CURMUDGUCATION: Eight Weeks of Summer: Professional Growth Plans

CURMUDGUCATION: Eight Weeks of Summer: Professional Growth Plans

Eight Weeks of Summer: Professional Growth Plans
This post is week 1 of 8 in the 8 Weeks of Summer Blog Challenge for educators.

This is a little blogventure put on by hotlunchtray.com; for eight weeks they invite teachers to respond to a prompt about how they actually spend summer. I am a sucker for A) busting the myth that teacher summers are all unicorns and pina coladas and B) a prompt. I am, of course, a retired teacher, but I'm just going to cheat and write about summers gone by. So I also get to enjoy C) the rosy glow of nostalgia. There's also the promise of D) a chance to win an Amazon gift card, but when it comes to winning things I generally have E) no chance in hell. My assumption is that life has already so richly rewarded me that additional bonuses would be unfair. If you want to join in, follow the link-- but work quickly because the first week ends today.

So this is week one, and the prompt is "What are your professional learning goals this summer?"

My most common goal in the summer was to reread at least a third of the list of works that I taught. Yes, a really responsible teacher would have read everything, but a summer is only so long, and I think my view of some works benefited from breaks between readings. "I read it when I was in college" is a poor approach to the teaching of literature. At a minimum, your own growth and experience will have opened you up to new ways to see the work. Additionally, you should have absorbed enough of your students' point of view to see ways that the literature connects to them (and it won't necessarily be the same way it connected a decade ago).

Because I taught mostly American literature, I also read plenty of American history (actually, I still do that). You can't possibly know everything there is to know about the context of the work you teach, and I found that works about the history often informed or even radically changed how I taught some pieces.

It's important, especially at the secondary level, to be an expert in your content area, and you can't do that relying on the material you picked up in college courses when you were young, material that steadily fades into the past. If you learn best by taking classes, then do that, but hopefully your CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Eight Weeks of Summer: Professional Growth Plans

Charter Schools Will Always Waste Money Because They Duplicate Services | gadflyonthewallblog

Charter Schools Will Always Waste Money Because They Duplicate Services | gadflyonthewallblog

Charter Schools Will Always Waste Money Because They Duplicate Services

You can’t save money buying more of what you already have.

Constructing two fire departments serving the same community will never be as cheap as having one.

Empowering two police departments to patrol the same neighborhoods will never be as economical as one.

Building two roads parallel to each other that go to exactly the same places will never be as cost effective as one.

This isn’t exactly rocket science. In fact, it’s an axiom of efficiency and sound financial planning. It’s more practical and productive to create one robust service instead of two redundant ones.

However, when it comes to education, a lot of so-called fiscal conservatives will try to convince us that we should erect two separate school systems – a public one and a privatized one.

The duplicate may be a voucher system where we use public tax dollars to fund private and parochial schools. It may be charter schools where public money is used CONTINUE READING: Charter Schools Will Always Waste Money Because They Duplicate Services | gadflyonthewallblog

CURMUDGUCATION: Winners Take All, Education Edition

CURMUDGUCATION: Winners Take All, Education Edition

Winners Take All, Education Edition

Every so often you come across a book that unpacks and reframes a part of the universe in a way that you can never unsee. Winners Take All by Anand Giridharadas has been a book like that for me.

Giridharadas is writing about "the elite charade of changing the world," and while he is taking a broad look at the way the Betters are trying to influence our country and our world, the connections to education reform are unmistakable. I'm about to go ahead and give my grossly oversimplified take on his work and its intersection with public education; as a general guide, assume everything smart came from his book and everything wrong is my fault. There's a lot to pack into a blog post, and I will cut corners like crazy; there are so many pull quotes from this book that I have put up an entire supplemental blog post just of quotes from the work. My best recommendation if you find any of this striking is to buy the book.

Here's my very simple take.

You know that meme about a rich person, a poor person, and a working class person sitting down to some food- we'll say a dozen donuts. The rich person has ten donuts on their plate, and as the other two contemplate the remaining donuts, the rich person says to the working class person, "You'd better watch out-- I think that poor person wants to take your donut."

But nowadays we have all sorts of elites that make noise about making the world a better place. But here's what they do-- they say, "Boy, two donuts aren't many for the two of you. Let's fix that. I'm going to start a foundation  that will teach you how to better stretch a donut." Or "I'll offer grants to buy donut knives to cut the donuts into neater pieces (and my company will make the knives)." Or "I'll cut these up for you, because I have a much better understanding of donuts than you do." Or "I'm going to fund some programs to teach you how to better control your hunger, because if you had that kind of personal strength, you wouldn't have to care so much about the donuts." Or, "I'm going to generously give one of these guys part of a donut. Call the media to CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Winners Take All, Education Edition



Winners Take All-- Read This Book (Excerpts)


Winners Take All by Anand Giridharadas might be the most important book you read this year. It is not directly aimed at education or education reform, and yet it has everything to do with education form. I'll address that in a separate post going up the same time as this one. But here I just want to share some important quotes from the book as a means of encouraging you to buy it and read it, because it offers a framework for understanding much of what's going on, from the neo-liberal wave to the wave that swept Donald Trump into office. Buy this book. 

The initiatives mostly aren't democratic, nor do they reflect collective problem-solving or universal solutions. Rather, they favor the use of the private sector and its charitable spoils, the market way of looking at things, and the bypassing of government. They reflect a highly influential view that the winners of an unjust status quo-- and the tools and mentalities and values that helped them, win-- are the secret to redressing the injustices. Those at greatest risk of being resented in an age of inequality are thereby recast as our saviors from an age of inequality.

For when elites assume leadership of social change, they are able to reshape what social change is-- above all, to present it as something that should never threaten winners.

"If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change." If this view is correct, then much of the charity and social innovation and give-one-get-one marketing around us may not be reform measures so much as forms of conservative self-defense-- measures that protect elites from more menacing change.

What is at stake is whether the reform of our common life is led by governments elected by and accountable to the people, or rather by wealthy elites claiming to know our best CONTINUE READING: Winners Take All-- Read This Book (Excerpts)

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Googling for "Amplify" and Seeing the Future From the Past

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Googling for "Amplify" and Seeing the Future From the Past

Googling for "Amplify" and Seeing the Future From the Past

I was looking for some information about Amplify Science K-5 and I stumbled onto a report by one of the many public education coalition groups (Google "public education coalition groups" and see how many turn up).   This particular one is called America Forward.

What I found was a submission to the Office of Science and Technology Policy to comment on a Federal Register Notice regarding "High Impact Learning Technologies" from America Forward.  This was the focus for comments;

We are very supportive of OSTP developing policies related to high-impact learning technologies outlined in the notice, and are especially eager to comment on the use of Pay for Success (PFS) as a ‘pull mechanism’ to accelerate the development, rigorous evaluation, and widespread adoption of high impact learning technologies.

At first I was a bit puzzled how this pulled up for a search of Amplify.   I scrolled down to page 7 which had a list of the-then coalition members. No Amplify.  But I get to page eight and there's input from none other than Amplify Learning, dated March 7, 2014.

I think it's important in the context of the recent adoption of Amplify K-8 for SPS to consider these words carefully (color mine). 

At Amplify, we believe that education will be a primarily digital endeavor in five years. Devices are becoming less expensive, connectivity investments are increasing, and a generation of CONTINUE READING: Seattle Schools Community Forum: Googling for "Amplify" and Seeing the Future From the Past

Opposing Charter Schools Without Really Opposing Them (Part 2) | Dissident Voice

Opposing Charter Schools Without Really Opposing Them (Part 2) | Dissident Voice

Opposing Charter Schools Without Really Opposing Them (Part 2)

In November 2018 I wrote a short piece titled Opposing Charter Schools Without Really Opposing Them.

In that article I highlighted some of the forms of confusion promoted by neoliberals, privatizers, and corporate school reformers to block people from concluding that nonprofit and for-profit charter schools are harmful and must be opposed.

The essence of these different forms of confusion typically takes the form of listing many damning and indicting problems with charter schools, while still managing to find a convoluted way to support them.

Here is the general formula:

1. I know charter schools have 50 profound problems.
2. I just spent hours researching and showing that charter schools have many problems.
3. I know more people are rejecting charter schools and seeing them for what they really are.
4. But I will stubbornly continue to support charter schools anyway and be comfortable with such a contradictory and incoherent position.

Refer to the 2018 article for more details and analysis.

In this article I address yet another form of confusion distorting consciousness and undermining public schools and the public interest. This form of disinformation is a slight, but significant, variation of an existing confusion. It goes something like this:

There are tons of serious problems with thousands of charter schools across CONTINUE READING: Opposing Charter Schools Without Really Opposing Them (Part 2) | Dissident Voice

The Trump administration is waging a quiet war on education | Ross Barkan | Opinion | The Guardian

The Trump administration is waging a quiet war on education | Ross Barkan | Opinion | The Guardian

The Trump administration is waging a quiet war on education

Perhaps nothing illustrates the perverse nature of Donald Trump’s administration better than his approach to the regulatory state. In Trump’s America, those most zealously dedicated to unraveling federal oversight are in charge of the government, racing to shred laws as quickly as they can.

Although it rarely draws the outrage of his latest unhinged tweet or foible abroad, it is in the president’s Department of Education that this spirit of cruel nihilism is best on display. Trump’s education secretary, Betsy DeVos, and her underlings are dedicated to seeing their radical conservative vision of government achieved, and they’re taking aim at the very heart of public education.

 Want to beat Trump? Learn from workers in Republican states

Eric Blanc

 

Read more

Few Americans know the name of Diane Auer Jones, a deputy under DeVos. A former assistant secretary under George W Bush who resigned over the education department’s treatment of an accreditor that oversaw religiously-affiliated colleges, Jones is back with a vengeance: she has already slashedObama-era regulations of for-profit colleges, including one rule that forced these schools to prove they provide gainful employment to graduates. She also recommended the reinstatement of a scandal-scarred accreditor the Obama administration tried to banish after the collapse of two for-profit chains under its supervision.

This week, Jones proposed a drastic policy rewrite which would weaken the federal government’s hold on accreditors, the watchdogs that allow educational institutions to access millions in financial aid. The rules would both make it easier for accreditors to be recognized by the Department of Education and weaken standards for measuring their performance, potentially allowing them many more years to punish failing, predatory schools. Accreditors would also be empowered to stop the shuttering of troubled for-profit schools.

When the rules go through, they will deliver on DeVos’ dream of CONTINUE READING: The Trump administration is waging a quiet war on education | Ross Barkan | Opinion | The Guardian

Father’s Day 2019: A Reminder to Read Aloud to Your Children | Live Long and Prosper

Father’s Day 2019: A Reminder to Read Aloud to Your Children | Live Long and Prosper

Father’s Day 2019: A Reminder to Read Aloud to Your Children

An annual Father’s Day post…with updates and additions.

READING ALOUD

I read aloud to my students from the very first day I taught at an elementary school beginning in January 1976. I had caught the read-aloud bug from the late Lowell Madden, one of my Education School Professors. I had it reinforced by Jim Trelease, whose Read Aloud Handbook is a treasure of information for anyone who is interested in reading aloud to children. [I’ve referenced Jim Trelease quite a few times on this blog.]

I read aloud to all my classes because reading aloud is simply one of the best tools we have to help children learn to read. Reading is, arguably, the single most important skill a child learns in school.

Jim Trelease, in The Read Aloud Handbook reminded us [emphasis added]

In 1985, the commission [on Reading, organized by the National Academy of Education and the National Institute of Education and funded under the U.S. Department of Education] issued its report, Becoming a Nation of Readers. Among its primary findings, two simple declarations rang loud and clear:

“The single most important activity for building the knowledge required for eventual success in reading is reading aloud to children.”

The commission found conclusive evidence to support reading aloud not only in the home but also in the classroom: “It is a practice that should CONTINUE READING: Father’s Day 2019: A Reminder to Read Aloud to Your Children | Live Long and Prosper

Los Angeles School Funding and the “Bait and Switch” | deutsch29

Los Angeles School Funding and the “Bait and Switch” | deutsch29

Los Angeles School Funding and the “Bait and Switch”

On June 13, 2019, I posted about Measure EE, the proposed parcel tax that was supposed to fund K12 education for the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). The measure was not approved, with very few voters showing up to the polls either in support of or in opposition to the measure.

It seems that part of LAUSD’s funding problems has to do with the superintendent and board’s desire to sit on surplus money as well as a remarkable imbalance in overspending on administration (including having to pay the state penalty fees for having excessive administrators) at the expense in adequately paying teachers and hiring enough teachers so that class sizes are conducive to teaching and learning.

In response to my post, Los Angeles teacher, Linda Bassett, offered the following informative, insider commentary in which she discusses a Measure EE-related “bait and switch” (I added links to aid in communicating the backstory):

I am a teacher in UTLA (United Teachers of Los Angeles). What I see is a bait and switch. When we were striking, our union was calling out the school district for sitting on 1.7 billion dollars. That was an outrageous amount of money to sit on and would go far to help buy support personnel and reduce class sizes.

They also called out the billionaires for draining money from our public school system for their union busting, rip-off charter enterprises using public money to line their pockets and that they were going to pass CONTINUE READING: 

Los Angeles School Funding and the “Bait and Switch” | deutsch29

Hired Guns, Scholars and the California School Policy Task Force | tultican

Hired Guns, Scholars and the California School Policy Task Force | tultican

Hired Guns, Scholars and the California School Policy Task Force

By T. Ultican 6/15/2019

California Governor Gavin Newsom created a task force and assigned the State Superintendent of Public Instruction (SSPI), Tony Thurmond, to lead a review of California charter school laws and policies.  The Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) produced three policy briefs and CRPE founder Paul Hill testified to the task force as an expert witness “sympathetic to charter schools.” The author of “Breaking Point,” Gordon Lafer also provided expert testimony.

Rutgers Professor Bruce Baker reviewed Hill’s claims which were published in three CRPE policy briefs created for the taskforce. Spoiler alert: He found them deceptive.

Thurmond released “The Charter School Policy Task Force” report to the Governor on June 6.

The claims by these scholars and political actions coming from the Charter School Task Force have the potential to influence the spending of hundreds of millions of dollars in public monies by California and influence billions in spending by the federal government.

The Charter School Policy Task Force (CTF)

The task force was made up of eleven members. Since 90% of the California’s students attend public schools and because the charter industry spent more than $50 million to defeat SSPI Thurmond in 2018, many people expected supporters of public schools to dominate the task force. But that was not the case. Jan Resseger observed,

“It is one of those groups carefully balanced to provide a forum for both sides of what has become a contentious debate about whether or not there ought to be a charter school sector.  Actually whoever recommended the appointments seem to have accepted the idea that the fight is between  CONTINUE READING: Hired Guns, Scholars and the California School Policy Task Force | tultican

THIS WEEK Education Research Report

Education Research Report

THIS WEEK 

Education Research Report

Higher Education Staff See Modest Salary Increase, Little Growth

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 1d

The median salary increase for staff over the past year was 1.88 percent, according to CUPA-HR’s newest Staff in Higher Education Annual Report . This is a slight decline from the 1.93 percent median salary increase in 2018. The median salary increase was highest at baccalaureate institutions (1.99 percent) and lowest at associate’s institutions (1.52 percent). The position of graphic design para

JUN 13

Monitoring educational equity

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 1d

A centralized, consistently reported system of indicators of educational equity is needed to bring attention to disparities in the U.S. education system, says a new report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Indicators - measures used to track performance and monitor change over time - can help convey why disparities arise, identify groups most affected by them, and

JUN 12

Early childhood education reaction to new limits on expulsions

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 2d

Complete report Nationwide, preschoolers are being expelled at alarming rates, upwards of 250 a day by some accounts. Given the critical role of early childhood education (ECE) in supporting children’s school readiness, there is a grave concern that these children are being excluded. Furthermore, there is consistent evidence of racial and gender disparities in who gets expelled. Recently, Illinoi

Arts Education and Social-Emotional Learning

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 2d

Complete report Social and emotional learning is a topic of increasing focus in the education sector. Though definitions and terminology vary, at its core this trend reflects an increased interest among educators, administrators, parents, and other stakeholders in students’ development of individual and interpersonal skills beyond the realm of academic achievement. This project, conducted in part

High School Graduation Rates: Progress Is Real, But Slowing, Indicating Urgency to Double Down on Equity Gaps

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 2d

The national high school graduation rate reached an all-time high of 84.6 percent in 2017, up from 79 percent in 2010 and 71 percent since 2001. Hispanic, Black, and low-income students have continued to drive this increase with Hispanic students reaching an 80 percent graduation rate in 2017, Black students climbing to a 77.8 percent graduation rate, and low-income students reaching a 78.3 perce

Is Summer Learning Loss Real?

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 2d

How I lost faith in one of education research’s classic results By Paul T. von Hippel Complete report Every summer, the news is filled with stories about summer learning loss. The warnings sound dire: two months of math learning lost for most students every summer, and two to three months of reading learning lost for low-income students, according to the National Summer Learning Association. By t

A National Study of the Differential Impact of Novice Teacher Certification on Teacher Traits and Race-Based Mathematics Achievement

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 3d

In this study, differential prediction of student outcomes by race and teacher traits relative to the certification levels of novice teachers was assessed. Overall, algebra achievement was higher for students who were taught by teachers with standard certificates relative to students who were taught by novice teachers with nonstandard certificates. The most conservative estimates show that findin

JUN 11

School Voucher Report Uses Shaky Methods to Misrepresent Research

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 3d

A recent report from EdChoice presents itself as a yearly updated list and synthesis of empirical studies exploring the impacts of school vouchers across a set of outcomes. But a new review of the report finds that it fails to provide a robust summary of the research literature on vouchers and their full range of positive and negative impacts. T. Jameson Brewer, of the University of North Georgia

Characteristics Associated with English Learner Academic Performance and Language Proficiency

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 3d

This study, conducted by REL Midwest in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, explores the relationships between English learner students’ personal and school characteristics and their performance on math, English language arts, and English language proficiency assessments. REL Midwest conducted this study for the Cleveland Partnership for English Learner Success to inform improvements to d

JUN 10

Eating habits linked to academic performance

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 4d

Junk food associated with poorer academic achievement An analysis of more than 850 elementary school children found those who reported higher consumption of snack foods and sugar-sweetened beverages scored lower on standardized academic tests, on average, than children who consumed less of these foods. While unhealthful diets were not linked to lower cognitive test scores, the findings suggest po

Osbesity increase risk of being both?a bullying victim, perpetrator, or Mary

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 4d

New Rochelle, NY, May 28, 2019--A new study has shown that obese adolescents are not only significantly more likely to experience bullying, but they are also more likely to be both victims and perpetrators of bullying compared to their healthy weight peers. The study also found that overweight or obese adolescents who are either victims or perpetrators of bullying, or both, have significantly gre

International Student Mobility: Growth and Dispersion

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 4d

Recent years have seen an unprecedented growth and geographic dispersion in international student mobility. This paper tests the predictions of two competing theoretical models underpinning the determinants of student mobility – the human capital model and the migration model – across traditional and emerging destinations. The findings suggest that while the predictions of the migration model are

Results of STEM professional development and curriculum programs

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 4d

This study presents results from a meta-analysis of 95 experimental and quasi-experimental pre-K–12 science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) professional development and curriculum programs, seeking to understand what content, activities, and formats relate to stronger student outcomes. Across rigorously conducted studies, the researchers found an average weighted impact estimate

School Performance in “Focus Schools” After Waiver Reforms: No ChangeSchool Performance in “Focus Schools” After Waiver Reforms: No Change

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 4d

States that receive federal waivers to the No Child Left Behind Act were required to implement reforms in designated “Focus Schools” that contribute to achievement gaps. This study examines the performance effects of such “differentiated accountability” reforms in Louisiana. These Focus School reforms emphasized school-needs assessments and aligned technical assistance. These reforms may have als

JUN 07

Teens sleep longer, are more alert for homework when school starts later

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 7d

Preliminary findings from a new study of middle school and high school students suggest that they got more sleep and were less likely to feel too sleepy to do homework after their district changed to later school start times. In fall 2017, the Cherry Creek School District in Greenwood Village, Colorado, delayed school start times for middle school by 50 minutes (changing from 8 a.m. to 8:50 a.m.)

The online student population is rapidly growing in size and complexity. While a growing number of prospective students...

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 7d

The online student population is rapidly growing in size and complexity. While a growing number of prospective students creates enrollment opportunities, a school’s success can also depend on tailoring their programs and services to 

Education Research Report