, I remain skittish about purported online monitoring tools for detecting cheating. To try to track a student’s eye movements, or even to say that cheating happened if a student seemed to be logged into another device while completing as assignment on one device lacks the certainty needed to have a solid case for such accusation.

Along these lines, the May 09, 2021, New York Times reports on an interesting-sad situation has transpired at Datmouth’s medical school: It seems that CONTINUE READING: Dartmouth Blindsides Med Students with Shaky Cheating *Evidence* | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

A Scholarly Masterpiece: William Frantz Public School | tultican #BLM #BLACKLIVESMATTER

A Scholarly Masterpiece: William Frantz Public School | tultican

A Scholarly Masterpiece: William Frantz Public School

By Thomas Ultican 4/18/2021

My wonderful friend from New Orleans, Mercedes Schneider, said of this meticulously researched book, “Intense, captivating, and horrible in its reality, William Frantz Public School is a story overdue for the telling – a must read for those seeking to understand New Orleans’ history and the lingering impact of White racial superiority upon the Black community and city infrastructure.” I concur. It is a captivating read.

At its 1938 founding, speakers proclaimed the new William Frantz Public School (WFPS) a “protection for democracy” and a “fortification against encroachment of those terrible ‘isms.’” (WFPS page 3)

However, racism did not just encroach; it dominated. WFPS was built to be a White students only school. Sitting on the border between the all white Florida neighborhood and the all Black Desire neighborhood, WFPS only served the White families. Worse still; the authors report,

“The Orleans Parish School Board built no schools between 1941 and 1951. As a result, existing neighborhood schools throughout the city faced overcrowding. The problem was particularly acute in Desire. Due to the severe overcrowding, many Black children attended school for only a fraction of the time as their White peers living in the Florida neighborhood.” (WFPS 9)

With the Brown versus the Board of education decision in 1954, the Supreme Court declared racial segregation as a school enrollment policy unconstitutional. Louisiana segregationists quickly coalesced to become leaders of their state’s CONTINUE READING: A Scholarly Masterpiece: William Frantz Public School | tultican

Education Matters: Greene and the district don't deny Corcoran had teacher removed from the classroom

Greene and the district don't deny Corcoran had teacher removed from the classroom

Where not a lawyer, it seems to me Amy Donofrio is going to own the district as she sues it into oblivion. Corcoran tells the Times Union he had Greene remove her from the classroom. While the district sticks with her, she is under investigation (for what) story.

I spoke with a school board member on Sunday, and they said it was absurd that Corcoran was telling people he had her removed though it sure seems like the right hand, the super is keeping the left hand, the board, in the dark.

So just like that, the commissioner says jump, and our super asks how high, though I guess we shouldn't be CONTINUE READING: Education Matters: Greene and the district don't deny Corcoran had teacher removed from the classroom

CURMUDGUCATION: PA: One District (Mostly) For Sale

PA: One District (Mostly) For Sale

Chester Upland is a district that has struggled with issues and money and racism for decades; they are the history of every problem facing public education in the last century, right up to and including the gutting of a public education system by privatizing charter operators. Poorer and Blacker than all surrounding districts, they have suffered through one damn thing after another.

Chester Upland School District has been under the state's thumb via a declaration of financial collapse for about a decade. The court has been in charge of the district, and has okayed the idea of letting the charters that have drained the districts of resources go ahead and buy up the last of the bits.

It's hard to track everything that has happened because so little of it has happened in public view, but three charter organizations have now submitted plans for partial charter takeover of the district's schools.

The three proposals were pitched at a meeting that was presented in person and on line, and critics of the plan were not impressed.

Harris indicated Thursday’s presentation was designed to communicate Friendship’s philosophy CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: PA: One District (Mostly) For Sale

Education Research Report: U.S. Spending on Public Schools in 2019 Highest Since 2008

U.S. Spending on Public Schools in 2019 Highest Since 2008

K-12 School Spending Up 4.7% in 2019 From Previous Year

The nation spent $752.3 billion on its 48 million children in public schools in fiscal year 2019, a 4.7% increase from the previous year and the most per pupil in more than a decade.

Instructional salaries, the largest expenditure within current spending, totaled $239.9 billion in fiscal year 2019 or 31.9% of total expenditures for public elementary-secondary education.

The Census Bureau’s Annual Survey of School System Finances tables released todayshow per pupil current spending for elementary and secondary public education (pre-K through 12th grade) for all 50 states and the District of Columbia increased 5.0% to $13,187 in FY 2019 from $12,559 in FY 2018 — the largest increase since 2008.

Breaking Down School Spending

Total expenditures for elementary and secondary education include FY 2019 “current” spending, capital outlay expenditures, interest on debt and payments to other governments.

Current spending, which made up $652.3 billion or 86.7% of total expenditures in FY 2019, consists of expenses for day-to-day activities, including teachers’ salaries and benefits and most other school system daily expenses.

Capital outlay, another portion of total expenditures that includes construction, large equipment expenses and improvements to existing structures, totaled $76.3 billion or 10.1% of total expenditures.

Instructional salaries, the largest expenditure within current spending, totaled $239.9 billion in fiscal year 2019 or 31.9% of total expenditures for public elementary-secondary education.

Total expenditure increased by 4.7% while total revenue increased by 4.5% from fiscal year 2018.

Where School Funding Comes From

In FY 2019, state governments contributed the largest share of funding to public school systems: $350.9 billion or 46.7%.

Local sources of revenue were the next largest at $342.9 billion or 45.6%, and the federal government contributed the least, $57.9 billion or 7.7%.

The 2019 Annual Survey of School System Finances includes data on revenues, expenditures, debt and assets (cash and security holdings) of elementary and secondary public school systems.

Please note that the data released today were collected before the COVID-19 pandemic took hold in the United States. A preliminary report on 2020 fiscal year school finances data is scheduled to be released this fall.

Full report

Education Research Report: U.S. Spending on Public Schools in 2019 Highest Since 2008

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Wednesday, May 19, 2021